Why they waited so long to release the news is known only to them.
Especially when both the city and the state have adopted a yellow alert system intended to alert residents to hit-and-runs within hours, when there’s a far better chance of actually catching the driver.
Not two weeks later, after the driver has had his or her car fixed or hidden. And any potential witnesses may have forgotten exactly what they saw.
Instead, the LAPD waited until Friday to release news of the crash, when they asked for the public’s help finding the driver who fled the scene of the Sunland crash after killing a bike rider on Friday, August 23rd.
According to the Daily News, the victim, publicly identified only as a 55-year old Tujunga man, was riding west on Foothill Boulevard at Oro Vista Avenue at 2:15 am when he was rear-ended by driver and thrown into a parked car.
He died at a nearby hospital.
His killer continued without stopping.
Police are looking for what is believed to be a late model Prius with likely damage to the front passenger side. No description of the driver is available.
Anyone with information is urged to call Valley Traffic Division Officer J. Takishita at 818/644-8116, or anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS. As always, there is a $50,000 reward for any fatal hit-and-run in the City of Los Angeles.
This is at least the 47th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 20th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also the tenth in the City of LA.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
August 23, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Road rage driver attacks LA bike rider, WeHo mayor OKs blocked bike lanes, and protected bike lanes AOK
Sorry about that.
My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.
Blame it on my diabetes, after a bout of low blood sugar knocked me out for several hours.
A man riding to work on Santa Monica Blvd was repeatedly harassed, brake checked, and physically assaulted by a driver in an unmitigated display of road rage that lasted over 6 minutes.
All for the crime of riding a bike, legally and exactly where he was supposed to be.
And to top it off, she accused him of scratching her car after she blocked his bike against another car, and proceeded to door him multiple times.
Seriously, watch the whole thing — with the sound up.
Diaz is the victim of the crash, who remains hospitalized.
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Evidently, the mayor of West Hollywood is perfectly okay with mail carriers and delivery drivers blocking the city’s few bike lanes.
Twitter post
Which isn’t much of a problem.
Unless you’ve ever had to go around someone blocking the bike lane in heavy traffic on Santa Monica Blvd.
Because it’s apparently just too much to ask them to remove a parking space or two to create a loading zone.
Oh wait. Maybe I wasn’t the first one to say that.
Twitter post
After all, it’s much easier to accuse people of “outrage culture” than to take a small step to protect human lives.
WeHo can clearly do better than that. And should.
In fact, it does, no thanks to the mayor, apparently.
Twitter post
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No surprise here.
After the the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a study questioning the safety of some protected bike lanes, John Pucher and Ralph Buehler, two of North America’s leading bicycling academics, say it ain’t necessarily so.
“Finding problematic intersection design of cycle tracks here and there in three U.S. cities does not at all negate the overwhelming evidence that protected bike lanes are both safer, in fact, than unprotected lanes or no facilities at all, and that the vast majority of cyclists and potential cyclists overwhelmingly prefer such protected facilities and feel safer on such facilities, thus leading to sharp increases in cycling rates.”
Pucher stresses:
“The IIHS study focuses on the dangerous intersections, but overall, cycle tracks are definitely safer. I agree, however, that intersection design is absolutely crucial to the safety of cycle track systems, and that special intersection, roadway markings, traffic signs, and traffic signals are necessary.”
No, you don’t have to wear a bike helmet. If you were to, say, get hit by a garbage truck on your commute, a small piece of foam and molded plastic is not going to make much of a difference. But since this is America and not Copenhagen, where cyclists are demonized for taking a sliver of space away from precious steel boxes and commuters are regularly in fear of their lives, it’s best to hedge your bets. Wear a helmet. (But whatever you do, please don’t helmet shame those who prefer to let their locks flow.)
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Sometimes it’s the people on bikes behaving badly.
Beautiful piece by an investigative reporter for the LA Times about the remarkable recovery of a man who was nearly killed in an Oceanside bike crash, after lingering in a near vegetative state for months. And her efforts to convince someone he was still alive in there.
Sad news from Bakersfield, where a woman was killed trying to ride her bike in a crosswalk; the CHP immediately absolved the driver of blame because it was dark. Apparently, Dodge Challenger’s like the one the driver had don’t have headlights, and the CHP has never heard of the state’s basic speed law, which prohibits driving too fast for current conditions. Like when it’s too dark to see what’s in the road directly ahead of your car.
Seventy-five-year old Courtney Rudin was convicted of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for the head-collision that killed a woman riding in a Sonoma County charity ride when he made dangerously ill-advised passed around a slower vehicle; he faces just one year behind bars. Seriously, killing another human being should never be a misdemeanor, intentionally or not.
Forbes says bicycle-oriented development is a growing force with the larger field of transit-oriented development throughout the US, now that bicycling is the nation’s fastest-growing form of transportation.
I want to be like him when I grow up. An 86-year old Utah man still rides 1,000 miles a year on a tandem with his son; he was riding 3,000 miles a year on his own until he was hit by a driver three years ago. Although I’d just as soon skip that whole “hit by a driver” part, thank you.
The owner of three pit bulls that killed a nine-year old Detroit girl as she was riding her bicycle has been charged with second degree murder for not controlling his dogs; the dogs, one of whom was shot by a rescuer, will likely get the death penalty.
Rapper Kadeem’s new album World Sport takes on a bicycling theme, reflecting the time spent on his ‘87 Schwinn World Sport as he was recording it, as well as his time on two wheels navigating the streets of Boston, dealing drugs and delivering for DoorDash.
New York prosecutors threw the book at the 18-year old driver who ran a red light and caused the collateral damage crash that killed a Brooklyn bike rider two weeks ago, charging him with criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, reckless driving, vehicular assault, disobeying a traffic device and doing 61 mph in a 25 mph zone. In other words, driving his Dodge Charger exactly the way the carmaker suggests he should.Thanks to Shaggy for the heads-up.
The New York Times examines why drivers rarely faces charges for killing bike riders; prosecutors have to show the driver’s behavior was “egregious,” and that they broke at least two traffic laws. Although it seems unlikely that the same standard would apply to killing someone with any other kind of weapon.
Montreal will soon start ticketing drivers who violate Quebec’s equivalent of a three-foot passing law by using an ultrasound device that measures the distance between a bike and a passing car. The LAPD apparently has no interest in that, despite being told about the device multiple times as part of the department’s bike liaison program.
July 30, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Seattle jock attacks bike zealots, CD4 candidate offers hope, and LAPD ignores drivers to ticket bike rider
He also claims only 25 bike riders a day currently use the street in question, and doubts the number is likely to increase once the bike lanes go in.
Maybe someone should tell him you can’t judge the need for a bridge by how many people swim across the river.
Or if a new road is needed by how many people currently drive across the fields.
Then again, maybe he could learn something from the bikeway on Vancouver’s Burrard Street Bridge, which many motorists called an unnecessary failure on a road few bicyclists used when it opened ten years ago.
All those bike riders must have been busy swimming against the tide a decade ago.
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CiclaValley offers a painful reminder that once upon a time, we actually had the mayor’s support for safer streets and hope for the future of our city.
Even if it does seem like a fairy tale now.
Twitter post
On the other hand, the following response to that tweet is exactly the attitude we need from our elected officials. And why Sarah Kate Levy has my personal support for LA’s 4th Council District set currently held by David Ryu.
Twitter post
Even if she isn’t one of us.
Yet.
Twitter post
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An LAPD cop ignored drivers rolling a red light, and ticketed the guy on two wheels for jumping the light by a few seconds.
Streetsblog San Franciscocalls for regulating killer trucks. Trucks don’t kill, drivers do. But no truck should ever be allowed on the roads with massive blindspots that can prevent drivers from seeing bike riders and pedestrians, or without sideguards to keep people from getting swept underneath.
Evidently, bikes as props are a thing for scantily-clad models this year. Sports Illustratedswimsuit model Anne de Paula rides a bike in some exotic-looking beach location while wearing a “cheeky” one-piece swimsuit. Which may be a BikinginLA record for most hyphens in a single sentence.
For one brief instant, it seemed like we had reason to be excited, and maybe there was actually hope for Los Angeles. Except the new Complete Streets project is on the wrong Hollywood Blvd, in the wrong Hollywood, in the wrong state, on the wrong side of the country.
Toronto newspaper readers go ballistic when a columnist suggests bicycles don’t pose the same threat to pedestrians that drivers do. The simple fact is, someone on foot is far less likely to be killed in a collision with a bicyclist than with a driver, for reasons that should be obvious. But it can and does happen. So it’s your responsibility to ride safely and carefully around pedestrians, who can be every bit as unpredictable as drivers think we are.
Huh? A British columnist bizarrely spends most of his column talking about smoking, vaping, coffee drinking and otherwise distracted drivers. But then says we should pity the drivers who get blamed for the sins of modern bike riders if they actually hit one. Personally, I’d rather pity the person who gets hit.
Four people were seriously injured when a driver crossed over the center line and plowed into their bicycles in a Japanese tunnel; four other people were injured when a second driver crashed into his car, including a two-month old baby who suffered major injuries.
We may have hit-and-run drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about hit-and-run deer. If you’re going to break into a garage and steal a bike, try not to leave a scent for the police dogs to follow.
And this is why country music is called three chords and the truth. Just hang up and drive already.
If you’ve followed this site for awhile, you’ve no doubt seen her grace these pages, whether as the spokesdog for our annual holiday fund drive, or simply because she wouldn’t get out of the photo.
And she’s kept me company and watched over me as I’ve written this site for more than nine years.
But a couple months ago, she started getting sick, and has gotten progressively worse.
Then last week her new vet confirmed she has an inoperable, malignant tumor at the base of her snout. And at 13, we’ve decided not to make her suffer through radiation therapy just to slow the progression of the disease and buy few more months — for our benefit, not hers.
Because she’s already given us far more than we could ever have asked.
Simply put, it’s her time.
So she’s now in the corgi equivalent of hospice care, with a focus on palliative care to keep her as healthy and happy — and free from pain — as possible, for a long as she has left.
The vet estimates that could be somewhere between three and six months. Or maybe less because of how rapidly her cancer has progressed.
I share this here because some people have grown attached to her. But also because it will severely impact my life over the next few months. And may affect my ability to put up a new post, or write with the same depth as I strive to do.
As always, I’ll do my best to be here for you every day with the latest bike news from around the corner, and around the world.
But I also know the coming days are likely to be very difficult, and she needs me now more than ever before.
I don’t plan to offer regular updates about her condition here; this site is about bicycles, not my dog.
And they want you to tell them where you want them to go.
After wandering in the weeds in recent months as they dealt with an extended leadership vacuum, and ineffective and misguided leadership when they had one, the LACBC is ready to re-engage with the city’s bicycling community.
Although much smaller and poorer than in recent years.
When new LACBC Executive Director Eli Akira Kaufman was hired to take over the coalition, it wasn’t long before major financial problems were revealed.
A lack of fundraising by the previous, largely disengaged Executive Director and mismanagement by the board of directors led to an existential crisis that literally threatened the survival of what had been Southern California’s most influential bicycling advocacy organization.
No wonder city leaders ignored them. And us.
Massive cost cutting, including the painful loss of over half the staff, through no fault of their own, has led to a temporary period of stability.
As a result the coalition until the end of the year to get their shit together raise a substantial amount of funding and develop a more sustainable business model just to stay afloat, even in their smaller size.
Kaufman makes no bones about the LACBC’s current predicament.
“We’ve been out of touch with the community we serve for too long,” he said. “We need to get back in touch, and listen to the people so they’ll feel like, and be, a part of the of the mission.”
“Let’s be honest. If we were making an impact they would already support us.”
The changes at the coalition also includes new leadership on the LACBC board, where Pure Cycles co-founder Michael Fishman has taken over as chair, with Kevin Shin of Walk Bike Long Beach as the new vice chair.
Previous chair Mark Caswell remains on the board to provide continuity after stepping down.
The LACBC is also attempting to recruit four new members, who Kaufman describes as an entertainment industry executive, a politically connected attorney, a socially conscious developer committed to livable urban density, and someone with a much-needed background in non-profit fundraising.
“We’re not done,” Kaufmann continued. “I wouldn’t be fighting this hard if we were. But now isn’t the time to be conservative. The old way of ‘Not right now’ just doesn’t work for us anymore.”
Los Angeles has finished the first of a planned series of Complete Streets on a 2.3-mile stretch of Roscoe Blvd through Panorama City and North Hills to improve safety for “pedestrians, bikes, buses and cars.” Although it’s unclear from the story whether anything was actually done to improve bike safety.
Once again, authorities keep a dangerous driver on the roads until it’s too late. A Bakersfield woman is in critical condition with major injuries after an alleged drunk driver slammed into her bike; the driver was previously convicted of DUI and hit-and-run after pleading no contest to the charges 26 years earlier. Seriously, fleeing a crash while under the influence should be enough to permanently disqualify someone from having a license.
The bicyclist who was struck and killed by two drivers in a Sonoma County crash has been identified as a 39-year old Santa Rosa man; meanwhile, investigators continue their outrageous victim blaming, saying they don’t know if he was impaired. So why the hell even mention it unless they do?
A Cleveland man is in custody for allegedly ramming a pair of men sharing a bicycle with his SUV, then getting out and robbing them at gunpoint; the theft was reportedly in retaliation for stealing drugs and guns from the thief and his unidentified partner.
Sad news from Maine, where the CEO of IDEXX, the state’s third largest employer, suffered a severe spinal injury while on a club ride last month, leaving him with limited mobility in his arms, and none in his legs, torso and fingers; no word on how it happened.
International
Accusations fly in Ottawa following the death of a 13-year old boy who was killed by a driver as he was riding his bike; the head of the city’s Transportation Committee tweeted that bike riders were just left-wing publicity hunters who aren’t helping the cause of safety. Nice guy.
This is why people keep dying on the streets. After an 84-year old New Zealand man ran a red light and slammed into a woman riding her bike, knocking her cold, a driving assessment showed he was perfectly fine to keep on driving and do it again to someone else.
Former doper and current clean cycling team manager Jonathan Vaughters’ forthcoming memoir goes deep into the sport’s relatively recent dirty past to revisit the halcyon doping days of Lance and Landis.
July 23, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Balboa bicyclist crashes with LAPD moto, search for hit-and-run driver, and making SD customers drive
Just passing by on the bike path on Burbank Blvd in the Balboa Dam area. They have the whole of Burbank Blvd closed in the area (probably to hide what they did until they can find a reason it’s not their fault)
An officer let me through while others tried to stop me from going under the tape. You should make some inquiry into this collision. Cop bike on its side in the westbound lane and a totaled bicycle with a bent over front wheel in the center of the road.
There’s no word on how the crash happened. Particularly since there’s a separated bike path around Lake Balboa that parallels Burbank Blvd.
According to traffic reports, the street was blocked off entirely throughout the afternoon and through the evening rush hour, which is not a good sign.
An extended total street closure like that usually means a fatal crash, or one they think could become one. Unless maybe they were just taking extra care with the investigation because a police officer was involved.
But at last report, the officer was hospitalized with minor injuries, while the person on the bicycle was in critical condition with non-life-threatening injuries.
Let’s hope it stays that way.
Photo from LAPD website.
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Tony Berquam is looking for the cowardly jerk — my words, not his — who left an injured bike rider lying in the street.
On 7/16, 5-5:30 pm, eastbound on Beverly near Fairfax, a lone cyclist was clipped by an unknown vehicle, knocking him to the ground. The rider was rendered unconscious and left injured in the street. The driver did not leave contact information. The cyclist was subsequently transported to Cedars by emergency services. Any help in establishing the involved vehicle and or related information is appreciated.
If you have any information, you can contact him at tbb422010@gmail.com.
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If you think your customers only arrive at your business in cars, maybe it’s because they don’t have any other choice.
Never mind that studies have shown that bike riders shop more often, and spend more in the long term, than people who arrive by car.
Or that making a street more bikeable — and therefore more walkable — results in an increase in livability, and a thriving, prosperous commercial district.
Not to mention a decrease in commercial vacancies, while boosting property values in the surrounding area.
But instead of explaining all that to his constituents, a weathervane councilmember stuck his finger in the wind, and decided the plan needs “slight changes” in favor of maintaining the automotive hegemony in the district.
So business owners continue to fight against their own self interests.
And San Diegans will continue to do their shopping by car, because it’s the only real option they have.
Full disclosure — I lived in the North Park neighborhood before moving to Los Angeles in 1990.
And while I loved living in one of the city’s few truly mixed neighborhoods, I hated the feeling of being unsafe anytime I tried to walk or bike to local restaurants or shops. It was easier to just hop in my car and take my business somewhere else.
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To the best of my knowledge, no bicycle ever flew off the road into one of my favorite fishing spots just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.
But I admit I may have come close a few times.
Twitter post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on.
Long Beach addresses concerns about the recent Broadway road diet by agreeing to make “tweaks” to the roadway design — including widening traffic lanes in places by taking space from the protected bike lanes.
State
The Orange County Transportation Agency wants to improve your safety on your bike and on foot with a series of Be Safe Be Seen workshops. If they really want to improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians, they should give the workshops to drivers. And make them mandatory.
The Department of DIY suffered a setback after an Alaska father used his own money to rent plastic bollards to keep drivers from mistaking the bike path his kids ride on for a roadway; the state DOT took them down the next day, insisting the 17 signs drivers already ignore are good enough.
Denver bike riders complain about downtown’s patchy bike network, and the total ban on bike riders on the 16th Street Mall. Which are the same things I complained about when I lived there. Except not even a patchy bike network was there then.
A Missouri writer says bike lanes are political, not practical, and everyone should just merrily mix with traffic in the streets like he does. Which is exactly what’s inhibited the growth of bicycling for the past 60 years. And will keep depressing bike rates, and bike riders, until people like him stop giving cover to anti-bike traffic engineers.
Good for them. An Illinois woman’s own parents turned her into the police for the hit-and-run that left a 63-year old man with serious injuries, after she crashed into his bicycle. My dad would have done the same thing. Then made me apologize to the victim and pay for the damages.
They get it, too. The New Yorkerasks if the automobile era was a big mistake, saying our cars haven’t loved us back for the love we’ve given them over the past century. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, things weren’t so awful for the first 50 years or so, if you can ignore all the pollution and killing people and stuff.
A Maryland woman was killed in a collision while participating in a 50-mile fundraising ride for a local fire department. Note to WJZ-13 in Baltimore — chances are she didn’t collide with a car; the driver hit her.
Hats off to a group for teenagers in a Georgia youth home, who rode their bikes 500 miles through two states to move past addiction and show themselves and others what they’re capable of.
I neglected to thank Eric L yesterday for his very generous donation to help support this site, and keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
Although you can be thankful we haven’t followed the lead of all the “Christmas in July” sales and TV movies to run a midsummer holiday fund drive.
And yes, I’m properly embarrassed that last year’s holiday fund drive page is still up on the header for this site, like someone who still has the Christmas lights up on his doublewide trailer.
I may have witnessed the high water mark of driver entitlement and assholery yesterday.
A paramedic unit came up our narrow street yesterday with red lights and siren blazing, then came to a halt in front of the building next door, blocking the entire roadway.
An Uber driver came up the street and stopped behind them. After a few seconds, he started blaring on his horn for them to get the hell out of his way.
Then wisely shifted into reverse and made a fast three-point turn to go the other way when an angry LA firefighter got out of the truck and started walking back towards his car.
He nearly left skid marks going around the corner to get away — and probably on his seat, too.
And was barely out of sight before the paramedic unit took off again, this time with someone aboard.
In June, Critical Mass got pulled over. In front of the McDonald’s at Hollywood & Highland. No need to go into the history of previous Mass/LAPD interaction at this exact location, right?
We were eastbound on Hollywood Blvd, and Brian, who drives the lead support vehicle, had remained stopped through a green interval. The ride was pretty big (yay summer vacation!), and this stop was to allow the stragglers huffing uphill to catch up. As soon as Brian proceeded across the intersection, BOOM, lights & sirens. Brian pulled over to the curb, so the whole ride stopped, too. In the intersection.
I was five bikes over, on the left of the leftmost lane, so I couldn’t hear the exchange, but I saw Brian staying calm and presenting his driver’s license. Altogether four LAPD cruisers responded, one of which whipped eastbound down the westbound lane of H’wood, closer to my left elbow than I liked.
After a few minutes, the ride marshals herded us forward, and we stopped again on Hollywood at Normandie. Because our AirBnB was nearby, this is where my bf & I ditched, but not before asking the SAG vehicle guys for an update. Apparently, Brian wasn’t cited. And nobody had their phones stomped into confetti by jackbooted thugs this time. I look forward to getting more details next Friday.
San Francisco supervisors vote to tame traffic by closing a busy street for one block, while installing protected bike lanes in other sections. Meanwhile, LA officials lack the courage to take the obvious step of turning Hollywood & Highland into a pedestrian plaza.
A Seattle bike rider calls for protected bike lanes after getting squeezed off the road when a semi driver cut into the narrow painted bike lane he was riding in. Although it’s never a good idea to undertake a big truck, whether or not you’re in a separate lane. And especially not when he’s got his flashers on.
Bike riders, skateboarders and e-scooter riders will now be required to get off and walk on the street in front of Coors Field when the Colorado Rockies baseball team is playing.
You’ve got to be kidding. A Vancouver criminal defense attorney attempts to justify an $81 fine a careless driver received for killing a bike rider in a dooring, saying the driver merely forgot to check his blindspot before opening the door and nothing he did showed a disregard for life or safety. Except maybe failing to check his blindspot before opening his door and killing another person. Yeah, except that.
Britain’s Chris Froome has won the Vuelta a España. No, not this year’s, the 2011 Vuelta, after Spain’s Juan José Cobo was disqualified for doping eight years after the fact.
Cody Westheimer says instead of having his daughter’s playlist stuck in his head when he rides, he wrote and recorded his own bike-themed song to keep him company.
And he’s kind enough to share it with us, so we’ll have something better to get stuck in our heads, too.
I haven’t had a chance to hear it yet, since I’m not on Spotify.
So tell me what you think.
And yes, I promise I’ll sign up for the free app later today and give the song a listen.
Cross my heart.
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The founder of LA’s Velo Club LaGrange will be honored with an official city proclamation this Sunday.
They get it. San Francisco Streetsblog says it’s great that the legislature is considering tripling the state’s rebate for electric car buyers, but where’s the rebate for ebikes?
Longtime readers of this site will remember Will as a popular bike blogger, as well as a bike-riding non-caped crusader dedicated to being a hero to animals in need — going so as to carry dog food on his long-distance bike commutes to entice strays close enough to rescue.
Or at least ensure they get one good meal, anyway.
And he was a hero to our feathered friends, famously rescuing a pelican that found itself wrapped in fishing line along the Ballona Creek bike path.
Even though the pelican seemed to have no desire to be rescued, thank you very much.
(Unfortunately, that story appears to be lost somewhere deep in the BikinginLA archives, somehow evading all my searching skills.)
Then in a truly brilliant move, Will made a midlife career change, turning his avocation into a vocation as a licensed, gun-toting animal control cop for the Los Angeles chapter of the SPCA.
But this time, he was a hero to a human, putting that police training to work rescuing a woman, instead.
You can email your thoughts to bike.program@lacity.org.
While I was forced to miss this CicLAvia, judging from the pictures, it looks a lot prettier than the usual plastic posts. And should do a much better job of keeping drivers the hell out.
On the other hand, it looks pretty awkward to exit if you have to leave the bike lane for any reason.
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Talk about not getting it. Mountain View police stopped a bike rider because his three-foot pool noodle was supposedly blocking traffic.
Which is kinda the point, since it marks a safe — and legally required — three-foot passing distance.
Great idea. The local minor league baseball team has teamed with Bike Bakersfield to host a bike to the ballpark night. So when will the Dodgers — or any other LA sports team — hold a similar promotion?
Bike Snob says owning a car is the path to financial ruin. Tell me about it. I’ve paid over $1,500 for car insurance alone in the last 18 months, even though I haven’t driven an inch in that time. So if anyone wants a good, cheap car, let me know. Seriously.
Last week was a rough one, both because of my own health issues, and because the news wasn’t good in the Corgi’s visit to the vet for a serious illness.
So let me offer my sincere thanks to Gold Leaf Films, Ken Rudman Consulting, and John H for donating to support this site in an effort to cheer me up. And thanks to Matthew R for setting up his own monthly subscription payment.
Altadena Councilwoman Dorothy Wong expressed concern for vulnerable road users being sandwiched between 50-foot long trucks, cones and cars as work begins on removing sediment from the Devil’s Gate Dam, putting 400 dump trucks on the streets of the San Gabriel Valley every day.
A Kansas man rode his bike a thousand miles to Winnipeg, Manitoba, in just ten days, only to have it stolen off the back of his truck. But raised over $33,000 to fight eating disorders along the way.
Yes, Complete Streets in the former Biking Black Hole.
The newly bike-friendly, though decidedly anti-scooter, city is even proposing enhancements to its nascent bicycle, pedestrian and transit networks.
Which is something no one who participated in bike plan talks ten years ago would have expected, when city leaders effectively blew off anyone who showed up for meetings on two wheels.
And scheduled those meetings for times when bike riders who wanted to participate couldn’t.
Things have changed.
But as we’ve seen in Los Angeles, it only takes a new election cycle or a handful of angry drivers to lose that newfound support for active transportation.
So add your comments to the plan.
And keep up the fight until the lines on the map turn into paint on the street.
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I don’t even know what to say here.
In a truly bizarre ruling, the US 6th District Court of Appeals concluded that marking the tires of a car to track how long it’s been parked constitutes an “unreasonable search,” and lacks probable cause.
Even though it’s just marking the outside of the vehicle, which is open and in full view of the public.
It doesn’t seem likely stand up on appeal. And only applies to the 6th District, which is made up of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
But it’s one more example of the privilege drivers enjoy.
Reservations are required if you want to take part. And the first 100 people to confirm will receive free VIP passes to the Final Friday Foodtruck Festival,
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Bike Culver City discovers fresh Kermit on Overland Ave.
Thanks to Robert Leone for forwarding news of a new study from UC San Diego confirming that “talking on a cellphone while driving quadruples the risk of a crash even when a driver is using a hands-free device,” while texting results in an eight-times higher risk.
Just a tad bit of roadie bias here. Women Fitness offers “must-have tips for girls who love bicycling.”Although it may come as a shock to them that many women somehow manage to ride a bike without spandex and clipless pedals.
A new study shows Americans are still sitting too much. Blame me for skewing the results; I’m still spending most of the day flat on my ass when I’m not rehabbing my new knee.
Bike lawyer Bob Mionske says states are finally coming around to Stop as Yield Laws — aka the Idaho Stop Law. And that’s a good thing. Maybe if enough states adopt it, we can finally stop hearing the tired refrain that California is not Idaho. Because evidently, they don’t think we know that.
A Colorado paper says Denver’s 20-year transportation plan will solve traffic congestion — if drivers don’t rise up against it. Then again, that’s what they said about LA’s mobility plan, which is gathering dust after the city backed down in the face of angry drivers.
An Illinois man faces up to 12 years in prison for the drunken hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a bike rider; he told police he knew he hit the man, but panicked and drove home instead of stopping. Sure, let’s go with that. Because no one would just try to sleep it off, then turn himself in once he sobered up, right?
You’ve got to be kidding. A plainclothes Miami-Dade FL cop is being investigated by internal affairs after swearing at a bike-riding mom and her two kids to get out of the road, insisting — incorrectly — that it’s against the law for them to ride their bikes in the street. Then the cop intentionally doored her 14-year old son, knocking him off his bike.
A special thanks to Steve S for getting me back online after software issues locked me out of this site for over an hour last night. Without his help, you wouldn’t be reading this today.
Although I’d probably be sleeping instead of writing right now.
Speaking of which, they’re back.
