Tag Archive for Janice Hahn

Hahn moves to study safety after Woods crash, sheriff calls it oopsie, and parking matters more than bike rider’s death

It only took the near death of a celebrity.

LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn is finally pushing for much needed safety improvements on Hawthorne Blvd, where golf legend Tiger Woods was seriously injured in a high speed end-over-end collision.

Hahn directed the county Department of Public Works to review safety on the stretch of roadway where the crash occurred, which residents described as a scene of frequent crashes.

However, no one ordered a similar review when a 32-year old homeless man, identified as Jonathan Valbuena, was killed in a hit-and-run a few miles north on the same deadly corridor.

And no one ordered immediate action despite the corridor’s inclusion on the equivalent of the High Injury Network under the county’s Vision Zero plan, which doesn’t seem to have made any more progress than LA City’s seemingly forgotten plan.

Then again, none of the six people who were killed or seriously injured over a five-year period in that deadly section of the street were famous.

Which, sadly, seems to make all the difference.

That’s not to say the dangerous downhill street where Woods crashed doesn’t need to be fixed.

But maybe we could do something where the rich and famous don’t live and drive, too.

Photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

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On a related note, LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has given Tiger Woods a pass on the crash, saying his wreck was just an oopsie.

Apparently, Woods was traveling without a driver to film a low-budget documentary show for Discovery when he crashed.

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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No bias here.

San Diego business owners complain about the loss of 22 parking spaces to create a temporary separated bike lane where a bike rider was killed last year.

Even though they’ll get them back when it’s converted to a protected bike lane later this year.

Yet there’s not a single mention of 65-year-old Dan Sweeney, who died nearly two months after a hit-and-run directly in front of their restaurants. Or that the driver left him in the street to die after getting out of his van and moving Sweeney’s bike out of the way.

Almost as if they don’t even care.

Nor, apparently, did anyone seem to care that the driver, 29-year old Mauricio Armando Flores, now faces up to four years behind bars after pleading guilty to leaving Sweeney bleeding in the street after running him down from behind.

He’ll face sentencing next month.

Thanks to Phillip Young for the last link.

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Local

Opponents of the planned restoration of the Ballona Wetlands have filed a lawsuit to stop the project, saying it’s not needed and could be harmful.

Billie Eilish is one of us, riding her bicycle while listening to the Strokes’ latest album.

 

State

Encinitas is starting construction on a long-awaited streetscape project to add a roundabout, buffered bike lanes and wider sidewalks to the Coast Highway in Leucadia.

A Chula Vista man was killed when a driver crashed into his motorized wheelchair as he was using a crosswalk.

Livermore officials back down and let a bike repairman keep working from home, at least for now, after over 9,000 people signed a petition supporting him.

A bike helmet offers protection against an overly aggressive Bay Area coyote.

Famed Beat poet, censorship-fighting publisher and City Lights Bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti was one of us, too.

 

National

A new US administration means the reintroduction of the 2019 Complete Streets bill, which would encourage safer, people oriented street designs throughout the country.

A new study of Chicago’s bikeshare system shows low-income workers and people of color relied on bikeshare more than their wealthier counterparts during the pandemic.

Minnesota-based Park Tools continues to rule the bike work bench.

Some people just don’t learn. A Boston vlogger took an “epic” ride on the frozen Charles River, just one week after he fell through the ice.

America’s first congestion pricing plan could get the go ahead now that the former Mayor Pete is heading the Department of Transportation, clearing the way for New York’s proposed program. Which could bode well for Los Angeles — if local leaders have the courage to move forward with Metro’s congestion pricing proposal.

He still can’t start a fire without a spark, but evidently Bruce was just drinking in the park.

A Newport News, Virginia man is using his pandemic downtime to ride every street in the city of !80,000 people. Which is a lot easier than it would be here in Los Angeles.

North Carolina politics could put the brakes on the bike boom in the state.

 

International

How to minimize the environmental impact of buying bike tires.

Road.cc examines where to find plus size bikewear, including LA-based Machines for Freedom.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a drunken hit-and-run driver got just two years and a month behind bars, despite leaving three bicyclists lying in the road with serious injuries.

That’s more like it. Italy has given food delivery companies 90 days to improve the way they treat bicycle delivery riders, saying the mostly immigrant workers are practically treated like slaves.

Maybe they see the bike writing on the wall. Volkswagen is now in the bicycle and ebike leasing and financing business, at least in Germany.

Once again, a bike rider is a hero, after an Indian man wrestled a leopard to the ground when it attacked his family as they were riding bikes together.

Kiwi bicyclists say another three years is too long to wait to improve safety on a popular riding route where a 65-year old man was killed riding his bike last year.

 

Competitive Cycling

Teams have been announced for the first ever women’s Paris-Roubaix.

The route for this year’s Giro has been officially unveiled, while Cycling News highlights five key stages in the race.

Bicycling highlights twelve cyclists to watch during the upcoming racing season; Sepp Kuss is the only American rider to make the list. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

No bias here, either. Aussie women’s cyclists face discouragement over the lack of recognition and prize money given to their male counterparts.

 

Finally…

How did Kermit ride his fixie, anyway? Turning your single-seat bike into a six-legged tandem, even if some people don’t like it.

And don’t hold any bake sales for Lance just yet.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a damn mask, already. 

LA beach bike path opens — or not, keep Rose Bowl Loop carfree, and LADOT blows it on 7th Street bike lanes

Before we start, let me offer a special thank you to Pasadena-based bike lawyer Thomas Forsyth for renewing his sponsorship for another year.

It’s pretty remarkable that all three of this site’s primary sponsors stepped up and renewed their ads, despite the economic disaster wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. 

So if you get the chance, take a moment to thank those guys over there on the right. Because this site wouldn’t be possible without them. 

And if you ever need a good lawyer, you know what to do.

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LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn put out the welcome mat for bicyclists on the county’s beachfront Marvin Braude bike path.

https://twitter.com/SupJaniceHahn/status/1263499830078259200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1263499830078259200&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailybreeze.com%2Fla-county-supervisor-says-beach-bike-paths-are-open-but-are-they

But the Daily Breeze says not so fast.

The paper notes that final approval has to come from the Los Angeles County of Department of Public Health, which hasn’t happened yet.

And they can’t do anything until the county’s Safer at Home order is amended.

So maybe it will be open when you ride to the beach this weekend. Or maybe not.

But considering how crowded it’s likely to be, maybe you’re better off waiting for next week, anyway.

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Add your voice to a call to keep the popular Rose Bowl Loop carfree.

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Patrick Pascal forward another view of the new 7th Street protected bike lane in Downtown Los Angeles.

Or as drivers call it, the only free parking zone in DTLA.

Photo by Patrick Pascal

Pascal also notes that there was some sort of obstruction on every block between Main and Figueroa when he rode it this week.

Which means LADOT needs to do better.

Because a protected bike lane does no damn good if we can’t ride it because it’s not protected enough.

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Today’s common theme is Slow Streets, pop-up bike lanes, and the need to provide alternatives to driving as the world reawakens from its pandemic slumber.

NACTO has released a guide to creating streets for pandemic response and recovery.

The Smithsonian considers how cities intend to use extended bike lanes and wider sidewalks to keep traffic out when lockdowns lift. Although someone should tell them that bike riders and pedestrians are traffic, too. Just not the stinky, dangerous and road clogging kind.

A physics website says Covid-19 inspired pop-up bike lanes could result in permanent changes to our cities. And need to.

The Guardian says those pop-up bike lanes and carfree streets provide much-needed relief from auto exhaust, which much be maintained when city’s reopen.

San Francisco expands its Slow Streets program, temporarily closing 13 additional corridors to allow for more social distancing outside the home for bike riders and pedestrians. The city is also installing a quick-build protected bike lane on 7th Street. Something tells me they won’t allow parking in that one, unlike a certain megalopolis to the south.

Even the conservative Washington Times asks if cities will be ready for the boom in bike use, as people go out of their way to avoid transit when they go back to work. And tosses in a rebound in micromobility, for good measure.

A London advocacy group warns cars will be coming back any day, and the city will be in real trouble if emergency bike lanes aren’t built soon.

Bikes are really booming in France, with bike use up nearly 50% as the country reopens from its coronavirus lockdown. It’s amazing just how much bike use has jumped in cities and countries around the world in the last two months. And just how little we’re doing about it here in Los Angeles.

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The war on cars is a myth, but the war on bikes goes on.

No bias here. A Rhode Island letter writer says resistance to aggressive, narcissistic Lycra-clad bicyclists is futile. How the hell can you look at a bike rider speeding past and determine if he or she is a narcissist? Does she think we spend the whole time admiring ourselves in the reflections on the shiny jerseys of the riders in front of us?

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

Santa Barbara residents are riled by a ruckus-raising, sidewalk-riding masked bike-rider with a wrench.

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Local

Authorities identify the victim who was stabbed to death by a man on a bike on the Venice boardwalk last weekend.

CiclaValley takes a look at the new and improved Laurel Canyon Bike Lane.

 

State

This is who we share the roads with. Heartbreaking and infuriating story from San Jose, where a 26-year old man faces multiple counts of murder for the drunken crash that killed four passengers in his car, and injured another; Rabbi Kumar Khanna was subject to a murder charge after receiving a Watson warning for a previous DUI. Just one more example of officials keeping a dangerous driver on the streets until it’s too late. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.

 

National

The National Safety Council confirms what we already knew — pandemic-emptied streets are enticing drivers to floor it, resulting in greater risk and lethality on our streets.

Keep your bike locked away with your toilet paper. CBS News says we’re in a vicious cycle, as soaring bike sales result in shortages, which is causing panic buying.

Vice says the fight for greener neighborhoods is a matter of life and death, particularly in denser, less privileged areas.

ZZ Top’s bearded Billy Gibbons is one of us, a sharp dressed man in cheap sunglasses with his tush on a bike seat and legs working the pedals, enjoying a Viva Las Vegas ride with a friend.

Seattle bike brand Rad Power is introducing a new and improved version of their e-cargo bike, with a relatively affordable $1,599 price tag.

Idaho prosecutors learned the hard way that if you’re going to ticket a bike rider for violating the state’s Idaho Stop Law after she was struck by a driver, it helps to charge her under the right statute. And props to the victim for appealing a measly $90 fine.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the annual Ride of Silence was still held in some places, like this one in Abilene, Texas.

After they had to cut a little girl’s bicycle to get her foot loose, kindhearted Arkansas firefighters teamed with the local police to buy her a new one.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever rode a bikeshare bike up to a mentally disturbed New York woman, and chatted her up before viciously attacking and raping her. Seriously, there’s not a pit deep enough. Or a sentence long enough.

Spike Lee is one of us, breaking his New York self-isolation on a bicycle. And yes, I’m impressed.

If you or I plan a century ride, no one notices. When new Carolina Panther’s QB Teddy Bridgewater plans one, it makes Sports Illustrated.

New Orleans kicks off an expansion of the city’s bike lanes, with plans to stripe another 75 miles over the next two years. Which is only about 75 miles more than Los Angeles has committed to.

A short bike ride through town provides a ticket out of isolation for a Natchez, Mississippi man.

A kid in Florida was caught on camera stealing a bicycle from an 88-year old man, who used it as his only form of transportation to pick up groceries and medication. Let’s hope the little jerk’s parents see this, and give him a time out until he’s 35.

 

International

Road.cc has tips for weight weenies on how to strip a few more ounces off your bike. And insider advice you should know before buying a bike light.

Cycling Tips reviews a bike bell battle royale.

Toronto belatedly builds a bike lane barrier to prevent drivers from using it as free parking.

London bike couriers are playing a vital roll in the battle against Covid-19, rushing coronavirus samples to labs throughout the city.

A UK city councillor tells bike riders and pedestrians to be nicer to each other, already.

Bike riders in Kyrgyzstan are riding to the rescue, delivering insulin to homebound diabetics. Thanks again to Robert Leone.

 

Competitive Cycling

The Guardian says Lance shows plenty of rage but little regret in ESPN’s eponymous new documentary, while Outside says he gets brutally honest in the film. And he still hasn’t forgiven Floyd, apparently.

VeloNews talks with past and present record holders Phil Gaimon and Keegan Swenson about how to Everest like a pro.

Speaking of which,

But can you really Everest without leaving your home?

 

Finally…

Peloton’s new stationary bike will only cost a leg. Forget drive-ins, the future of live music is bike-in shows.

And you’ve only got a few more hours to vote for America’s only remaining Tour de France winner for the Greatest of All Time in Nevada sports.

I mean, seriously, how many TdF’s did this Snyder guy ever win?

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already.