Day 314 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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No surprise here.
An update from Edward indicates that the trial of 37-year old LA resident Zachary Thomas Haralson for the — alleged — drug-induced murder of 72-year old bike rider Jeff Rosenthal in Laguna Hills has been postponed yet again.
The new date for the trial, which was supposed to begin last week, is February 20, 2026, nearly three-and-a-half years after he took the life of an innocent man.
So mark your calendar.
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The Hollywood Reporter reports that it is in fact possible to succeed in the industry without a motor vehicle.
Among the carless industry insiders featured,
One of them is Bill Wolkoff, a writer and producer who recently worked on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and The Man Who Fell to Earth. Wolkoff began commuting by bike nearly two decades ago after his car broke down. At the time, he was a script coordinator — not a job known for its remuneration — and couldn’t afford to buy a new car. He could, however, buy a new bike. Nearly 20 years later, he’s still biking to work from his home in Mount Washington.
Also featured is Tom Smuts of Mad Men and Bosch fame, who we mentioned here leading his bike tours to the Emmys in years past.
Some industry workers find that going car-less can have its professional perks. Mad Men and Bosch writer-producer Tom Smuts made headlines in the mid-2010s when he led bike rides from Santa Monica to downtown for the Emmys. Today, when he has a job in the L.A. basin, he still bikes to work one to a few times a week. (He also likes to ride his motorcycle.) “I have medium ADHD, and I find it’s really hard for me to sit and work,” says Smuts. “So I often write by either hiking or biking and just recording my thoughts.”
Then there’s this from Adam Conover, of Adam Ruins Everything and The G Word With Adam Conover.
“The idea that we don’t have public transit here is a myth, and the fact that people repeat it is bad for the city because it means we don’t invest enough in transit,” he says.
Yep.
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This is who we share the road with.
A police pursuit of an alleged street racing reckless driver wasn’t wreck-less. Or deathless.
A 22-year old Tampa, Florida driver is under arrest after losing control of his car and slamming into a crowded gay bar while fleeing from police, killing four people and injuring another 13, while leaving some with life-threatening injuries.
Just one more example of a car becoming a weapon of mass destruction in the wrong hands. And innocent people dying as a result a police chase.
My apologies to whoever sent this to me. Your email seems to have disappeared off my laptop, out of the cloud and off the surface of the earth after I clicked on the link, despite all my attempts to retrieve it.
So please accept my anonymous thanks, and I’ll be happy to credit you if you want to email me again.
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Whoa.
A pair of British bicyclists, including including record-breaking time triallist George Fox, barely avoided becoming roadkill when a driver lost control on a slight bend, skidding sideways down the road at high speed and missing them by mere inches — and only because they had just moved to single file to let a van pass.
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They get it.
A Christian organization in Tampa, Florida is closing in on their 3,000 bicycle donation as it enters the holiday season.
According to a press release release from Bikes For Christ,
A simple gift of a bicycle can be life-changing — enabling a low-income parent to travel to work, attend parenting classes, or visit a doctor. For children, it can mean a safe way to commute to school, attend tutoring sessions, or reach their first job.
That about sums it up.
And something tells me that if Jesus were to come back today, he’d be more likely to be on a bicycle than riding around in back of a bigass black limo.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Tesla driver stabbed a bike-riding man multiple times following some sort of confrontation in a Marin Headlands parking lot, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge; the victim was reportedly conscious, breathing and stable, but both the victim and the alleged stabber were detained by park police.
A man in Odesa, Ukraine suffered serious injuries when he was pushed off his bicycle by one of two men who had just gotten out of a van, suffering multiple multiple broken ribs, as well as a broken shoulder blade, femur, bruised lung and pneumothorax; the attacker, who has been arrested, was reportedly a member of a military recruitment unit.
But sometimes, it’s people on two wheels behaving badly.
Former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond argues that it’s your obligation to keep yourself safe on the streets, and not everyone else’s job to avoid crashing into you if you do careless stuff on your bicycle.
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Local
The latest edition of Bike Talk covers a wide range of topics, from systemic reform to a book about 1885 world bicycle circumnavigator Annie Londonderry banned from the Pentagon for violating Trump’s DEI policies, apparently for the crime of being a Jewish woman.
Streetsblog catches up on new bike lane projects on Sunset Blvd, Ohio Ave and in South Whittier.
Urbanize looks at the Ohio Ave protected bike lane project, as well as yet another effort to put protected bike lanes on Westwood Blvd.
Sunset Magazine says Malibu is “bouncing back stronger and dreamier than ever” now that PCH has reopened. Although notably, walking or riding a bicycle along PCH is not one of the activities they recommend.
State
Calbike calls for permanent funding for ebike vouchers, in the wake of the cancellation of California’s voucher program.
No bias here. A San Diego TV station says Encinitas residents are divided on “upgrades” to Santa Fe Drive, which most safety advocates would consider significant downgrades.
San Diego Union-Tribune subsidiary La Jolla Light continues its so-far four-part series on ebikes, this time talking with teen riders who admit some kids do “stupid stuff” — like yelling racial and sexual slurs while flipping people off. But the paper continues to conflate ped-assist ebikes with often-illegal electric motorbikes and dirt bikes.
It only took 14 years, but the 40-mile CV Link bike trail circling most of the Coachella Valley is finally as finished as it’s going to get, with a grand opening in Palm Springs on Friday, although Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells opted out of the trail, leaving significant gaps. However, you’ll have to find a way around the Desert Sun’s paywall if you want to read the second link.
Mountain View is cancelling plans for a bike and pedestrian bridge over Highway 101, after concluding that commuting patterns and office market conditions have changed since the pandemic.
National
Nike is introducing a new “mind-altering” sensory shoe platform designed to “reawaken the foot, the body, and the mind,” that could result in incremental performance gains from new bike shoes.
She gets it. A Missoula, Montana woman argues that a new downtown street improvement project will improve safety for pedestrians and drivers, but it’s lacking quality bicycle infrastructure, or any at all, in some areas.
A San Antonio bike rider was hospitalized after he was sideswiped by a hit-and-run city bus driver; no word on how seriously he was injured, but at least he was able to call the cops to report it.
A podcast from a Houston public radio station discusses the evolution of bicycles and personal freedom.
This is how you make Vision Zero work. Kansas City has responded to the death of a nine-year old girl riding her bike to school by banning right turns on red lights during school hours. Although a better step would be to ban right on red, period. And someone please tell the city’s public radio station it wasn’t a car that killed the little girl, it was someone driving one.
This is the cost of traffic violence. A doctor specializing in spinal cord injuries is in a coma after he was run down by a hit-and-run driver while on his usual bike commute from a Chicago hospital.
A bike rider was critically injured in a New Jersey collision where the combined ages of the victim and driver was 179 years; the victim was a mere youth of 80, which raises the question of what the hell was a 99-year old woman doing behind the wheel.
International
The Manual revives a study from last year to explore whether bicyclists can benefit from strength training, concluding exactly what you’d think it would.
Brujula Bike compares and contrasts the differences between a 3,000 euro and 10,000 euro bicycle — roughly $3,500 to $11,500.
Cycling Weekly says bicyclists aren’t considered a nuisance in Colombia, saying the country is a superb, if far flung cycling destination with plenty of big climbs.
Derby, England-based bikemaker Mercian Cycles is back from the dead after being rescued from bankruptcy by local businessmen, celebrating the company’s 80th anniversary with their first new bike model in 20 years.
A 19-year old London woman was knocked cold and suffered facial injuries and broken teeth when the Lime ebike she was riding suddenly malfunctioned and stopped without warning, throwing her over the handlebars.
Bicyclists are celebrating a new segregated bike lane linking three cities in southern England, which could eventually extend to 26 miles.
A travel website says the Netherlands is joining Germany, Japan, Argentina, and Chile in defining the future of sustainable tourism, with bicycling routes designed to get the attention of American tourists. Proving that we Yanks are still welcome somewhere.
The war in Ukraine claimed a civilian man riding a bicycle, who was a victim of a Russian drone attack in Kostiantynivka.
Competitive Cycling
Cycling News introduces the full 20-man roster of George Hincapie’s new Modern Adventure Pro Cycling team, including 12 Americans, which will debut as a UCI ProTeam, a step or two below the WorldTour.
Velo says pro cycling has never faced a transfer market this bad following the collapse and mergers of multiple teams, leaving 60 to 70 pro cyclists competing for eight to ten remaining slots; 36-year old Italian cyclist Davide Cimolai considers a life after racing, after failing to keep his contract with Movistar.
Former Tour de France champ Sir Bradley Wiggins is headed to one of America’s leading trauma rehabilitation clinics to deal with his addiction, mental health and financial problems since retiring as a pro, with seven-time ex-Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong kindly picking up the entire tab. Although British tabloids are only interested in the American influencer Wiggins is dating.
Premier Tech has pulled their support from the bike team previously known as Israel Premier Tech, citing the firm’s “untenable position” following pro-Palestinian protests at the Vuelta and other races, despite the team dropping “Israel” from its name.
Finally…
Get your Czechs on Route 66. After 130 years, it’s safe to say bicycles are probably here to stay.
And Google AI gets me. I mean, they really get me.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
