September 12, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hunt for killer driver in anti-bike rampage, police search for Metro-riding bike shop burglars, and NoHo CicLAmini Sunday
It’s the 16th anniversary of the Infamous Beachfront Bee Encounter, the solo crash that laid me up for four months. And in a roundabout way, set me on the path to bike advocacy, and starting this site.
Yet somehow, I’ve never thanked those bees properly for not killing me that day.
Keep your eyes open for a black Toyota four-door sedan, with significant damage to the front bumper on the passenger side. Even if the car turns out to be stolen, it could provide vital clues leading to the killer.
If you see the car, or have any other information, call the Huntington Beach Police Department’s WeTip hotline at 714/375-5066, or submit an anonymous tip to OC Crime Stoppers at 855/TIP-OCCS (855/847-6227).
The men, apparently part of a group of five who burglarized the shop early Monday morning, were last seen as they exited the train at Pasadena’s Memorial Park station at 5:30 am.
Streets For All is hosting CD10 Councilmember Heather Hutt for their latest virtual happy hour tomorrow evening; Hutt was appointed by the council to replace recently convicted councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas.
Streets For All is also calling for support for a pair of motions at tomorrow’s LA City Council Public Works Committee meeting to the accelerate the design, construction, and implementation of transportation infrastructure projects, and create better coordination between city agencies who build and maintain public infrastructure.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A British man accused the local police of doing nothing after thieves broke into his home and stole four high-end mountain bikes worth more than $54,000; he spent the equivalent of $7,500 to track them down and fly to Poland to recover them.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The CHP says a 71-year old Paso Robles man suffered a concussion and broken nose when he rode his “performance bicycle” into uneven pavement on the shoulder of a state highway near Cambria, blaming his unfamiliarity with the roadway and riding too fast for conditions. But not for Caltrans’ failure to maintain a safe road surface.
September 1, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Trial starts for alleged Riverside road rage murder, ghost tire memorial in South LA, and new Metro Active Transportation Plan
Welcome to your last pre-Thanksgiving three-day weekend — not to mention the opening weekend for college football.
Which means you can count on a higher than usual percentage of drunks and otherwise intoxicated people on the roads.
So the usual protocol applies.
Ride defensively. And if you’re riding anytime after noon today, assume every driver you see has had a few.
Chances are, you won’t be far off.
I expect to see you back here bright and early Tuesday morning. And I don’t want to have to write about you, unless maybe you pull a pack of puppies out of a burning building or something.
Sergio Reynaldo Gutierrez reportedly made a U-turn to reverse direction and run down 46-year old Benedicto Solanga from behind following an apparent traffic-related dispute between the two men.
Gutierrez was arrested three weeks after the July, 2021 vehicular assault, and continues to be held on $1 million bond.
The victims, including two sisters, were riding in the back seat of the Uber when 31-year old Gregory Black slammed into them while racing through red lights at up to 100 mph.
Black, described as a known gang member with an extensive rap sheet, was charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter, and held on $4 million bond.
So much for the myth that bail is based strictly on the suspect’s ability to pay. And not a reflection of how seriously prosecutors take the crime.
Black was already serving a five-year probation following his release from prison for attempted murder.
According to Southern California Newsgroup’s Steve Scauzillo, the plan will “create a chain of paths, regional bikeways and pedestrian crossings to connect passengers who are walking, rolling or bicycling to and from the transit agency’s train lines, bus stops and depots.”
Metro, during a virtual public meeting Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 29, outlined three areas for improvement, identifying 602 “first and last mile” areas located near transit, 81 pedestrian districts and 1,433 miles of regional bikeways.
Just completing the list of regional bikeways, which would connect to existing ones, would cost about $36 billion, which is four times the entire LA Metro annual budget.
The plan has a focus on equity, improving service and safety first in areas where fewer people own cars, including including mostly Black and Latino neighborhoods.
But as we’ve seen with the City of Los Angeles, it’s one thing to make a plan, and another to implement it, as ActiveSGV’s special programs director Wesley Reutimann pointed out.
He said Metro should redirect budget dollars from highways toward completing bikeways and walkways. But getting the OK from cities and landowners can gum up the works. Metro is also asking cities to help fund the projects or apply for grant dollars. This can delay or nix projects altogether, he said.
“Long story short: Metro did a plan (in 2016) and most of it was never implemented. It just feels like this plan update is window dressing,” Reutimann said.
Even a fraction of what the agency wastes on highway engorgements could go a long way towards actually implementing this plan.
Let’s hope someone over there figures out how to do that.
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This will be great if it actually happens.
And that’s a big if.
A pair of Los Angeles City Council motions call for streamlining operations between LADOT, LA Street Services, the Bureau of Engineering, and the Bureau of Street Lighting, as well as developing a five-year infrastructure spending plan for the city.
Correction, they both call for a pair of studies on how to do it.
Which is what the Los Angeles city government does best — study problems, rather than actually solve them.
So this will be great if it actually happens. But we’ve been here too many times before.
Let’s hope someone holds the city’s feet to the fire and makes it happen this time.
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A Denver TV station provides more information on the crash that severely injured professional ultra endurance bicyclist Jay Petervary as he was attempting to set a new record for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.
Investigators concluded Petervary was riding on a mountain highway in central Colorado when he was rear-ended by a 16-year old driver, who may have been speeding, while attempting to pass on a “straight on a wide, open road with no trees or obstructions.”
Petervary says he landed about 20 yards from his bike, skidding face first on the roadway.
He is now focusing on his recovery while his wife organizes his transport back home to Idaho, his future care and the legal repercussions. Donations are still being accepted for the Be Good Foundation. As of Thursday morning, he had raised about $9,500 of the $20,000 goal.
Petervary has a lengthy history with long-distance racing. The sponsored athlete has competed for 25 years, exploring new routes and races. But he also loves providing experiences and opportunities for others, he wrote on his website. He has adopted the mantra “Ride Forward” in not only his athletic endeavors, but in his business, relationships, friendships and more.
“It also meant to not have regrets or get bogged down in the past but also reflect and learn to move forward more fluidly,” he wrote online.
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While we’re catching up on crashes, an Arizona TV station talks with the Flagstaff bicyclist who was sideswiped by the driver of a passing RV, taking out around a dozen riders on a group ride like so many bowling pins.
Saturday, Wallace was biking on Lake Mary Road with a local cycling group, “Team Pay and Take” when he was hit in the head by an RV’s side mirror. His helmet came off, and he then crashed into multiple cyclists behind him, causing a pileup. “I mean, these people are like family,” Wallace said. “You know you ride with them every week. My partner was on the ride as well and she crashed right behind me. So your first thought is just like is everyone OK?”
Wallace said the person driving the RV stopped and cooperated with police, but this is an important reminder to share the road as it’s state law to give cyclists at least 3 feet of space. “I think it’s just a sad point that when we get behind the wheel of a car, we don’t see our fellow humans out there as someone who has someone to go home to after the ride,” Wallace said.
No word yet on whether the driver will faces charges; at last report, he was only ticketed for an unsafe pass.
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Good question.
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There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a handcycle from a disabled paracyclist.
Canada’s prime minister is one of us. And so are his kids.
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No surprise here, as a new Belgian study shows you’re twice as likely to be killed in a collision with a bigass pickup or SUV than with a typical passenger car.
No bias here, either. Residents of León, Guanajuato, Mexico protested plans for a new bike lane, arguing that “about 8 cyclists pass the whole morning,” while official stats say over 65 times that many people ride it every day. Never mind that many more would probably ride there if they felt safer.
San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Ruddick calls on the city’s transportation agency to tow drivers who park in bike lanes, after talking the staff at a bagel shop into refusing to serve a driver who parked in a protected bike lane in front of the shop. Note to traffic engineers and planners — if someone can park in it, it’s not protected.
Outside says you should spend at least $250 on bike bibs, arguing that high-end bibs will literally save your ass. I’ll reserve comment, since I’ve never spent more than a fraction of that, and my ass is still firmly attached.
Boulder, Colorado threatens to beat California to the ebike rebate punch with the city’s second round of ebike vouchers, before California gets around to issuing its first.
That’s more like it. A Louisiana semi-truck driver is facing a negligent homicide charge for killing a man riding a bicycle by sideswiping the victim while attempting to pass his bike on a curve; the charge is an upgrade from an initial ticket for violating the state’s three-foot passing law.
An Indian woman is calling for a fresh approach to urban planning, saying the country needs a greater emphasis on bicycling to boost the enrollment of girls in both urban and rural schools, increase productivity for individuals, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
American super-domestique Sepp Kuss soloed to victory in the sixth stage of the Vuelta, high-fiving fans the final 50 yards; meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel lost time to key rivals Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, as he handed the leader’s jersey to France’s Lenny Martinez.
July 6, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Improving first/last mile connections in Culver City, no safe routes to LA River path, and Metro fail at Union Station
Culver City-based bicycle training and advocacy group Walk ‘N Rollers wants your input on improving first and last mile bike and pedestrian access to the Culver City E-Line/Expo Line Metro Station.
Please join Metro, LADOT, Walk ‘N Rollers, and BikeLA on Thursday July 13 for an important community planning process! We are seeking participants who live, work and play within a 1⁄2 mile radius of the Culver City Metro Station on the E-Line (formerly Expo Line) to help ensure that future street improvements in the project area create more accessible and safer pedestrian, cyclist and transit rider pathways and experiences.
At this meeting, we will workshop and gather input on the proposed First/Last Mile Project List for street improvements around the Culver City Metro Station on the E-Line.
In the six years I’ve lived in Hollywood, I’ve yet to find a safe, comfortable route to the LA River Bike Path that doesn’t involve a bus or car.
It will never reach its potential until it’s easy to access by anyone from any part of the city.
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Another lost opportunity in the City of Angeles, as Metro’s plan to improve bike and pedestrian access to Union Station, as well as improving the forecourt to the station, appears to be in jeopardy as grant funding expires.
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London and Paris aren’t the only cities where bikes are taking over the morning commute.
More proof that if you build it, they will come.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
Talk about not getting it. The Jerusalem Post writes that high-end Canyon bikes will come with embedded V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) tech to prevent crashes by notifying other bike riders to their presence — apparently assuming the real danger to bike riders comes from other people on bikes, not the people embedded in the big, dangerous machines.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
After a 38-year old Kentucky man was run down from behind by a hit-and-run pickup driver, police quickly conclude that speed wasn’t a factor in the crash, but drinking probably was. Although if the driver had been going slower, the victim might still be alive. So maybe what they really meant is excessive speed wasn’t a factor. Thanks to Glenn Crider for the link.
International
They get it. Momentum casts more dirt on the sharrows grave, saying they used to make sense in theory, but are now useless and possibly dangerous in practice. Although I’d say they can drop that “possibly.”
Earth.org writes that Hong Kong residents are missing out on the benefits of bicycling when the city ranks 84th out of 90 cities worldwide for bike friendliness. Then again, Hong Kong isn’t exactly friendly to its own residents these days under new Chinese management.
Life is cheap in Australia, where a former Australian football star walked with a lousy $1,500 fine for the hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a bike rider, leaving the victim with a series of bolts and plates in his neck, and suffering from constant headaches and flashbacks.
Three-day weekends and holidays mean more drunks on the road, and more distracted drivers rushing to get out of town.
So practice the usual safety protocols. Ride defensively, and assume any driver you see on the road after noon today has been drinking, and that every driver is distracted in some way.
Or both.
Because I don’t want to write about you unless you leap from your bike to rescue puppies from a burning building, or return a little old lady’ lost life savings that you found while riding by in the street.
And I expect to see you here bright and early when we return on Tuesday.
Today’s photo of a smiling corgi on a Metro Bike is here just for the hell of it.
For the first time, that is. Not “bring them back,” as the headline suggest.
Apparently suffering from a bad case of windshield bias, she worries what could possibly go wrong. And answers her own question, in her own mind, by noting that the revenue from the speed cams will go to traffic calming projects.
So this speed camera bill is actually an attempt to fund an incremental plan to make driving more and more difficult, less and less practical…
It’s our goal to have no one struck at all, and 20 mph is obviously not the answer. It’s a way of saying, “streets are for everybody except people who are driving to get somewhere.”
Road diets and other tricks to strangle vehicle transportation are not really about pedestrian safety. They’re just the latest expression of a weirdly bitter hatred of cars, a mode of transportation that gives people freedom and options.
She goes on to bizarrely conclude that the reason pedestrian deaths increased 53% from 2008 to 2018 was — wait for it — because streets became darker after Los Angeles and other cities began installing new energy-efficient LED streetlights.
Not, for instance, because the emergence of smartphones over the same period led to a dramatic increase in distracted driving.
Or that the ever-increasing size and popularity of massive SUVs and trucks have made even relatively minor collisions exponentially more dangerous for anyone not safely ensconced inside multiple tons of steel and glass.
And never mind that LED streetlights are actually whiter and brighter than traditional high pressure sodium lights.
But evidently, she’s too busy fretting about her imaginary war on cars to notice.
However, you may have to find a way past the LANG’s draconian paywall if you want to read it.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
A New York website complains that hundreds of bike lane opponents in the city’s Greenpoint neighborhood jammed into an unofficial meeting with the city’s transportation commissioner, while supporters of the proposed bike lane were locked out.
The Los Angeles edition of the clothing optional World Naked Bike Ride is set to roll next Saturday, encouraging riders to go as bare as you dare; the first 200 people to pre-register with a $5 donation will get a pull-string backpack to hold your clothes during the ride. Because officials may not be so forgiving if you don’t wear something on the way there and back. And if you use a bikeshare, rental or borrowed bike, bring something to put over the seat. Please.
Streetsblog’s Damien Newton notes that Santa Monica’s concrete-barrier printing machine that built the new Ocean Ave protected bike lanes have gained worldwide fame.
Demonstrating a keen grasp of proper British etiquette, Montecito residents Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, sent a thank you note to the Santa Barbara bike shop owner who gave their son Prince Archie a new bike for his fourth birthday.
She gets it. A public diplomacy professor at Massachusetts’ Tufts University is very diplomatic in asking how many Americans have to die before we do something about road safety, noting that residents of Canada, Australia and France were about three times less likely to die on roadways than U.S. residents, on a per capita basis.
The first, and apparently only, British citizen to ride one million lifetime miles on a bicycle has passed away following years of declining health; Russ Mantle completed the feat to great fanfare in 2019. He was 86.
On a personal note, my 75-year old adventure cycling, ex-Iditarod mushing brother is setting out today on yet another cross-country bike ride.
He’s taking a train to Oregon, then riding down the coast before turning east, and riding to Minnesota, up into Canada, and possibly on to Buffalo and New York City if conditions allow.
And yes, I want to be like him when I grow up.
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Congestion pricing could be back on the table for Los Angeles County.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Metro’s long-awaited study into the feasibility of instituting a congestion pricing scheme on local highways is expected to be released this summer, after it was allegedly delayed by Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins because she didn’t want it to become an issue in last year’s election season.
Years in the works, the plan promises cleaner air, smoother rides and more funds to the agency’s coffersin the future. Studies show it could reduce harmful air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by pushing more commuters to use public transit, while making roads less hellish for those who pay to use them…
The pilot program is part of a larger push among major cities to rethink how to deal with traffic that eats up commuters’ lives and pollutes communities as vehicles creep along. California has been quietly setting the stage for road pricing for years.
The good news is that Metro is restoring its pre-pandemic route schedules, which should make transit marginally more attractive to current non-transit users, though the steady drumbeat of new of crime, homelessness and drug use on county trains could have the opposite effect.
The bad news is, with a few notable exceptions like DTLA, Santa Monica and Long Beach, the LA-area bike networks necessary to get defecting motorists on two wheels don’t currently exist.
And they’re not likely to be coming in the near future without a massive and unexpected investment in our streets.
Morash is a 41-year-old lighting programmer who works in the film and TV industry in Los Angeles, where he has lived for some 16 years. When he first arrived, he used to take his car everywhere, like most Angelenos. But the city’s traffic jams soon crushed any desire to drive.
After talking to a co-worker who cycled to work, he decided to try it. He never looked back. Now he always cycles the 12 miles or so that take him to most of his jobs.
Yes, cycling can be scary, he acknowledges. Drivers cut him off, text at the wheel, exceed the speed limit, open their doors without looking and park in the bike lane. “But I can’t imagine choosing to be in a car,” he said.
It’s worth investing a few minutes of your day to get to know someone who uses his bike and social media voice to make a difference.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
Houston police are looking for a group of young men who have been brutally attacking and robbing bike riders on a city bike trail, with five riders viciously beaten and another shot in the past two weeks; one man was tackled from his bike, pistol whipped and robbed of his wallet and phone, while another had his bicycle stolen after getting hit with a shovel.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The LAPD had arrested an alleged bike-riding serial arsonist for setting up to 30 cars on fire in the Sunland-Tujunga area. Demonstrating once again that bicycles are the most efficient choice for whatever crime spree you have in mind. Thanks to Steven Hallett for the heads-up.
Closing arguments began Tuesday in the hit-and-run trial of a 43-year old Bakersfield driver accused of seriously injuring two people as they rode their bikes, while driving with a blood alcohol level over three times the legal limit; the defense attorney blamed the victims for riding in the traffic lane without the required lights and reflectors.
The Idaho Stop Law is slowly spreading across the US, as nine other states and Washington DC have adopted the law, although only three have adopted the full law allowing bike riders to treat stop signs as yields, and red lights as stop signs. California is once again considering a bill to legalize the Stop as Yield portion of the law; Governor Newsom vetoed a previous version of the bill.
Medical authorities in Florida have concluded that the man accused of brutally stabbing a Daytona Beach couple as they rode their bicycles home from the city’s motorcycle Bike Week festivities has regained his mental competency, and is now fit to stand trial for the March, 2022 murders.
British budget cuts could endanger the rise of the next generation of cyclists, as the country cuts spending for its under-23 program, potentially removing young Brits from the Nations Cup, the Tour of Britain and the Tour de l’Avenir.
No wonder nothing ever seems to get done in Los Angeles.
As we’ve seen far too many times, even the most minor improvement can get bogged down in an endless series of public meetings, in which every resident and pass-through driver has an equal voice, no matter how misinformed.
And people who bike, walk or take transit usually don’t count.
Which brings us to former LADOT head and current LA Metro Chief Innovation Officer Seleta Reynolds, who seems to think removing a traffic lane to improve bus headways “without extensive community engagement and consent” is equivalent to bulldozing homes to build freeways.
Never mind that one destroys the residences of people living in underserved communities, while the other simply removes peak hour lanes or street parking to move more people more efficiently.
No wonder so little happened in Los Angeles under her leadership.
I wouldn’t count on a lot of innovation from the LA County transportation agency going forward, either.
LADOT wants your input on the Downtown Mobility Plan, where pedestrians have long been second-class citizens on car-choked streets, and the city is just now forming an actual bike network to safely get you from here to there.
A Palo Alto columnist says plans for a bike on El Camino Real connecting Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Mountain View are a bad idea, because the street is too dangerous for people on bicycles if it keeps parking, and too inconvenient for shoppers who might have to walk a little bit without it. Never mind that bike lanes — particularly protected bike lanes — improve safety for everyone.
National
They get it. Bicycling says the best bike is the one that brings you joy. Unfortunately, you won’t get any joy from reading it if the magazine blocks you, since this one isn’t available anywhere else.
The group, which is working to convert a section of deadly Sunset Blvd from its current car sewer configuration into a Complete Street that serves all road users, as well as the surrounding community, is concerned that new CD13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez may be backsliding on his campaign promises to get the vital project built.
I’m including there full email below, so you can voice your support.
The city is finalizing its list of projects for 2024 grant applications. RIGHT NOW SUNSET4ALL IS NOT ON THAT LIST. Furthermore, the city has failed to meet with our community crowdfunded engineers for almost two years. We need the Council office to take action NOW by instructing LADOT to submit a 2024 ATP grant application for Sunset4All, prioritize Sunset4All for all state and Federal grant opportunities, and ensure LADOT collaborates with the engineers our community paid for!
We urgently need you to remind Councilmember Soto-Martinez to keep his campaign commitment:
“Obviously there are much larger plans I am very passionate about supporting…I will literally throw my entire support behind. The one at the top of my head is Sunset4All…That’s the one that’s gonna get a lot of support my first four years certainly” — Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez -December 22, 2022
There are two actions you can take:
1) Call Councilmember Soto-Martinez’s office and tell them to ensure a 2024 ATP grant application is submitted by LADOT on behalf of Sunset4All and to prioritize Sunset4All for all state and Federal grant opportunities. *Even if you’re not a constituent, the goal is to get his and his staff’s attention.
OFFICE PHONE NUMBER: 213-473-7013
2) Email Councilmember Soto-Martinez using our email template on the link below:
Caltrans wants your input on plans to close the bike lane gap on Santa Monica Blvd in West LA, west of the 405 Freeway. (Clicking on the second image will make it easier to read.)
Just as surely as the positive platitudes are true, so are the negative ones. Notorious traffic jams and hours of delays are the norm for those who drive the many freeways covering Los Angeles. But all the mileage is not wasted. Those same freeways take residents between coastal beaches, rugged mountains, tree-lined forests and stark deserts all within an hour of the downtown area.
If only there was some sort of cheap, clean and efficient means of transportation that could get people out of their cars and defuse those notorious traffic jams.
Seriously, nothing says LA like an impatient driver forcing his way into a memorial bike ride.
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Nice to see plans to extend the Ballona Creek bike path getting local neighborhood support.
Although after more than three decades living in Los Angeles, I didn’t even know there is a Sepulveda Creek.
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Somehow, I don’t think this is how protected bike lane barriers are supposed to work.
David Drexler forwards a Nextdoor photo of a “truck operator having difficulty trying to decide how to park with the new (controversial) curbed bike lane on 17th street in Santa Monica.”
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
A local British counselor complains that building bike and walking paths on the grounds of a 12th century abbey will restrict the activities of dog walkers, because they could “cause accidents when not in control.” Although it’s not clear whether he’s referring to the dogs or bike riders being out of control.
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Local
The Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, wants your opinion on plans to shape their transportation, housing and climate policy for the next few years; the group may be awkward and ponderous, but they’ve also made some good moves to support active transportation in recent years. Thanks to Kent Strumpell for the heads-up.
Sayfullo Saipov, the convicted New York terrorist who killed eight people and injured dozens of others as he rampaged down a Manhattan bike path in a rented truck four and a half years ago, will spend the rest of his life in Colorado’s Supermax prison after he was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms. So that means when he dies, they’ll dig him up and toss him in a cell until he dies again, and start the process over. Right?
In a powerful statement, Pennsylvania bicyclists marked bike week by posing ghost bikes on the steps of the state capital representing the people killed riding bikes on the state’s roadways. California’s state capitol building doesn’t have enough steps for the roughly 160 ghost bikes we’d need every year.
The 70-something British woman who was knocked down, then run over by a drunk ex-cricket player while riding her bike suffered life-changing injuries, and suffers from nightmares every night a year later; the driver was sentenced to just two years, despite testing over four times the legal alcohol limit.
March 16, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Arrest made in San Pedro hit-and-run, memorial ride for Dr. Mammone, and CD5’s Yaroslavsky joins Metro board
Too often, hit-and-run drivers get away with their crimes.
She was reportedly under the influence at the time of the crash, and on her way to another bar when she slammed into Montoya, who was just picking up an order from a food truck.
Lockhart was being held on $100,000 bond on a charge of felony hit-and-run; it’s not clear if she’s still in custody.
The Big Bear Cycling Association has more information on Saturday’s memorial ride for Dr. Michael Mammone, who was murdered while riding his bike on PCH in Laguna Beach last month, by a man apparently suffering from mental illness.
The cycling community has rallied in an effort to honor the life and contribution of Dr. Michael Mammone.
With support from Providence Mission Hospital Foundation a celebration of life and ride has been organized on Saturday March 18th, 2023 at the Leonard Cancer Institute at Mission Hospital 27799 Medical Center Road Mission Viejo.
All cycling groups small and large are encouraged to ride to the event. We ask that your ride does not “start” or “end” at the hospital but instead “STOP” at the event no later than 11:00 A.M. Groups should plan their own independent rides and converge at the event.
Armbands (optional/free) to be worn on the ride may be picked up at Rock n Road Cyclery, at all 4 Orange County locations and Specialized of Costa Mesa, any time prior to the day of the event and worn on your group rides that day.
For those individuals and families wishing to attend without riding to the event, free parking will be provided on the first three levels with the rooftop level reserved for standing room only attendance.
Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.
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Los Angeles CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky will take former Councilmember Mike Biden’s place on the Metro board, which should be good news for active transportation.
The San Diego Bike Coalition is teaming with Families for Safe Streets San Diego for a hard-hitting new poster campaign calling attention to the record number of traffic deaths in the county.
The group is looking for volunteers to help put up posters around the city this Saturday. You can learn more and RSVP here.
The war on cares may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
He gets it. A writer for The Spectatorcalls on everyone to stop demonizing bike riders, and give colleagues a pass for showing up in the office in a bit of Lycra, because more people on bicycles benefits everyone.
But sometimes, its the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An assistant to a Baton Rouge, Louisiana judge was lucky to escape unscathed after she nearly hit a pair of teenaged bike riders, who responded by shooting her in the arm; the same suspects reportedly stole a running pickup minutes later, then repeatedly shot the driver when he tried to reclaim it after they crashed into a stop sign with their bikes in the truck bed.
She gets it. A Solano Beach letter writer says that the increase in bicycling collisions isn’t because bicyclists are riding in an unsafe manner, but rather, “due to the explosion in popularity of ebikes, more people are biking on our unsafe roads.”
San Jose will use a $2 million federal grant to fund a design study on how to transform a six lane highway into a boulevard with dedicated transit lanes and protected bike lanes; nicknamed Blood Alley, Monterey Road has long been the city’s deadliest roadway, with 42 deaths and severe injuries in less than four years. Maybe Malibu could take a few notes on how to transform PCH from SoCal’s deadliest highway into the Main Street it should be.
San Francisco opened a two-way bikeway on Battery Street, which Streetsblog’s Roger Ruddick bitingly describes as “just more paint, plastic, and prayers masquerading as ‘protection.'”
A Dublin, Ireland man filed a multi-million euro lawsuit alleging he suffered a catastrophic brain injury slamming his head into a series of bollards, despite wearing a helmet, after losing control of his ebike hitting a low curb on a protected bike lane.
Life is cheap in Ireland, where a former bus driver walked without a single day behind bars for killing a man riding a bicycle, after playing the universal Get Out of Jail Free card by claiming the sun was in his eyes. Which may or may not be true, but the correct response to being blinded by the sun is to stop until you can see, not keep going until you run over someone.
Twenty-three-year old British cyclist Tom Pidcock is out of Saturday’s Milan-San Remo after he showed mild concussion symptoms following a crash in the final stage of last Sunday’s Tirreno-Adriatico.
As you’ll recall, Wilson was shot to death in Austin, Texas last year in what reportedly amounted to a one-sided love triangle.
Wilson was — allegedly — murdered by Kaitlin Armstrong in a fit of jealousy, after Wilson spent an afternoon with top men’s ‘cross pro Colin Strickland. Armstrong, Strickland’s on-and-off-girlfriend, apparently saw Wilson as a rival for his affections, even though Strickland and Wilson both denied any romantic involvement.
But not only did Strickland buy the gun Armstrong allegedly used, he also bought the ammunition.
Now top cycling journalists are strongly criticizing the magazine for what they see as basically an apologia for Strickland, written by his friend, Austin-based writer Ian Dille.
Not exactly the objective reporting you’d expect from a credible major magazine.
For some reason, I can’t get the tweet from Laura Weislo to load, but here is what she had to say.
Great work from @outsidemagazineand @iandilleon this – not only re-traumatizing everyone close to Mo with this salacious slanted story but also naming those who wanted to stay anon & possibly setting yourselves up for libel suits for some of the details.
I don’t pretend to know enough about the situation or the people involved to offer any objective insights.
But I do know when people like that are telling the magazine to do better, maybe they should listen.
Pomona announced an $11.3 million grant from LA Metro to build the San Jose Creek Multi-Use Bikeway, completing a missing link in the San Gabriel Valley Regional Greenway Network.
Although that kind of pales in comparison to the nearly $300 million the agency is spending to create still more induced demand-induced traffic congestion on the 57/60 Freeways. Never mind that it comes in the midst of a climate emergency, when we desperately need to reduce driving, not encourage more of it.
Maybe they could reverse the funding, and give $300 million to bikeway expansion and the relatively paltry $11.3 to freeways.
Streetsblog looks forward to a long list of open streets events in and around the City of Angels, including CicLAvia and 626 Golden Streets, as well as handful of other events. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that no one was even sure the first CicLAvia would succeed, let alone all the others that have followed.
Speaking of Streetsblog, Roger Ruddick rides the new Hesperian Boulevard Corridor Improvement Project in Alameda County, describing the ostensible Complete Streets makeover as a hellscape, and concluding that Alameda County once again “lived up to their well-earned reputation for not having a clue how to build a multi-modal corridor.”
A Harvard researcher asks if bicycling is safe, particularly for women, and other groups like less-fit men, seniors and parents with children, concluding the answer is no. And not surprisingly, that the danger comes from cars and their drivers.
What’s wrong with this picture? A Louisiana bike rider was killed in a head-on collision, even though police investigators later concluded both the victim and the driver were traveling in the right directions on the right side of the road; the driver was booked for vehicular homicide, possession of an alcoholic beverage in a motor vehicle, and driving on the right side of the road. Which usually isn’t a crime, and doesn’t explain how they crashed if they were both in their own lanes.
December 1, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Why LA fails the transit density test, new Metro K-Line bike lockers, and West Hollywood to give free bikes to residents
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A new Brookings Institute report says creating urban activity centers combining “community institutions, tourism destinations, consumption amenities, major institutions, and jobs in traded sectors” are key to green commutes.
Which helps explain why Los Angeles ranks so low in transit use, despite its high density, since those activity centers are so widely dispersed, and lack many of the key components.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A New York judge pointed a finger at the city’s “problem” with ebikes and motorized bicycles, as he sentenced a man to one to three years behind bars for killing Gone Girl and Broadway actor Lisa Banes as she was crossing the street — even though the careless, red light-running rider was on an e-scooter.
Police in Rancho Cordova arrested a 42-year old homeless man in the apparent unprovoked attack with a machete on a 60-year old, recently retired ebike rider, whose injuries were described as “unsurvivable.”
That’s more like it. An Ohio man was sentenced to eight to twelve years behind bars for the drugged, head-on crash that killed a man riding a bicycle; he also lost his driver’s license for life and prohibited from buying or owning a motor vehicle.
No surprise here, as a new study shows protected bike lane networks have “significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower transport costs, prevent road fatalities, and improve the quality of life for people” around the world, concluding that bike lanes “reduce emissions as effectively as highways create them.”
NPR reports more Afghans are using bikes to get around as the economy continues to decline following the Taliban’s takeover of the country, even though women and girls are now prohibited from riding, even if they had before.
