Like the needless death of a toddler as she rides a bike next to her mother.
And the arrest of a teenaged boy for the hit-and-run that took her life.
The Los Angeles Times reports that three-year old Odalys Navarro died Monday, four days after she was run down from behind by someone on a dirt bike as she rode her bicycle in the rural Riverside County community of Mead Valley.
Her mother, who is five months pregnant, was also seriously injured in the August 31st crash.
It was a Thursday afternoon 8/31 that was supposed to be filled with joy and laughter, tragedy struck. A hit-and-run incident involving a motorcycle left my child and myself lying on the ground, fighting for our lives. It is difficult to put into words the pain and anguish my family has endured since that fateful day.
My little girl, who was only 3 years old going on to 4 in about a month and I were walking home from the park when the motorcycle came out of nowhere. The impact was severe, leaving both of us with life-threatening injuries. The reckless driver, without a shred of humanity, callously fled the scene, leaving my family shattered and broken.
His name was withheld because he’s a juvenile. Which means that, unless he’s charged as an adult, he can only be held until he turns 21, even if he’s convicted.
The crowdfunding campaign to pay Odalys Navarro’s funeral costs, and her and her mother’s medical expenses, has raised a little more than $5,000 of the $25,000 goal.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the CHP’s Riverside investigators at 951/637-8000.
This is at least the 34th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and sixth that I’m aware of in Riverside County.
There’s nothing sadder than a ghost bike for a child.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Odalys Navarro and all her family.
According to Petervary’s wife, he suffered a broken vertebra, two broken arms, a cut cornea, and road rash on his butt, hip and elbow, but thankfully, no life-threatening injuries.
Petervary had with less than a thousand miles to go on the 2,671-mile trail when he was injured.
The popular pro, who gained fame for his Alt Tour de France, in which he raced the racers to Paris, says his attempt is less about breaking the record, and more about seeing how fast he can do it in a mentally and physically sustainable way.
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A truly brutal video captures a far-too-close pass from an RV driver clipping a bicyclist, and taking out a group of riders like so many bowling pins.
Thanks to Michael Kim, who tells me this happened on Arizona’s Lake Mary Road.
Click through to the third slide to see the video, but be forewarned that you can’t unsee if if you do.
The bike, painted white and locked to a steel post, will stand silently on the sidewalk, a memorial to the woman who lost her life here.
And in that moment, I’ll take stock of everything that’s different. Because it’s not the same Pittsburgh I remember—and I don’t mean new high-rises, shuttered businesses, or graying friends. For a cyclist who’s been away for a while, the city exhibits radical transformation. Spotting that Ghost Bike will fill me with anger and heartache. I will wish, for the thousandth time, that this memorial didn’t have to exist. But I will also marvel at all the change that began with a single accident. And I will wonder what Susan would think of it all.
It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole thing.
Then wonder why all the many ghost bikes scattered through the City of Angels have never done the same.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
South Pasadena has installed traffic calming measures, including Class II painted bike lanes, on Oak, Grand and Hermosa Aves as part of a Slow Streets demonstration project.
A new survey from Cycling Weekly shows that a typical amateur bicyclist rides five times a week and covers over 5,000 miles a year, owns four bikes, raced back in the day but now prefers time trials and ultras, subscribes to three training apps, and is fitter than many people half their age. I could claim the first two and the last one back in my pre-diabetes days. Now, not so much.
That’s more like it. A Michigan man was sentenced to eight years behind bars for the drunken, high-speed hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle; prosecutors said he was driving 85 mph in the middle of the street, with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit.
He fled from the scene, crashing into several other cars and objects before finally coming to rest against a wall on Knapp Street, west of De Soto Ave, where he was finally detained by witnesses.
There’s no word on why he was charged with murder, which usually requires driving under the influence, after receiving a Watson advisement following a previous DUI conviction. That informs the driver that they could be charged with murder if they kill someone while driving under the influence anytime in the future.
The only other explanation for the murder convictions is that police investigators concluded the killings were intentional, but there’s been no suggestion of that in the press.
There’s also no word on why Rodriguez wasn’t charged with hit-and-run for leaving the scene of multiple crashes.
No bias here, either. Residents of a couple Baltimore neighborhoods rallied against traffic calming and expanding bike lanes, calling Complete Streets a “complete failure” that prioritizes special interest groups over the needs of everyday people. Because people who ride bikes or want safer streets aren’t everyday people, evidently.
Multiple North Carolina bicyclists went down when they were brake-checked by a road raging driver, who had honked and yelled over having to briefly slow down when the group of bike riders took the lane as they climbed a blind hill; no word on whether the driver will face charges, even though he used his vehicle as a weapon.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Electrek suggest Commerce-based ebike and electric motorcycle maker SONDORS may be the next ebike brand to fail, as all signs point to a serious financial meltdown at headquarters — in fact, their California headquarters appears to be permanently closed, and their website is no longer taking orders.
A pair of Tacoma, Washington brothers face murder charges for killing a man they had robbed less than two hours earlier, after the victim spotted the men and chased them down an alley to recover his stolen bicycle and necklace.
American Sepp Kuss is confirmed for the Vuelta, marking his fifth-straight grand tour in support of Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, as their Jumbo-Visma team looks to sweep all three of this year’s grand tours.
Before we start, I’ve received a secondhand report that someone riding a bicycle may have been killed in Mentone on Saturday.
It’s possible the report could have been referring to a fatal crash in nearby Highland on Friday, which the police were quick to blame on the bike-riding victim crossing the street outside of a crosswalk.
Even though there is no requirement or expectation that bike riders use one, and many police agencies mistakenly interpret state law as banning bikes from crosswalks.
But whether it refers to the same crash, or a second crash a dozen or so mile way, it’s yet another tragic reminder to always ride defensively, and stay safe out there.
Because you can watch out for dangerous drivers, but there’s no guarantee they’re watching for you.
But somehow forgot to mention that the real danger didn’t come from the bikes the victim’s were riding, but from the drivers and motor vehicles that killed and maimed them.
The e-bike industry is booming, but the summer of 2023 has brought sharp questions about how safe e-bikes are, especially for teenagers. Many e-bikes can exceed the 20-mile-per-hour speed limit that is legal for teenagers in most states; some can exceed 55 miles per hour. But even when ridden at legal speeds, there are risks, especially for young, inexperienced riders merging into complex traffic with fast-moving cars and sometimes distracted drivers.
“The speed they are going is too fast for sidewalks, but it’s too slow to be in traffic,” said Jeremy Collis, a sergeant at the North Coastal Station of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating Brodee’s accident. The investigation is ongoing pending a medical examiner’s finding.
Something that could have just as easily happened if he’d been riding a regular bike, and may have had nothing to do with the ebike he was riding. And never mind that he’d still be here if not for the driver who ran him down, regardless of his judgment, or the lack thereof, in changing lanes.
Even though it resulted in nearly universal knee-jerk condemnation of teenagers on ebikes, if not ebikes in general — including a proposed law to ban younger ebike riders and possibly require a license to ride one, regardless of age.
The article even explicitly lists the biggest danger that played a role in that crash, explaining that the boy’s bike “had a top speed of 20 miles per hour, but his route took him on a busy road with a 55-mile-per-hour limit.” And yet the article seems to imply that the e-bike’s presence was the compounding issue, instead of reading into the author’s very own sentence to realize that the true problem was that the road didn’t have anywhere safe for cyclists to ride. There was no protected bike lane.
By all accounts, the e-bike rider was correctly and legally using the roadway in the only way he could. In fact, according to eye-witnesses of the car crash that killed the e-bike rider, he “did everything right,” including signaling his turn…
As Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School David Zipper pointed out, every single e-bike crash listed in the article was a collision between a car and e-bike. None were simply e-bike crashes without the added of a car. “All could’ve been avoided if e-bike riders were protected from cars (or if there were no cars)”, Zipper explained on Twitter.“Fight the real enemy.”
The Electrek article goes on to add this about the second Times story.
Amazingly, the article uses a statistic pointing out how dangerous cars are, but flips it around to imply that because studies have proven that faster moving cars are dangerous, that means e-bikes shouldn’t travel too fast, presumably to also reduce the danger of these small and lightweight machines.
It’s right there. The answer is literally in the body of the NYT article. Unprotected road users (pedestrians and cyclists) are much more likely to be severely injured by cars as the car speed increases. And yet this statistic is used to imply that e-bikes shouldn’t be used at speeds of over 20 mph.
Thanks to Yves Dawtur for the heads-up.
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Marcello Calicchio forwards news of a (insert negative descriptor here) Nextdoor user who claims to have witnessed a hit-and-run by an aged driver, but refuses to contact the police, somehow thinking a Nextdoor post is good enough.
Um, sure.
And somehow thinks she’s a victim, because commenters piled on telling her to fulfill her legal and moral duty to report what she saw to the police.
So a woman posted on Nextdoor today that she was driving on the 76fwy and there was an old woman driving full speed down the bike lane on the right side of the fwy. She admits she witness the woman ran over a bicycle rider but because it happened behind her she didnt @bikinginla
— Marcello Calicchio (@MarcelloCalicc1) July 30, 2023
So if you were the victim of a hit-and-run on San Diego’s Highway 76 on Saturday, you know who to contact.
Or better yet, who to have your lawyer contact.
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Speaking of those new bike lanes/sharrows on Doheny in Beverly Hills, as we were last week —
Those times I’ve still been able to sing, that is.
Born on this day, July 30, 1944: Jimmy Cliff, musician and actor, shown here in the film The Harder They Come (1972), which introduced Jamaican reggae music to an international audience. Happy #BicycleBirthday, Jimmy!#BOTD#BikesInFilmspic.twitter.com/st0rUI21hp
That feeling when a mountain biking god, and one of your lifelong biking heroes, is having dinner with his family just walking distance from your Hollywood apartment.
And yes, I would have dropped everything if he’d said to c’mon over.
Once again, someone has tried to sabotage a bikeway, this time dumping screws and nails on a controversial new bike lane in Victoria, British Columbia. This should be treated as terrorism, since it’s a deliberate attempt to kill or injure innocent people for political ends. But won’t be.
Total haul from the Superior Street bike lane today. 43 screws and nails found lying in the middle of the bike path, and only on the bike path. pic.twitter.com/qxdUNsyC4k
Sad news from the Bay Area, where a 51-year old Santa Rosa man was killed when a pickup driver crashed into his bicycle leaving a parking lot in Rohnert Park.
National
Bicycling reports that a new survey shows the Congressional E-BIKE Act, which would cover 30 percent of the cost of a new ebike, is supported by 70% of Americans living in major cities, and nearly half would be extremely likely to buy one if the bill passes. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
Life is cheap in Arizona, where the “driver” who was behind the wheel watching videos on her phone when a self-driving Uber test car ran down Elaine Herzberg as she crossed a Tempe road with her bike walked without a day behind bars, after copping a plea to just three lousy years of supervised probation. Which is three years more than Uber got, while Herzberg got the death penalty just for crossing the damn street.
A Virginia man’s dream European cycling vacation was saved when his stolen bike was recovered by using an AirTag, as well as bugging the hell out of the airline. Thanks to David Drexler for the link.
Let’s start with the frightening news that a Long Beach bike rider was deliberately murdered by a hit-and-run driver earlier this month.
According to the Long Beach Police Department, 29-year old Long Beach resident Leobardo Cervantes died this past Saturday, after he was intentionally run down by a driver on Sunday, July 9th.
Unfortunately, there’s no description of the driver, and the suspect vehicle is described only as a dark-colored sedan that fled east on Harding Street, after the crash near Harding and California Ave.
Shockingly, Cervantes is the third bike rider killed in a Long Beach hit-and-run this year, and the second just this month.
In fact, over a third of the year’s fatal bike crashes in Southern California have been hit-and-runs, and a full third of those have taken place in Long Beach.
A woman walking on a Newmarket, Ontario pathway was seriously injured when she was struck by someone riding a bicycle; people quoted in the story complained about bicyclists speeding along the trail, even though there was no suggestion the bike rider was going too fast in this case.
There’s a special place in hell for the thief who stole over a dozen adaptive bikes worth more than $100,000 from an Anchorage, Alaska disability nonprofit on Saturday; police charged a man with the theft after spotting a wanted woman on outstanding warrants, who was in possession of some of the bikes. Seriously, what kind of schmuck steals bikes from people who need them for disabilities?
Several people were injured on New York’s Manhattan Bridge bike path when four or five moped riders and bicyclists collided on the span, at least some of them were delivery riders illegally using ebikes or mopeds on the bridge; one victim was reportedly at risk of bleeding out from severe leg cuts before another rider used a sweatshirt to put pressure on his wounds.
Britain’s Daily Mail once again played the game of who’s at fault, after a bike rider was sideswiped by a motorist when they both made a left turn at the same time. Okay, the driver should have checked his mirror before turning, but the bike rider was a damn fool for not holding back until the driver had finished his turn. So there.
There’s no word on just how or where the crash occurred, or why LBPD investigators concluded the driver deliberately struck Cervantes.
Police are looking for the driver of a dark-colored sedan, who fled east on Harding. Unfortunately, there’s no description of the driver, or any other information about the suspect vehicle at this time.
Nor is there any word on a motive for the crash.
Anyone with information is urged to contact LBPD Homicide Detectives Donald Collier or Chasen Contreras at 562/570-7244, or anonymously through Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers at 800/222-8477.
This is at least the 27th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also the third fatal hit-and-run involving someone on a bicycle in Long Beach since the first of the year — and the second just this month.
And it’s at least the tenth fatal hit-and-run involving a SoCal bike rider this year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Leobardo Cervantes and all his loved ones.
July 20, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LBPD blames elderly tandem victim, learn about LA River path extension, and Metro chooses option 2 for bike/ped bridge
Gaylin Reese was riding with her husband when police say they sideswiped a stopped car while riding in the bike lane on 2nd Street near Marina Drive.
A more likely explanation, however, is that an impatient driver tried to cut into the bike lane to go around stopped traffic, and hit the pair’s bicycle — something we’ve all seen drivers do before.
LBPD investigators also handed the driver’s lawyer a perfect excuse, assuming they ever find them, by saying the driver may not have even known about the impact.
The free arts, film and community resource festival celebrating the LA River, hosted by the Friends of the L.A. River, aka FoLAR, takes place from 5 pm to 9 pm at LA State Historic Park in downtown Los Angeles.
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Speaking of Metro, Numble reports the county transportation agency has apparently chosen what’s behind Option Number Two.
The plan for the bridge over US-101 would connect bicyclists from Union Station to LA River Bike Path, using a switchback and long span connecting the bike path to the southwest walkway at Patsaouras Plaza.
Click through to go to Twitter to examine the slides, but you may need a Twitter account to actually see them.
April 2023 presentation on LA Metro’s US-101 Bike Bridge project (bridge over US-101 to connect cyclists from Union Station to LA River Bike Path). Looks like 3 options were narrowed down to 1 option (Option 2). Option 2 would have connection at Union Station’s Patsaouras Plaza. https://t.co/ZlIhCtAWkhpic.twitter.com/8mA0KLklkE
Glendale leaders joined with California Assembly Transportation Chair and Congressional candidate Laura Friedman to rally support for a proposed sped cam pilot program in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale, as well as three NorCal cities.
The journal of the American Bar Association talks with bike lawyer Bob Mionske about the long journey from two-time Olympic cyclist to a leading authority on bike law.
This is who we share the road with. A 22-year old British man will spend the next 12 years behind bars for the violent, high-speed crash that killed a 38-year old woman who was 17 weeks pregnant; he filmed himself driving at speeds up to 123 mph before slamming into her disabled car at 93 mph. Three other children in the victim’s car somehow survived the crash.
A 76-year old woman riding a tandem bike with her husband was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Long Beach Sunday afternoon.
And police investigators apparently couldn’t hesitate to display their windshield bias.
According to a press release from the Long Beach Police Department, 76-year-old Long Beach resident Gaylin Reese and her husband were riding their tandem in the bike lane on eastbound on 2nd Street near Marina Drive when they allegedly sideswiped a car around 12:24 pm Sunday.
Police report there was heavy traffic at the time, and all the cars were stopped when they somehow a) left the bike lane, and b) hit the side of the car with enough force to knock both riders off their bike.
Sure, that seems likely.
Both victims were taken to the hospital, where Reese died on or before Tuesday; her husband, who hasn’t been named, was treated for minor injuries.
Investigators are also quick to absolve the driver of any responsibility for the collision, observing that they may not have even been aware of the crash. Which is certainly what their lawyer will claim now, even if the driver is found.
Police also note that both victims were wearing helmets, which clearly didn’t do any good in this case. There’s no word on whether Reese even suffered a head injury, or if she died from other causes.
What seems far more likely than the official police version is that Reese and her husband were riding in the bike lane when the driver became impatient, and tried to pull into the bike lane to get around stalled traffic.
Something we’ve all seen countless times before.
They then hit the Reese’s bike with enough force to knock them both off, resulting in significant injuries to Mrs. Reese.
And unless the suspect vehicle was a large truck, it strains credibility to think the driver would have been unaware of the impact.
Yes, it’s possible that the collision occurred exactly as the LBPD investigators describe it.
It just seems pretty damn unlikely.
Anyone with information is urged to call LBPD Collision Investigation Detail Detective Joseph Johnson at 562/570-7355, or call anonymously at 1-800/222-TIPS (8477).
July 13, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on More on Fountain Valley hit-and-run, Boerner pulls Stop As Yield bill — again, and this is who we share the road with
This is the face of hit-and-run.
It’s not often that we learn what happened to a crash victim after the initial news stories.
If it even makes the news, that is.
But we’re learning a lot more about the bike-riding victim of a Fountain Valley hit-and-run driver, who barely survived the initial impact.
They place the crash at 10:30 pm on Tuesday the 4th, when Robinson was run down from behind as he was riding in the northbound bike lane on Bushard Street.
A crowdfunding campaign started by the victim’s family to help pay his medical expenses reports Robinson’s heart was ruptured when he was literally run over by the driver’s SUV, surviving only because one of the first people on the scene had medical training.
He was rushed into surgery, where doctor’s were able to repair his heart, despite suffering an injury with a less than 1% survival rate.
They add this about his ongoing injuries —
Caysen was in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator. Drs weaned him off, and he had surgery for a compound fracture of his tibia. Caysen still needs surgery for the 4 facial fractures. Today Caysen had unidentified pain in his shoulder and wrist, and Drs are looking into additional broken or fractured bones.
According to his family, Robinson is facing a long road to recovery.
Police are looking for the driver of a possible 2014-2019 Toyota Highlander. Anyone with information is urged to call the Traffic Bureau with the Fountain Valley Police Department at 714/593-4481.
The crowdfunding campaign for Caysen Robinson has raised nearly 80% of the $50,000 goal — an amount that is likely to barely put a dent in the hospital and therapy bills illegally left on his battered shoulders by the heartless coward who left him lying broken in the street.
So if you’ve got any extra cash lying around, they could certainly use the help.
Photo from the GoFundMe page for Caysen Robinson. Thanks to Bill Sellin for the heads-up.
And yes, that’s the same Tasha Boerner who pledged to introduce a bill mandating licensing for ebike riders; we should have more on that tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a number of bills were passed out of committee in the state Senate, including —
AB 645 creating a speed cam pilot program in six California cities, including Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale;
AB 413 mandating daylighting at intersections to improve safety;
AB 825 to legalize sidewalk riding anywhere in California that lacks good bike infrastructure (and no, sharrows aren’t “good” bike infrastructure);
AB 7 requiring transportation and highway planners to align their work with the state’s climate goals;
and AB 610 to create statewide a youth transit pass program.
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This is who we share the road with.
Part 1 — A 69-year old man was critically injured when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver in LA’s Pacoima neighborhood; the driver hit the victim as he was standing next to his car after drifting into the bike lane. As always, there is a standing $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injuries in the City of Los Angeles.
Part 2 — A Pennsylvania driver faces charges for killing a 54-year old man during a New York road rage confrontation, accelerating into the victim after he got out of his truck to slash the Pennsylvania man’s tires; witnesses absolved the killer, saying he acted in self-defense to protect two young girls in his car.
Metro, LADOT, Walk ‘N Rollers and BikeLA are hosting a community meeting tonight at the Helms Design Center in Culver City to consider first and last mile connections to the Culver City Metro Station; this comes after Culver City’s newly conservative city council voted to remove the highly successful Move Culver City protected bike lanes through the downtown area. Which is probably the most I’ve ever used Culver City in a single sentence.
Good for them. Caltrans took Palo Alto residents by surprise with plans to install bike lanes on El Camino Real after repaving the street, which received a lukewarm response from local officials — but since it’s a state highway, they may be powerless to stop it. Now do PCH through Malibu, which is also a state highway.
Yosemite National Park — or Yo Semite as our former president once called it — is addressing the crushing traffic congestion caused by tourists cars by introducing a free bikeshare system.
National
I want to be like them when I grow up. An Ohio newspaper talks with a couple in their 70s who were riding their tandem home to Iowa after visiting their son in Virginia — which is nothing compared to their 4,500-mile Washington to Maine cross-country ride.
Dueling demonstrations took place between people for and against a planned road diet in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood, although only 50 people turned out to protest it. Someone should tell them that road diets and protected bike lanes have been shown to increase sales and reduce retail vacancies, while improving safety for all road users.
Tuesday’s stage victory by Bahrain Victorious rider Pello Bilbao was hailed by His Majesty the King’s Representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain. They probably would have given him a longer title, but couldn’t think of anything else to add.
The 14-year old boy was riding north on Main Street near Adams Blvd when the car headed in the opposite fishtailed direction fishtailed and knocked him off his bike around 7:30 pm on Tuesday, May 16th.
The victim suffered a broken knee and arm, with bruises and road rash all over his body.
The incident occurred around 5 pm last Wednesday in the Lindberg Park area.
Fortunately, no one was injured.
The suspect is described as a man wearing a red sweatshirt and shorts, with a dark baseball cap and tattoos on his hand, riding a black bike.
Anyone with information is urged to call Culver City police at 310/253-6316 or 310/253-6202.
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Heartbreaking news from the Tour de Suisse, aka the Tour of Switzerland, where 26-year old Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder died after going off the road on a high-speed descent.
Mäder was found lying unconscious in water at the bottom of a ravine. He was rushed to a hospital, but succumbed to his injuries.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
A Boston-area letter writer says a West Roxbury group is fighting plans for new bike lanes using fear mongering over lost parking spaces, small businesses suffering, and interfering with emergency response — even though it would remove just two parking spaces, and preserve five of the six existing lanes.
In a terrifying incident, road-raging Welsh retiree threatened to kill a bicyclist at a busy intersection before physically assaulting him, then driving his car at the victim, telling him “You will die on this road today!” And even after he was arrested, demanded the cops give him the victim’s name so he could have a hit put out on him.
Houston’s mayor says violent incidents won’t be tolerated after a group of people on bikes swarmed a driver’s car, kicking a scratching it, and bashing in the windshield with a bike chain.
A writer for the Westside Currentgoes for a test ride in a Waymo self-driving taxi.However, there’s probably no truth to the rumor that the name comes because they’re way mo’ likely to run you down as you ride your bike.
The Guardian says an e-cargo bike could be the future of carfree local transportation, but only if the cost comes down. Even though the $2,500 cost of the one she tested is on the low end for e-cargo bikes. And just a fraction of the cost of the cheapest motor vehicles.
No bias here. An op-ed in London’s liberal New Statesmancalls the 15-minute city a working-class nightmare, adding that “a car-free lifestyle is only possible for those whose profession and income permit it.” Never mind that many low-income people ride bikes and walk because they can’t afford a car.