Not again.
For the second time in just over a month, someone has been found down next to a bicycle in a Boyle Heights intersection after an apparent hit-and-run.
But this time, the victim was still alive, though severely injured.
According to KTLA-5, the victim was discovered at Cesar Chavez Ave and Fickett Street around 11:18 Sunday night, just two miles from where a man was found dead at 7th Street and Boyle Ave on January 29th.
There’s no information at this time on the identity of the victim, or any description of the suspect vehicle or the driver.
A photo from the scene shows a dark colored bicycle with flat handlebars, with a plastic shopping bag hanging from the left handgrip.
Let’s hope the victim makes a full and fast recovery.
And that police find the heartless coward who left them there.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.
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The Westchester Playa del Rey Neighborhood Council is hosting a special meeting tonight to discuss traffic safety improvements around Pershing and Manchester.
Apparently, it only took the death of a 36-year old mother and her unborn baby to spur them into action, and consider re-reversing the Complete Streets improvements that were installed in 2017, then ripped out later that same year to appease angry motorists.
Not to mention business owners who somehow thought they’d get more sales from drivers zooming past, usually without stopping, than from people who could safely walk or bike to their establishments.
But hey, if I sound disgusted, it’s only because I am.
So if you live, work, walk or bike in the area, or know anyone who does, you owe it to yourself to be there tonight. Or at the very least, take the survey from CD11’s Traci Park.
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We’ve recently featured Calmatters‘ excellent License to Kill series discussing California’s lax DUI laws, and how the state seemingly goes out of its way to keep dangerous drivers on the streets.
So I thought I’d share a legislative update I received yesterday from CalMatters Investigative Editor Andrew Donohue.
Really quick:
The Legislature has planned a number of hearings in the coming days that I thought you might want to know about.
Tomorrow (March 3): The Assembly Public Safety Committee will take up discussion on a bill to tighten punishments for repeat drunk drivers and another bill to close a diversion loophole that allows people charged with vehicular manslaughter to avoid having the case on their driving record.
The meeting starts at 9 a.m. You can attend in person (room 126 of the State Capitol) or remotely. The bills are two of many issues on the agenda.
The bills address two issues we’ve covered in our investigation: the state’s weak DUI laws and how the diversion program means you can face more consequences for a speeding ticket than a deadly crash.
(The committee is also slated to tackle two more related bills the following week.)
March 10: The Senate Transportation Committee will hold an informational hearing titled “Examining California’s DUI and Traffic Safety Laws.” It’s the first such hearing in well over a decade.
We don’t yet know who will be speaking, but it will begin at 1:30 pm at 1021 O Street, Room 1200. You can also stream the live video or audio.
If you can’t make these hearings but would love to watch or read what happened after, we’ll also have access to recordings and a transcript. If you’d like me to send those to you when they become available, reply to this email and let me know.
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Streetsblog reports LADOT will host a couple meetings to discuss the long overdue safety changes to Westwood Blvd.
Starting Thursday 3/5 – The L.A. City Transportation Department (LADOT) will host two Westwood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project public input meetings. The in-person meeting will be Thursday 3/5 from 6-8 p.m. at Westwood’s Village Square at 1109 Westwood Boulevard. The virtual meeting will take place on Thursday 3/19 from 6-8 p.m. via Zoom. Details at LADOT newsletter.
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Ask, and ye shall be answered.
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Is Ed Sheeran one of us, or is it just AI?
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
The decision to reverse an Encinitas CA Complete Streets project means the city will rip out a protected bike lane in front of a public high school with more than two thousand students.
Middlesbrough, England is removing what’s been called the UK’s “most hated” bike lane, after it was criticized for causing injuries and offering a “clear getaway” for shoplifters and drug dealers — never mind that it will cost over a million dollars more to remove the four-year old bikeway than it cost to put in.
Someone in the UK seems to be responsible for an epic screwup, after a 13-year old girl was injured falling off a scooter on a new bike lane, where the red grit surface somehow wasn’t bonded to the roadway.
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Local
Culver City is creating a weekly bike bus starting at 8 am today, and continuing every Tuesday going forward.
West Hollywood is responding to a rash of residential burglaries by putting sheriff’s deputies on bicycles, which gives them the ability to respond quickly, go where patrol cars can’t, and roll up silently on suspects and crime scenes.
Burbank will post a table on the Chandler Bikeway from 9 am to 12:30 pm this Saturday to answer questions and solicit input about planned bicycle infrastructure in the city, focusing on the upcoming extension of the Chandler Bikeway; you’ll find them at the east end of the bike path at Chandler Blvd and Mariposa Street.
State
Sad news from bike-friendly Davis, where a woman riding a bicycle was killed in a collision with a teen ebike rider on a popular bike path.
National
He gets it. A writer for Mountain Bike Action pens an open letter to the bike industry, saying we need to stop calling anything with an electric motor an ebike, and create clear distinctions between electric bicycles, electric mopeds and electric motorcycles.
A surprising new mural in the Downtown Las Vegas Arts District celebrates the Southern Nevada Bicycle Coalition’s “Let’s Get There Together” safety campaign. I mean, who knew Las Vegas even had an arts district?
They get it, too. Police in St. George, Utah cited a driver for hitting a bike-riding boy in a right-hook crash, leaving the kid with minor injuries; she was cited even though a cop said utility boxes and the position of the sun could have obscured her view of the boy, adding “Regardless, you still have to yield the right of way, especially when you’re at stop signs.” Can we hire that guy to be our LAPD police chief? Pretty please?
A Sioux Falls software engineer has ridden his bicycle to work every day for the past ten years, continuing a streak that began in 2016. Which isn’t easy to do through a single South Dakota winter, let alone ten.
That’s more like it. A 69-year old Louisiana man was sentenced to 9 years behind bars for the hit-and-run that killed a 67-year old man riding a bicycle, along with six months for driving while intoxicated, to be served consecutively. Or concurrently. Or maybe both.
A 30-year old Greensboro, North Carolina man has pled guilty to scamming bicycle companies out of tens of thousands of dollars worth of high-end bikes by posing as a North Carolina-based bicyclist and YouTuber with nearly 4 million followers on his two channels.
Nope, no bias here. A Florida county discusses “essential safety protocols and the legal responsibilities shared by all road users” with a huge graphic listing a dozen safety accessories for people on bicycles, along with advice to use that safety equipment, wear a properly fitting bike helmet and replace it after a crash, and follow the same laws as drivers and use hand signals — then tells drivers to just remain vigilant and give bike riders at least three feet passing distance.
International
Momentum says London’s annual Tweed Run could be the quirkiest bike ride on the planet, as participants dress in their finest early 20th Century attire.
Dubliners make over half a million journeys by bike and foot every day, after investing the equivalent of nearly $700 million in active transportation over just the past five years, in a metro area with a population of less than 1.4 million.
South African seniors are taking advantage of the coastal climate and the health benefits of bicycling by taking up gravel riding.
Competitive Cycling
Dutch cyclist Rick Pluimers proves hockey players aren’t the only ones who sacrifice teeth for their sport, after landing face first on the cobbles of Omloop Nieuwsblad. I sacrificed mine to diabetes, so same thing, right?
Finally…
That feeling when you finish first in a race after a nearly 40-mile solo breakaway, then get DQ’d for illegal brakes that were legal when you started. Or when your wheel blows up because you didn’t fix a damn flat.
And nothing like a purported eco website apparently using AI to say bike lanes make traffic worse — without apparently knowing there’s a difference between New York City and New York State.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
