Tag Archive for killer drivers

70-year old armed road raging driver, 80-year old bike-riding storm chaser, and 95-year old driver kills 88-year old bike rider

January 25, 2023 / / 2 comments

Today’s common theme is elderly bike riders and drivers.

Although your definition of elderly may vary, most likely depending on how old you are.

A road raging, 70-year old Tiburon, California driver faces charges for following a bike rider in his car before getting out and threatening him with a knife, because he believed his intended victim had hit his car with his hand; the bike rider teamed with a nearby witness to hold the man down until police arrived.

A 69-year old alleged drunken, hit-and-run driver faces up to a decade behind bars for killing a 20-year old Ohio bike rider.

An 80-year old former reporter for the Miami Herald is riding his bike up and down the East Coast chasing weather systems, after spending the last two decades exploring storm systems on the West Coast and the middle of the country.

Tragic news from Florida, where an 88-year old man riding a bike was killed by a 95-year old woman in a Buick as he was attempting to cross a roadway. No word on who was at fault, but the crash once again raises the question of how old is too old to drive. 

A Japanese study shows requiring cognitive tests for drivers over 70 can prevent crashes caused by men — but oddly, not by women. However, injuries among bike riders and pedestrians increased as cognitively impaired former drivers took to biking and walking.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Parks workers in Portland, Oregon will be retrained after staffer mistakenly posted a sign banning bikes from unpaved park trails, even though official city policy explicitly allows bicycles.

A London counselor is calling for bike-blocking barriers in front of a pedestrian tunnel under the Thames, despite long-stalled plans to allow bike riding in the tunnel; the two-pound fine for violating the bike ban hasn’t ben raised since 1912.

No bias here. A long-running BBC host agrees with an anti-bike tweet, saying “Too much testosterone squeezed into slightly too little Lycra tends to prove explosive.” Then again, so do broadcasters who are full of shit.

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

That feeling when a bunny loses its cottontail in a crash with a speeding Stanford University bike rider. Although someone should tell the Stanford student paper that a tail is not a limb.

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Local 

High-end Swiss bikemaker Thömus held a cocktail reception to unveil their new store on Santa Monica’s Montana Ave, and introduce their 25-pound, $6,000 ebike, which they claim is the lightest ebike currently on the market. So, should we be offended that we weren’t invited? Maybe this site is too proletarian for their taste.

Police in Santa Monica will be conducting yet another bike and pedestrian safety operation on Thursday from 6 am to 8 pm, ticketing any traffic violations that could endanger bike riders or pedestrians, regardless of who commits them. Standard protocol applies — ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limit lines, at least for that one day, so you’re not the one who gets a ticket.

 

State

You might want to avoid PCH through Huntington Beach today, after flooding from high tides blocked the highway in both directions at Bolsa Chica Beach on Tuesday; at least part of the highway is expected to remain closed through today.

San Francisco-based Strava offered a mea culpa over the botched rollout of their recent price increases, saying they moved too fast without providing enough clarity on pricing. Yet they didn’t roll back their prices, so they can’t be too sorry.

San Francisco’s Mission Local examines the hit-and-run epidemic, calling it the perfect crime in some ways, since over 70% of Bay Area drivers who flee from crashes get away with it. That number is significantly higher here in Los Angeles, where 92% of hit-and-run drivers are never caught.

 

National

They get it. Wired says store owners still fight to protect their curbside parking, even though installing protected bike lanes tends to boost local businesses.

That’s more like it. A new bill in the Montana legislature would clarify that ebikes are not motor vehicles, mopeds or off-highway vehicles, and should be allowed anywhere regular bicycles are allowed.

This is why people keep dying on our streets. We mentioned yesterday that an alleged drunken hit-and-run driver was sentenced to up to 15 years behind bars — actually 20 — for killing a 13-year old boy riding his bike; now it turns it he had five previous DUIs, yet could still walk after less than one year with good behavior. Just another example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.

Houston’s transit agency is considering investing half a million dollars to take over the city’s bikeshare system to improve connectivity to buses and trains.

The trial of accused terrorist Sayfullo Saipov is nearing the end, as prosecutors argue he turned a popular New York bike path into a battlefield strewn with mangled bikes and bodies; the Halloween Day, 2017 vehicular attack left eight dead and dozens injured, some permanently. Meanwhile, a Dutch woman met the cop she credits with saving her life after losing both her legs in the attack.

 

International

Bicycling visits seven massive bike garages around the world they say you have to check out. None of which are in the US, naturally. For a change, read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you.

Road.cc revisits some of the best, worst and weirdest bicycle patents, from Shimano’s 14-speed sprocket to Google’s human flypaper designed to prevent serious injuries by making bike riders and pedestrians stick to the cars that hit them. No, really.

A new study from the UK shows as little as six to nine minutes of vigorous activity — like riding your fast or uphill — is enough to keep your brain working at peak efficiency.

A British CEO is biking 1,000 miles across Europe to raise enough money to remove 40 Russian landmines in Ukraine.

British insurance company ETA examines tactical urbanism and DIY crosswalks, including the efforts of LA’s Crosswalk Collective.

Popular Dutch ebike maker VanMoof is losing money on every bike they sell due to supply chain issues. But they plan to make it up in volume.

Toyota is teaming with French ebike maker Douze to introduce a new flatbed e-cargo bike designed for both businesses and individuals; it can also be configured to carry passengers.

An unidentified 16-year old is facing life in prison after he was convicted of stabbing a Perth, Australia man to death in a dispute over a stolen bicycle; the victim was attempting to reclaim a bike taken from a ten-year old boy.

 

Competitive Cycling

The US National Mountain Bike Team will now be based in Bentonville, Arkansas. Just like Walmart.

American Quinn Simmons was the surprise winner of the third stage of Argentina’s Vuelta a San Juan; the 22-year old redhead claimed victory on a closed circuit car racing track.

The nascent National Cycling League announced their 2023 schedule, with races planned for Miami, Atlanta, Denver and Washington DC. Which seems to give them a decidedly East Coast bent. 

 

Finally…

Your next bike rack could charge your ebike. Riding your bike with a vision-blocking array of 64 smartphones because you gotta catch ’em all in Pokémon Go.

And Arnold has clearly been one of us for a long time. But let’s hope someone has introduced him to the concept of bike shorts in the years since.

Or underwear, anyway.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , ,

PR plug for killer socialite, transportation ideas for CD13, and ex-Tour de France champ discussed in racist recording

November 22, 2022 / / One comment

Forget Black Friday. It’s just three more days to the official start of the 8th Annual BikinginLA holiday fund drive!

Thanks to our longtime friend Jim L for getting us off to an early start with his generous donation!

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The pre-trial PR campaign is kicking into high gear.

Wealthy socialite Rebecca Grossman, co-founder of the prestigious Grossman Burn Center, wants us to know that she is just so very misunderstood, and isolated from all her rich friends.

Just because she killed two innocent little kids while speeding along on surface streets at what police investigators have estimated as up to 80 mph in a 45 mph zone.

No, she says, she wasn’t drunk or street racing with her friend, former Dodger Scott Erickson, even though they were reportedly zig zagging and leap frogging one another’s cars.

And no, I don’t remember him, either.

I do, however, recall her victims, 11-year old Mark Iskander and his 8-year old brother Jacob, who were violently run down as they were crossing the street with their family.

She faces 34 to life if she’s convicted on both murder counts, and is walking free on $2 million bail pending a March trial.

Hopefully she’ll show up for that one, unlike five previous hearings.

Seriously, LA Magazine should be ashamed for allowing themselves to be used like this.

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Today’s must-read comes from Streets For All founder Michael Schneider, who has 11 transportation suggestions for newly elected CD13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez.

The ideas range from implementing the Sunset4All Complete Streets project, and the Temple Street lane reduction and bike lanes blocked by outgoing Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, to capping the 101 Freeway with a public park.

It’s more than worth the eight minutes it will take to read.

Let alone turning all the ideas into action.

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The LA Times has compiled an annotated transcript of the racist and otherwise offensive recording that lead to the resignation of former City Council president Nury Martinez and LA County Federation of Labor chief Ron Herrera.

The recording has also lead to repeated calls for councilmembers Kevin de León and “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo to resign, although the latter will be leaving next month anyway, after losing his bid for re-election, while the former refuses to do the right thing.

The conversation also bizarrely featured disgraced ex-Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.

Kevin de León
Over the weekend, I called a buddy of mine who is a former U.S. attorney.

Nury Martinez
I have one of those, too. It’s good to have one of those.

Kevin de León
Cool. We’re very close. And he, he had the Lance Armstrong case too, when they were going to indict Lance Armstrong.

Nury Martinez
The cyclist?

Kevin de León
The cyclist. Yeah.

Nury Martinez
What did he do? Doping. Is it doping

Kevin de León
Yeah. And the case was coming out of the L.A. office of the U.S. attorney’s office here…

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Enter this number in your phone. And take it with you when you ride.

Meanwhile, Ann Arbor, Michigan, is considering following New York’s lead by offering a bounty on drivers who block bike lanes.

Maybe our new councilmembers could consider something like that here.

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This is who we share the internet with.

That was followed by this comment, from someone who apparently fails to grasp the concept of a protected bike lane.
Car drivers have to move over in the lane for obstructions all the time (mail trucks, trash trucks, etc.). How hard is it for a biker to move over? What happening to sharing the road?

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

No bias here. A regional transportation group has put a Des Moines, Iowa model bike safety on hold, somehow fearing a backlash over the common sense reforms.

A British driver was caught on video speeding down a protected bike lane, either oblivious to or not caring about the oncoming bike riders who were forced out of the lane.

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

A 20-year old man in the UK was sentenced to six-months time served for rebelling against his parents attempt to have him committed by brandishing a machete while riding with a group of other bike riders, even though the only injury anyone suffered was a dog bite after the group was chased by a small pack.

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Local

Babe star James Cromwell added his voice to a campaign to halt plans to restore the ecologically degraded Los Angeles Ballona Wetland Ecological Reserve, which includes plans for a ten-mile bike and pedestrian path; no word on what the pig had to say.

Ride hailing and micromobility provider Lyft has pulled all of their bikeshare bikes and e-scooters out of Los Angeles and Santa Monica, after failing to secure a longterm contract from city officials.

Glendale has received a $6 million state grant for the Verdugo Wash Visioning Project, which will create a 9.4-mile-long linear park and nature trail for walking and cycling, courtesy of Assemblymember Laura Friedman.

 

State 

A mountain biker used his bike as a shield when he was charged by a mountain lion on a San Luis Obispo trail, leading to a brief standoff before the big cat retreated. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.

The $20 million bike and pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge is entering the final year of its four-year pilot program, as impatient motorists chomp at the bit to get it back.

The CHP has released a photo of the suspect vehicle in the hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bike in North Highlands earlier this month.

 

National

Fortune says the four-year old e-scooter industry is finally getting around to being as green and sustainable as they claimed, after quietly polluting for years.

No irony here. A Portland bike rider was lucky to escape serious injury when he was run down by a red light-running hit-and-run driver in a crash caught on video, while he was riding to an event to mark the World Day of Remembrance for victims of traffic violence.

A Kansas City business owner says his business is suffering because Missouri drivers are apparently incapable of figuring out a parking-protected bike lane.

A decades old Fayetteville, Arkansas bicycle charity is shutting down after giving away tens of thousands of bikes to kids in need; the 76-year old wife of the man known locally as the Bicycle Man continued the program for nine years after his death, and hopes to give away another 1,000 bicycles before shutting down after the holidays.

‘Tis the season. A Louisville country music station has collected over 1,500 bicycles, as well as monetary donations for Toys for Tots and the Salvation Army, to ensure that every local kid has a gift for the holidays.

The rich get richer, as New York announced plans to expand the city’s bike lane network next year.

A 60-year old New Jersey man is on his 14th bike trip across the US; he’s covered over 39,000 miles since he first hit the road on his ‘bent five years ago, after recovering from getting hit by a drunk driver.

‘Tis the season, too. A kindhearted Baton Rouge, Louisiana lawyer is giving away over 450 new bikes to local kids.

 

International

In honor of the World Cup, Road.cc creates their own all-star team of bike-riding soccer stars.

British residents say they want a bike with an ABS anti-lock braking system.

An Irish paper is up in arms after local officials “wasted” the equivalent of nearly $12,000 building a 600-foot separated bike lane, complaining it’s an “embarrassment” that even bike riders don’t want.

Pink Bike features seven weird and wonderful bikes currently for sale on the platform.

Hanoi, Vietnam is considering establishing a public bikeshare service to to reduce traffic congestion and environmental pollution, with 1,000 bikes at 94 stations.

 

Finally…

Your new fixie could be a Wu-Tang Clan bike. That feeling when the kids are riding on thin ice. No, literally.

And bike riding while blind and blind drunk.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1st quarter traffic deaths jump again, proof pickups and SUVs cause more deaths, and holding killer drivers accountable

August 18, 2022 / / One comment

No, it’s not your imagination.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported yesterday that more people have died on American streets in the first quarter of this year than any year in the past two decades.

Early NHTSA estimates show 9,560 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes through the end of March, a seven percent increase over last year, which saw the highest number of traffic deaths in 16 years.

In other words, we are going the wrong way, at an ever-increasing pace.

There’s a wide range of likely reasons, ranging from speeding and distracted drivers to trucks and SUVs with high, flat grills designed to kill.

None of which are beyond our ability to solve today.

We only need to get enough people to care enough about the lives of innocent victims to demand change.

But so far, that, too, has been beyond our reach.

………

On a related note, Ontario, Canada safety advocates say they have the numbers to prove pickups and SUVs cause more deaths, and have written the province’s chief coroner to request an investigation.

One of the studies, from 2021, estimates 8,131 pedestrians between 2000 and 2019 could have survived if they were struck by sedans instead of SUVs or trucks.

Another study, published in the Journal of Safety Research in June, found that while SUVs and trucks made up just 26.1 per cent of pedestrian and cyclist collisions, they accounted for 44.1 per cent of fatalities.  That study also suggested that because of their larger size, SUVs and trucks are more likely to hit vulnerable road users in the chest or head than a sedan.

Maybe they could write a few letters to US officials while they’re at it.

………

A writer for Outside takes a deep dive into the aftermath of a tragic New York bicycling collision that took the life of a young woman, to examine why drivers are so seldom held accountable for killing another person.

And what can be done about it.

As part of the story, he looks back to the magazine’s groundbreaking Cycling Deaths project, which attempted to document every bicycling traffic death in 2020, recording nearly 700 fatalities.

In most of the stories we gathered information on, there were no consequences for the driver or even scrutiny of their behavior. Law enforcement rarely issued a ticket to drivers who killed cyclists. Criminal charges for the crash itself were even less common, often occurring only when a driver was intoxicated. It was hard not to read through each case and wonder: Is that the way things should be? Does driving that results in someone’s death cross the legal threshold for punishment that infrequently?

It’s very hard to find comprehensive data on penalties issued after car crashes, but among the safe-streets advocates and legal experts I talked to, it’s generally taken as a matter of course that people who kill cyclists while driving—even recklessly, even illegally—are rarely held legally accountable for their actions. The big picture, those observers say, is that drivers are offered a kind of impunity that doesn’t exist in just about any other situation where a human kills another human. “The judicial system is applying laws in a way that results in widespread injustice to victims of traffic violence,” says Gregory Shill, a law professor at the University of Iowa. “I would go beyond courts—a common root of all this is that we have a high social acceptance of traffic deaths.”

As the story points out, drivers should automatically lose their license if they kill another person, but seldom do.

As Traffic author Tom Vanderbilt put it, a drivers license is too easy to get, and too hard to lose. 

If I had my way, killer drivers would be sentenced to work-release, required to serve in emergency rooms and morgues during the day to tend to the victims of traffic violence, before returning to their cells at night.

Although the courts would probably consider that cruel and unusual punishment to subject them to that kind of emotional and psychological torment.

Unlike, say, their victims and their loved ones, who have to suffer that pain for the rest of their lives.

………

This is who we share the city with, unfortunately.

Maybe they’re care more if it was 58. Or 59.

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Time’s running out to score a great deal on a vintage bike, and support a good cause in the process.

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Yes, your morning commute can be green, and actually make you happy.

Even in chilly Minnesota.

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Remember this the next time you have to lock your bike up to a banged-up wheel-bender rack.

Thanks to Glenn Crider for the heads-up. 

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GCN wants to help you improve your average speed on your bike.

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Our German correspondent Ralph Durham forwards a photo of race walkers at the European Championships in Munich, where he’s working as a volunteer.

And points out that even they have to cope with race motos. Although the slower pace probably means they pose less risk to the racers.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

That’s more like it. An Idaho driver has been sentenced to 12 years behind bars, with three years fixed, for chasing bike-riding kids through a public park with his pickup, then running over one boy’s bike after he jumped off. But it’s okay, because he’s really, really sorry. No, really.

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

LAPD officers shot a bike-riding young man waving a machete after he refused orders to drop the knife and allegedly advance on officers; no word on his condition.

Elderly London residents say they’ve stopped walking on a roadway that was closed as part of the city’s Low Traffic Neighborhood, the equivalent of a Slow Street in the US, out of fear of red light-running bicyclists and confusion over who has the right-of-way.

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Local

The Eastsider reports city officials will make the temporary closure of Griffith Park Drive through Griffith Park permanent, after a traffic study showed the closure eliminated cut-through commuter traffic without increasing traffic on Zoo Drive (scroll down).

LADOT is bringing protected bike lanes and bus islands to a one-mile stretch of Central Ave in Watts.

 

State 

A California firm is working with Toshiba to improve the chemistry of ebike batteries to reduce charging times and the risk of battery fires.

A coalition of San Diego advocacy groups have endorsed Alternative D for the planned reconstruction of Park Blvd through Balboa Park, which calls for eliminating parking and installing bus lanes and a separated bike lane.

He gets it. A spokesperson for the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition says the problem isn’t that ebikes are unsafe, it’s a wakeup call to how unsafe the roads are.

Anson Williams, the 72-year old actor who played Potsie in Happy Days back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, is running for mayor of Ojai on a platform that includes expansion of bike paths and trails. He’s got my vote.

This is who we share the road with. A UC Santa Barbara cop was busted for a drunken hit-and-run in Solvang earlier this month; fortunately, his only victim was a parked minivan. Thanks to Ted Faber for the link.

A San Jose homeowner says he’s spent $30,000 to construct reinforced barriers to stop out-of-control drivers, after 23 drivers have slammed into his home since the 680 freeway opened 50 years ago.

 

National

Next City offers more on the recent NACTO report suggesting that bike laws aren’t keeping bike riders safe, while leading to over-policing of people of color.

Cycling Tips offers a beginner’s guide to what matters most in selecting entry-level road and gravel bikes.

More than 2,100 Denver residents have received ebike rebate vouchers up to $1,700 since the program began in April; most putting their ebikes to good use, with around half riding them on a daily basis. On the other hand, California’s fully funded ebike rebate program remains in limbo, apparently awaiting a chilly day in hell. 

Congratulations to Nebraska, which is no longer the nation’s least bike-friendly state; that dishonor now goes to Wyoming, which is unfriendly to bikes and Cheneys, apparently.

Chicago Magazine talks with Christina Whitehouse, the founder of Bike Lane Uprising, an app allowing bike riders to log the location and submit photos of vehicles illegally parked in bike lanes.

No bias here. Chicago cops responded to a protest over drivers running red lights by changing the traffic signal to green for a full five minutes, stranding everyone waiting to cross the street.

A kindhearted Pittsburgh cop bought a new bike and helmet for an eight-year old girl, after firefighters weren’t able to save her bike from a fire at her grandmother’s house.

TMZ offers more information on the death of Ironman triathlete and Norristown PA cop Brian Kozera, who allegedly ran a stop sign on his bike and crashed into the side of a pickup, before being run over by the truck’s rear wheels. As always, the question is whether there were any independent witnesses to the crash, or if investigators are relying on the word of the driver.

 

International

If you’re looking for a new business opportunity, you could do worse than a solar-powered food ebike.

They get it. Calgary, Alberta is installing a bike lane to remove excess road space and slow speeding drivers.

Pilot protected bike lanes on one of Toronto’s busiest streets saw up to a 193% jump in ridership over a single year, while resulting in a less than one minute delay in motor vehicle traffic.

A seven-year old British boy became one of the youngest people to ride from Paris to London after his father was killed in an industrial accident, raising the equivalent of over $42,000 for bereaved children on the 200-mile journey.

The Guardian’s Peter Walker says a proposal to requite license plates on bicycles in the UK makes bicyclists the latest target in the culture wars. The proposed regulations are reminiscent of North Korea, where people are required to pass a bicycle proficiency test and display a metal license plate on their bikes; that country also bans women from riding bikes.

 

Competitive Cycling

For nearly two decades, we’ve been supposed to pretend Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis never won the Tour de France. Now we’re supposed to pretend Nairo Quintana didn’t have a top ten finish in the Tour last year, after UCI stripped him of 6th place for using the prohibited painkiller tramadol; Quintana denies ever using it, of course.

Ramona High School graduate Gwendalyn Gibson, class of 2017, became the only American to win a World Cup mountain bike race this year, after taking first in a West Virginia race last month.

In case you missed it yesterday, NPR offers a good look at gravel racing, and the sport’s emphasis on diversity and inclusion. Thanks to Lionel Mares for the reminder.

This week’s 2022 Para-Cycling Road World Championships somehow slipped under the radar, even as the US is making a good showing.

 

Finally…

Evidently, bike mechanics hate triathletes — and not just because they wear speedos, evidently. That feeling when American tourists have no idea why there are so many bicycles parked at European train stations; thanks to Erik Griswold for the tip.

And now you, too, can have your very own DIY beer stabilization system to avoid spilling your suds as you ride around Burning Man.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

This is the cost of traffic violence — Six innocent victims killed in fiery, high-speed Windsor Hills crash

August 5, 2022 / / 8 comments

Sometimes the news is so bad, I don’t even want to write about it.

Or anything else, for that matter.

That’s the case today, after six innocent people were killed, and eight injured, by a speeding driver who ran a red light in LA’s Windsor Hills neighborhood yesterday afternoon.

The driver, reported to be a traveling nurse in her 40s, was traveling at an excessive rate of speed when she blew through the stop light at La Brea and Slauson directly into heavy cross traffic.

One of the cars immediately exploded into a fireball, as witnesses described bodies and debris raining into a gas station on the opposite corner.

At least six vehicles were involved in the crash, with one victim found inside a burned-out car hours later.

The victims included a pregnant woman; both she and her baby were killed, along with another infant.

The injured included several other children, ranging in age from 13 months to 15-years old.

The driver was hospitalized with serious injuries, and being held in custody as she receives treatment. At least one report indicated she wasn’t tested for drugs or alcohol, because they wouldn’t have shown up after the emergency medications she received at the scene and in the ER.

As others have noted, the design of the wide, multilane intersection and straight roadways engineered for high-speed traffic have to be seen as major contributory factors, along with cars capable of exceeding the speed limit to such a degree.

The technology exists to reign in speeding drivers; we just refuse to use it. And fail to demand it.

On a personal note, I have only watched the video above a single time. But that’s all it took to burn it into my consciousness; I’ve been unable to stop seeing that image as it plays over and over in my head.

And with it comes a renewed sense of failure and despair. I’ve been working for safer streets for a decade and a half now, while others have struggled for much longer. We’ve all seen decades of promises from city officials to do something.

But it’s always too little, too late. If they do anything at all.

LA’s Vision Zero program will be seven years old later this month, just three years from that magic date when we were promised traffic deaths would be eliminated, once and for all. Instead, they have steadily increased, with bike riders and pedestrians paying a disproportionate cost.

La Brea was one of the the first streets identified as part of the city’s High Injury Network, and should have seen significant efforts to tame traffic violence.

Yet it has been allowed to languish as an over-designed, high-speed car sewer. And now six people have paid the price for that inaction in a single fiery incident.

Six innocent people.

We’re bound to hear more about it in the days to come, as city officials mourn the victims and make more promises that they will inevitably fail to fulfill.

I’m disgusted and angry with it all.

I hope you are, too.

We’ll be back on Monday with our usual Morning Links. But right now, I don’t even want to think about it.

Photo by Artyom Kulakov from Pexels.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Morning Links: LA elections: Still hope in CD1, while Koretz re-elected in CD5; living with the pain of killing a cyclist

March 8, 2017 / / 3 comments

Disappointing news in yesterday’s LA city elections, with 100% of precincts in.

Anti-bike incumbent Gil Cedillo appears to have eked out a victory in CD1, setting the stage at least five and a half more years of deadly streets as the city switches to holding its elections at the same time as state and national votes.

Although a runoff with Joe Bray-Ali is still possible, as Cedillo topped the minimum 50% threshold by just 198 votes; Bray-Ali issued a statement saying he isn’t conceding until all the votes are counted.

And in CD5, current councilmember Paul Koretz won a final term with nearly two-thirds of the vote over bike-friendly challenger Jesse Creed.

In the end, Creed and Bray-Ali struggled to overcome the power of LA incumbency, where office holders running for re-election almost never lose — thanks in large part to the city’s gerrymandered districts and the massive amount of out-of-district special interest money that inevitably pours in to benefit sitting councilmembers.

Not that those special interests would dream of expecting a return on their investment or anything.

The news was better in CD7, where Bike the Vote LA-endorsed Monica Rodriguez was leading, and will enter a runoff with Karo Torossian if the totals hold.

As expected, the other current officeholders steamrolled to victory over their token opposition in all the other races.

So if nothing changes, it looks like nothing changes.

A few districts with bike-friendly councilmembers such as Joe Buscaino, Jose Huizar and Mike Bonin will continue to get safer and more complete streets, while Cedillo and Koretz will continue to block much needed improvements.

And our city will suffer for it.

But at least we can end on a brighter note, as anti-growth Measure S went down to defeat, handing AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Michael Weinstein his third loss in three tries at ballot propositions in four months; attempts to regulate drug prices and require condoms for porn shoots statewide lost last November.

And Measure H passed with the necessary two-thirds majority, as the city and county finally appear to be getting serious about working together to end the crisis of homelessness.

……..

This is the cost of traffic violence.

A Massachusetts woman writes about what it’s like to live with the knowledge she killed a cyclist 20 years earlier.

I wasn’t found at fault in my crash; I wasn’t speeding, distracted or impaired on the night I rounded a highway curve and a bicyclist crossed in front of my car, too close for me to avoid. But I will always see him staring wide-eyed at me as he flew into and over my windshield. I will never forget his body at roadside, utterly motionless.

If you remember nothing else I write, I hope you’ll remember this: You do not want to be me. No destination, no text, no drink, no glance away from the road is worth knowing that you have killed another human being. You don’t want to feel you’d give anything not to have been on that road at that time. You don’t want to believe that anything you accomplish in life is offset by the death of another person. You don’t want any happiness you experience to remind you of the happiness denied the person you hit, her family, his friends. You don’t want to struggle to go on living, convinced you don’t deserve to exist, wishing you hadn’t been born.

She still says the collision could have been avoided if only the victim had lights on his bike. But notes that drivers have to change their attitudes to prevent similar tragedies.

Her own friend was killed riding a bike two years ago.

………

Cycling News looks back at the day the great Marco Pantini left cycling after being busted for doping during the 1999 Giro d’Italia.

The manager for Italy’s Androni Giocattoli team is royally pissed off that they’ve been excluded from this year’s Giro, calling it the biggest injustice of his career. Then again, Axel Merckx isn’t thrilled his team has been left out of the AToC.

The former Scottish national coach says men’s cycling is shit, but women’s racing is a growth industry.

The new chairman of British Cycling says there’s no evidence the organization isn’t clean. Which isn’t exactly the same as saying it is.

………

Local

KPCC’s AirTalk program will discuss California’s proposed Idaho Stop law at 10:40 this morning; you can listen to it live online.

A columnist for the Pasadena Star-News says don’t put the brakes on the Idaho Stop law that can make it safer for California cyclists.

Bike SGV posts more great photos from Sunday’s 626 Golden Streets, where a good time was clearly had by all.

Police in La Verne are looking for a bike-riding burglar after break-ins in a pair of jewelry and cellphone stores.

The Santa Monica Lookout says a new study shows SaMo residents are still sticking to their cars. Maybe if they washed their hands more often…

Pierce Brosnan is one of us, as he goes for a bike ride with his wife on an apparently non-existent beachfront bike path in Malibu.

 

State

Laguna Nigel police will hold an event at city hall on Monday to talk about traffic safety and enforcement.

The Sacramento Bee reviews the one-man performance Concussed: Four Days in the Dark, by comedian Jack Gallagher, based on the traumatic brain injury he got when he was hit by a car while riding his bike.

The driver for the mayor of Sacramento hit a bike rider at a notoriously dangerous intersection on Tuesday evening while the mayor in the car; naturally, they blame the victim for running a stop sign. So if the intersection is so dangerous, why haven’t they fixed it already?

 

National

A new US study posted on an Aussie website shows bicycling can slow the effects of aging, and that older people benefit more than the young. And here I assumed all those close passes were aging me, not realizing I was getting younger, and yes, better looking, with every pass.

Gizmodo says building the new Ikea bike is a pain worth suffering through.

Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer calls on bicyclists to use bike advocacy as a tool to save America.

Speaking of close passes, Houston researchers are looking for bicyclist and pedestrian victims of close passes by motorists for a new safety study.

The newspaper for tiny Victoria TX calls on the city to invest in making it more bike friendly.

A new Minnesota study shows bike commuting reduces chronic illness and preventable deaths, saving millions of dollars annually in medical costs. Maybe the GOP should make bicycling a part of their new healthcare plan.

This is what happens when you take Vision Zero seriously. Philadelphia’s mayor calls for a three-year plan touching on virtually every aspect of road travel in order to make the city’s streets safer.

It only took NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. five minutes into his first bike ride to get flipped off by a Florida driver.

 

International

A Canadian man with type 1 diabetes is riding across the country in the dead of winter.

A Calgary driver says it’s not her fault she hit a cyclist because the sun was in her eyes. Seriously, if you can’t see what the hell is directly in front of your car, pull the damn thing over and wait until you can.

A UK bike advocacy group calls for clarification on the differences between careless and dangerous driving charges after a driver who admitted to a dangerous pass gets just eight months for killing a man on a bike.

British police are asking for bike cam video to protect cyclists and enforce the law against dangerous drivers. It’s questionable whether similar video footage can be used to prosecute drivers for traffic violations in California, where current law says police must actually witness the violation, except in the case of felonies. Thanks to Cyclist’s Rights for the heads-up.

In an update on yesterday’s story, it turns out a Brit bus rider could tell it was a bicyclist fucking in the bushes because he still had his helmet on; his more traditionally attired partner was wearing a coat, at least. Or maybe it was just a couple with a weird bike helmet fetish.

Police in Malvo, Sweden are on the lookout for a pair of bike-by shooters.

Controversy over a 15-year old model aside, the Lagerfeld Paris fashion show featured crepe de chine Bermuda shorts edged in tweed, described as being perfect for space travel, as well as ideal for riding a bicycle. Seriously, you can’t make this shit up.

India’s Business World considers bicycling as a form of public transport.

Bicycling looks at Team New Zealand’s efforts to pedal to victory in the America’s Cup.

An Aussie news site examines how cycling culture around the world differs from Australia’s not-so-great approach.

Taipei is cracking down on sidewalk riders.

 

Finally…

Seriously officer, the wreck couldn’t be my fault, I was asleep at the time. Maybe this Haribo thing is catching on.

And Lance finally gets around to admitting he was a dick. Which everyone else knew a long time ago.

 

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bicycle Safety, Car vs Bike, Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
 
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