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
………
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.
………
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.
………
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.
………
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.
………
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.
Just 12 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb.
Yet no city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it.
Thanks to Stephen C and Todd T for their generous donations to bring you all the best bike news and advocacy from around the corner, and around the world.
The California Ebike Incentive Program actually launched yesterday, so we can finally stop our failure to launch countdown, after nearly a full year since it’s previously promised launch date, and three-and-a-half years since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law.
Now if they could just a) get their collective shit together, and b) at least make some effort to meet the demand.
I’m told this was the typical experience for people attempting to apply for an ebike voucher.
1) Attempt to login at exactly 6 pm
2) When that fails, attempt to login again, and again
3) Keep trying to login until you finally get in
4) Get a message saying you are in a very long line to apply
This message was received by someone attempting to apply at exactly 6:30 pm and 23 seconds.
That was followed by,
5. Attempt to login again an hour later
6. Get the following message when they finally let you in
So far, everyone I’ve heard from has had a similar experience. And I’ve yet to hear from, or even about, anyone who actually got a voucher.
Though I’m sure there has to be someone, somewhere.
Seriously, though we’ve been predicting this for months, if not years.
The initial funding of a paltry $3 million is ridiculously low for a state of 38 million people, even when limiting applications to lower-income residents, ensuring that demand would far exceed the available funds.
And outside administrator Queue-it appeared to throttle the application process, ensuring that only a handful of people fortunate to get in on the first or second try would even get a chance to apply.
I’m told the problem may have stemmed from Queue-it launching the program a few minutes early, so that people who attempted to log in at 6 pm had already been blocked by those fortunate few who coincidentally tried to login ahead of time.
Unless, of course, those people somehow knew the window would open before 6 pm. But that would be cheating, right?
At lease the website didn’t crash, as has happened in other states.
Let’s be honest, though.
This program, as now established, is just an underfunded joke.
Not around 1,500, which is how many ebike incentives were predicted to be funded in the first round.
And without the interminable three-month between application windows faced by ebike buyers.
While those EVs are much cleaner than gas-powered cars, they are still cars. They take up just as much space, and pose just as much risk to others as any other car, while contributing the same amount of particulate pollution from brake, tire and roadway wear.
Ebikes don’t.
Ebikes can easily replace car trips of up to ten miles – which represents the overwhelming majority of motor vehicle trips — while removing nearly one car for every ebike pressed into service.
Ebikes are also much cleaner than even zero-emission vehicles, requiring significantly less energy to operate, and contributing almost no wear and tear to the road surface.
And ped-assist ebikes work to improve the health of the user, unlike motor vehicles, which reduce life expectancies with every mile driven.
Never mind that limiting ebike rebates to lower-income residents is counterproductive in a state with more cars than people. Or that Pedal Ahead, the group administering the program for the California Air Resources Board, is currently the subject of a criminal investigation by the state DOJ.
Other cities and states have tied vouchers to a commitment to replace or reduce motor vehicle usage, making them more efficient at replacing motor vehicles than California’s misguided approach of only funding ebikes for people who may not be able to afford a car in the first place.
But at least the launch wasn’t a total shitshow.
So there’s that.
………
Early indications are that the lane reduction and protected bike lanes on east Hollywood Boulevard are improving safety, according to councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez.
But as usual, that’s not good enough for local business owners, who complain that their apparently nearsighted customers can’t see their stores, since they now have to park a few feet from the curb.
Sure, that makes sense.
They also complain that drivers have to wait while other cars park, and that fewer lanes cause traffic to slow down.
Which is kinda the point, yes.
Although that would seem to benefit local businesses by making their businesses more apparent to drivers who would otherwise speed past, just like they did before.
Ghost bikes make drivers uncomfortable, which is exactly the point, reminding them to drive safely because the cost could be another human life.
And they make city officials uncomfortable, because they offer a stark reminder of their failure to build streets that protect the lives of their residents.
So while they may offer some silly excuse like ghost bikes are unsightly, or get in the way — as if officially sanctioned objects like homeowner trashcans don’t — the real real reason can be found in their red faces, sweaty brows and tight collars.
This is who we share the road with. A police chase has once again taken the life of an innocent victim, this time in Fullerton, where a driver fleeing from the cops caused a multi-vehicle pileup, killing a woman in her 60s; this was the suspect’s second crash of the chase, which really should have convinced pursuing cops to break it off and track him by other means just a tad less risky to the public.
It’s back behind bars for a former Florida bridgetender convicted of failing to look before opening a drawbridge while a woman was walking across it, causing her to fall to her death; she will now serve ten years for violating her probation for the original conviction by smoking cannabis to help her sleep. Then again, I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I caused that, either.
A Toronto collision sent two pedestrians and a man riding a bicycle to the hospital with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries, after they were collateral damage in a multi-vehicle crash. Once again pointing out the danger motor vehicles and the people who drive them pose to everyone around them.
July 2, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New LA-area bike lanes including Hollywood Blvd, and bill banning sharrows on higher-speed roads loses support
Just 182 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
The new separated bike lanes on the east end of Hollywood are partially in place on the eastbound side, and already rideable.
Bike lanes have been installed on the newly resurfaced Foothill Blvd in Lake View Terrace, demonstrating what’s possible with Measure HLA, which mandates building out the city’s mobility plan whenever streets are resurfaced — if city leaders would stop actively blocking it.
Redondo Beach extended and upgraded the bike lanes on a resurfaced section of Torrance Blvd, adding green paint in the conflict zones. Because as we all know, a dab of colored paint stops distracted, aggressive and/or intoxicated drivers every time.
………
This is how the sausage is unmade.
Despite our best efforts, SB 1216 (@SenBlakespear), our bill to prohibit class 3 bike lanes and sharrows on high-speed roads, has been substantially weakened due to committee amendments.
We won’t give up this fight but unfortunately, we must pull our support for this bill. pic.twitter.com/sMlj4DVDOp
Riding a bicycle in the right lane of a multilane highway is legal.
Using a handheld cellphone to record them isn’t.
Hi @SealBeachPolice perhaps you need to remind folks like @chefgruel that it’s legal for riders to take the lane on PCH…and that filming on a phone while driving violates two state laws including CVC 23123. pic.twitter.com/FUjGn3vB5g
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The New York Times reports on a “bizarre culture war” against bike lanes in Queens, where nearly every home in the neighborhood sports a “No Bike Lanes” lawn sign, as residents prefer the convenience of parking directly in front of their homes to the safety of kids riding their bikes. Although as others have pointed out, nearly every news story about a similar conflict somehow identifies bike lane supporters as “cyclists,” while opponents are always “residents. Because evidently, people who use bike lanes never, ever live there.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels who are behaving badly.
Here’s your chance to tell Caltrans to improve safety on the deadly 22 miles of PCH that runs through Malibu, as the agency calls for comments on the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study; a virtual workshop will take place from 1 to 4 pm on Thursday, July 18th. Unfortunately though, the link to register for the workshop is broken.
Five years after a 12-year old girl was nearly killed by 17-year old driver while riding her bike in a Sacramento crosswalk at an intersection on the city’s High Injury Network, her parents complain the city hasn’t done anything to fix it. Before you click on the link, though, be forewarned this one is really hard to read.
Vermont now has a four-foot passing law, with a $200 fine for breaking it. But as we’ve seen, a passing law is only as good as the local cops commitment to enforcing it.
Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive, an 83-year old British man walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 54-year old man riding a bicycle; he was still driving despite suffering from degenerate eyesight and failing a roadside vision test.
About damn time. Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay became the first black African cyclist to win a stage in the Tour de France, capturing stage three in a mad sprint to the finish; meanwhile, former Giro champ Richard Carapaz slid into the yellow jersey, while matching the time of Tadej Pogačar.
March 22, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New Flax bike book out now, Hollywood Complete Street plan announced, and Senate bill promises local bike/ped funding
Just 284 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Men’s Journal offers an excerpt from the book, describing it as a celebration of “just how far and wide those two wheels can transport us.”
Here’s a brief excerpt from their excerpt:
Of course, a road bike can at times feel like an imperfect instrument for immersing yourself in nature. A beautiful and quiet paved road can disappear beneath your tires, leaving you open to embrace all the gifts that surround you, but too often there is traffic or development or angry drivers. Most cyclists diligently try to find the prettiest and safest routes in their area, but for a growing number of riders, it has gotten tougher to roll a bike out the front door or out of the garage and find peace.
This discouraging trend informs a number of seismic shifts within bike culture—the popularity of gravel riding, bikepacking, cyclocross, adventure riding, mixed-surface touring, electric mountain biking, and indoor riding. Other than that last trend—the Zwift and SoulCycle phenomena—the rest are all activities and equipment that help people have meaningful outdoor experiences without the chaos of cars or the elbows-out personality of road racing. The purity of the experience can be distilled in a beautiful way.
Many of these emerging subcultures highly value self-sufficiency and community. These are styles of riding where your smartphone is not your most important tool. These are communities where sharing an experience with people carries more weight than beating them. Activities in which you still need strength and fitness but are likely more focused on exploration or tenacity than on traditional endurance. You are out in a wild place, in tune with your surroundings, looking to test yourself against natural conditions.
It’s more than worth spending a few enjoyable minutes to read the piece. Or however long it will take you to buy and read the whole thing.
Then follow his lead, and get out and ride your bike for the sheet joy of it, wherever, however and whatever you ride.
The overall project consists of two abutting Hollywood Boulevard stretches being improved collaboratively by two different city departments.
LADOT’s Hollywood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project will extend 2.3 miles from Fountain Avenue to Gower Street
The city Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering (BOE) “Access to Hollywood” project will include quick-build upgrades on 1.1 miles from Gower Street to Orange Drive – the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. BOE is the lead agency for this stretch, where it is collaborating with LADOT, Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA), and Metro.
But it’s a long-needed project, which will provide the first protected bike lanes in Soto-Martinez’ district, as well as the first east-west bike lane through Hollywood.
Although it stands little or no chance of passing the dysfunctional Republican-controlled House and becoming law this year, even if it does get approved by the Senate.
A Gold Country cycling columnist says don’t let bad behavior define bicyclists, and it’s never appropriate to flip off a driver. No matter how much they might deserve it.
A 24-year old Colorado woman was arrested for a fatal hit-and-run, two months after she knocked a 43-year old man off his bicycle and left him to die on an embankment on the side of the road; the victim wasn’t found for more than two days after the crash. Drivers like that should face a murder charge for making the conscious decision to let their victims die rather than stop and call for help.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. We’re up to 871 signatures, so let’s try to get it up over 1,000 this week!
………
We could be looking at major changes on Hollywood Blvd.
Fingers crossed.
Thursday’s public meeting unveiled plans for one of the city’s first major lane reductions in the past several years for the east end of the boulevard, along with new protected bike lanes, providing a major safety improvement in addition to traffic calming.
Let’s just hope this moves beyond just talk and vaporware, for a change.
Click through on the links if the tweets disappear, which seems to be happening a lot lately.
The plan features over 2 miles of parking-protected bike lanes between Gower and Fountain, the first installation of protected bike lanes anywhere in CD13. At least one section accomplishes this by removing a travel lane, an immediate and very welcome traffic-calming measure. pic.twitter.com/TK9nsM8diU
— Los Angeles Dept. of Transformation (@LA_DOTr) February 3, 2024
The plan also includes new speed humps, left turn calming, and upgraded pedestrian crossings, with at least 3 new pedestrian crosswalk signals. Measures like these make neighborhoods calmer, healthier, and more welcoming to customers of local businesses. pic.twitter.com/iKNRzSsEeI
— Los Angeles Dept. of Transformation (@LA_DOTr) February 3, 2024
Big respect and appreciation to @CD13LosAngeles and @cd4losangeles for their leadership on this plan. Show your support for it––it's essential that we let our representatives know how important and valuable these improvements are for our communities! pic.twitter.com/vcSJIUUnQX
— Los Angeles Dept. of Transformation (@LA_DOTr) February 3, 2024
………
It’s not just the mayor.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has gotten a lot of the credit — or blame, depending on your perspective — for the recent changes making the city more climate friendly and livable, from new bike lanes to planning for a 15-minute city.
And not by a small margin. Nearly 55% of voters agree to triple the cost to park an SUV on city streets, raising the cost for a private vehicle weighing over 1.6 tons — 3,200 pounds — to $20 an hour, in an effort to discourage their use in the city.
After all, few people will buy — let alone drive — oversized SUVs if they can’t afford to park them.
Your move, Los Angeles.
………
Apparently, Metro’s cancellation of plans to widen the 710 Freeway really wasn’t a cancellation at all.
According to Streetsblog’s Joe Linton, a new proposal from the agency still includes plans to widen the freeway, and may require demolishing homes along the route, which led to the original cancellation.
And the much-promised improvements for transit, walking and biking along the corridor apparently don’t amount to much.
All of which goes to show just how little the agency has changed its stripes.
………
GCN examines the all-important question of how much speed can you actually buy, as we’ve all heard — or yes, said — that you can buy speed, but you can’t buy skill.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
With friends like these, who needs enemies? An op-ed from a Boulder, Colorado bicyclist asserts that bicyclists needs to take responsibility for their behavior, because “Most bicycle accidents are caused by improper, sometimes illegal, cyclist behavior,” and adding “There is almost no excuse for a single-operator (bicycle) crash.” As if drivers and poor road conditions have nothing to do with it.
Colorado will host its Winter Bike to Work Day this Friday, including in my bike-friendly hometown. Which is our annual reminder that Los Angeles still doesn’t have a Winter Bike to Work Day, despite having a much more inviting climate — this week excepted. Then again, we didn’t have much of a summer one last year, either.
Sad news from Bengaluru, India, where the man known as the Century Cyclist or the Cycle Yogi for his unbroken streak of 42 months of daily metric century rides — 62 miles — died of a heart attack just days after finishing the streak; he was just 45.
Estonia’s Madis Mihkels and Belgian pro Gerben Thijssen made a donation to their Intermarché–Wanty cycling team’s junior team, and were asked to make a presentation to the junior team members on the values of cycling after they were yanked from last year’s Chinese Tour of Guangxi for making a common anti-Asian racist gesture.
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?
………
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.
October 4, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on WeHo merchant calls for licensing cyclists, racist Palo Alto road rage attack, and Hugo calls for carfree Hollywood Blvd
Fast forward to 2022, a debate about removing the parking lanes on Fountain and to install bike lanes in their place, eliminating two for cars to drive. Those bike lane people are ferocious in their arguments. If you had to drive a bike and cars whipped past you it might cause a sense of anger that you deserve a safe space too. But perhaps bike riders who choose to use the road should also be licensed. Maybe they should pass a written test to travel 40 miles down the road. Perhaps they can pay a license fee to help offset the cost of these installations. As a partially sighted part-time driver I can say that it is difficult to drive past the bikes who often show little respect for the road weaving in lanes. But that is another story.
Because apparently, our tax money doesn’t count — even though it pays for the roads he drives, whether we use them or not.
Never mind that studies have repeatedly shown that a licensing program for bicyclists would cost more than it would bring in, while dramatically reducing ridership exactly when we need more people on bikes. Or that bike riders pose a lot less risk to others than people in cars do.
Especially people with bad eyesight.
Besides, are you really going to tell a six-year old she can’t ride her bike because her license expired?
So maybe the next time you’re in WeHo, stop in and tell him why you’ll be spending your money somewhere else.
Besides, not many of us can really pull off the spangled banana hammock look.
Not that our significant others would actually want us to try.
In other words, exactly where he should have been.
The victim had moved into the lane to pass a driver who was attempting to park. Yet when he stopped at the next stop light, he was accosted by a white pickup driver for “riding in the middle of the road.”
The two men began arguing, at which point the truck driver called the cyclist, who is Black, a racial epithet. The victim reported to police that the driver spat on him, reached out to grab his arm, and then drove the truck into the side of the bicycle. The cyclist fell to the ground.
The cyclist said the truck drove over his bicycle, and the driver turned north on Webster Street and then east on Lytton Avenue. The cyclist later saw the truck turn back onto University Avenue heading east and continue driving. The cyclist’s leg had a small laceration, which paramedics treated at the scene. His bicycle was damaged but remained rideable, police stated.
It’s possible that the victim could have moved into the lane suddenly, without signaling or checking behind him, and cut off the driver. Or not.
None of which justifies violence, let alone racism.
The local police are investigating it as a hate crime, as well as an assault with a deadly weapon and injury hit-and-run.
Which is good, because there’s just no excuse for this. Ever.
Period.
And no pit deep enough for someone who could do something like this.
………
Things could finally be looking up in Hollywood.
While CD13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell has called for a much needed Complete Streets makeover of Hollywood Blvd, challenger Hugo Soto-Martinez has raised the ante with a call for pedestrianizing sections of the iconic tourist attraction.
Meanwhile, Los Angelenoexamines the race between O’Farrell and Soto-Martinez; while O’Farrell has been justly criticized for blocking bike and traffic safety plans until recently, Soto-Martinez is calling for more bike lanes in the district.
………
Finish the Ride and the LACBC hosted a Clean Air Ride over the weekend.
We had a great 1st Annual #cleanairca Bike Ride last Saturday! Thank you to all who joined us and to our partners @lacbc for collaborating, and to @laurafriedman43 for joining us.
Someone did an impressive job trolling St. Louis officials by installing old bike helmets and an official looking public notice calling on pedestrians to use them crossing the street.
All to call attention to the city’s unacceptably high death rate.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Horrible story from the UK, where police are looking for four men who chased down a 21-year old bike rider with their car, then got out and stabbed him to death, apparently because the driver had crashed into the victim.
Your next bike could have a “Los Angeles” frame with a camo finish. Although that color choice may not be the best option if you actually want drivers to see you.
LAisttakes a deep dive into California’s new Freedom to Walk Act, which doesn’t actually legalize jaywalking after all; it’s still technically illegal to cross the street in the middle of a block, but police are now directed not to cite it unless crossing poses an imminent danger. However, California’s restriction against jaywalking only applies to blocks with a traffic signal on each end, so it’s already completely legal anywhere else.
The CHP has received a $1.2 million federal grant to “promote the importance of drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians looking out for one another so that everyone can safely share the road.” Maybe they could put the money to better use by giving their officers more training in bike law and bicycle crash investigations.
Streetsblog talks with Elizabeth Creely, of the San Francisco-based grassroots advocacy organization Safe Street Rebel, on how to start a grassroots safe streets movement in your city. Or you could ask Streets For All founder Michael Schneider, who’s done a helluva job in just a few short years.
Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, as two riders explore archeological relics and forested parks — and the local hospitality — by biking Jordan’s ancient trade route.
And few people realize that sharrow is a portmanteau of arrow and sheep.
During our study tour on Friday I learned something new. The beautiful cycling bridge across the Waal River in Nijmegen is actually a shared use path. I feel like a new type of sharrow would be in order. "Sheep may take the full lane" pic.twitter.com/ltR9fgOHb8
G’mar chatima tova to all observing Yom Kippur tonight.
Thanks to Matthew Robertson for his latest monthly donation to help keep all the best bike news coming your way every day. Any donation, no matter how large or small, is always deeply appreciated.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
The California Highway Patrol confirms that at least one person was killed, but doesn’t identify the victim. And bizarrely doesn’t say whether it was the person on the bike, the driver or someone else.
Although chances are, we can figure that part out ourselves.
It looks like we got screwed in the new climate and energy bill agree upon this week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and recalcitrant West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.
After months of going back and forth on how much of a rebate ebike buyers would receive in last year’s failed Build Back Better bill, the two raised a new proposal out of its ashes.
"The climate- and energy-focused Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 misses a massive opportunity by neglecting to invest in an electric bicycle tax credit and other critical initiatives to promote biking for transportation."
The House-backed E-BIKE Act (check out PeopleForBikes’ coverage of the act here and here), would offer many Americans a low-cost, emissionless, active transportation choice and show a serious commitment from the federal government to a mode shift towards a low-carbon, multimodal future. Also already approved in the House is the bipartisan Bicycle Commuter Act, which would put money back into commuters’ pockets for choosing to bike to work. Both policies are popular, simple and effective tools our nation could leverage for emissions reductions, but were deprioritized to make more room for cars.
But if they’re not included as part of the reconciliation package along with the Inflation Reduction Act, their chances of passage in divided Senate are something less than zero.
And without significantly reducing the number of cars on the road, electric or otherwise, the chances of staving off climate disaster are pretty much the same.
………
Speaking of getting screwed, we may be about to get screwed once again courtesy of CD13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell.
No bias here. A Minnesota letter writer says maybe the city should focus more on crime than bike lanes, after his catalytic converter was stolen for the second time in three months. Never mind that police have nothing to do with striping streets.
Unbelievable. Police in the UK blame a bike rider for a road raging driver, saying the rider’s shout of “watch out” contributed to the driver slamming on his brakes and backing towards the bicyclist — and running over a dog in the process. Schmuck.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The Los Angeles City Council Public Works Committee approved a proposal to provide an additional $706,000 to remove graffiti and provide other maintenance on the new Sixth Street Viaduct; that’s in addition to the nearly $600 million already spent to build it — almost none of which went towards protecting people on bicycles or slowing speeding drivers.
Christian music icon Amy Grant is one of us; the singer was hospitalized for a couple nights in Nashville’s Vanderbilt Hospital after suffering cuts and abrasions falling off her bicycle earlier this week. And yes, if it matters, she was wearing a helmet. Although it’s hard to believe she was kept overnight — let alone two nights — just to be treated for cuts and abrasions, no matter how good her insurance is. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
The Guardianquestions why so many bicycles end up in a watery grave, noting that more bicycles are found during the decennial draining of Paris’ Canal Saint-Martin than anything, other than wine bottles and mobile phones.
The New York Times says there’s a long way to go for women cyclists to achieve parity with the men; not only is the Tour de France Femmes two weeks shorter than the Tour de France, with abbreviated stages, but the women will divide a little more than a tenth of the prize money enjoyed by the men.
Before we get started, I hope you’ll join me in thanking our title sponsor Pocrass & De Los Reyes for renewing their sponsorship for the coming year. Keeping up with this site is a more than full-time job, and it’s the support of our sponsors, and people like you, who make it possible.
Photo by Valeria Boltneva from Pexels.
………
Maybe we’re lucky they pulled the plug yesterday.
At almost the last minute, Streets For All sent out a notification that the city council’s Transportation Committee would consider LADOT’s new Strategic Plan for the next four years at yesterday’s virtual meeting.
In his introductory statement, Mayor Garcetti calls the plan “an honest, assertive strategy that reflects my priorities for LADOT as your mayor.” While there are laudable goals in the plan, it is anything but “assertive,” except perhaps assertively reiterating that there will be little change to L.A. streets’ status quo. Overall the plan does feel very Garcetti: proclaim lots of great high-minded much-needed goals (Vision Zero, more bikes, more CicLAvias), set some far-off benchmarks, then deliver very little, and avoid courting even minimal confrontation – especially with drivers.
It’s sad just how accurate that is. Garcetti’s tenure has been marked by bold, visionary plans that never seem to manifest on the streets.
Or anywhere else.
Apparently, LADOT has figured out his management style, and now takes care to underpromise, knowing they’ll probably live down to it.
Again, this is how Linton saw it yesterday.
The most dismal portion of the document is in the Health and Safety section, which includes active transportation – walking and bicycling. LADOT states that its goal is to “increase the share of people walking and biking to support healthy communities.” This is the action with which LADOT plans to accomplish this:
“Complete one major active transportation project (such as a protected bike lane on a major street) per year to support the build out of a comprehensive network of active transportation corridors in the city.”
Really. One major project each year. That’s by a department with a $500+million budget, in a city with four million people, more than 6,000 miles of streets, and an approved plan for hundreds of miles of new bikeways by 2035. One major project per year, which might be a protected bike lane… who knows for what distance.
That was exactly my take on it, too.
Garcetti recruited one of the county’s most respected transportation planners in Seleta Reynolds, and brought her in, supposedly, to transform our streets and reduce the city’s ever-growing reliance on motor vehicles.
You can see how well that worked out.
Unless you happen to live Downtown, where a PeopleForBikes-funded initiative spurred some change, chances are you haven’t seen a single infrastructure improvement where you actually live and ride.
Evidently, they plan to keep it that way. And keep LA deadly in the process.
More worthwhile goals paired with minimum implementation show up in this section on Vision Zero:
“Continue to deliver high impact safety treatments on the High Injury Network (HIN), including an annual multimillion dollar signal program and significant roadway improvements to priority corridors”
The disappointing key word here is, arguably, “continue.” The city never actually got around to funding and implementing those “high impact safety treatments” and “significant roadway improvements,” largely due to resistance from city council and backlash from drivers. The plan appears to signal that the city’s weak steps toward Vision Zero will continue to be weak.
The one bit of good news comes in regards to CicLAvia, with a dramatic increase in open streets events.
Although as Linton points out, we’ve heard all that before.
The new plan calls for more CicLAvia events:
“Increase the frequency of open streets events to monthly by 2022 and to weekly by 2023.”
Linton’s piece spells out a pattern of repeated downsizing of the agency’s goals, followed by a repeated failure to live up to them.
If that sounds depressing, it is.
Along with a waste of Reynold’s talents.
But that’s what the Transportation Committee was being asked to agree to yesterday, before the meeting was cancelled just before the 3 pm start time.
Maybe we’ll get a little more notice before it comes up before the committee again, so we can call in and demand better.
And in the meantime, we can all contact our councilmembers — especially the ones on the Transportation Committee — and tell them to reject this shameful effort to avoid making any meaningful commitment to change.
Other cities around the world have shown it can be done, and done quickly.
It’s long past time we expected that, too.
Correction — Call it a false alarm. According to a comment from Streetsblog’s Joe Linton, LADOT’s pitiful strategic plan has already been carved it stone, and the council was just going to talk about it after the fact.
How sad is that?
fwiw – the Strategic Plan is already published/adopted – it’s just an executive thing from LADOT – doesn’t need to be approved by City Council. The T-Committee meeting yesterday was set to discuss it – but not to adopt it.
The nonprofit service is also teaching kids how to fix their own bikes, since there isn’t a single brick-and-motor bike shop on the 29,500 square mile Hopi and Navajo reservation.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Seattle’s bike-hating radio jerk, uh, jock is back at it again, calling bike advocates delusional for fighting a bike helmet law that is disproportionately enforced against people of color, with Black bike riders ticketed at four times the rate of white riders.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An Idaho man could serve up to five years behind bars after being convicted of riding his bike over an hour to stalk a woman in another town who had a protection order against him. Although he could serve just a year if he successfully completes a diversionary program.
