Just 60 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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Thanks for your patience and understanding with this week’s absences, as I work through a number of seemingly unrelated health issues, which all seem to be coalescing at the same time.
And trust me, it ain’t fun.
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Don’t forget that Daylight Savings Time ends this Sunday.
Which not only means you have to reset your clocks once again for no apparent reason, but it will also get dark an hour earlier the next time you ride.
So be sure to have a light on your bike if you plan on riding after sunset. And it can’t hurt to carry an extra light set with you on daylight rides, just in case something keeps you out on the road longer than planned.
It also pays to remember that the days after a time change are among the most dangerous for traffic collisions, so ride defensively for the next several days.
Not that you don’t, but still.
Photo from Pixabay.
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Sadly, this is who we share the road with, too.
Our worst fears were realized when authorities confirmed that the victim in Tuesday’s fatal shooting of an ebike rider was killed in an apparent road rage attack.
Police arrested the suspect, 50-year old Marvin Magana, after Magana turned himself in for killing 43-year old Jorge Guerrero Hurtado Tuesday afternoon, as well as another woman who was shot and killed in her car hours later.
Hurtado was riding on the 900 block of South Victoria Avenue in the Mid-Wilshire area of Koreatown when Magana allegedly knocked him off his bike with his car around 4:20 pm, then shot him five times as he was on the ground.
He died at the scene.
There’s no word on what may have led to either murder.
Magana is being held on $3 million bond.
Or make that $6 million bail, as he waits a December arraignment on two counts of murder, along with gun use allegations.
So much for the myth that the DA doesn’t ask for cash bail anymore.
The investigation is still ongoing. Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD’s West Bureau Homicide office at 213/382-9470, or 877/LAPD-247.
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If you’re going to the Dodger’s World Series victory parade in DTLA this morning, leave your car at home and ride your bike or take Metro.
And leave the damn guns and fireworks at home, too.
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It’s now 316 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 41 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.
Meanwhile, the San Diego Union Tribune reports that Pedal Ahead, the San Diego nonprofit selected to operate the program, is facing multiple investigations, including at least one possible criminal count.
But they apparently think only San Diego residents could possibly be interested in the story, hiding the story behind a paywall for subscribers only.
Or maybe they think people in Santa Monica, Sausalito or Sacramento will want to pay for the paper just to get one lousy story if they lock it away from everyone who might possibly be interested.
Yeah, that’ll work.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Life is cheap in Florida, where a road-raging St. Pete Beach fire captain got off with a gentle caress on the wrist for attempting to run down a bike rider who had gone up onto a raised median to escape him, then got out of his truck to push the victim a couple times; he walked without a day behind bars, with just a lousy $2,000 fine. But at least he apparently lost his job after his arrest.
Ontario, Canada Premier Doug Ford’s war on bikes is claiming it’s first casualties, after proposed legislation to put the provincial government in charge of local streets was amended to remove three popular Toronto bike lanes, which were installed to improve safety on some of the city’s deadliest streets.
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Local
Metro is offering free transportation on all buses, trains and Metro Bikes for Tuesday’s Election Day; enter “1-Ride” at the Metro Bike kiosk, online or in the Metro Bike app to redeem a free ride, although a credit or debit card will be required.
A new bike and pedestrian bridge opened over the Pacoima Wash in Cindy Montañez Natural Park in San Fernando, after 14-year old Elias “Eli” Rodriguez died when he was swept away by rushing water in 2017.
Seriously? Los Angeles fitness influencer Joe Hicks is getting criticism after he and his wife posed for a photo with their kids on the bike path in Santa Monica, with only the kids wearing bike helmets.
State
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department is looking for witnesses who may have seen a driver strike a boy riding a bicycle at Las Posas Road and Temple Ave on Monday. Or rather, a “vehicle,” since the story doesn’t even mention if it had a driver.
Bakersfield is asking for input on the city’s proposed Active Transportation Plan.
National
Momentum ranks the top ten bike commuting cities in the US, with Portland and Seattle coming first and second; surprisingly, Los Angeles makes the list a number nine, at an average of 9.5 miles per trip.
Bicycling says ebikes are real bicycles, and great for everyone. But they apparently don’t want anyone to know it, either.
The University of Washington will have to pay $16 million to the family of a man who’s now in need of round-the-clock care after crashing his bicycle while attempting to avoid a notorious speed bump, which had already injured five other bike riders. One of the biggest factors that determines fault and drives up settlements is whether someone knew about a problem, and failed to fix it.
Sad news from New York, where a 24-year old man was killed when the driver of a fire truck on an emergency call crashed into his bicycle as he rode in a painted bike lane.
New York City’s transportation department is developing a new code of conduct after a lawmaker crashed a recent meeting to loudly and aggressively oppose extending a popular bikeway.
A comic essay from the Washington Post asks — and answers — why so few women ride bikes, when they have long been a feminist symbol.
International
Your next cargo ebike could seat a family of five.
A London man forced the police’s hand by conducting his own sting operation after spotting his stolen bike for sale on a website.
Even workers with the National Health Service are complaining after an English town severed a popular bike route to add more traffic lanes, just so drivers can go zoom zoom a little faster.
A British woman says she’s now at peace after completing a fundraising ride started by her father, after the 64-year old man died of a heart attack halfway through his ride down the length of the country.
Bike riders in the UK are accusing officials of making bicycling more dangerous, as cities throughout the country are banning people from riding their bikes through the city centers.
An Irish website offers tips on how to ride safely during the dark and wet winter. Most of which will apply wherever you are.
The Netherlands is facing calls to restrict fat ebikes, after the country sees 96 emergency room visits resulting from them in a single week.
Aussie cycling champ Rohan Dennis received a six-week delay in his trial for the death of his wife, former Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins, to give his lawyers more time to negotiate an apparent plea deal.
Competitive Cycling
A British man finished 249th in the country’s National Hill Climb Championship, but first in the hand-cycling category, as the first and only paracyclist to compete in the competition; he said afterward that he thought it would be harder.
Dutch pro Demi Vollering, the 2023 Tour de France Femmes champ, interrupted her hike through the Greek countryside to rescue a goat from a well. Yes, an actual goat.
Finally…
Nothing like hundreds of witches on bikes or sketching out a 69-mile skeleton with your bike to celebrate Halloween. That feeling when even the person who put it there calls the object chained to the fence a Lump of Shit in the Shape of a Bike.
And seriously, who doesn’t want their very own Wout van Aert cuddly toy?
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
