Tag Archive for Gavin Newsom

Bike-riding NHL star and brother killed by accused drunk driver, and transportation safety bills on governor’s desk

September 9, 2024 / / 2 comments

We’re back, more or less. 

I’ve been out for over a month after surgery to replace two tendon and fix a number of tears in my right shoulder. I’m now looking at a long recovery, with six months of rehab before I’m back to normal, let alone get back on a bike.

Or whatever passes for normal at my age. 

I’ll do my best to keep this site going on a regular basis, but may face some issues going forward depending on how well rehab goes. 

Before we move on, though, let’s take a moment to consider that the new tendons holding my shoulder together came from caring people who donated their bodies after death.

We tend to think of organ donation as involving hearts and lungs, livers and kidneys. But corneas, skin, bones and yes, tendons, also stem from that same kindness. 

And I couldn’t be more grateful for them. 

So if you haven’t signed your organ donor card, what the hell are you waiting for?

Now let’s catch up on some of the bigger stories we missed over the past 34 days, before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Photo by Tembela Bohle from Pexels. 

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Just 113 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Let’s start with the biggest — and worst — news of the last month.

It was just over a week ago that 31-year old NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his 29-year old brother Matthew were killed by an (allegedly) extremely drunk driver while they were riding their bikes in New Jersey.

The brothers were run down on a rural road in Oldmans Township on Thursday, August 30th, the night before they were supposed to be groomsmen in their sister’s wedding.

Needless to say, the wedding is off for now.

They were run down from behind after the driver, identified as 43-year old Sean Higgins, passed one car on the left, then attempted to pass an SUV on the right when it moved left to go around the Gaudreaus.

Higgins failed a field sobriety test, telling police he had five or six beers before the crash, and that his drinking probably contributed to “his impatience and reckless driving.”

He was arrested at the scene, and charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle.

Higgins serves as a Major in the US National Guard, while working for a nonprofit substance abuse treatment center. Which means he should have known the risk of driving under the influence.

A crowdfunding campaign for Matthew Gaudreau’s wife, Madeline, who is pregnant with their first child, has raised nearly $645,000 — over 21 times the $30,000 goal.

Meanwhile, USA Today points out that the NHL star was just one of hundreds of bicyclists killed in the US each year — make that over 1,000 in 2022, actually — while Streetsblog says the real story is the systematic failures that led to the Gaudreau brothers deaths.

And the BBC issued a non-apology, saying they were sorry a bicyclist “did not appreciate” their headline which called the crash an “accident.”

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Streetsblog offers an update on transportation bills on the governor’s desk after being approved by the legislature, including:

  • SB 960 requires Caltrans to follow their own Complete Streets policies
  • SB 961 is a severely watered-down version of the bill which would have forced automakers to prevent drivers from speeding more than ten miles over the speed limit; the law now just requires an audible warning
  • SB 1297 extends the states speed cam pilot program to PCH in Malibu
  • SB 1261 limits the placement of sharrows to streets with speed limits of 30 mph or less
  • SB 689 eliminates the need for a separate Coastal Commission study in order to convert a traffic lane to a bike or transit lane
  • SB 1271 requires that only ebikes with UL or EU certification can be sold in the state

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While we were gone, the Glendale City Council narrowly approved the city’s draft transportation plan, along with safety improvements to La Crescenta Ave, after an extremely contentious debate.

Meanwhile, Glendale will consider a a proposal to build the nine-mile Arroyo Verdugo Greenway at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

In 2021 the City began a high-level study which envisioned the Wash as a nine mile green space from its confluence with the LA River up to Crescenta Valley Park. It includes bike and pedestrian trails with access to business and entertainment venues, and connects several important city centers, services and a multitude of neighborhoods that make up a large core of Glendale.

Walk Bike Glendale urges you to attend or call into the meeting, or email the individual council members in advance.

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Streets For All is hosting a virtual Mobility Debate with the candidates for the Burbank City Council Thursday Evening.

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Once again, the Los Angeles County Sheriff department demonstrated how little their deputies know about bike law, when former LA-based pro Phil Gaimon — star of the Worst Retirement Ever videos on YouTube — had to educate one on why the ticket he was about to get was against the law.

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It’s now 263 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

After a 14-year old boy was seriously injured by a garbage truck driver while riding to school in La Mesa, California, the city’s NBC station demonstrated how to get the story wrong, with a headline suggesting the boy collided with the truck, rather than the other way around. Nope, no bias there.

A road-raging 19-year old Zion, Utah woman chased down a bike rider and rammed him with her car as he tried to flee, after arguing and spitting at her when she ran a stop sign and nearly hit him. Evidently, she felt a crashing need to finish what she’d started. 

When a road raging driver attacked a group of Black Baltimore bicyclists with bear spray, the community responded with a love ride.

Police in Dublin, Ireland are investigating an apparent road rage attack by a driver who pushed a bicyclist up against a barrier and repeatedly hit him with his fists as bystanders tried to stop the attack.

A 59-year old German man was arrested for sabotaging mountain bike trails by stringing wire across them to fell unwary riders; for once, the charges fit the crime, booked on suspicion of attempted murder. Velo says attacks like that are not something you need to fret about, though.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A bike-raging New York bicyclist was busted for allegedly punching a woman jogger in the face after they argued when his handlebars made contact with her as she ran in the opposite direction on an Eastchester bike path.

A British woman says it made her ashamed to ride a bicycle when another rider crashed into her after jumping a red light, and called her a “stupid bitch.”

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Local 

The New York Times considers whether Los Angeles can really pull off a carfree Olympics just four years from now. Short answer, no. Longer answer, hell no.

Caltrans is still conducting its Pacific Coast Highway Master Plan Feasibility Study to determine just what safety improvements people want — or rather, are willing to tolerate. So if you bike, walk or drive along PCH in Malibu, you owe it to yourself and everyone else to take part. 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton examines the first six months since Measure HLA passed with overwhelming support, mandating the city to build out the eight-year old mobility plan whenever a street gets resurfaced. So far the news isn’t good, with work on Reseda Blvd moving forward while everything else stalled out — including the city’s workaround on Vermont Ave in South LA to avoid triggering HLA.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge summarily denied a CEQA lawsuit from Friends and Families for MOVE Culver City to keep Culver City from removing the protected bike lanes through downtown, calling it “the weakest petition (he’s) ever seen in an environmental case;” the group vowed to appeal.

WeHo Times reports on a “tumultuous” community meeting to discuss bike lane designs on Willoughby, Vista/Gardner and Kings Street; as usual, most of the complaints centered on parking and outreach. The city also accepted an $8.2 million grant for transportation and safety improvements, including Fountain Ave, where protected bike lanes are planned.

Santa Monica is dropping speed limits on over 30 miles of streets to improve safety.

The southwest San Gabriel Valley is moving closer to a Metro-funded improvement project linking the First Street, Riggin Street and Potrero Grande Drive corridor, including 5.3 miles of bike lanes through Rosemead, South San Gabriel, Montebello and Monterey Park.

LA County received over $60 million in grants for safety improvement projects, including projects in Long Beach, Palmdale and South LA.

The LA Times picks up the story of how Bike Index’s Bryan Hance uncovered an international bike theft ring on his own when authorities didn’t give a shit show any interest.

 

State

Calbike talks with Wes Marshall, author of the new book, Killed by a Traffic Engineer.

The Voice of OC questions whether deadly Beach Blvd will ever be safe for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Family members are urging any witnesses to come forward who may have seen the hit-and-run crash that critically injured 71-year old Bob Hilborn as he rode his bike in Chula Vista last month.

San Diego is conducting a survey to get input on the forthcoming bicycle master plan.

A man riding his bike on Highway 1 suffered several injuries — and got a couple traffic tickets — after falling over 100 feet when he ignored “road closed” signs and a warning that he would probably die by attempting to ride across a rock slide that shut down the highway. And he nearly did.

 

National

A new bill in Congress would finally mandate federal standards for hood height and visibility in order to protect pedestrians, bicyclists and other people outside the vehicle, after research showed SUVs and trucks with high front ends and blunt profiles are 45% more likely to kill pedestrians in a crash than smaller cars and trucks.

A recent study from Oregon State University shows that the Idaho Stop Law, aka Stop as Yield, does not result in dangerous behavior by bicyclists or drivers; Velo says of course it’s safer for bicyclists. Gavin Newsom vetoed two bills that would have legalized it in California.

A new book from Rob Walker of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy looks at 20 Apps, Ideas, and Innovators Changing the Urban Landscape.

Apple TV+ premiered Ghost Bike, a short film about a mother who meets a stranger in a Greek diner, who may hold the key to solving her son’s untimely death — apparently on a bicycle.

A writer for BuzzFeed offers 22 very tongue-in-cheek reasons why wearing a helmet is “literally one of the absolute worst decisions a person can make.”

Your next ebike could be a Ford Bronco. Or maybe a Mustang.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is accused of holding up a bill to improve ebike battery safety in a misguided attempt to halt regulations he thinks could lead to a ban on gas stoves.

The New York Times examines what the city could learn from the recent reimagining of the streets of Paris.

A Miami man is on trial for murder for chasing down and fatally shooting a man as he rode in a club peloton, although the defense insists it was self-defense after he was attacked by armed bicyclists with guns that were apparently secreted in their spandex kits and mysteriously disappeared afterwards; a Key Biscayne paper somehow described the incident as occurring in “the ultra-machismo world of the Miami cycling community.”

 

International

Momentum recommends the world’s most beautiful bicycle routes; just three of the 30 routes are in the US, with none in California.

Fifty-five-year old former Canadian IndyCar driver and 2003 ChampCar World Series champion Paul Tracy suffered a dislocated shoulder and three broken vertebrae when he was struck by an SUV driver while riding his bike last week.

A 29-year old British drug dealer was sentenced to a well-deserved 14-years behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that killed a bike-riding man, before driving off to make his weed deliveries.

It turns out the ever-feuding Gallagher brothers from the newly reunited British band Oasis are two of us; Road.cc lists other bicycling musical greats and songs about bikes.

Ireland’s Finance Minister justifiably complained about a new bike shed that cost the equivalent of $372,000 to hold just 18 bikes, when a competitor could have built it for $22,000.

A new German report says distracted bicycling is on the rise, blaming it for a significant, but undetermined, increase in crash risk. Never mind that many of the 10 to 17% of bicyclists who use their smartphones while riding are probably just using navigation or bike apps. 

A new Chinese study shows how ebikes are changing the landscape of transportation, including reduced reliance on motor vehicles and improved mobility for people of all ages.

 

Competitive Cycling

A Parisian website recounts all the paracycling medal winners from the Paris Para-Olympics.

Bicycling writes that America’s Kristen Faulkner was told she had just a 6% chance of winning gold in Olympic road cycling, just before she did it. Read it on AOL this time if the magazine blocks you.

Olympic bronze medalist Wout van Aert is done for the season, after a knee injury suffered in a major crash required a series of transfusions to prevent infection.

Sad news from Las Vegas, where five-time Venezuelan Olympic cyclist Daniela Larreal Chirinos was found dead in her home during a welfare check, at age 51, after not being seen for several days; she apparently died from choking on her food.

Six bicycles “beyond any monetary value” that were ridden by Peter Sagan, Mathieu van der Poel, Julian Alaphilippe and Egan Bernal were stolen from the Netherland’s Shimano Experience Center last week.

 

Finally…

We may have to dodge LA’s flighty drivers, but at least we don’t have to duck dive-bombing magpies — then again, we don’t have to worry about herds of leaping deer, either. Now they’re out to get us on beachfront bike paths, too.

And that feeling when wild horses couldn’t stop your ride. Thanks to Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette for that one. 

Instagram post

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Come to press conference in DTLA tomorrow urging Gov. Newsom to sign street safety bills

September 6, 2024 / / 2 comments

I want to share this press release from SAFE — aka Streets Are For Everyone — about their press conference tomorrow at the Ronald Reagan Building at 300 South Spring Street in DTLA. 

They need to get as many people there as possible to show their support. So if you’ve got the morning free and can handle the 100° heat, plan to be there.

I’ll be home resting my surgically repaired shoulder in hopes of getting back to work on Monday. So we’ll see you back here next week.

Calling on Gov. Newsom to Lead the US in Efforts to Combat Dangerous Speeding

Saturday, 7 September – Victims of traffic violence, activists for safer roads, and road safety organizations from across Southern California will be holding a press conference and Ghost Tire placement in front of the Ronald Reagan Building in Downtown LA, calling on Gov. Newsom to sign Senate Bill 961 (Weiner) and Senate Bill 1509 (Stern). 

“Speed is the largest factor behind all traffic fatalities and serious injuries across CA. To put it simply, speed kills,” said Damian Kevitt, Executive Director of Streets Are For Everyone. “In the City of Los Angeles, those injured or killed are most likely to be pedestrians – kids going to school, parents going to work – devastating families and friends of those hit.” Per a report written by SAFE, Los Angeles City has seen an 81% increase in traffic fatalities and a 108% increase in pedestrian fatalities since 2015. In 2023, 37.8% of all collisions were caused by speeding. (Source: TIMS) 

SB 1509 increases accountability for driving at dangerous speeds by assigning two points for repeat offenses of excessive speeding within three years and creating a graduated fine schedule based on the number of violations within a year. For a fact sheet about this bill, click here. 

SB 961 is a first-of-its-kind bill that will be a game-changer. This bill will require vehicle manufacturers to install speed warning technology—an audio and visual alert when drivers are going more than 10 MPH above the speed limit—in all vehicles made or sold in California (excluding emergency vehicles and motorcycles) starting in model year 2030. This technology is not new; Toyota will already offer it as a standard feature for all new cars, and Europe requires it for all new cars. SB 961 would require it as standard for all manufacturers. For a fact sheet about about this bill, click here. For answers to FAQs, click here. 

The automobile industry is opposed to SB 961 and continues to design vehicles that are dramatically faster than previous generations. According to the EPA’s 2022 Automotive Trends Report, the average American vehicle from model year 2021 could reach 60 mph in 7.7 seconds. This is about twice as fast as cars purchased in the early 1980s. Electric vehicles are even faster than the average American vehicle, with many reaching 60 MPH in only a few seconds. While advanced safety measures might protect drivers and passengers in these vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists outside of cars are getting hit and killed in greater numbers than in the past. The truth is that the US is the only industrialized nation in the world with a worsening traffic violence statistic by trend. 

“If the auto industry is going to make cars and trucks that encourage drivers to go too fast, there needs to be vehicle technology that helps counteract this,” said Damian. “Sixty years ago, when states wanted to require car seat belts, the auto industry fought it. But no one would question seat belts today as a necessary safety measure. Intelligent Speed Assistance in vehicles is no different.”

In 1961, Wisconsin was the first state to mandate seat belts in all vehicles, which eventually led to a federal law requiring them. Seat belts are credited with saving more than 500,000 lives in America. 

What: Press Conference and Ghost Tire Placement

When: 9:30 AM, Saturday, 7 September, 2024

Where: Ronald Reagan Building, State of California, 308 S Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Who: Victims of Traffic Violence, including Cindi Enamorado (lost her brother), Lili Trujillo Puckett (lost her daughter), Lori Argumedo (lost her niece), Darlene Smith (lost her sister), and more. 

Representatives from non-profit organizations and advocacy groups, including Streets Are For Everyone, Streets For All, Car-Lite Long Beach, Street Racing Kills, Faith for SAFEr Streets, Bike Long Beach, So Cal Families for Safe Streets, SAFE Families, Move LA, Walk n Rollers, LA Walks, and more. 

Category: Advocacy & Politics / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Climate change sucks more than traffic, no progress on broken Braude bike path, and get a grand from Uber not to drive

June 28, 2024 / / One comment
Just 186 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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My apologies for the late appearance of yesterday’s post. My site went down just as I was about to publish it, so I wasn’t able to get it online until my web host got it working again in the morning. 

You can catch up here if you missed it. 

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He gets it.

The climate columnist for the Los Angeles Times says yes, sitting in traffic sucks, but climate change sucks a lot more.

Talking about California Governor Newsom’s head-scratching decisions to approve projects that can only exacerbate climate change despite his forward-leaning public posture in fighting the onrushing climate emergency — including approval of a half-billion-dollar freeway widening project on I-80 between Sacramento and Davis — Sammy Roth writes this,

But the common thread is this: Instead of putting carbon at the center of his decision-making — which is what one of the world’s most powerful politicians should be doing just about every time — Newsom is treating climate like most other political issues.

Some days he and his team are taking groundbreaking steps to phase out gasoline cars; other days they’re expanding freeways, and failing to fully protect people from extreme heat because they’re worried it would be too expensive, and making it harder to install batteries. They’re letting politics play far too large a role in the risk-reward calculation, to all of our detriment.

He goes on to conclude this way (although it should be noted that electrification will do nothing to reduce induced demand or traffic congestion),

Hopefully over time, as we get more electric cars on the road, “induced demand” from highway expansions will become less of a problem, because more of the cars sitting in traffic will be powered by solar and wind. But for now, state officials have made very clear — in theory, not in practice — that electrification isn’t enough. We also need to start driving less. California’s formal climate plan sets targets of reducing “vehicle miles traveled” by 25% per person by 2030, and 30% by 2045.

That means we’ll need to spend more time walking, biking and taking trains and other public transit — and more money building infrastructure to support those modes of transit. So why is Newsom wasting nearly half a billion dollars widening a freeway when the result will be more smog-spewing traffic, more climate pollution and less money for the stuff we actually need?

It’s worth a read.

Because while Newsom presents himself as a leader in fighting the effects and causes of climate change, his actions often paint a far different picture.

And it’s up to us to make sure he lives up to his word.

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The Santa Monica Mirror reports that nearly five months after an atmospheric river washed out the beachfront Marvin Braude bike path between Chautauqua Blvd and Entrada Drive, nothing has been done to repair it.

As in, nothing.

Compare that to the emergency repairs that fixed the collapsed I-10 Freeway in DTLA in less than two weeks following a devastating fire at a storage facility under the elevated highway.

Which means the estimated 10,000 people who use the path every day have faced a truncated trail that ends far short of the former terminus at Will Rogers State Beach. And bike riders have been forced onto a particularly dangerous section of PCH through Pacific Palisades if they want to continue north towards Malibu.

The paper says LA County, which is responsible for that portion of the trail, hopes to have a schedule for repairs next month.

LA County Public Works hopes to have a concrete schedule for repairs by mid-July; the cost of which is estimated at $800,000, according to a spokesperson with the department.

“LA County Public Works engineers continue to finalize the repair design for the Marvin Braude Bike Trail at Will Rogers State Beach.” read a statement from the department. “The California Coastal Commission is currently reviewing the project.”

Note that they’re only promising a schedule for repair work, rather than actually beginning — let alone completing — the long overdue repairs.

And we’ll excuse their unintended pun of promising a “concrete schedule” for fixing the concrete pathway.

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Need a little extra cash?

Uber will pay you $1,000 if you agree not to drive for five weeks, and walk, bike, ride public transit or use ride-hailing services instead.

Like Uber, for instance.

The company will select 175 people to participate in the “One Less Car” challenge; it’s open to residents of Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Miami, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver.

I’d toss my hat in the ring, but something tells me they’re not looking for people like me who are already carless.

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It’s now 190 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And three full years since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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Local 

More proof that bikes can be lifesavers in an emergency. A young boy in Valencia was able to escape an alleged kidnapping attempt at a local pool by riding away from the suspect on his bicycle; sheriff’s deputies are looking for the man who followed the kid before he got away.

 

State

An estimated 15,000 people are expected to turn out for the Huntington Beach 4th of July Bike Cruise tomorrow, held annually on the Saturday before the 4th.

San Diego officially broke ground on the $25 million, 3.5-mile Imperial Avenue Bikeway.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for the owner of a white, adult Giant bicycle with a black rear rack, which was recovered when they arrested a 14-year old boy on animal abuse charges while he was riding the bike. He’s accused of killing chickens. In other words, murder most fowl.

The seemingly uninformed editor of a Palo Alto paper says putting bike lanes on the city’s Camino Real will hurt small businesses, arguing that car traffic is essential to their success. Which ignores repeated studies that show bike lanes are good for business, and the increased retail sales that result from them tend to more than make up for the loss of any parking.

Bad news from Northern California, where an allegedly lightless bike rider was killed by a pickup driver in an early morning crash in tiny Colfax.

 

National

Cycling West reposts a recent US university study showing ebike incentive programs are a costly way to cut emissions, but also promote health, equity and cleaner air.

REI is recalling their Co-op Cycles REV 12 Kids Bikes due to the risk the training wheels could detach and cause a fall.

A new bike park broke ground in Lahaina, Hawaii, offering fresh hope to young residents after last year’s devastating fires.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole two bikes in Eugene, Oregon from participants in the Texas 4000 charity ride; 25 people are riding from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska to raise funds for cancer research and support services.

Streetsblog Chicago talks with photographer and longtime city resident Vicktor Köves, creator of Chicagoans Who Bike, about his ongoing visual essay depicting the wide range of people who ride bicycles in the city.

The New York Times considers the consequences of New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s shortsighted decision to put congestion pricing in Manhattan on indefinite hold, after complaints from a handful of diner customers.

Baltimore baseball fans are forming a group to ride to Oriole games together. Which is what happens when a team actually encourages bicycling to their games, unlike a certain Dodger team we could name.

 

International

Frequent contributor Megan Lynch forwards news that bicycling giant Specialized is accused of owing Salvadoran apparel workers over $650,000 in unpaid wages and severance a year and a half after they lost their jobs.

There’s not a pit deep enough for the London cop accused of stealing cash from the body of an Italian filmmaker who died of a heart attack while riding his bike.

Twenty-two-year old English soccer player Anthony Gordon is one of us, becoming the butt of jokes in training camp when he fell off his bicycle two days after making his international debut with the team. Because apparently, grown men aren’t supposed to ride bikes, or crash them. Or maybe just not English footballers. 

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 86-year old British man is Everesting on a trainer in his back yard in memory of his late wife — 60 years after he crashed on a rain-slicked road near the finish line, and lost out on making the podium with the legendary Eddy Merckx in the 64 Tokyo Olympics.

Munich correspondent Ralph Durham sends news that the rich are getting richer, as the city nears completion of a spoke-and-hub bikeway network leading to the city center, with the red pathways on the map approved, and the blue already completed — although you may have to read German, or at least rely on a translation app to read the story.

A German columnist celebrates the “lightness of being a cyclist” after getting back on her bike, a year after breaking her elbow going over the handlebars.

 

Competitive Cycling

Velo looks at the current status of the leading contenders for this year’s Tour de France, which begins tomorrow, including Tadej Pogačar’s admission that he recently had Covid, but he “recovered good.”

Hats off to 14-year old Santa Cruz, California mountain biker Nathan Peterson, who is winning cross-country races while riding his grandfather’s rebuilt 1994 Merlin Mountain.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your local bike path is the world’s worst, and people are using it anyway. Every decent bike trail should have at least one good brewery along the way.

And yes, Biden may have fallen off his bicycle, but at least he rides one.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Taking Newsom to task for climate arson Active Transportation cuts, and bike bills still active in state legislature

May 30, 2024 / / Comments Off on Taking Newsom to task for climate arson Active Transportation cuts, and bike bills still active in state legislature
Just 215 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We’ve inched up to 1,151 signatures, so don’t stop now! I’ll forward the petition to the mayor’s office later this week, so urge anyone who hasn’t already to sign it now! 

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My apologies, once again.

Yesterday’s unexcused absence was the result of too many demands on too little time, resulting in my blood sugar circling the drain.

I’m just trying to get through one day at a time, while devoting myself full-time to caring for my injured wife, our uninjured dog and our ultra-messy apartment, while still trying to squeeze in enough time to write about bikes and do the work I love.

Because I really don’t know how I’m going to make it through the next several weeks until she finally gets back on her feet.

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Streets For All founder Michael Schneider strikes again, continuing to fight the good fight with another transportation related op-ed in the Los Angeles Times.

Schneider takes California Governor Gavin Newsom to task for his ill-advised budget cuts to the state’s Active Transportation Program, in the face of the ongoing climate emergency.

California has ambitious climate goals: By 2045, the state wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 85%, drop gas consumption 94% and cut air pollution 71%. The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California is the transportation sector, with passenger vehicles making up the largest portion of that.

Curbing pollution from passenger vehicles won’t be easy. And if the state invests in the wrong infrastructure, those goals could become impossible. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal would be a big swerve in the wrong direction.

The $600 million Newsom calls for cutting from the ATP, at a rate of $200 million a year, won’t begin to make a dent in the state’s massive budget shortfall — let alone California’s bloated $18 billion highway fund.

Yes, that’s $18 billion, with a B.

Yet Newsom seems to think shifting the money from the already underfunded Active Transportation budget to filling potholes and widening highways will somehow send a message.

About what, I don’t know. Because it barely adds up to more than a rounding error in the state transportation budget.

Newsom might as well pile the money in the middle of the 5 Freeway and torch it, for all the difference it would make for the state’s highways. Which would probably cause a lot less harm to the environment than what he has in mind.

Yet that $200 million missing from the state’s Active Transportation budget could fund up to 200 miles of separated, mixed-use pathways. Or 2,000 miles of the kind of separated bike lanes that Los Angeles transportation officials like to pretend are protected.

Or even adequately fund California’s moribund joke of an ebike rebate program.

Any of which could actually get people out of their cars and benefit the environment, rather than continuing to do harm.

We can only hope the state legislature rejects Newsom’s proposed budget cuts.

Actually, we can do more than that. A lot more.

Like reach out to our elected representatives and demand — okay, politely request in the strongest possible terms — that we stop flushing massive amounts of money on wasteful highway spending, and put it to far more climate-friendly use.

Here’s what Schneider has to say.

…This month, the commission approved the controversial expansion of Interstate 80 between Davis and Sacramento, which will also cost hundreds of millions of dollars — equivalent to all funded active transportation projects in 2023. Why would we pump more money into projects that work against our climate goals?

The Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, under climate champion and Chair Sen. Scott Wiener, would most likely be amenable to rejecting the proposed cuts to active transportation. If so, it’s critical that L.A.-area Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Budget, gets on board as well. It would take both the Senate and the Assembly to override the governor’s proposal.

You can contact Asm. Gabriel here.

Meanwhile, Calbike reports the legislature’s proposed budget rescinds the governor’s cuts to the Active Transportation Program, so maybe some gentle encouragement is more appropriate.

Now they just need to stop wasting money on induced demand-inducing highway projects, and put it to better uses that won’t kill the planet.

Or those of us who live on it.

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Calbike provides an updated report on the bike bills still under consideration in the state legislature as it reaches the halfway point in this year’s legislative session.

As we noted before, the bold initiative to require speed limiting devices on all new cars has been modified to instead require easily ignored warnings for speeding drivers. It was also changed to accommodate the trucking industry’s reluctance to require life-saving sideguards, in an apparent attempt to keep their trucks as deadly as possible. .

The legislature also voted to keep bike riders in bike lanes at risk of right hooks by drivers. Although they probably wouldn’t phrase it quite like that.

And Oceanside Assemblymember Tasha Boerner’s bill to require a separate ebike license for anyone without a driver’s license has thankfully been amended to allow a local pilot of ebike age restrictions and an education diversion program for bicycling tickets, which is already allowed under state law.

………

Freed from the Wall Street Journal’s draconian paywall, bike-riding Journal columnist Jason Gay offers a warm remembrance of bike-riding UCLA and NBA superstar Bill Walton, who died this week at 71.

Velo’s Bruce Hildenbrand remember’s the famous Deadhead, too.

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This is who we share the road with.

A Michigan man used Zoom to call into a court hearing about getting his suspended driver’s license back — while he was driving.

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It’s now 161 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 35 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, as California dithers, the price of ebikes — along with children’s bikes and some carbon-frame bikes — is about to take a big jump, as the Biden administration is allowing a 25% jump in tariffs to take effect.

………

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

Damn good question. Momentum considers why riding a bicycle in the city is turning into a culture war.

Sacramento is planning to put an end to drivers illegally taking over a local bike path to avoid traffic.

Someone sabotaged the 52nd edition of Colorado’s Iron Horse Bike Classic on Saturday, tossing tacks on the roadway that flatted the tires of up to 50 riders — and could have resulted in serious injuries. Or worse.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

No bias here. A Washington resident blames speeding bicyclists after his doorbell cam captures video of a woman stepping onto a trail in front of a bike rider, who rings his bell in warning, before she gets hit by another bike rider coming the opposite way. Which sounds a lot more like someone crossing the trail without paying attention. 

Streetsblog reports New York police are flooding the city’s popular Prospect Park amid a rise in tensions and vigilantism, after someone on a bicycle slammed into a pedestrian.

Bizarre story from the UK, where a man says he was threatened by a bicyclist just for complimenting the man’s bicycle as he walked past. Something tells me there has to be more to this story, which only makes sense if the bike rider somehow interpreted the compliment as a threat. Or was a complete psycho. 

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Local 

Metro offers a look inside their free Adopt a Bike program to provide bikes to residents of vulnerable communities, donating bicycles abandoned on the transit system each month.

Burbank’s popular Chandler Bike Path will mark its 20th anniversary this August, and My Burbank thinks that’s cause for a celebration.

Police in Hermosa Beach began a crackdown on scofflaw ebike and electric motorcycle riders. Which sounds a lot like illegal selective enforcement, unless they are equally targeting law-breaking drivers who put ebike riders at risk.

Caltrans wants your input on what new bike lanes planned for PCH in Long Beach will look like.

 

State

A 73-year old writer for Daily Kos explains why an old guy like him would ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles for next week’s annual AIDS/LifeCycle Ride.

The somewhat less-than-urbanist San Diego Reader says the bike lanes in Serra Mesa are out of control, road diets don’t always work, and the people of San Diego never voted for bike lanes. Except they did, when they elected officials who openly supported bike lanes. And just a hint — it’s not the bikes or bike lanes that make traffic back up, it’s too damn many cars.

A San Diego letter writer says the poor put-upon drivers who block bike lanes are only doing it because of a “deplorable” lack of convenient legal parking spaces, and no one uses them, anyway. Apparently not even the bike riders who complain about people blocking them with their cars.

Sad news from Kern County, where a 63-year old Oildale man was killed after allegedly riding his bike without lights after dark and crossing directly in front of an oncoming vehicle.

A confusing, over-capacity Oakland intersection is losing its slip lanes, and getting protected and buffered bike lanes.

The UC Davis student newspaper looks at the history of biking culture in the bike-friendly city. Although as frequent contributor and UC grad student Megan Lynch likes to point out, both the campus and the city could be a lot friendlier.

 

National

Planetizen examines the challenge of keeping scofflaw drivers out of new bus and bike lanes.

Departing Oregon US Rep. Earl Blumenauer thinks bicycling is on the verge of its big moment, and he wants to catalyze that revolution before he leaves Congress at the end of the year.

The Guardian reviews Matthew Modine’s Hard Miles, the fact-based movie where he leads a group of troubled Colorado teens on a grueling 700-mile, two-wheeled journey of discovery.

A 61-year old Black man is riding 1,000 miles from New York to Chicago to encourage Black Americans to adopt a healthier, plant-based lifestyle.

A Streetsblog op-ed calls on New Jersey to reject its misguided war on ebikes.

A North Carolina woman offers bike safety tips, seven months after she was sideswiped by a reckless truck driver while riding her bike, resulting in a long journey to recovery.

 

International

A pro bike mechanic says not everyone likes bicyclists, but everyone loves a small terrier of questionable parentage riding a bike in a rucksack.

Rapha has released its first bicycling-specific hijab as part of the company’s new modest-wear collection.

Good on him. The mayor of Quebec brushed aside opposition calls for a tax on bicyclists, arguing it would merely divide the population while punishing low-carbon road users.

Parents in Manchester, England are up in arms over a bike path “plonked” in the middle of a playground, forcing kids to cross it to use various equipment. As much as I hate to admit it, I wish I could say all bike riders are conscientious, polite and safety-conscious, but human nature dictates some will always be otherwise. 

An “independent” study commissioned by Lime says London could reduce rental bicycle clutter on the city’s streets by simplifying ebike rules and creating more dockless bikeshare parking.

The Telegraph, which has been fanning the flames of bike hatred in recent weeks, surprisingly posts a bike-friendly column about what Britain can learn from the rest of Europe when it comes to protecting bicyclists.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 90-year old English man will mark his birthday with a ten-day, 450-mile ride up the west coast of Scotland.

The UK’s two leading political parties both promised the proposed dangerous cycling law that could imprison bike riders who kill for up to 14 years will be approved after the upcoming election, regardless of who wins. Meanwhile, British bike hero Chris Boardman says the moral panic about bike riders who kill is hateful and wrong, when drivers kill thousands more with impunity.

A new Swedish study shows the right road markings can support the development of bicycling.

Indian bicyclists are counter-intuitively looking forward to monsoon season, when the added greenery fueled by the monsoons offer a boost to their rides, despite the risk of soaked jerseys.

A 28-year old Ghanian man is riding 500 miles to the nation’s capital on a mission to prove bicycling can serve the main form of transportion for his fellow countrymen and women, despite the country’s severe weather conditions.

Congratulations to the third-generation head of Shimano on entering the ranks of Japan’s richest people.

 

Competitive Cycling

Australian cyclist Jay Vine has finally gotten the okay to resume “gentle” training, after recovering from spinal injuries he suffered in a high speed crash during April’s Tour of the Basque Country.

Colombian cyclist Miguel Ángel López — 3rd place finisher in the 2018 Giro and Vuelta, and 4th in the 2022 Vuelta — received a likely career-ending four year ban for doping yesterday; he’ll be 33 before he’s allowed back on a bike again.

More proof bikes mean life in disasters, manmade and otherwise. According to Cycling Weekly, “A Palestinian paracycling team based in war-torn Gaza now uses its bikes to transport food and supplies to local neighborhoods while keeping the Paralympic dream alive.” Seriously, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Now you, too, can have your name and logo on the Visma-Lease a Bike team jerseys for the Tour de France. I’d buy space for a BikinginLA patch, but somehow I don’t think an annual income in the high five figures would cover the cost.

 

Finally…

Your next bike could power itself with hydraulics instead of pedals. No, the law doesn’t say you can ride your bike naked — but it doesn’t say you can’t.

And your next bike ride could be a real high wire act.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

No surprise as LA fails first HLA test, and CTC praises Active Transportation Program targeted for Newsom budget cuts

May 22, 2024 / / Comments Off on No surprise as LA fails first HLA test, and CTC praises Active Transportation Program targeted for Newsom budget cuts
Just 223 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We’ve made it up to 1,143 signatures, so don’t stop now! I plan to forward the petition to the mayor’s office next week, so urge anyone who hasn’t already signed it to sign now! 

………

Is anyone really surprised Los Angeles isn’t living up to Measure HLA yet?

Or at all?

After a month of foot dragging, putting the city’s street resurfacing program on hold, and near-total silence on the subject from city leaders, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that the city is has just finished work repaving Coronado Street in Silver Lake.

And needless to say, failed to follow through with the bike lanes mandated by the city’s mobility plan under HLA.

Which means, as I understand it, anyone can now file suit to force them to comply.

You know, in case you’re in the mood.

………

The California Transportation Commission sang the praises of the state’s Active Transportation Program, calling it a “key part of California’s climate efforts,” even as Governor Newsom calls for drastic budget cuts.

And even though he could easily maintain funding at current levels, or let alone increase it, just by making modest cuts to the state’s massive $19 billion — yes, with a b — highway fund.

Once again demonstrating that Newsom’s oft-spoken commitment to fighting climate change is thinner than the tread on a worn out tire.

Just like his appearance at a fancy political dinner after calling for Californians to quarantine during the early days of the pandemic, Newsom’s budget cuts show an extreme level of auto-centric hypocrisy.

In every sense.

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Video of P Diddy — aka Sean Combs — beating his girlfriend in a hotel hallway was a bridge too far for Peloton, which cut ties with the rapper and producer.

But evidently, they were just fine with all the other accusations of sexual and physical violence, and possible sex trafficking, that weren’t caught on video.

………

This is your chance to see protected bike lanes on PCH in Long Beach.

Now we just need the do the other 650 or so miles.

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The North Westwood Neighborhood Council — you know, the one that’s not dominated by Westwood NIMBYs — is holding a virtual meeting of their Transportation and Safety Committee this evening.

Just in case you care about bike and pedestrian safety in and around Westwood Village, and getting the long-delayed bike lanes on Westwood Blvd.

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There may be hope for Vision Zero yet. Even if LA never does get its shit together.

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Kriss Kyle and Danny Macaskill go head-to-head in a game of B.I.K.E.

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It’s now 153 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 35 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

No bias here. The San Diego Reader misses the point entirely, complaining that local drivers are intimidated by Critical Mass splinter groups tying up traffic while participating in ride outs. Never mind that Critical Mass is a protest against the dominance and dangers of our current automotive hegemony.

A Sacramento woman is still waiting for justice, nine months after a road-raging driver nearly killed her by intentionally ramming her bike as she was riding with a group; the 30-year old driver was arrested, but later release pending a trial date.

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Local 

This is who we share the road with. A Valencia man was busted for DUI for the second time in just three weeks, after stalling his car in the traffic lanes of the 5 Freeway; three weeks ago, he smashed the other driver’s windshield following a crash in Stevenson Ranch.

 

State

No, you can’t legally have earbuds or headphones covering both ears when you drive or ride a bike in California.

Community members call for change after a woman was killed riding her bike in Cathedral City earlier this month; she was the 48th person killed riding a bicycle in the Coachella Valley in the past 20 years.

This is who we share the road with, part two. A 17-year old girl was busted for suspicion of DUI and hit-and-run after driving on the wrong side of the road and crashing into a Newbury Park home, then walking away; her 17-year old passenger was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication and resisting or delaying an investigation.

Huh? A Bay Area website considers the past, present and future of bicycling, saying it transformed from a “niche hobby” to one of the city’s major infrastructure efforts. Something tells me the people who’ve been biking up there for a decades might disagree with that ridiculous description.

 

National

Cycling Weekly lets the air out of the solid bike tire dream.

People For Bikes shares their federal trade policy objectives for the coming year.

A new study from the National Institutes of Health shows people who ride bikes regularly are significantly less likely to suffer from knee pain and osteoarthritis by age 65, compared to people who don’t bike. And may even live longer.

Seattle just got it’s first Dutch-style protected intersection. Which is still one more than Los Angeles has.

Denver’s free bicycle registry program, developed in conjunction with 529 Garage, has helped cut bike thefts in the city by 30%. It’s not officially a citywide program, but you can register your bike for free with Bike Index right here. 

All you have to do to get free bike repair — or a free bike — is move to Missoula, Montana.

Austin, Texas installed a lane reduction and separated bike lanes — aka a road diet — on a street plagued by speeding drivers, and saw a 64.2% drop in drivers going over 40 mph, with zero traffic deaths or serious injuries.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole 20 bike worth ten grand from an Austin nonprofit that gives free fixies to people in need.

If you build it, they will come. After going on a bike lane building binge, bicycling is growing faster in Chicago than any other city in the US, with a 119% increase in just four years. That compares favorably with Los Angeles, which didn’t. 

The US Justice Department is threatening to sue the NYPD if their cops don’t stop parking on the damn sidewalks. Maybe they could stop ’em from parking in bike lanes, too. 

A longtime international restauranteur is now selling tacos from his bicycle, after losing his popular restaurant New York in a divorce.

Speaking of a special place in hell, there’s one waiting for whoever stole an adaptive adult tricycle from an autistic Philadelphia teenager, who used it to feel more connected o the community.

 

International

Road.cc says the current slashing of bicycle prices isn’t the sign of a downturn, but just a return to normal market conditions.

Mountain biking in the City of Quebec.

The mayor of Montreal’s Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough has taken a page from the Paris mayor’s book, and charging higher parking fees for large trucks and SUVs.

A Scottish writer says if thoughtless delivery bike riders knew they’re as accountable as car drivers are for reckless behavior, “they might screw the nut.” Which evidently isn’t a local phrase for having sex with Mr. Peanut. And not that anyone actually holds drivers accountable, anyway. 

Apparently, British cops are now turning to Q for their traffic control devices, developing an electromagnetic pulse weapon to instantly disable ebikes and e-scooters James Bond would be proud of. Maybe they could try it on e-cars, too.

The Guardian’s Peter Walker argues that the UK’s new law against dangerous bicycling will accomplish pretty much nothing, while GCN wants to know why bike riding is so politicized right now. Which is a damn good question.

The head of a British bike company says if aviation or railroads had the safety record roads do, “planes would be grounded and trains would be stopped.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar continued to ride circles around the peloton by winning his fifth stage of the Giro on Tuesday, extending his lead to a whopping 7 minutes and 18 seconds; the stage was delayed for three hours and significantly shortened after riders revolted over being forced to ride through a snow storm.

Pogačar briefly lost his KOM on the Passo di Foscagno on Sunday’s stage of the Giro, after someone flagged him on Strava despite devastated the field.

 

Finally…

Bicycling is a gateway drug that leads to spandex and a latte addiction. That feeling when your new bike path is less than a block long, ending in a brick wall, and with a staircase in the middle.

And that feeling when a petition calling for banishing bike riders draws a whole four signatures.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Happy Bike to Work/Bike Anywhere Day, Gov. Newsom says screw the planet and keep on driving, and Bike Talk talks racing

May 16, 2024 / / One comment
Just 229 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We made it up another notch to 1,132 signatures, so don’t stop now! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until she meets with us! 

………

Happy Bike to Work/Bike Anywhere Day! Or as it’s known in Los Angeles these days, Thursday.

But at least you can get free Metro and Metrolink rides with your bike today, along with free Metro Bike rides.

Meanwhile, San Diego expects to have at least 10,000 people participate in the city’s Bike Anywhere Day, while the local public radio station tells you how to make the most of it.

………

Evidently, California Governor Gavin Newsom wasn’t serious about all that climate change stuff.

Newsom, who Politico described as fully embracing the role of climate governor, had this to say in a press release in 2022.

“Cleaning the air we breathe. Protecting our communities from the harmful impacts of the oil industry. Accelerating California’s clean energy future. Each of these actions on their own are monumental steps to tackling the climate crisis – but California isn’t waiting a minute longer to get them done. We’re taking all of these major actions now in the most aggressive push on climate this state has ever seen because later is too late. Together with the Legislature’s leadership, the progress we make on the climate crisis this year will be felt for generations – and the impact will spread far beyond our borders. California will continue blazing a trail for America and the rest of the world on the swift and meaningful actions necessary for cutting carbon pollution, protecting communities and leading the clean energy future.”

But just two years later, he is proposing a whopping $600 million cut to the state’s Active Transportation Program to address the state’s massive budget shortfall — which Streetsblog’s Melanie Curry describes as “the most climate, energy, and equity efficient program in the entire transportation budget.”

All because he doesn’t want to touch the state’s massive $21 billion highway fund, as spokesperson for the governor claims that diverting highway funds could “negatively impact the key work that Caltrans does to maintain the state highway system.”

In other words, appeasing motorists by building and widening highways and fixing freeway potholes is far more important than, say, saving the planet.

The mealy-mouth hypocrisy is astounding.

Or it would be if Newsom hadn’t long ago revealed just how shallow his commitment is when it conflict with political expediency.

This is how Calbike Policy Director Jared Sanchez addressed the issue in an email to supporters.

There is no deficit in California’s transportation budget. Thanks to federal funding streams, there’s no need for transportation cuts.

Yet, Governor Gavin Newsom cut almost $600 million from the Active Transportation Program (ATP) in his draft budget. The ATP funds projects that make biking and walking safer and more appealing, advancing the infrastructure changes needed to combat climate change.

Tell the Legislature to Restore Full ATP Funding

This cut amounts to eliminating an entire ATP funding cycle, significantly reducing funding for infrastructure that will reduce soaring pedestrian deaths and enable more people to get around safely by bicycle.

The Active Transportation Program needs more funding, not less.

  • The ATP already turned away many worthy biking and walking projects because of a lack of funding, even before this cut.
  • The governor’s budget doesn’t cut funding for climate-killing highways.
  • California can afford to fund the ATP. With rising climate chaos, we can’t afford not to spend money on active transportation.
  • This drastic cut will affect communities across California, forcing local governments to delay planned bikeways — maybe one near you.

Last year, the governor tried to cut the ATP, and the legislature restored the funding. Tell your representatives we need them to protect active transportation again.

Seriously. do it already.

………

Megan Lynch offers a photo from last night’s Ride of Silence in Davis, with a promise of more to come. So check back with her later.

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Bike Talk talks with longtime bike scribe Joe Lindsey about this year’s racing season.

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It’s now 148 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 35 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

The UK’s Conservative government passed a new law to address a problem that seldom happens, criminalizing causing death or serious injury by dangerous or careless cycling, with a maximum penalty of up to 14 years behind bars — seven years more than the penalty for doing the same thing with a car — as party leader Iain Duncan Smith insisted the anti-bicycling law isn’t anti-bicycling.  Thanks to Megan Lynch for the link.

I ain’t afraid of no ebike. Police in the UK are developing a Ghostbusters-style electromagnetic pulse, aka EMP, weapon to instantly stop scofflaw ebike or e-scooter riders in their tracks. And probably fry any electronic devices in the vicinity. Thanks again to Megan Lynch. 

Bike riders in Ireland respond to “highly regrettable” new signs on Irish Rail banning bicyclists at peak times, calling it a step backwards eliminates the possibility of muti-modal commuting.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A woman hit by a bicyclist in London’s Regent Park earlier this month urged bike riders to slow down, as a British broadcast network clocked bicyclists riding up to 7 mph over the park’s 20 mph speed limit.

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Local 

A writer for Condé Nast Traveler rides along with The Mixed Race, a weekly high-speed, women-led public bicycling group zipping through the streets of Los Angeles every Thursday night.

A WeHo website continues its recent anti-bike lane screeds, arguing that building protected bike lanes will take a sizable investment in staffer time and money. Even though not building them could prove substantially more expensive in the long run, as the city will be required to pay out lawsuits for any bike riders killed or injured where they would have been built.

The South Bay beach cities are considering even tighter restriction on ebikes, following a confrontation between local residents and a group of ebike-riding hooligans. Even though the type of bikes they were riding had nothing to do with the incident. And never mind that they were riding throttle-controlled fat bikes that should be reclassified as mopeds or electric motor scooters. 

 

State

Outside challenges you to three days of bicycling bliss along Southern California’s epic bike trails, starting with the El Prieto trail in the mountains above Pasadena, followed by nearby Tapia Canyon, and the Connect G-Out, Sidewinder, Dogtag and Karl’s trails in the scrubland east of Santa Clarita. And that’s just Day 1.

Bakersfield has seen a 30% jump in reports of bicycling collisions in just the last two years.

 

National

A new report ranks which states are most interested in bicycling, based on the volume of internet searches for “different bike types,” “cycling safety,” and “learning to ride,” which may not exactly be the best way to determine it; Washington, Rhode Island and Vermont top the list, with California all the way down at number eight.

A Chicago public radio station discusses what the city is doing to protect bike riders, as it suffers an average of over 1,400 bicycle collisions each year. Hint: Not enough. 

Crashes between Massachusetts bike riders and pedestrians are flagged as an emerging threat as bike lanes expand in the state. As if pedestrians don’t have a responsibility to look both ways before stepping into a bike lane, and misbehaving bicyclists would be no less dangerous without them.

DC councilmembers are pushing to restore funding for a controversial lane reduction and bike lane project, after the mayor thought he had killed it.

Bicycle advocates in Baton Rouge and New Orleans join a public radio station to discuss how to improve bike infrastructure in the Bayou State.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A Georgia man plans to ride 82 miles to celebrate his 82nd birthday, after riding his age every year since he turned 70.

 

International

An op-ed in the Evening Standard says London’s bike riders aren’t killers, and the bicycling community in the city’s Regent Park is “keen” to protect others.

London’s transportation department tells bike riders to improve their behavior around floating bus stops, even though only four people have been hit by bike riders in three years.

Good Net considers how the city’s bicycle revolution is rapidly transforming Paris, as the number of bike riders has overtaken the amount of motorists on the city’s rues.

A new Finnish study shows that people who received their bicycles through a workplace benefit program ride more than five times the miles of the average Finn.

Germany is conducting a study allowing s-pedelecs — ped-assist bikes capable of doing up to 28 mph — on a special high speed bike path to determine if they can safely share bike paths with slower riders.

A new petition in Hyderabad, India, calls on the city to do more to make it bike friendly and promote active mobility.

No surprise here, as the new 100% tariffs Joe Biden imposed on Chinese-made electric vehicles and batteries could double the price of ebike batteries.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tadej Pogačar maintained his two minute and forty second hold on the Giro’s pink leader’s jersey, as Italy’s Jonathan Milan survived a mass sprint to win the race’s 11th stage on Wednesday.

The formerly high-flying Visma-Lease a Bike cycling team is falling apart at the Giro, with the team down to just four riders with ten stages to go after both sprinter Olav Kooij and Cian Uijtdebroeks, who was fifth in the general classification, dropped out and Robert Gesink and Christophe Laporte both crashed out in the first week; team leaders Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard were already out following crashes earlier this year.

World champ Mathieu van der Poel will skip mountain biking at the Paris Olympics to focus on the Olympic road race, after competing in the Tour de France..

Olympic triathlete Taylor Knibb even stunned even herself by earning a second Olympic berth by winning the women’s time trial at the U.S. road cycling championships in Charlotte, West Virginia.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can star in an ebike commercial being shot in Orange County and Big Bear.

And if you’re going to deliver food orders, it might as well be from a Penny Farthing.

Twitter post

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Newsom plugs budget hole with Active Transportation funds, and Los Angeles traffic deaths jump once again in 2023

January 11, 2024 / / 4 comments

My eye is finally better, so let’s catch up on what we’ve missed the past couple days. 

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so please accept my apologies in advance if I don’t acknowledge you for something you sent me.

I’ll try to make up for it next time. 

………

If you haven’t already, stop what you’re doing and sign this petition demanding a public meeting with LA Mayor Karen Bass to listen to the dangers we face just walking and biking on the streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

………

No surprise here, as Governor Gavin Newsom proposed filling an unexpected $38 billion budget shortfall in part by taking $200 million from the state’s already underfunded Active Transportation Program.

The governor’s new budget leaves just $850 million in the ATP, but borrows $200 million from future funding to avoid cutting currently budgeted projects.

Calbike says there’s no budget shortfall in the state’s transportation budget, which is stuffed with more money than ever before.

Meanwhile, the Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, proposes spending a whopping $750 billion on traffic projects over the next 20 years.

Their project list included a whole 4,000 miles of bike lanes — which works out to just 200 miles a year, spread out among the seven-county SoCal region.

The rest of the funding will go overwhelmingly towards highway projects to encourage more driving.

Which is exactly what we don’t need to meet the state’s climate goals.

………

So much for Vision Zero.

KNBC-4 reports that LAPD figures show traffic deaths outpaced murders in the City of Angels last year.

The city saw 330 traffic deaths in 2023, a significant increase over 2022’s near-record numbers, “particularly fatal hit and runs and fatal pedestrian and bicycle collisions.”

At the same time, violent crime dropped 3.2%, with a total of “just” 327 murders.

The rise in traffic deaths comes as the city’s underfunded and under-implemented Vision Zero program was supposed to end traffic deaths by next year.

Instead, we’re further than ever from that goal, as people continue to die on our streets while our elected leaders do little or nothing about it.

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A series of bike rides in cities around the world this Sunday will mark 100 days since the vicious Hamas attack on Israeli settlements, and the abduction of hundreds of people as hostages.

Rides are said ti be scheduled for Barcelona, Paris, London, Melbourne, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, among others, though I can find no record of a Los Angeles ride.

Bicyclists are encouraged to tie yellow ribbons to your bike on Sunday, even it you’re not participating in one of the organized rides.

https://twitter.com/Israel/status/1743945135602163795

Ed Rubinstein forwards plans for a solidarity ride in Dana Point.

Unfortunately, the link he sent to the Thousand Oaks ride has expired, and I can’t find any details for that one, either.

This Sunday, January 14, will mark 100 days since the October 7 attacks, and the kidnapping of hundreds.  As you may have heard the Israeli Premier Tech pro cycling team and the Israeli Cycling Federation has joined with Bring Them Home Now to organize bike rides in many cities worldwide calling for the release of the 129 remaining hostages. There is a ride planned in Thousand Oaks, but I am not aware of one in Orange County. So, my wife Leti and I decided to create a local alternative.

If you are not going to the big ride in Thousand Oaks, please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM in Dana Point Harbor in the parking lot at the corner of Golden Lantern and Dana Point Harbor Drive to show your concern for the hostages.  We will provide yellow ribbons to tie on your bikes as a display of solidarity with the hostages.  Then we will take group photos that I will post on social media with the hashtag: #RideToBringThemHomeNow.  After the photos, there are multiple options for unsupported rides ranging from short 5-mile flat rides within the Harbor, a longer flat ride to San Juan Capistrano to a rolly 35+ mile ride to the north end of Camp Pendleton.

This is a digital word-of-mouth effort. You too are encouraged to let your friends know.  I have no idea about how large of a response I will get, so if you can let me know if you plan to attend.

Meanwhile, untold numbers of bike riders took part in a worldwide rally in support of Palestine last weekend.

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More than a dozen wannabe bike burglars attempted to use a U-Haul truck to knock down the wall of a DTLA bike shop Saturday morning.

The thieves used the truck in an attempt to repeatedly batter their way into Just Ride L.A., near the corner of South Hill Street and Venice Blvd in the South Park neighborhood.

But despite their efforts, the wall held, saving the store from a loss that likely would have amounted to tens of thousands of dollars.

As it is, they’re looking at a $40,000 loss to replace the gate and repair the damage cause by the truck.

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Long Beach may have seen Southern California’s first bicycling death of the year, after 43-year old Alecia McCullough was struck by a driver as she was crossing PCH Sunday night — the third death on SoCal’s killer highway in Long Beach this year.

One witness said she appeared to be riding a bicycle. However, there’s no confirmation of that, and no mention of a bike by the police.

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Metro appears to have chosen Lyft to operate the Metro Bike bikeshare program.

Twitter post

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21 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 30 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law, and counting.

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

The same bone-headed Florida website that somehow condemned “bike herds” in response to an elderly woman hitting a group of bicyclists while driving on the wrong side of the road, is now calling on readers to submit photos of bike riders behaving badly. Meanwhile, the editor goes out of his way to blame the victims of the mass crash, despite conceding that the driver was on the wrong side of the road, and the victims were obeying the law by riding two abreast. Notice also how effectively “bike herds” dehumanizes the victims. 

No bias here. Despite the recent panic over London’s floating bus stops, and reports that 60% of bike riders fail to stop for pedestrians moving to and from them, new leaked government documents show a low risk of bike riders actually hitting someone.

After a cabbie scared the crap out of an English bike rider by passing him just inches away, the local authorities apparently responded to the video by sending the driver a sternly worded letter. On the other hand, that’s more than they’d do here, where video isn’t accepted by the cops for anything less than a felony. 

Someone ripped out nearly all the reflective plastic bollards marking a cycle track in Mysore — or Mysuru — India, for no apparent reason.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

British TV presenter Alex Phillip blamed “a little shit on a bike” for the attempted mugging that made her drop her phone.

A pair of Swiss tourists were fined $400 and had their bikes confiscated by authorities after mountain biking through one of New Zealand’s most famous heritage trails, where any kind of vehicle is banned, including bicycles.

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Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton makes the case that “it shouldn’t take sustained advocacy pressure (and injury lawsuits) from cyclists to get the city to keep its walk/bike paths in a state of good repair,” as the city belatedly begins repairs on a decrepit section of the LA River bike path.

Linton also visits a new parking-protected bike lane on Variel in Woodland Hills.

The Larchmont Buzz looks forward to next month’s CicLAvia on iconic Melrose Ave, calling CicLAvia “one of the coolest community events ever.” When they’re right, they’re right. 

Pasadena announced the completion of the Cordova Street Complete Streets project, including 1.5 mile buffered bike lanes.

Santa Monica cops will be conducting yet another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation today, ticketing anyone who commits a traffic violation that could put either at risk — even if it’s someone walking or riding a bike who does it. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit line, so you’re not the one who gets written up.

Speaking of Santa Monica, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors took to their bikes for a team building ride along the beach, as the team was in town for games against the Lakers and Clippers; new team member Immanuel Quickley said it was his first time riding a bike.

Long Beach received a $326,000 state grant to promote bike and pedestrian safety projects.

 

State

A bill in the state Senate Transportation Committee would eliminate the need for repetitive and costly traffic studies for bike lanes that have already been studied and approved along the California coast, reducing red tape and speeding construction, at least in theory.

Velo explains how California’s new law allowing bikes to proceed on the walk signal, instead of waiting for a green light, makes biking safer.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever burned down the ghost bike and memorial for Matt Keenan, who was killed by a driver in a head-on collision in San Diego’s Mission Valley in 2021; Keenan’s wife has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to replace it.

A San Diego doctor, ultra marathoner and triathlete says if ebikes are going to be allowed on the county’s trails, the trails will have to be improved and maintained so others don’t have to jump out of the way.

To the surprise of no one, stolen bikes were offered for sale on OfferUp and Facebook in San Diego, as Bike Index listed 331 bikes stolen in the city last year. Professional thieves often move hot bikes from one city to another, so it’s always possible that a bike stolen in LA could be sold in San Diego. Or Riverside, or anywhere else in Southern California.

Sad news from Carpinteria, where an 80-year old man riding a bike was killed by a driver; naturally, sheriff’s deputies blamed the victim for making an unsafe lane change. Oddly, though, it was the car’s rear windshield that was shattered in the crash.

San Francisco public TV station KQED says the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge has an amazing view, and an uncertain future, after the expiration of the pathway’s four-year pilot program, and calls to return the lane to motor vehicles. Because we all know that cars are more important than people. 

Bike Talk’s Nick Richert talks with San Francisco Streetsblog about the city’s failed Vision Zero program.

The Bay Area’s BART commuter train system finally figured out that people who ride bikes sometimes need to ride trains, too, allowing people to take bikes on most escalators and trains.

 

National

Life is cheap in Colorado, where the driver who killed a 65-year old Minnesota man a third of the way through his lifetime goal of riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route got just nine months of work release, and was ordered to pay for a memorial for the victim.

Police in Kansas ask for the public’s help in identifying the victim injured in a collision while riding his bike. Yet another reminder to always carry ID with you when you ride — and preferably something that won’t get stolen if you’re incapacitated. 

A bike-riding Brooklyn man was busted on hate crime charges for throwing a rock at a Jewish man and yelling “Free Palestine!” Seriously, don’t do that. Passions are high enough without making thins worse.

A Baltimore woman brought an ice cream bike, and turned it into a $20,000 a month side hustle.

The Maryland legislature is considering a new bill that would increase the penalty for hitting someone riding in a bike lane to up to two months in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. Drivers should automatically be at fault for any crash with someone riding legally in a bike lane.

Atlanta announced a new program to give residents up to $2,000 to buy an ebike, depending on income level and type of bike. And chances are, they’ll run out of funding before California’s moribund program ever launches.

A retired Florida cop finished a 147-day, 5,000-mile bike ride from Vancouver to San Diego, then across the US to raise funds for children’s cancer research.

 

International

Momentum lists the top 10 reasons to buy an ebike this year. Unless you’re counting on California’s moribund ebike incentive program, in which case you’re probably screwed. 

A Canadian legal site asks if allowing bike riders to run stop signs would make the roads safer. Except by definition, it’s not running the stop sign if it’s legal to treat it as as a yield, as in the Idaho Stop Law.

Newly released records show Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer — the equivalent of our Treasury Secretary — slashed funding for active transportation after buying into crackpot conspiracy theories about the 15-minute city.

Ireland announced plans to build a nearly 2,200-mile bike network over the next 16 years, which will connect more than 200 cities, towns and villages with over 5,000 residents. That’s the second-best reason, after the whiskey, for a little reverse migration if things continue to devolve here.

Shimano has applied for a patent to use trainable AI to automatically control mountain bike suspensions and dropper seat posts.

 

Competitive Cycling

Ranchers near the mountain town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, say they weren’t informed about the annual SBT GRVL race, and want the number of participants capped — even though race organizers held a series of public forums, and already cap the number of riders who can take part. Apparently, they don’t understand the meaning of “annual,” either. 

Pro-Palestinian protestors delayed the start of the Australian road cycling championships in an effort to target Israel–Premier Tech cyclist Simon Clarke.

 

Finally…

Blue legs and bike shorts on a cold winter’s day. Who needs an ebike when you can have your very own e-snowboard.

And you could have been the proud owner of Pee-wee Herman’s 1953 Schwinn DX Cruiser, not for “a hundred million, trillion, billion dollars,” but for the low, low price of $140,001.

Instagram post

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Newsom approves limited speed cam pilot, Israeli bicyclists victims of Hamas violence, and DOJ sues eBay for rolling coal

October 16, 2023 / / Comments Off on Newsom approves limited speed cam pilot, Israeli bicyclists victims of Hamas violence, and DOJ sues eBay for rolling coal

Newsom signed this one, anyway.

LAist reports speed cams could be coming to Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale after Governor Newsom signed a bill authorizing a pilot program in the three cities, as well as three cities in Northern California.

However, the program will be limited to streets in “school zones, highway segments most prone to injuries, and areas identified by local authorities as having high volumes of speeders and street racing.”

The pilot program continues California’s insistence on reinventing the wheel, since speed cams have already proven successful in 200 communities in 21 other states, including New York City, Chicago and DC.

Twitter post

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You knew the recent Hamas massacre in Israel wouldn’t spare the bicycling community.

According to Marca, the heartless violence took the lives of an entire family of triathletes, and at least four mountain bikers were killed on their way to a training ride.

Another group of bike riders survived by hiding under bushes for hours to escape the attack.

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Yes, please.

The US Department of Justice is suing eBay for selling more than 343,000 illegal “rolling coal” pollution devices through the platform, illegally enabling drivers to modify emissions controls on their cars and trucks — and bury bike riders and pedestrians in a cloud of exhaust smoke.

The platform could face a well-deserved $5,580 fine for each devise sold under the Clean Air Act, for a total of nearly $2 billion.

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This is the future bike riders want.

Twitter post

Meanwhile, as today’s top photo demonstrates, the countless full bike racks at Sunday’s CicLAvia offered more proof that bikes mean business, with bars, restaurants and cafes jammed with happy participants.

Along with more than a few corgis.

And this one definitely won the most creative award at Sunday’s Heart of LA CicLAvia.

Although the LAPD responded to the end of Sunday’s CicLAvia with an illegal order telling bike riders to get off the street.

https://twitter.com/MobilityForWho/status/1713784208873988121

Thanks to Erik Griswold 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.

No bias here. A former British city counselor accused local advocates of planning a “deeply distasteful” protest ride to demand safe streets in the wake of two recent bicycling deaths, saying it would put people off bicycling.

No bias here, either. Business owners in a UK city protested what they called a “totally crazy, ridiculous” plan to remove a whole two — yes, two — parking spaces to make room for eight bikeshare bikes.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A 73-year old man in the UK walked without a day in jail for crashing his bicycle into a pedestrian, leaving the 88-year old victim fighting for his life; the man thought he could ride safely even though he was left partially sighted after a stroke.

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Local 

This is who we share the road with. A Long Beach driver killed one woman and injured six other people when he drove into pedestrians and cars at Shoreline Drive and Aquarium Way Saturday evening.

 

State

An Orange County man was busted after completing a transportation theft trifecta, first stealing a car, followed by a bicycle, before being arrested while wearing the car owner’s shoes.

A Victorville woman was critically injured when her bicycle was struck by a motorcyclist while crossing a busy roadway Friday afternoon.

UC Santa Barbara Police recovered 18 purloined bicycles after busting an accused prolific bike thief.

A Bakersfield man suffered major injuries when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike, and left lying in the roadway Saturday evening.

Sad news from San Francisco, where bicyclist was killed in a collision while riding on a freeway; no word on why the rider was on the Interstate highway.

 

National

CleanTechnica calls ebikes a less-polluting option for commutes and errands as part of the new normal, while Momentum offers advice on what you need to know before buying one.

Gravel has officially gone mainstream, as CNN rates the year’s 12 best gravel bikes.

Gear Junkie offers tips on selecting the right bicycle helmet for the way you ride.

Hundreds of Las Vegas bicyclists turned out for the 10th Annual Ride to Remember, in honor of bike racer Pete Makowski, who was killed by a gravel truck driver while on a training ride in 2013, and all bike-riding victims of traffic violence.

Kindhearted Tucson, Arizona volunteers put together 1,200 bikes to donate to underserved kids.

A new Denver program is using heart rate data to identify bicycling danger zones before anyone gets hurt.

Life is cheap is Wisconsin, where a woman got just 18 months behind bars for killing a 29-year old man riding a bicycle, while driving at nearly twice the legal alcohol limit and nearly twice the posted speed limit.

Cincinnati Bengals punter Drue Christian stayed in shape by delivering meals for DoorDash on his bicycle during the off-season, then started buying meals himself and giving them to people in need.

Family members continue to call for justice two years after Pittsburgh police tased a homeless man up to ten times, even though he didn’t pose a threat to them or anyone else, just because he rode a bicycle that appeared to be abandoned around the block before returning it; the city has already paid an $8 million settlement in the case, but no officers have been charged in his death.

A South Carolina letter writer has a complaint bike riders everywhere can relate to, asking people to stop leaving yard waste and other trash in bike lanes.

 

International

Major bicycling brands, including Schwalbe, Rudy Project and Trek, are becoming more environmentally conscious and reducing their carbon footprint.

A Vancouver nonprofit calculates that switching from a car to a bicycle could save commuters over $9,000 a year.

Yes, please. A new Google Maps feature will allow London bike riders to consider current traffic conditions and the availability of high-quality cycling infrastructure in planning their route. Hopefully, that will roll out here in the US if it proves successful there. 

The Daily Mail complains that a Scottish ebike loan program has cost the country the equivalent of over $600,000, as people have purchased ebikes but failed to repay the cost.

A pair of British bike riders were the victims of a bikejacking by moped-riding muggers, who pulled up to them at a red light and ordered them off their bicycles.

A British man’s beloved bicycle was stolen outside his local pub, after it had taken him 22,500 miles around the world in just 430 days.

A Kenyon writer says it’s imperative that the country combine high-capacity buses and bicycling to “significantly reduce urban carbon emissions and foster cleaner, healthier cities for all.”

Police in South Australia said they have arrested the state’s infamous “Bicycle Bandit,” after DNA led them to a 73-year old man who allegedly robbed at least ten banks over a ten-year period beginning in 2004, using a bicycle as his primary getaway vehicle.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch pro Milan Vader won his first WorldTour race at China’s Tour of Guangxi, a year after a bad crash during a Basque Country race last year left him in an induced coma with his spine fractured in eleven places, and doubts of ever riding again.

French cyclist Typhaine Laurance is walking away from pro cycling, retiring at just 25 due to the sports low pay; she was forced to continue living with her parents while earning the equivalent of just over $1,000 a month.

Conservative media was up in arms after two transgender cyclists took home gold and silver at a women’s ‘cross race in Chicago.

 

Finally…

Sometimes the best approach to slowing drivers is a mangled bike and a pair of legs sticking out of the hedge. Apparently, bike shorts aren’t used for bicycling anymore, even though they still are, except when they’re not.

And just blame Google Maps if you end up riding on a highway where bikes are banned.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Vegas teens plead not guilty to Probst murder, Mo Wilson’s accused killer makes a run for it, and Newsom digs daylighting

October 12, 2023 / / Comments Off on Vegas teens plead not guilty to Probst murder, Mo Wilson’s accused killer makes a run for it, and Newsom digs daylighting

Jesus Ayala and Jzamir Keys, the Las Vegas teenagers being tried as adults in the deliberate murder of a bike-riding former Bell, California police chief, both pled not guilty to several felony counts at their arraignment Wednesday.

The two teens, 17 and 16 at the time of their alleged August crime spree, are accused of at least three hit-and-runs while joyriding in a stolen car, including fatally running down 64-year old Andreas “Andy” Probst from behind as they laughingly filmed the attack.

Ayala and Keys are also accused of deliberately targeting another man riding a bicycle, although apparently he was not seriously injured.

They’re charged with murder, attempted murder, battery and residential burglary, as well as multiple counts of automobile grand larceny and possession of a stolen vehicle.

They each face up to life in prison if convicted on the murder charges, despite Ayala’s boast to the cops at the time of his arrest that he’d be out in 30 days.

Photo by Ekaterina Bolovtsova from Pexels.

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Kaitlin Armstrong, the woman accused of killing gravel cycling star Moriah “Mo” Wilson, made a run for it Wednesday, attempting to escape from sheriff’s deputies as she was being led back to a patrol car following a doctor’s appointment.

Armstrong is accused of fatally shooting Wilson last year in a jealous rage, in what she apparently perceived as a love triangle involving her then-boyfriend, pro cyclist Colin Strickland, who had been briefly involved with Wilson.

Armstrong was already considered a flight risk following her arrest in Costa Rico after a 43-day manhunt.

She had reportedly died her hair and undergone plastic surgery in an effort to change her appearance and hide her identity.

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After wielding his veto pen to strike down bike-friendly legislation, including a bill to allow sidewalk riding throughout the state, California Governor Gavin Newsom actually signed a safety bill yesterday.

Newsom added his signature to Assembly Bill 413, known as the Daylighting Bill, which will ban parking within 20 feet of a marked crosswalk to increase visibility and improve safety for pedestrians, as well as anyone else stopped at or using the intersection.

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Apparently, there really is an app for that.

Yesterday, I learned there’s an app to help organize bike buses to help kids get to school safely.

Which could probably be used to arrange bike commuting rides to find greater safety in numbers, as well.

Twitter post

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

We missed this one when I was out of commission with eye problems a couple weeks back, as a driver in a massive SUV attempted to terrorize a velomobile e-recumbent rider in El Cajon, California last month, which was compounded by a lecture from a cop who didn’t know the law.

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Local 

Streetsblog says Metro didn’t follow its own designs, let alone city-approved, CEQA-approved street standards, in providing access to the new Downtown Connector stations, implementing undefined changes focused on getting drivers onto freeways instead of providing the promised bike and walk facilities.

A letter from longtime LA-area bike advocate Kent Strumpell says Los Angeles can alter the course of the automobile’s role in climate change, and meet the pope’s call for bold climate action, with the rapid installation of a fully functional, citywide, protected bikeway network. From his keyboard to God’s ear. Or at least the mayor’s. 

 

State

The CHP has received a federal grant to support its education and enforcement efforts to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety throughout the state. Although we’d all be better served if they used the money to train their officers in bike law, and how to investigate bike crashes without their usual windshield bias.

San Diego Magazine lists eight of the city’s best bike events to attend each year, starting with next month’s Bike and Beer San Diego.

A young Frenso girl was lucky to survive with minor injuries when she was struck by a pickup driver while riding her bike, and ended up pinned under the truck.

Manteca is just the latest California city calling for a crackdown on reckless teenage ebike riders.

San Anselmo will conduct a study of the downtown area on how to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Sad news from Sierra County, where a Berkeley man was found dead after apparently riding his mountain bike off a trail; his body was found about a hundred yards downstream from where his bike was recovered.

 

National

AARP offers a pretty extensive tutorial on the different types of bikes for different riders and situations. And since they include balance bikes, it’s probably safe to say they’re not all aimed at their target market.

Trek has launched the industry’s first bicycle trade-in program, accepting used bikes made by the company for trade at their eponymous stores. Which makes me wonder what they’d give me for my first-gen mass production 1980 Trek roadie. For a change, read it on AOL if Bicycling blocks you. 

Bicycling introduces Bivo founder Carina Hamel, saying she’s disrupting the bicycling water bottle market one stainless steel water bottle at time. This time, you can read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

At least one Portland hotel now approves of a recently contested downtown bike lane, insisting they want the hotel to be a welcoming space for bike riders, after the hotel’s former GM criticized the bike lane for what she termed dangerous conditions.

There’s not a pit deep enough for the bike thief who stole an adaptive tricycle from a 23-year old special needs man in Arizona.

The building that formerly housed my not-so-local Denver bike shop, which I traveled across the city to frequent, caught on fire last night, but it was quickly extinguished by firefighters; developers plan to raze the former local icon to build an 18-story mixed-use tower.

It takes a special kind of scumbag to drive off and leave a bike-riding five-year old Colorado kid bleeding in the street.

The highly anticipated movie Bike Vessel, which premiers this week at the Chicago Film Festival, tells the story of a father who took up bicycling after surviving three open-heart surgeries, and the son who joined him on a “rigorous” journey by bike from St. Louis to Chicago.

New York’s Black-owned Amsterdam News says there’s no going back, as ebikes continue to make inroads into neighborhoods of color throughout the city.

New York bike riders rallied to protest the city’s second-highest number of bicycling deaths ever, while calling out the mayor’s apparent lack of concern, even though he was considered a consistent ally when he served in the state senate.

That’s more like it. A 19-year old Richmond, Virginia man was sentenced to spend the next ten years and a month behind bars, after a judge suspended most of a 30-year sentence for plowing into a pair of bike-riding women while driving drunk and stoned, killing one and critically injuring the other.

 

International

A British man, who was placed in a medically induced coma for nearly two weeks after suffering major injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike in 2017, is now planning to take part in a fundraising hill climb challenge to benefit the air ambulance service he credits with saving his life.

 

Competitive Cycling

A new report accuses pro cycling of putting profits over safety, saying elite cycling has a “profound safety problem,” with safety “taking a backseat in the pursuit of performance or profit.”

The Intermarché-Circus-Wanty cycling team abruptly pulled Madis Mihkels from China’s upcoming Tour of Guangxi, after the 20-year old pro was shown making a racist gesture on social media by pulling back his eyes in mockery of Asians.

Three-time US Pro crit champ Luke Lamperti will join L39ION of Los Angeles as a guest cyclist at the inaugural invitation-only CRIT Championship in St. Petersburg, Florida later this month.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a minor suffers minor injuries after getting hit by a deer that was hit by a driver. If you were stopped by a motorcycle officer in East Valinda, you may have gotten a fake ticket from a fake cop.

And apparently crappy bike infrastructure is a problem everywhere.

Twitter post

Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Newsom’s veto could mean tickets for seeking sidewalk safety, and LA Times calls out California’s roadway climate fail

October 11, 2023 / / Comments Off on Newsom’s veto could mean tickets for seeking sidewalk safety, and LA Times calls out California’s roadway climate fail

No surprise here.

Both Calbike and CABO responded to Governor Gavin Newsom’s veto of a bill that would have legalized sidewalk riding on any street without adequate bike lanes.

And needless to say, they came out on opposite sides of the issue.

Calbike, aka the California Bicycle Coalition, decried the veto, arguing that sidewalk riding may not be the best choice, but it’s sometimes the only safe one.

“Is sidewalk riding ideal? No,” said Jared Sanchez, policy director for CalBike. “In a perfect world, most streets would be Complete Streets, with safe facilities for all modes of transportation. But that’s not the reality today, and it will take years to transform every dangerous roadway in California into a safe route for biking. In the meantime, people on bikes must, at times, travel on streets with fast traffic and no bike lanes. By vetoing this bill, the governor has taken an action that will lead to more deaths and injuries of people on bikes.”

While CalBike agrees with the governor’s assertion in his veto statement that building better bike infrastructure is the best way to provide safe spaces for people who ride bikes and that the state has moved in the right direction to create more protected and connected bikeways, infrastructure for safe biking remains woefully inadequate.

Meanwhile CABO — the California Association of Bicycle Organizations — applauded the governor’s veto.

An open letter from Alan Wachtel, Government Relations Director for CABO, pointed out the dangers of bicycling on sidewalks, both for bike riders and pedestrians.

While my organization and I appreciate the author’s intent to improve bicycle safety, this bill would instead have exactly the opposite effect. It would encourage dangerous bicycling habits, and it would constitute a huge step backward in the goal of routinely accommodating bicycle travel everywhere in the transportation network. Unfortunately, the author’s office has repeatedly declined to meet with us even to discuss these issues.

Under existing Vehicle Code §21650(g) (which I helped to draft), bicyclists may already ride on sidewalks everywhere, unless prohibited by the code or local ordinance. AB 825 would eliminate that local power unless the adjacent roadway includes a designated bicycle facility, except for last-minute amendments that provide complicated exceptions meant to protect pedestrians (but that are inadequate to do so).

But AB 825, despite being promoted as a bicycle safety bill, would, on the contrary, also be more dangerous for bicyclists. It relies on and actively perpetuates the misconception that the only safe places for bicycles are designated facilities and sidewalks.

This may be the rare instance where they’re both at least partly right.

CABO is correct that bikes don’t normally belong on sidewalks, where they pose a danger to pedestrians and an increased risk to bike riders, despite the perception of safety.

But it’s also true that a sidewalk can provide a refuge from dangerous roadways lacking safe infrastructure — especially the typical suburban California stroads, where riders often have to contend with speeding drivers exceeding the already high speed limits.

It’s also demanding too much to expect an inexperienced bike rider to take the lane on a busy street filled with impatient and distracted drivers.

It’s unreasonable to ticket someone for putting their own safety ahead of any local restrictions under those, or similar, circumstances.

Or to expect someone on a bicycle to always know when they’ve crossed from one city where sidewalk riding is allowed, to another where it’s prohibited, particularly when the restriction isn’t posted.

Then there’s the problem the bill was originally drafted to address, where police too often use sidewalk riding restrictions as a pretext to stop and search, or merely harass, people of color.

I always encourage people to ride their bikes in the street, both for their own safety, and that of people walking on the sidewalk.

But I understand if they choose not to, as I have myself for short distances, or when faced with dangerous situations on the street.

And penalizing them for making that choice is wrong — as was Newsom’s veto of the bill.

Besides, we all know sidewalks are really just parking spots for entitled drivers.

……..

The get it.

An editorial from the Los Angeles Times called out California’s transportation policies, arguing that the state’s highway spending doesn’t match it’s climate promises.

Then again, that’s what we’ve come to expect from the auto-centric Caltrans, despite its repeated commitments to Complete Streets and active transportation.

Two recent reports highlight the discrepancy. Regulators have warned that the state needs to slash the amount of miles people drive 25% below 2019 levels to help meet 2030 emission reduction targets. But traffic and car dependence has increased in recent years, according to a report from the progressive advocacy group NextGen Policy.

It’s no surprise why: California continues to spend the bulk of its transportation dollars to maintain and expand car-centric roads and freeways. Instead of doubling down on the existing system that makes it inconvenient and unsafe to travel by bike, foot and transit, California should be spending the bulk of its transportation funding to remake the urban landscape so people have real choices in how they get around.

But that’s not happening. Of the state’s primary transportation funding programs, just 19% of the money has gone to projects that help reduce the need to drive, such as building out bike lanes, sidewalks, rail service, electric buses and affordable housing near jobs, according to an analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council. These programs are in such demand that the state is regularly forced to deny funding to highly rated pedestrian and bicycle projects.

It’s worth reading the whole piece, because they’re right.

Caltrans continues to flush massive amounts of funding down the highway widening toilet, addicted to the never-ending chase to fix traffic congestion while fueling induced demand.

And like any other addict, the only solution is to quit.

………

It looks like Amazon’s Prime Days, which concludes today, is the bike world’s new October Black Friday.

………

Road.cc pits a $15,000 superbike against a $430 find from Facebook Marketplace to determine how much speed money can actually buy.

And concludes that it does make a difference, but not as much as you might think.

………

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

A Cambridge, Massachusetts newspaper says a court heard rehashed arguments in yet another lawsuit fighting the city’s separated bike lanes, after the city has already won preliminary injunctions and subsequent appeals in two similar cases.

A Streetsblog op-ed calls out a proposal supported by a majority of New councilmembers to license all ebike riders, which would create a bureaucratic nightmare and discourage ebike use, while ignoring the lackluster infrastructure and unsafe work standards at the root of the problem.

New Yorkers rode their “little bikes” last night in protest of the mayor’s derisive comments about being able to ride their “little bikes” safely thanks to him, at a time when the city’s bicycling deaths are up dramatically.

………

Local 

West Hollywood sheriff’s deputies reported three collisions involving pedestrians last month and four involving people on bicycles, while stating that enforcing the city’s restrictions on sidewalk riding is a low priority; it’s legal to ride on the sidewalk on any WeHo street without a bike lane.

 

State

Chinese ebike maker Velotric is offering discounts up to 20% to students, staff and faculty at UC San Diego, while the campus expands bike lockers and protected bike lanes.

San Marcos is getting a new eight-acre bike park, including a pump track, perimeter trail and jump lines for beginner, intermediate and advanced riders.

The campus police chief at UC Santa Cruz warns students about the growing bike theft problem at the school, while offering tips on how to keep your bike safe.

 

National

Electrek applauds Seattle’s cute little electric bike lane sweepers.

Denver drivers can’t seem to figure out how a traffic diverter works, continuing through on the wide bike lane instead of following the really big arrows on the street directing them to turn. Although the city deserves a lot of the blame for leaving enough room in the bike lane for cars to enter.

A 28-year old Denver man is nearly 8,000 miles into an effort to visit every US National Park in the Lower 48 states on one continuous bicycle trip; so far he’s made it to just 19 of the 51 parks on his itinerary.

A writer for Kansas’ Rider University student paper describes how a bright blue bicycle took him from an awkward 16-year old kid stuck at home during the pandemic, to a bike-riding man about campus.

This is why we need to ban right turns on red lights. A Kansas driver was caught on video slamming into a bike rider, who had waited until it appeared to be safe before crossing in a crosswalk with the light, and was right hooked by the driver after riding off the curb.

Road diets in Philadelphia led to a 34% decrease in fatalities on the city’s recently constructed Complete Streets.

Abandoned bikeshare bikes continue to litter a South Carolina town after the city’s provider shut down last spring.

 

International

Momentum says riding in a dress this fall is not as difficult as you might think.

A member of Britain’s Conservative Party says he will continue to call for a mandatory bike helmet law in Parliament, despite his own party repeatedly rejecting the proposal.

The mayor of Manilla’s Quezon City returned from a trip to Copenhagen, vowing to use the Danish city’s bicycle-friendly infrastructure as a role model to make her town the bicycling capital of the Philippines.

An Aussie bike advocacy group condemned video of an “entitled” SUV driver crossing the double yellow lines to pass both a bike rider and a second driver who was patiently following the bicyclist waiting for a safe opportunity to pass.

 

Competitive Cycling

Belgian pro Nathan Van Hooydonck says he immediately knew his cycling career was over when he was nearly killed in a car crash after suffering a heart problem while driving; he retired after waking from a coma and being fitted with an internal defibrillator to correct any future cardiac arrhythmia.

 

Finally…

Why settle for being a coffee roaster or a wrench when you can do both? That feeling when the heroine who defends you from bike thieves is an angry mom with a spade.

And why just ride on rubber when you can put the rubber to the rubber?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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