Which, as we’ve repeatedly pointed out, are what are driving most of the complaints mistakenly directed towards electric bicycles.
Which they ain’t.
Other priorities include safe routes to schools, assessing the vulnerability of California cities to climate change, and removing roadblocks to bikeways and sustainable transportation projects.
Streetsblog reports the LA Transportation and Public Works Committees will belatedly get around to considering two Measure HLA measure they put off earlier this month, ’cause they just didn’t have time to get around to them after dealing with constituents angry over another matter.
And that’s after failing to consider it in any of the previous 11 months following the measure’s overwhelming victory last March, of course.
Wednesday 2/26 – The L.A. City Council will host a joint meeting of its Transportation and Public Works Committees at 8:30 a.m. at L.A. City Hall room 401. The agenda includes two Measure HLA items postponed from earlier this month (see earlier SBLA coverage previewing HLA items and recapping the meeting when they were postponed
You’ve got to be kidding. A so-called London “journalist” says that violent armed bikejackers “are doing society a favor” by targeting people whose only crime is riding a bicycle in the early morning hours, saying bicyclists have turned Regent’s Park into a circle of hell. Maybe he’d feel a little differently if they were mugging newspaper columnists, instead.
Santa Barbara approved an amendment to the city code to provide more enforcement tools to rein in “excessive” ebike riders, even though excessive bicycling isn’t a crime, electric or otherwise. And even though it was inspired by a close call with a pocket bike, which is a mini motorbike governed by the state vehicle code, and not a bicycle subject to city regulations.
DoorDash says that San Francisco is the nation’s biggest market for bicycle deliveries, with 76% of the company’s deliveries done on bikes, ebikes and scooters, compared to 58% in New York and 57% in DC. Although my understanding is a lot of New York deliveries are made directly through the restaurant, without relying on a third-party service.
The governor of Arkansas signed a new bill allowing lift-access downhill mountain bike parks to help boost bicycle tourism, in a state where that is actually a priority. Unlike a certain populous Left Coast state I could name, although we seem to do okay attracting bike tourism, anyway.
My apologies for last night, when I suffered from an embarrassing case of premature publication, mistakenly hitting the Publish button long before today’s post was ready.
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Just 19 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025, a decade of failure in which deaths have continued to climb.
Yet not one city official has mentioned the impending deadline, or the city’s failure to meet it.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, aggravated manslaughter is defined in the New Jersey’s criminal code as “when a person ‘recklessly causes death under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life.'”
The brothers were in New Jersey for their sister’s wedding, and were riding their bikes on the night of August 29th, when Higgins allegedly tried to pass another car on the right and slammed into the two men on the shoulder of the highway.
Higgins could be sentenced to 10 to 30 behind bars years for each manslaughter count; he also faces additional charges for DUI, hit-and-run, tampering with physical evidence, and reckless driving.
Bicycle Highways — Creating a pilot program to establish numbered highways for bicycles in two major metro areas, allowing for speeds up to 25 mph
Shared Streets — Develop a new roadway classification where vulnerable road users would have the right of way at all locations
Quick-Build Pilot Program — A program to expedite development and implementation of safe, protected bikeways on the state highway system
Bike Omnibus Bill — Including clarifying that bike riders wouldn’t need to signal if they need both hands to control their bicycle
Bicycle Safety Stop — Otherwise known as an Idaho Stop, allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields
New Bikeway Classification — Create a new Class 5 category for bicycle boulevards
Clarifying Ebike Policies — Including making it clear that illegal electric motorcycles aren’t ebikes
Now if they’d just try to do something about the state’s unacceptably high rate of hit-and-run drivers.
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The Glendale City Council followed Culver City’s lead by overruling staff recommendations, and voting to remove the city’s only protected bike lane — an ill-advised action likely to make them liable for any bicyclist who gets injured on the street after it’s removed.
Although to be honest, I’ve kind of lost interest in the whole damn thing.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Utah man faces charges for allegedly ramming into a bike rider during a road rage confrontation; the driver swears he was just trying to politely tell the victim to stay in the bike lane when the rider became enraged and broke his side mirror, and he didn’t mean to hit him — even though witnesses say it appeared to be intentional.
No bias here. A New York councilmember called for mandatory ebike registration to combat “The scourge of e-bikes in our streets, on our sidewalks, and even inside our buildings (that) continues to wreak chaos, injure and maim people, and, tragically, take lives,” resulting in 47 deaths in five years; even the Department of Transportation says it’s a bad idea. And even though most victims were killed in battery fires or by drivers while riding ebikes, rather than caused by them. And they continue to lump ped-assist ebikes together with mo-peds and high-speed, throttle-controlled virtual motorcycles.
Brussels, Belgium is banning bicycles and scooters from the city center, known as the Anspachlaan; a bike advocacy group says all bicyclists are being punished for the anti-social behavior of a very few. Which is exactly how it usually works.
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Local
Metro is finally moving forward with plans to improve transportation for the upcoming LA Olympics, including 14 miles of bus priority lanes, 23 miles of bus corridor enhancements and 60 new Metro Bike Share stations, as well as a number of new first mile/last mile improvements, including new protected bike lanes. Although three and a half years isn’t exactly a lot of lead time to make a number of major changes to the streets.
Sad news from Bakersfield, where a man was killed when he fell off his bicycle, and oncoming “vehicle…failed to avoid colliding with” him. Hats off to the Bakersfield Californian for somehow managing to absolve the driver of any agency and responsibility for killing him.
Speaking of Bakersfield, a cop with a strong case of windshield bias responded to a traffic calming project by blaming the victims, arguing that even though it succeeded in slowing traffic, that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer crashes because it doesn’t account for pedestrians who step out ten feet in front of drivers, leaving “literally no time for the driver to do anything,” or bike riders “with no lights, wearing black clothing, riding the wrong direction in the bicycle lane.”
National
Streetsblog has more on the new handlebar-mounted “dashcam” for bikes being developed by a pair of Arizona universities, which are designed to automatically capture images, location data, and other critical evidence when a vehicle passes dangerously to someone on a bicycle.
A pair of Oklahoma men face charges of 1st-degree murder for shooting a man in the back, after accusing him of stealing a bicycle belonging to one of the men’s 10-year old daughter; witnesses never bothered to call 911 because they didn’t think it was a big deal and didn’t want to get involved. As we’ve said many times before, no bicycle is worth a human life. Just let it go, for God’s sake.
Cycling Weeklytalks with American adventurer Neal Bayly, cofounder of the Wellspring International Outreach, who recounts memorable rides through Ukraine and Peru, as well as Bhutan’s Tour of the Dragon, described as the world’s toughest single-day mountain bike race; Bayly says he bikes so much his motorcycle buddies are getting pissed off.
A Melbourne, Australia radio station considers the eternal question of what if bicycles had to be registered, as the head of a driver’s organization says all road users should pay for the road — even though bike riders already pay for more than our fair share of the roadway, and studies have shown bike registration costs more to operate than it would bring in.
May 30, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Taking Newsom to task for climate arson Active Transportation cuts, and bike bills still active in state legislature
Just 215 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’ve inched up to 1,151 signatures, so don’t stop now! I’ll forward the petition to the mayor’s office later this week, so urge anyone who hasn’t already to sign it now!
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My apologies, once again.
Yesterday’s unexcused absence was the result of too many demands on too little time, resulting in my blood sugar circling the drain.
I’m just trying to get through one day at a time, while devoting myself full-time to caring for my injured wife, our uninjured dog and our ultra-messy apartment, while still trying to squeeze in enough time to write about bikes and do the work I love.
Because I really don’t know how I’m going to make it through the next several weeks until she finally gets back on her feet.
Schneider takes California Governor Gavin Newsom to task for his ill-advised budget cuts to the state’s Active Transportation Program, in the face of the ongoing climate emergency.
California has ambitious climate goals: By 2045, the state wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 85%, drop gas consumption 94% and cut air pollution 71%. The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California is the transportation sector, with passenger vehicles making up the largest portion of that.
Curbing pollution from passenger vehicles won’t be easy. And if the state invests in the wrong infrastructure, those goals could become impossible. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal would be a big swerve in the wrong direction.
The $600 million Newsom calls for cutting from the ATP, at a rate of $200 million a year, won’t begin to make a dent in the state’s massive budget shortfall — let alone California’s bloated $18 billion highway fund.
Yes, that’s $18 billion, with a B.
Yet Newsom seems to think shifting the money from the already underfunded Active Transportation budget to filling potholes and widening highways will somehow send a message.
About what, I don’t know. Because it barely adds up to more than a rounding error in the state transportation budget.
Newsom might as well pile the money in the middle of the 5 Freeway and torch it, for all the difference it would make for the state’s highways. Which would probably cause a lot less harm to the environment than what he has in mind.
Yet that $200 million missing from the state’s Active Transportation budget could fund up to 200 miles of separated, mixed-use pathways. Or 2,000 miles of the kind of separated bike lanes that Los Angeles transportation officials like to pretend are protected.
Or even adequately fund California’s moribund joke of an ebike rebate program.
Any of which could actually get people out of their cars and benefit the environment, rather than continuing to do harm.
We can only hope the state legislature rejects Newsom’s proposed budget cuts.
Actually, we can do more than that. A lot more.
Like reach out to our elected representatives and demand — okay, politely request in the strongest possible terms — that we stop flushing massive amounts of money on wasteful highway spending, and put it to far more climate-friendly use.
Here’s what Schneider has to say.
…This month, the commission approved the controversial expansion of Interstate 80 between Davis and Sacramento, which will also cost hundreds of millions of dollars — equivalent to all funded active transportation projects in 2023. Why would we pump more money into projects that work against our climate goals?
The Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, under climate champion and Chair Sen. Scott Wiener, would most likely be amenable to rejecting the proposed cuts to active transportation. If so, it’s critical that L.A.-area Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Budget, gets on board as well. It would take both the Senate and the Assembly to override the governor’s proposal.
As we noted before, the bold initiative to require speed limiting devices on all new cars has been modified to instead require easily ignored warnings for speeding drivers. It was also changed to accommodate the trucking industry’s reluctance to require life-saving sideguards, in an apparent attempt to keep their trucks as deadly as possible. .
The legislature also voted to keep bike riders in bike lanes at risk of right hooks by drivers. Although they probably wouldn’t phrase it quite like that.
And Oceanside Assemblymember Tasha Boerner’s bill to require a separate ebike license for anyone without a driver’s license has thankfully been amended to allow a local pilot of ebike age restrictions and an education diversion program for bicycling tickets, which is already allowed under state law.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
No bias here. A Washington resident blames speeding bicyclists after his doorbell cam captures video of a woman stepping onto a trail in front of a bike rider, who rings his bell in warning, before she gets hit by another bike rider coming the opposite way. Which sounds a lot more like someone crossing the trail without paying attention.
The somewhat less-than-urbanist San Diego Reader says the bike lanes in Serra Mesa are out of control, road diets don’t always work, and the people of San Diego never voted for bike lanes. Except they did, when they elected officials who openly supported bike lanes. And just a hint — it’s not the bikes or bike lanes that make traffic back up, it’s too damn many cars.
The UC Davis student newspaper looks at the history of biking culture in the bike-friendly city. Although as frequent contributor and UC grad student Megan Lynch likes to point out, both the campus and the city could be a lot friendlier.
The Guardianreviews Matthew Modine’s Hard Miles, the fact-based movie where he leads a group of troubled Colorado teens on a grueling 700-mile, two-wheeled journey of discovery.
A North Carolina woman offers bike safety tips, seven months after she was sideswiped by a reckless truck driver while riding her bike, resulting in a long journey to recovery.
Parents in Manchester, England are up in arms over a bike path “plonked” in the middle of a playground, forcing kids to cross it to use various equipment. As much as I hate to admit it, I wish I could say all bike riders are conscientious, polite and safety-conscious, but human nature dictates some will always be otherwise.
An “independent” study commissioned by Lime says London could reduce rental bicycle clutter on the city’s streets by simplifying ebike rules and creating more dockless bikeshare parking.
More proof bikes mean life in disasters, manmade and otherwise. According to Cycling Weekly, “A Palestinian paracycling team based in war-torn Gaza now uses its bikes to transport food and supplies to local neighborhoods while keeping the Paralympic dream alive.” Seriously, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Now you, too, can have your name and logo on the Visma-Lease a Bike team jerseys for the Tour de France. I’d buy space for a BikinginLA patch, but somehow I don’t think an annual income in the high five figures would cover the cost.
February 4, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LADOT sets priorities for state legislation, driver tries to run down Pasadena bike riders, and fallen DC cop was one of us
Thanks to all for the kind words after yesterday’s non-post.
My pain is back down to a more normal — and more tolerable — level, so let’s get on with it.
1 – Reforming state law, allowing LA to lower speed limits (it’s crazy, but today LA doesn’t have control over its own speed limits, and even has to raise speed limits on already dangerous roads!)
2 – Automating speeding tickets using speed safety cameras. Speed is the #1 factor in determining if someone lives or dies when hit by a car, and speed cameras are a proven solution to reduce excessive speeding. Armed officers must be removed from traffic law enforcement, and this is a great way to do it. LADOT has a thoughtful proposal that takes into account privacy and makes sure the burden doesn’t fall disproportionately on communities that can least afford it.
3 – Increase legal protections for the most vulnerable road users(pedestrians and cyclists). This would increase civil fines and penalties in the event of crashes caused by carelessness or driver distraction (ex. texting).
4 – Get rid of handicap placard abuse by reforming the benefits they provide and increasing enforcement, so we can preserve handicap spots for those that truly need it.
And if you want to call on the council to add a fifth priority to address hit-and-run, I won’t complain.
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A report has been circulating on Nextdoor about a driver intentionally trying to run down and brake check a pair of Pasadena bike riders.
I’ve obscured the license plate number since I have no way of verifying the report.
But keep your eyes open if you ride in the area.
And let’s hope the victims reported it to the police, because this is a crime — end could have easily been much worse.
Thanks to Steve Messer for the heads-up.
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Zachary Rynew calls out the sexism that’s been baked into the popular Belgian Waffle Ride in years past.
And which, like podium girls, doesn’t belong in cycling, period.
I felt like something had to be said on my @GravelBikeCal FB page after the sexist messaging around BWR earlier this week. What would you expect from the comments…. pic.twitter.com/qjrAeDmoLs
Caltrans Bay Area (District 4) manages nearly 1,400 miles of State Highway corridors throughout the Bay Area. The goal of this Study is to understand where Bike Highways may be installed alongside State Highway corridors.https://t.co/24ry91nC1p
Know about Kittie Knox? She changed biking forever by challenging white elitism in bicycling during the late 1800s. #BlackCyclingHistory "Take some time each week to focus on how you are keeping cycling as an elitist group instead of a big tent.” –https://t.co/CpgqvaeJhZpic.twitter.com/F9Uj9RkiSK
The Portland driver who deliberately ran down numerous bike riders and pedestrians in a wild 15-block rampage, killing one and injuring at least ten others, has been hit with a well-deserved 31-count indictment, including a second degree murder charge.
New York’s Suffolk County is confronting complaints about teen bicyclists swarming the streets by banning trick riding, weaving or zig-zagging “unless necessary,” as well as requiring a horn or bell, at least one hand on the handlebars, and no more than one person per bicycle, along with a raft of other requirements.
DC’s Vision Zero program actually has some teeth, requiring that any construction work on streets “pre-identified as a candidate for a protected bike lane, bus-only lane or private-vehicle-free corridor” has to include it in the final project.
November 20, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LACBC virtual holiday celebration, Calbike agenda reveal, and this is who we share the road — and the bike path — with
Think of it as a legislative baby reveal, when Calbike officially unveils their 2021 agenda next month.
@bikinginla CalBike is excited to announce our ambitious 2021 agenda. Join us for our agenda reveal party (no fireworks, we promise) on December 3, 2020. We'd love to hear what you think. When: Thursday, December 3, 5:00 to 6:00 pm PT Where: Online. https://t.co/bOoYCy8K5j?
The LAPD is looking for a woman who abandoned her vehicle after slamming into another car in a fiery crash while participating in a speed contest, as well as a second driver who helped her flee.
Cyclists in Denver this morning are encountering a car stuck between fence rails of a bike/ped bridge over the South Platte River. pic.twitter.com/jkkrvcROmg
Jets rookie safety Ashtyn Davis does not have a car and still rides a bike to work every day. This morning it was 23 degrees. He said it is a 10 minute ride. Impressive for a California guy.
