Which is a lot better way to use your hard-earned cash than joining in the mad-dash Black Friday consumerist frenzy when you could be riding your bike.
After donating, of course.
But take a little time to visit your favorite local bike shop for Small Business Saturday, and just buy something, anything, to help ensure they’ll still be here when you need them.
Just be careful out there. Ride defensively, and try to avoid the malls and other shopping meccas over the weekend, when frenzied drivers will be focused on everything but you.
Because I don’t want to have to write about you unless you rescue a kitten from a burning building or something.
We’ll see you back here bright and early Monday morning.
And seriously, have a great Thanksgiving.
Photo: State Assemblymember and Congressional candidate Laura Friedman speaks at the recent die-in at LA City Hall.
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It’s a big loss for traffic safety.
In her time as California Assembly Transportation Committee chair, Laura Friedman has been a champion for safety measures that benefit everyone on our streets, not just people on bikes.
But it was probably predictable, as her campaign to replace Adam Schiff in the US Congress will take her away from Sacramento leading up to next year’s election.
Laura Friedman has been removed from CA Assembly Transportation Committee. Lori Wilson has been added and is the new chair. Wilson strongly opposed AB 645, Friedman’s bill for an automated camera-based speeding ticket pilot program. Wilson was only Democrat to vote no. https://t.co/bDZdTRylbUpic.twitter.com/nIgurjAkNW
Santa Barbara’s on again, off again State Street bike lanes are back on again, as the city re-striped the lanes in yellow paint, just one year after removing “garish” green bike lanes just 20 months after they were installed. Let’s hope these ones last a little longer.
Life is cheap in British Columbia, where a 73-year old Vancouver driver walked with a lousy $1,500 fine for killing a 57-year old man riding a bicycle; he saw the victim enter the intersection from the opposite direction, but decided to make a left turn in front of him, anyway.
Some bicyclists in South Africa’s Gauteng province are giving up riding due to rising rates of attacks on bike riders, including one fatal shooting and another rider who who survived after being shot twice; even riding in groups of of eight to twelve riders isn’t enough to deter the robbers.
And let’s end things with a pre-holiday smile, as a South Africa boy breaks open his piggy bank to buy a new bike for a gas station worker he befriended.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Gutierrez allegedly flipped Solanga off as Solanga walked his bike with another person, then made a U-turn to come back to slam into Solanga, killing him.
Prosecutors have not said if the men knew each other, or why he attacked Solanga with his truck.
A Culver City councilmember says kids are much better off riding on circuitous side streets than in the direct, protected bike lane he wants to rip out.
Culver City Councilmember scolds parents for allowing their kids to bike in a PROTECTED bike lane:
"My god, parents! You should not have your kids there! I should never ever have my kids bike on those streets… you really shouldn't encourage your young to bike" pic.twitter.com/ld0aMDZTZC
Meanwhile, a new crowdfunding campaign has been established to fight the council’s blatantly illegal decision to replace the bike lane with another lane for motor vehicles, bizarrely claiming it would have no environmental impact and doesn’t require a CEQA review.
As of this writing, it’s raised nearly half of the modest $10,000 goal in less than 24 hours.
I’m speaking 100% in my personal capacity here (as always, but it bears repeating). This is a GREAT line:
“We are Friends of Move Culver City, and we plan to fight Culver City if they do not comply with environmental law.” https://t.co/uRQS4IXC9k
The California state legislature has approved the bill to establish a limited speed cam pilot program in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach, as well as three NorCal cities — as long as they meet a number of preconditions.
The state Senate also passed a bill legalizing sidewalk riding everywhere in the state, overriding any local prohibitions.
Assuming the governor signs it, of course.
📣 JUST IN:
AB 825, our bill by @isaacgbryan with many partners which legalizing biking on the sidewalk in areas without safe bicycle infrastructure just PASSED THE SENATE!
Michigan Avenue Update! It's only been a month since the lane changes, but so far we've seen a 33% decrease in crashes! And the average trip time between Westnedge and Walbridge has only increased slightly by about 26 seconds. pic.twitter.com/5FeEcsF0Mt
In this capacity, your role will revolve around being a planner and fostering partnerships. This will involve the facilitation of high-level trail planning initiatives, requiring close coordination with various stakeholders, including state and local agencies, tribal governments, trail advocacy groups, and trail user constituencies. You will also be tasked with the development of comprehensive processes to manage all stages of trail project delivery effectively. Building internal and external partnerships will be key to ensuring the efficiency and success of these processes and systems, all while prioritizing the department’s Mission in your decision-making.
Thanks to Alan Thompson for the heads-up.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Heartbreaking story about the death of Colorado endurance bicyclist Greg Bachman, who was killed by a Kansas driver the night before last years Unbound Gravel race; his widow calls out anti-bike bias from Kanas Highway Patrol, which destroyed evidence, failed to examine the driver’s phone or the victim’s GPS, and went out of their way to incorrectly blame the victim.
A columnist for a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan newspaper says the road to safer bicycling in the city is sadly “paved with blood,” suggesting that despite deaths and injuries, the debate about safe bicycling always seems to come down to cost. Sadly, it seems to be the case everywhere that nothing happens until it’s too late.
Pro cyclist Lachlan Morton overcame “trench foot, freezing rain, wildfire detours, mental demons and a busted derailleur” to record the fastest ever time on the Tour Divide bikepacking route, completing 2,670 miles and 192,000 feet of climbing in 12 days, 12 hours, and 21 minutes. But his time won’t go down as a new record, because the camera crew that accompanied him isn’t allowed under official rules.
July 26, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on News conference drums up support for LA-area speed cam pilot program, and Spanish mayor nails parking debate
Speed cams could soon be coming your way.
At a press conference in Studio City Tuesday morning, city and state officials explained the reasoning behind AB 645, which would establish a speed cam pilot program in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale, along with three NorCal cities.
According to LADOT’s Makenzi Rasey,
“Too many people are dying on our streets and these crashes disproportionately impact low-income communities, people walking, people biking, our seniors, and our children.”
Like the 4,379 Californians killed in traffic collisions in 2021 alone, including 1,275 people walking and riding bikes.
Every one of them someone’s mother or father, son or daughter, sister or brother, leaving massive holes that can never be filled in the lives of their loved ones.
Rasey went on to add that LADOT is fighting the speeding crisis with “every street design tool available,” including lower speed limits on nearly 200 miles of streets, speed humps, signals and redesigned streets, along with more bike lanes.
Although as we can all testify, not nearly enough of those.
And the city still hasn’t moved forward with shovel-ready lane reductions planned for North Figueroa and Temple Street, which were blocked by councilmembers who are no longer in office.
Never mind the Westwood Blvd bike lanes blocked by then-Councilmember Paul Koretz, who has been replaced by the ostensibly more bike-friendly Katy Yaroslavsky.
The bill is also tailored to inflict minimal financial impact on, well, anyone, as Assembly Transportation Chair and congressional candidate Laura Friedman explained.
“Under our bill, unlike with getting a traditional speeding ticket, there’s no points on your license … Under this program, your first ticket, assuming that you aren’t egregiously speeding, is a warning. and after that, if you get a second ticket, that ticket starts at just $50. Now if you’re low-income that $50 is cut in half to just $25. And there’s a small escalator for every 10 mph over the limit you are going,” said Friedman.
Which doesn’t seem like nearly enough to get drivers to take their damn foot off the gas.
But that’s the compromise needed to get the bill through the legislature in a state where driving — and exceeding the speed limit — is considered a God-given right.
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This may be the best answer to the incessant parking demands of drivers I’ve seen.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A middle-aged man in the UK, who should certainly know better, is accused of swearing at and threatening a young girl, and throwing her phone to the ground, after they collided while riding their bicycles. Schmuck.
San Diego bike thieves are targeting ebikes as their popularity continues to grow. Ebikes, that is, not bike thieves, who continue to be unpopular in San Diego, and most everywhere else.
A lawsuit from the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) argues that the National Park Service was wrong to allow ebikes into national parks, saying the NPS hadn’t adequately addressed their potential to disturb wildlife and create conflicts with other people on the trail. Because evidently, the wilderness is only for fit people who don’t need a little help riding a bike.
Seriously? Alaska’s governor vetoed a bill regulating ebikes, arguing ”…it creates unnecessary bureaucracy by regulating recreational activity,” even though all it does is establish the same three-tiered classifications pioneered in California, and passed in many, if not most, other states. The sponsor says the legislature will override the veto of the bill, which passed with overwhelming support.
Oxford, England merchants are accusing the city council of being “hyper-woke” — whatever the hell that means — after refusing to close a bike lane for the city’s annual Christmas market. Because obviously, the lives and safety of bike riders are of no importance compared to selling holiday treats and trinkets.
Outsidetalks with trans cyclist Austin Killips, who says she just wants to ride her bike, after becoming the poster child for excluding trans athletes from women’s sports.
Let’s start with news of yet another bike rider injured by a heartless hit-and-run driver.
Steve Messer forwards news that a friend of his was the victim of a hit-and-run while riding in San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood.
It’s hard to read the small type, but the victim, a former cop and board member with the high school mountain biking league, was riding on Catalina Blvd when he was run down by the driver around 4:50 pm.
The suspect, described as a white male 35-45 years old, wearing a lighter colored baseball cap, was driving a smaller white pickup truck with a regular cab and non-tinted windows.
If you live or ride in San Diego, try to get the word out to get more eyes out on the street looking for the suspect. And if you know anyone who works in the news media, give them a push to cover this story.
A review of the project after a year found an 18% increase in people walking and 32% more people biking through the area. At the intersection of Culver Boulevard and Main Street, the number of bikes counted nearly doubled. Bus travel became faster and ridership increased more on the corridor compared with citywide.People said they were biking, walking and taking transit more often in the area, according to the review. They felt safer, more comfortable and noticed fewer speeding cars.
As for traffic? It moved faster in the morning hours, and in the evening it took drivers about two minutes longer to pass through the area. Two minutes. That’s a minor inconvenience. It certainly seems like a fair trade-off to make the corridor safer and more convenient for alternative modes of transportation — which was the purpose of the project.
Yet remarkably, but perhaps unsurprisingly, MOVE Culver City is in danger of being unceremoniously ripped out by the new conservative majority on the council in response to the windshield bias of some motorists, many of whom may only pass through the city without stopping, on their way to somewhere else.
Yet somehow demand that the city cater to their needs, rather than that of people walking shopping, dining and biking in the downtown area, as well as those riding buses.
According to the paper,
Yet even the modest encroachment of Move Culver City may be too much for opponents of the project, who seem particularly offended by the bus lane. There is a proposal to add back a car lane and make buses and bicyclists share a lane, which would dissuade all but the most confident cyclists and slow the buses, thus making alternative modes of transportation a lot less appealing. And for what? So some drivers can get to their destination two minutes faster…
Like most communities across California, Culver City has plenty of plans detailing its commitment to bike lanes, public transit and sustainable city design as strategies to reduce greenhouse gases from vehicle pollution to help fight climate change. But those plans are meaningless if elected leaders don’t have the political backbone to see them through.
As the paper’s editorial bard makes clear, we will never have safe streets and more livable communities if elected leaders lack the backbone to stand up to opposition from motorists, which is virtually inevitable with any project.
Meanwhile, local elected leaders, both current and former, are adding their voices in support of the project.
Asm Bryan saying what some of our local leaders are still afraid to. Lets hope Culver City Mayor @AlbertVeraJr meets this moment tomorrow and makes Move permanent without adding more cars. https://t.co/ILKZeoAzNl
Streets For All is asking you to call for more funding for LADOT at tomorrow’s LA City Council Budget Committee, and support bike and walk-friendly motions at Wednesday’s Transportation Committee.
Budget Committee (6:00pm, Tuesday 4/25)
The committee will take up the Mayor’s proposed budget for next fiscal year. We are asking you to:
– Advocate for 18 more positions for LADOT’s activate transportation team which is sorely under resourced and stymying our efforts
– Advocate for 4 litigation support positions for LADOT so they can focus on getting bus and bike lanes in the ground and not on lawsuits – Public comment can be made virtually in real time or in advance
Transportation Committee (2pm, Wednesday 4/26)
– Advocate that the committee approve LADOT’s plan to revisit peak hour lanes
– Support new protected bike lanes on Lincoln over Ballona Creek
– Support a new dedicated speed hump program around schools – Public comment can be made in advance or in person (no virtual option)We’ve put together a toolkit to help you make public comment in the easiest way possible:
This is how you design a hospital for people, not cars.
Ottawa's new hospital will have an impressive 630 bicycle parking spaces, including 186 in a secure room outside the staff entrance. Visitors will be able to ride on a dedicated cycle track *right up to the front entrance* where they will be greeted with U-racks. pic.twitter.com/qJF653Fl0w
British police used deadly force to bust a fleeing ebike rider, intentionally hitting the suspect head-on to end a “high-speed” chase before swarming him as he lay writhing in pain; he was charged with possessing a fake weapon and a “bladed article,” as well as weed. Although it’s questionable how high speed the chase could have been on an ebike.
A California appeals court concluded that drivers don’t have a first amendment right to honk their horns, ruling that the law “prohibits all driver-initiated horn use except when such use is ‘reasonably necessary to [e]nsure safe operation’ of the vehicle.” Now if we can just find someone to enforce that.
Accused killer Kaitlin Armstrong appeared in an Austin, Texas courtroom, charged with the murder of gravel cycling star Moriah “Mo” Wilson, as the press focused on her new face after undergoing plastic surgery in a failed effort to hide her identity before her arrest.
Surprisingly, a sizable majority of New Yorkers want the city to make streets safer for kids to bike and walk, even if it means removing parking or making it harder to drive; a new poll shows two-thirds of New Yorkers think the city should prioritize pedestrian safety over driver convenience, while nearly six in 10 support doing it even if it means removing parking, adding to traffic congestion or closing down streets.
January 24, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on CicLAvia releases calendar of 8 events across LA, more from Saturday’s City Hall Die-In, and LA hip hop history bike tour
April 15: Mid-City Meets Pico Union presented by Metro
May 21: CicLAmini – Watts presented by Metro
June 18: South LA – Vermont Ave presented by Metro
August 20: Koreatown Meets Hollywood presented by Metro
September 17: CicLAmini – North Hollywood
October 15: Heart of LA presented by Metro
December 3: South LA – Leimert Park Meets Historic South Central presented by Metro
The group also announced an additional event on February 10th, when Los Angeles Ale Works will release their new seek-la-VEE-ah West Coast India Pale Ale at a CicLAvia season launch party and fundraiser at Ivy Station Complex, Culver City, during the 5-10 pm Night Market.
So now you can drink CicLAvia while you ride, walk, scoot, skate or roll it.
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As we mentioned yesterday, Saturday’s die-in at Los Angeles City Hall, hosted by a long list of advocacy groups, protested the worst year on LA streets in recent memory, with 312 people needlessly killed in the City of Angels.
Although you’d think this city would have made more than enough angels by now, since even one death from traffic violence is one too many.
Here are just a few faces and images from the day.
Organizers distributed 312 white flowers to symbolize the 312 lives needlessly lost to traffic violence.
Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) Founder Damian Kevitt, holding the three flowers on the left, led the day’s events.
From center to right, California Assembly Member Laura Friedman, LA Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, state Senator Anthony Portantino, and Streets For All’s Michael Schneider; my new friend Max reclines at lower right
Participants lay still for 312 seconds of silence in honor of the 312 lives needlessly lost
California Assembly Member Laura Friedman, LA Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, state Senator Anthony Portantino stand above Damian Kevitt at the mic
Although apparently, you can also do the tours by car, if you insist.
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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 New York columnist says the city could make a fortune just fining bicyclists for moving and equipment violations, including riding backwards — which is physically impossible — and insists that ebikes somehow aren’t bicycles. Just wait until someone tells him about cars and the things their operators do, including driving backwards. And I suppose electric cars aren’t real cars, either.
No bias here, too. A British Columbia man who claims to be a bike rider blasts what he calls the city’s most disruptive protected bike lanes, blames “woke” politicians for them, and claims no one ever uses them. So a columnist went out in the middle of the day and counted 13 bicyclists in just ten minutes.
Axiosexamines the ever-expanding American pickup truck, which has continued to increase in size, power and capacity over the past four decades, even as buyers use it more for shopping and dropping the kids off at soccer practice, and less for hauling anything but ass. And which presents ever increasing danger to anyone outside of them.
Streetsblog reports that more children under 18 were killed on New York streets last year than any other time since Vision Zero was adopted 2015; the site also reports the NYPD is a lot better at solving hit-and-runs in white neighborhoods than in communities of color.
Police in Charlottesville, Virginia say charges against a driver in a fatal crash will depend on whether the victim was riding his bike across the street or walking it; one means the victim was operating a vehicle and had to obey the rules of the road, while the other makes him a pedestrian who the driver had to yield to. Yet either way, the victim is still dead and the driver still killed him.
Seriously? Key West, Florida has put a proposed ebike ban on hold in hopes the state will take action. Because the risks posed by ebikes are so much greater than the ones from cars, evidently.
Sad news from the UK, where the two bike riders killed by a hit-and-run driver we mentioned yesterday turned out to be a father riding with his 16-year old son; the 37-year old alleged driver was arrested after abandoning his car.
It was a split verdict in the trial of two men charged with robbing Mark Cavendish and his family at knifepoint in a brutal 2021 home invasion; one of the defendants was found not guilty, while 31-year-old Romario Henry was convicted on two robbery counts. A third man had previously pleaded guilty, while two others remain at large. As usual, read the story on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
May 18, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on US traffic deaths soar, LA Times picks Pynoos over O’Farrell, and Friedman fights for bike safety on Burbank bridge
If you thought our roads are getting more dangerous, you’re right.
California Assembly Transportation Chair Laura Friedman jumped into the road safety fight to push for steps to improve bike and pedestrian safety on the new Burbank Blvd Bridge.
I have been assured that @CaltransDist7 is going to work to implement new safety improvements designed by the @BurbankCA . Cautiously optimistic! #VisionZero
Join @CulverCityBus and local bicycle commuters to celebrate Bike to Work Day on May 19. On that day, bring your bike, folding bike or helmet on board a Culver CityBus and you can ride for free. pic.twitter.com/IelsPaVGR9
— City of Culver City (@CulverCityGov) May 17, 2022
Advisory bike lanes, which give bike riders priority and force drivers to share the roadway, are coming to a pair of short Portland streets. Advisory streets have bike lanes on either side, with a single car lane shared by drivers traveling in both directions; drivers are expected to move into the bike lanes to pass one another, before returning to their lane. Let’s hope they have a better rollout than they did in San Diego.
That’s a picture of me signing the petition to get the Healthy Streets LA measure on the ballot at Pan Pacific Park yesterday, with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider.
With my four-footed intern somehow managing to upstage us both.
As we’ve mentioned a fewtimes before, the ballot measure is a pretty simple proposition.
It would require Los Angeles to build out the city’s mobility plan, which is currently collecting dust on the city’s servers, whenever a street gets repaved. Which isn’t often enough, as anyone who’s had to fix a pothole flat can attest.
That’s it. If the street is included in the mobility plan — whether it calls for a bike or a bus lane — the city would be obligated to to stripe it.
The beauty of this approach is that the costs are minimal, since the street would have to be restriped anyway.
And every bus lane, bike lane and bicycle friendly street in the plan has already been formally blessed by the LA Planning Commission and the Los Angeles City Council, so it’s pretty damn hard to argue against.
But before that can happen, it has to qualify for the ballot, which will take around 93,000 signatures.
This is the moment for the State to help LA finish this project. It is transformative, equitable, and a long time in coming. I will do my best to bring the resources to the San Fernando Valley to bring the path to life. https://t.co/hoK7WsY6A7
But it pales in comparison to the $1.6 billion flushed down the toilet to install HOV lanes on the 405 Freeway through LA’s Sepulveda Pass, which only resulted in more congestion and slower travel times.
At the very least, it would provide a healthy alternative to driving for those who can use it for a commuter corridor, as well as a safe place to ride recreationally.
I included a link to the Daily News story from Friedman’s tweet, but it’s up to you to find a way around the paper’s paywall.
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Here’s your chance to work for a safer street for bike riders and pedestrians on Hyperion.
Folks working to make Hyperion Avenue (in Los Feliz/Silver Lake) safer are seeking stakeholder endorsements of their Avenue Plan – slide show here: https://t.co/JquvpBvrPb
Horrifying thread from a New York bike rider, who was chased down and attacked by a driver and their passenger — for the crime of touching their car to get by after the driver illegally parked in a bike lane.
It’s worth a click to read the whole thing.
Came to a car parked in the bike lane, which is only "protected" by paint for much of the area btw 1st and 6th Streets. Dark license plate cover to fool speed cameras/tolls, talking to another driver in the parking lane. I should have ridden out into traffic to get by, but… 3/
An e-scooter rider was murdered by a hit-and-run driver in LA’s Koreatown early Saturday. He was struck by a minivan driver, then run over and dragged nearly 20 yards by a second driver as he lay in the street; the first driver stayed followed the crash, but the second driver, who likely did the most harm, fled the scene.
Residents along Shannon Road in Los Gatos say they support a proposal to add bike lanes and sidewalks, they just want to make them less safe, inviting and comfortable to “preserve the rural feel” of the community. Although they do have a point about adding trees along the route. Thanks to Robert Leone for the heads-up.
February 23, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Los Angeles finally lowers speed limits on some streets, and “woke” repeal of Seattle bike helmet mandate
It might be time to check snow conditions in the underworld.
And reversing, if ever so slightly, the ever-climbing speed limits forced on them by the deadly 85th Percentile Law.
The move came in response to legislation sponsored by Burbank state Assemblymember Laura Friedman, which allows cities to drop speed limits no more than five mph.
Rantz accuses a “woke” professor of using a small sample size to show the law disproportionately ticketed people of color, while suggesting that some of those ticketed were probably just homeless people on stolen bicycles, anyway.
Schmuck.
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She gets it, too.
“My vision for the next 10, 20, 30 years for Tucson is definitely to institutionalize the concept of @CompleteStreets and mobility. It's where we have to go.” – @TucsonRomero, Mayor of the City of Tucson
GCN considers whether a British company’s move to ban bike helmets for its delivery riders is science, or just plain stupid.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. An Italian bike rider was fined the equivalent of $380 after he was nearly doored by a careless cop, because bicyclists aren’t required to wear a Covid mask in the country, but pedestrians are — which he became when he got off his bike to argue the point with the cop.
Calbike comes out agains AB 371, which would effectively end bikeshare and e-scooter rentals by imposing an “unprecedented insurance requirement,” after killing a similar proposal two years ago.
Business owners in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood continue to complain about lost business due to the removal of parking spaces for a protected bike lane on 30th Street, even though a nearby parking structure remains underutilized. Which suggests the real problem isn’t the bike lane, but drivers who are unwilling to pay for parking.
Colorado is considering a bill to legalize the full Idaho Stop Law, which would allow bike riders to treat stop signs like yields, and red lights like stop signs. The state currently has a confusing patchwork of local ordinances that allow riders to roll stops in one jurisdiction, while risking getting ticketed for the same thing in the next.
October 14, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Another LA councilmember indicted for bribery, Claremont clarifies apparent bike ban, and bike riders get Gavined again
My apologies for the recent unexcused absences.
You know I’m having a bad night when I post an explanation for why I won’t be posting something that day.
A really bad night is when I don’t manage to post anything at all.
He is the third current or former councilmember to be indicted for bribery in recent years, although Mitch Englander was convicted of receiving bribes, and Jose Huizar charged with doing the same.
Claremont has apparently learned the error of their ways, correcting a badly worded draft ordinance that could have been read to ban bicycles on at least one street, in violation of state law.
Credit Erik Griswold with sounding the alarm.
Thanks to @bikinginla for helping me get out the word. Always read your city’s meeting materials as they are posted. This was done over a four-day weekend (City is closed on Fridays, Monday was a Federal Holiday) and there has been no discussion of this by city beforehand.
He apparently wielded his overactive veto pen out of spite because the bill’s author, Laura Friedman, blocked Newsom’s $7.6 billion transportation bill in a dispute over what segments of high speed rail to fund first.
And no, I don’t know what a “branded” bicycle highway is, either.
And Newsom signed SB 69, which will shut down the state’s “the defunct and bankrupt North Coast Railroad Authority,” and transition it to the Great Redwood Trail Agency, which will be charged establishing a rail trail through the redwoods along California’s North Coast.
Our 6 clients are suffering from horrible injuries including broken vertebrae, cervical and lumbar spinal injuries, broken collar bones, hands, and wrists- many of which require surgical intervention- as well as multiple traumatic brain injuries, lacerations, soft tissue damage, road rash, and extensive bruising. And those are just the physical injuries.
The driver of the black F-250 that crushed our clients’ bodies and left them and their bikes splashed and scattered across the roadway is a 16 year old Waller, Texas male. Through our own investigation, we’ve learned his name, his address, the names of his parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, neighbors and family friends. We know the names of the businesses owned and operated by the driver’s family. We know where he was earlier in the day, prior to crashing into our clients while they were more than 70 miles into their USAT tri-club training ride. We know the identity of his passenger (a local 17 year old male from a neighboring town) and a pretty good idea about the role he may have played in causing the crash that sent ALL of our clients to the hospital; 2 by Life Flight, 2 by ambulance, 2 by personal transport…
The driver’s family’s connections in Waller are a legitimate reason for concern, but I know that Charlie and Peter are very well versed in handling the challenges that nepotism can create.
They go on to add this —
The backdrop of the Waller Bike Crash is one riddled with anti-bike bias. Charlie knows all too well as he has recent experiences with judges there, one who actually lamented to him that Waller, TX “doesn’t like [our] kind.” Charlie has formerly represented several cyclists who were targeted and ticketed by Waller police over the last couple of years…This advocacy includes exposing and fighting against those who choose to selectively enforce the law for only a select few.
Our clients are not only hostages to the truck driver’s behavior and their own broken bodies, but also to a criminal process that is supposed to help make them “whole” again in a place that “doesn’t like [their] kind.”
Which reads like a perfect example of saying something without saying it.
Without mentioning the names of the driver’s family members, or their social, financial and/or official positions, the post makes it very clear he’s part of, and protected by, a powerful family in the country.
And that achieving justice in the face of the county’s extreme anti-bike bias will be an uphill climb.
LADOT offers a quick look at last Sunday’s CicLAvia.
This Sunday, we celebrated the 10th year of @CicLAvia open streets events that encouraged #Angelenos of all ages to bike, walk, and roll through 6 miles of DTLA. Check out how this event helps connect communities. pic.twitter.com/nfOjkkJwLe
A UK bike advocacy group celebrates one of the country’s most celebrated bike illustrators.
Today is the 150th anniversary of Frank Patterson's birth. One of Britain's most prolific illustrators of cycling scenes, his career spanned from the 1890s to 1950s. His pen and ink drawings document a lost world and pivotal part of Cycling UK's heritage: https://t.co/B6ja21YRhNpic.twitter.com/BF3RYHoF11
While Los Angeles tries to redefine what “Complete Streets” means to include sort-of, semi-complete streets, Culver City is busy building the real thing with a Complete Streets makeover of Washington Boulevard, including dedicated bike and bus lanes connecting downtown to the city’s E Line, nee Expo, station.
The theft of high-end bikes continues in London’s Richmond Park, as machete-wielding thieves on motor scooters attacked a man and made off with his nearly $8,000 bike, the fourth such theft this week. Note to self: Don’t ride in Richmond Park.
Does anyone really need the new Van Moof ebike that can do 37 mph? That would make it a motorcycle under California law, requiring a helmet, driver’s license and license plate.
Personally, I’m no fan of Newsom. But the place to challenge him is in next year’s general election, not a needless and wasteful recall that’s nothing more than an attempt to claim a prize the GOP couldn’t otherwise win in deep blue California.
The bill would introduce a partial Idaho Stop Law in California, allowing people on bicycles to treat stop signs as yields. However, it would not allow bike riders to treat red lights as stop signs, as the Idaho law does.
And finishing our Calbike trifecta, the organization is working with the California Air Resources Board to draft an ebike rebate program to go into effect next July. The $10 million program is already fully funded, so it’s just a matter of working out the details.
Meanwhile, Assembly Transportation Chair Laura Friedman says we’re getting close to breaking the death grip of the 85% rule on California streets.
This week my AB 43, which would allow cities to set speed limits based on factors such as safety & pedestrians, moved to the Senate Floor. We’re getting closer to finally cracking down on dangerous speeding on CA’s streets.@streetsforall@CA_Trans_Agency@LADOTofficial
Great twitter thread on the forgotten history of bicycles in the City of Angels.
1970, council motioned to support a bill that would prohibit State from constructing a freeway that would result in “severance or destruction” of an existing major route for bicycles unless State provided reasonable alternative.
In 1974, LA City Council, led by Marvin Braude, sought to establish “first test and prototype” of a bike lane on San Vicente between Bundy Dr and border with Santa Monica.
(This may have been the first bike lane in the city if it was followed through on?)
In 1976, City Council adopted report to establish bike lanes on Ohio from Purdue to Sepulveda; east side of Triverton between Lindbrook and Weyburn; Gayle between Le Conte and Weyburn; Westwood between Wellworth and Santa Monica.
The event will mark the Lunar New Year with a series of run, walk, bicycling and dog walk events held over the weekend of February 19-20, 2022, including rides of 20 and 40 miles.
But it turns out that last 1% has been a killer. Small disturbances like construction crews, bicyclists, left turns, and pedestrians remain headaches for computer drivers. Each city poses new, unique challenges, and right now, no driverless car from any company can gracefully handle rain, sleet, or snow. Until these last few details are worked out, widespread commercialization of fully autonomous vehicles is all but impossible.
So maybe the last 1% might be a tad more important than they think.
Correction: I originally wrote that Herzberg was killed by a Waymo car, but it was actually an Uber vehicle. Thanks to Andy Stow for catching the mistake.
Los Angeles considers improvements to Huntington Drive in Lincoln Heights, using funds originally earmarked for the cancelled 710 Freeway extension. Let’s hope they don’t try to sell us yet another incomplete street under the guise of Complete Streets.
At least some Las Vegas cops were disciplined for the death of a Black man, who was initially stopped for riding without a front light on his bike; like George Floyd, he repeatedly told police officers he couldn’t breath as one knelt on his back. Unfortunately, though, that could mean anything from a simple reprimand to dismissal from the force.
This may have been made tongue in cheek, but the advert feeds into the underlying negative attitudes towards cyclists on public roads. Dangerous underlying message.
