Which anyone who lives or works near, or has ever visited, Hollywood Boulevard can attest to, without ever going to the effort of visiting all the other tourist attractions.
The plans are already in place, after undergoing the city’s usual endless series of public meetings, complete with compromises to placate every possible point of view.
Plans are also ready to convert the stretch of boulevard between Highland and Orange into a multi-block pedestrian plaza, which could do more than anything else to improve safety and reinvigorate the area.
I asked former LADOT Executive Director Seleta Reynolds that very question all the way back in 2018, and was told it was shovel ready as soon as a majority of Angelenos demanded it.
Who, I might add, were never asked that question.
Our leaders just assumed, as usual, that most people would oppose it, based on the city’s standard decision making process of giving in to whoever screams the loudest.
Never mind that an overwhelming two-thirds majority of city residents voted to build sidewalks, bikeways and bus lanes when they passed Measure HLA.
Hollywood doesn’t have to suck.
We just lack leaders with the guts to do anything about it.
Which the city is not fixing, due to massive maintenance budget cuts by a mayor and city council who put us on the brink of bankruptcy due to unfunded pay raises for city employees.
But what would be, at worst, an expensive inconvenience for motorists could lead to serious injuries, or worse, for people on bicycles.
Because your front wheel unexpectedly dropping out from under you can result in severe falls. And swerving to avoid a pothole can put you in the path of oncoming drivers and their big, dangerous machines.
So the city might save a few bucks by not fixing potholes now, and pay for it later in the form of massive legal settlements.
But we’ll be the ones who really get stuck with the bill.
Last chance to share your input! We’re planning safety and mobility upgrades along Broadway in South LA, including bus lanes, safer crossings, traffic calming, and bike connections. Community input matters. Take the survey before it closes: https://t.co/anT8UgTaCEpic.twitter.com/gwF1tMQk0F
In a sight not seen for three years to the day, vehicles travel Highway 1 on Jan. 14, 2026, in front of the newly repaired Regent’s Slide. The highway’s full reopening to travel between Cambria and Carmel revives a vital economic lifeline for local business owners and residents. pic.twitter.com/le7qAiuj2s
— Caltrans Central Coast (District 5) (@CaltransD5) January 15, 2026
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British ‘cross competitors demonstrate the many and varied ways you can fall off a bike.
Police busted a man wanted for probation violation and robbery after he led them on a pursuit from National City into San Diego, riding his ebike on the freeway. Although something tells me he wasn’t riding anything that would be called an ebike under the new California bill, let alone British regulations.
Speaking of recalls, if you’re wearing an R.X.Y bicycle helmet, stop; the helmets violate minimum bike helmet standards, and pose a risk of serious injury or death. Which is definitely a bad thing.
A British mother of three was sentenced to 35 years to life behind bars for a road rage-fueled feud, after running down and fatally ramming an ebike rider with her Range Rover at speeds of up to 75 mph. Once again, the victim probably wasn’t riding something that should be called an ebike.
January 2, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hardening Hollywood Blvd against New Orleans-style vehicular terror, and anti-ebike voucher editorial gets it all wrong
As expected, Los Angeles has now officially failed to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, as they committed to under the Vision Zeroprogram.
And still not one city official has commented on the failure.
Thanks to Ralph D, Johannes H, Brian N, John M, Glen S, Kevin B, Rob K and Greg M for their generous contributions to keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day!
And thank you to everyone who donated this year. I can’t begin to tell you how much your support means to me.
Meanwhile, I’ve had a full week to recover, and I’m tanned, rested and ready to rock and roll.
And my apologies to anyone who forwarded news this past week, because it’s after 3 am and I’m too damn tired to dig through my emails to credit everyone.
But I do appreciate the links, and thank you for your help.
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Speaking of non-action by our elected leaders, yesterday’s vehicular terrorist attack in New Orleans is yet another reminder that there is absolutely nothing in place or planned to protect tourists and shoppers from a similar attack on Hollywood Blvd.
While there are plans for parking-protected bike lanes on the boulevard, that won’t offer any protection if cars aren’t present, and does nothing to keep drivers from accessing the sidewalk.
We need barrier-protected bike lanes and steel bollards along the full length go the Walk of Fame, and a secure pedestrian plaza at Hollywood & Highland, where the largest crowds congregate.
Because it’s virtually inevitable that we’ll see more attacks like this across the US in the years to come. And sooner or later, it’s bound to happen here.
The first complaint in the op-ed is that the total number of vouchers provided in the first round was relatively small compared to the large size of the California e-bike market. However, instead of suggesting that the budget be increased to help more Californians achieve transportation independence, as we called for recently, the editorial takes the opposite position of suggesting that the program simply be canceled.
Never mind that the rollout was deliberately throttled by program managers, who released just a small fraction of the available funds, despite knowing demand would far exceed supply.
And it did.
But somehow, the authors of the SCNG editorial saw limited rollout as a reason to kill the whole damn thing. Makes perfect sense. If your goal is to force everyone back into their cars.
That “gimmick” will have “imperceptible impact on environmental outcomes,” according to the senior transportation policy analyst at the conservative Reason Foundation, who argues it “confers private benefits on recipients, but will fall a social cost-benefit test.”
Maybe someone should tell him about the massive subsidies we all pay for motor vehicles, which confer private benefits on car owners at the expense of everyone else while killing our planet — along with tens of thousands of Americans every year — if he really wants to talk cost-benefit tests.
The authors somehow conclude that the roughly 1,500 vouchers released in the initial round would “goose” sales of ebikes in California just 0.78%, out of a guesstimated 192,000 annual sales. Which is a far better argument for releasing the full $38 million budget than for killing the program.
Let alone increasing it to a level equivalent to the state’s electric vehicle incentives, where it could have a far greater impact on our congested streets, air quality and warming planet.
Then, of course, they have to trot out the spurious argument that ebike injuries are soaring, as if they would somehow remain at an artificially low level while ebike sales and usage skyrocket.
Or that the voucher recipients might bring in devices from other states that could enable ebikes to exceed California’s 28 mph maximum. Maybe they could show the same concern for illegal devices that allow drivers to skirt other California regulations.
Or gun owners, for that matter.
Finally, they assume that “kids obviously will be driving many of the subsidized ebikes,” even though the program is limited to legal adults.
Not to mention the obvious windshield bias reflected in the term “driving,” which is what you do with a car, as opposed to riding a bicycle.
But that’s what happens when the authors shoot from the lip, without bothering to do even the most basic research to understand what the hell they’re talking about.
Ebikes are neither liberal nor conservative. And even the relatively paltry $38 million approved for full funding of the ebike voucher program amounts to nothing more than a rounding error on the state’s $291 billion budget.
So if the SCNG editorial board is feeling grouchy and in the mood to pinch pennies, maybe they should look somewhere else.
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On a related subject, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Edward Clancy, the founder of San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, is no longer associated with the state’s Ebike Incentive Program, following multiple investigations into the organization.
However, a lot of questions remain about both Clancy and Pedal Ahead, including what role he still plays with the organization, and let alone what the legal name of the group is.
Which raises evstillen more questions of why the CARB is continue to work with a group that is so clearly in over their head, at best.
Because we should only use state funds to subsidize driving, evidently.
And Los Angeles Times readers warn we should brace ourselves for more collisions with ebike-riding teens along the beach. As if 1,500 vouchers given to low-income adults in need of transportation will somehow translate to countless more teens recklessly riding illegal electric motorbikes.
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A new YouTube short explains why the owners of Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai cemeteries are wrong to keep fighting improved bike lanes along deadly Forest Lawn Drive.
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A New York driver is caught on video illegally using the bike lane, squeezing by people on bicycles to bypass backed up traffic, until they get stuck waiting on a turning car.
I know you're super super important, but keep your cars out of the bike lanes. pic.twitter.com/vkatJ7Y1IY
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A writer for the National Review says Trump must end the non-existent war on cars, and somehow sees the transition to electric vehicles as part of a nefarious plot to “radically reduce the number of cars in circulation.” Which wouldn’t be a bad idea, even if he’s wildly off base. But you’ll have to find a way around the magazine’s paywall if you want to read it.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
No bias here, either. The Sacramento Bee reports that local police busted a 14-year old boy after he led them on a one-hour chase on an electric bicycle, at speeds up to 60 mph. Except anything that goes that fast is actually an electric motorcycle, since ebike speeds are capped at 28 mph, and even then only if they can hit that speed under pedal power.
The BBC asks if bike lanes can reshape “car-crazy Los Angeles” in time for the 2028 LA Olympics, by way of former Mayor Eric Garcetti’s “Twenty-eight by 28” transport plan; current Mayor Karen Bass says “As a bike rider, I certainly hope so.” Which appears to be the first time she’s uttered the word “bike” since becoming mayor.
Streetsblog editor Joe Linton does a little prognosticating and makes his predictions for the coming year, including the opening of South LA’s Rail to Rail walking and biking path, and the first lawsuit against Los Angeles for failing to live up to its commitment to implement the city mobility plan under Measure HLA.
That’s more like it. A 26-year old San Antonio, Texas woman can look forward to spending the next 12 years behind bars, after she pleaded no contest to killing an 18-year old man while under the influence of alcohol, cocaine and Xanax — not to mention failing her court-ordered breathalyzer tests six separate times in the lead-up to her trial.
Bittersweet news, as the wife of fallen bicyclist and NHL star Matthew Gaudreau gave birth to their son Tripp Matthew Gaudreau, four months after he and his brother Johnny were killed by an alleged drunk and overly aggressive driver while riding their bikes in New Jersey the night before their sister’s wedding.
The Grinch struck in Florida in the days before Christmas, as someone stole a “good amount” of cash from nonprofit bike-donation program Jack the Bike Man.
International
Momentum lists a dozen bicycling resolutions for the new year, from mastering the art of bicycle maintenance to becoming a bike advocate. My only resolution every year is not to make any resolutions. If you want to make a change in your life, just do it when and where you are, without waiting for some arbitrary date on the calendar.
California 77th District Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, a Democrat from Encinitas, has responded to the Northern San Diego County city’s ebike state of emergency by calling for requiring a license to ride one.
Not for kids.
Not for specific classes of ebikes, like the high-powered, throttle-control ebikes that are really low-powered motorcycles disguised as electric bicycles.
But for everyone.
No matter how experienced you are on a bicycle, evidently. Or whether you’re already a licensed driver, or even hold a motorcycle license.
Let’s hope this was just a badly worded announcement. But this appears to be nothing more than an electrified version of the long-standing, and long debunked, demand that bike riders should be required have a license if we’re going to “share the road.”
You know, just like those grown-up, highly trained and law abiding people in the big, deadly machines.
And it would likely be the first step in a very slippery slope to requiring licenses for everyone on two wheels.
Not to mention it doesn’t do a damn thing to address the ever-increasing size of massive motor vehicles literally designed to do maximum harm to anyone outside of them. Or the people who buy and drive them, too often under the influence, frequently while distracted, and usually while speeding.
There’s a legitimate argument for providing ebike training, especially for teen riders too young for a drivers license.
And for taking another look at over-powered ebikes that are sold with “wink wink” speed limitation software that is easily hacked to exceed state ebike class restrictions. Or banning the use of pedal-less, throttle-controlled ebikes.
But throwing up a road block to the growth of ebikes is exactly the wrong move when our streets are slowly grinding to a halt due to too many cars in our cities, and our state is literally on fire as a result of extreme conditions fueled by climate change.
We need to do everything we can to get more cars off the roads, and more bikes on them, electric and otherwise.
Their story is pretty well summed-up by this subhead:
Voucher programs can speed uptake of less-polluting electric bicycles and get more people out of cars. Why are states and cities limiting their effectiveness?
Why, indeed, Assemblymember Boerner?
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There may be hope yet.
A Twitter conversation over the weekend — yes, Twitter is still a thing, despite the best efforts of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk — raised the question of whether the plan to remake Hollywood Boulevard is still on track.
The proposal would reduce traffic lanes and parking, while installing wider, walkable sidewalks, bollard-protected bike lanes and outdoor dining areas appears to be moving forward, based on nothing more than the fact that its website is still live.
A lot depends on the council district’s current king, uh, councilmember, Hugo Soto-Martinez, though.
The project was developed by his predecessor Mitch O’Farrell, who used it as an argument for his re-election.
At the time, Soto-Martinez voiced his support for the project. But if he’s done so after his election, I haven’t heard it. And it doesn’t appear to be mentioned on his council website, which is odd for such a significant project.
Given the outsized power Los Angeles councilmembers have to approve, kill or modify any project within their council district, for any reason, his support will be mandatory before any work can begin on the street.
And don’t get me started on the long-standing need for a Times Square-style pedestrian plaza at Hollywood and Highland.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Yet another reminder to remain at the scene of a bike crash, as a Toronto bicyclist was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries following a collision with a hit-and-run bike rider. Seriously, you have the same obligation to stay after a crash as drivers do, even if too many of them don’t take it seriously.
A new Utah study shows that only 7.3 percent of suspected serious bike crashes and just 6 percent of fatal bike crashes occurred in or near a bike lane, while a third of bicycling deaths occur at intersections bike riders can’t find a safe way to cross.
