Tag Archive for Long Beach

An expert analysis of tickets and bike seizures in the Long Beach Critical Mass fiasco.

November 8, 2010 / / 13 comments

For the past few years, Long Beach has been the beautiful face of cycling in Southern California, showing the state what a bike-friendly community can be.

But these days, that face has an ugly black eye, thanks to the local police department’s heavy-handed crackdown on the city’s first “official” Critical Mass ride, despite organizer’s repeated attempts to get the city’s cooperation. And many area cyclists find themselves questioning whether any city can truly be bike friendly when the authorities seem to make up the law as they go along, and seize bikes with no apparent legal justification whatsoever.

Recently, Al Williams forwarded me an email written by Alan Wachtel, legislative liaison for the California Association of Bicycle Organizations, in response to that crackdown.

In it, he offered an expert analysis of the citations issued by the LBPD, as well the department’s authority to impound the rider’s bikes — by far, the most detailed and complete examination of the subject I’ve seen. As a result, I contacted Wachtel, and got his permission to share the email with you.

.………

Citations issued to the cyclists included:

  • B240497 – Running stop sign
  • 21201 – No Brakes
  • 1050020 – No Registration;
  • Riding more than two abreast (Code 1048040)
  • Turning off lights after getting pulled over
  • No horns/bells
  • Riding an unsafe vehicle

The Vehicle Code preempts all local regulation of bicycles, except as expressly authorized. The affected cyclists should hire a lawyer not only to get these bogus citations dismissed, but to sue the City for harassment.

B240497 – Running stop sign: This appears to be a citation number rather than a code violation, which should be VC 22450. Whether it’s valid depends on the violation alleged and the facts; however, nothing in the Vehicle Code requires a cyclist to put a foot down in order to make a legal stop.

21201 – No Brakes: Vehicle Code 21201 requires that “(a) No person shall operate a bicycle on a roadway unless it is equipped with a brake which will enable the operator to make one braked wheel skid on dry, level, clean pavement.” It’s arguable that backpedaling on a fixie qualifies, because the fixed gear itself can be considered the brake. In any case, it shouldn’t matter how the bike is made to skid.

1050020 – No Registration: I.e., Long Beach Municipal Code section 10.50.020, which says that “No person shall ride or propel any bicycle upon any street, alley, park or bicycle path or other public place in the city which is not registered, or for which the appropriate fee has not been paid or which does not bear a bicycle plate as required by the provisions of this chapter.” But the Vehicle Code provides that:

39002. (a) A city or county, which adopts a bicycle licensing ordinance or resolution, may provide in the ordinance or resolution that no resident shall operate any bicycle, as specified in the ordinance, on any street, road, highway, or other public property within the jurisdiction of the city or county, as the case may be, unless the bicycle is licensed in accordance with this division.

Non-residents therefore may not be cited, and the maximum fine for residents is $10 (section 39011). Moreover, the Vehicle Code no longer allows impoundment for lack of registration.

Riding more than two abreast (Code 1048040): I.e., L.B.M.C. section 10.48.040: “Persons operating bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast, except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.” Invalid because preempted by the Vehicle Code.

Turning off lights after getting pulled over: Vehicle Code section 21201(d)(1) requires “A lamp emitting a white light that, while the bicycle is in motion, illuminates the highway, sidewalk, or bikeway in front of the bicyclist and is visible from a distance of 300 feet in front and from the sides of the bicycle” (thus allowing for generators). There is no requirement to display a light when stopped.

No horns/bells: Seems to refer to L.B.M.C. section 10.48.080: “No person shall operate a bicycle upon a sidewalk unless it is equipped with a bell, horn or other device capable of giving a signal audible for a distance of at least one hundred feet, except that a bicycle shall not be equipped with, nor shall any person use upon a bicycle, any siren or whistle.” But this applies only on sidewalks (and if it did include the street, it would be preempted by the Vehicle Code).

Riding an unsafe vehicle: Vehicle Code section 24002 provides: “(a) It is unlawful to operate any vehicle or combination of vehicles which is in an unsafe condition, or which is not safely loaded, and which presents an immediate safety hazard.” But a bicycle is not a vehicle, and this section belongs to Division 12, “Equipment of Vehicles,” which does not apply to bicycles.

Impounding vehicles: Vehicle Code sections 22651 through 22711 set forth the authority to impound a vehicle, such as when it’s abandoned or illegally parked, or the driver is incapacitated or arrested. But I see nothing that would authorize what happened in Long Beach. Even in the case of a bicycle that was arguably unsafe for lacking brakes, Section 24004 provides that “No person shall operate any vehicle or combination of vehicles after notice by a peace officer . . . that the vehicle is in an unsafe condition or is not equipped as required by this code, except as may be necessary to return the vehicle or combination of vehicles to the residence or place of business of the owner or driver or to a garage, until the vehicle and its equipment have been made to conform with the requirements of this code.” So the cyclists should at worst have been allowed to ride home–except that this provision, too, belongs to Division 12 and doesn’t apply to bicyclists.

.………

Speaking of Long Beach, Mobility Coordinator Charlie Gandy says the city is moving in the right direction, though maybe not as fast as some people would like. The Long Beach Press Telegram provides a quiz on bike rules, along with tips for motorists and cyclists. And Bike Long Beach offers a two-part bike traffic skills course; maybe they can offer similar training for the police department.

.………

After the Vail District Attorney refuses to press felony charges against a hit-and-run driver because it could jeopardize his job — as if everyone charged with a crime doesn’t face that problem — Cyclelicious calls for a boycott of the city, and asks the organizers of the Quiznos Pro Challenge to drop the planned Vail stage of next year’s inaugural race. Works for me.

Meanwhile, People For Bikes directs your attention to a petition asking the Eagle County CO District Attorney to protect all road users, and BikePortland calls it yet another black eye for bikes in Colorado.

.………

Thanks to soon-to-be former Congressman Jim Oberstar for his support of cycling issues. Not surprisingly, conservatives are already gearing up to push for an auto-centric transportation policy; meanwhile, Richard Risemberg, writing for Orange 20 Bikes,  says fiscal conservatives should be big fans of bicycling.

.………

L.A.’s proposed cyclist anti-harassment ordinance goes before the full City Council at 10 am this Wednesday, November 10, at Downtown City Hall. As long as you’re Downtown, you can join in on the third, and hopefully final, Ed Magos Ride for Justice that takes place on Wednesday at noon.

.………

It only looks like the Give Me 3 posters are starting to come down; then again, you can always download your own poster. Despite claims, L.A.’s bike plan is surprisingly non-ambitious. The students who live in North Westwood Village face some of the worst streets in Los Angeles; thanks to Be A Green Commuter for the link. The Claremont Cyclist offers great photos from the first day of L.A.’s first Griffith Park Cyclocross — as well as a photo of a competitor’s bike that was stolen after the competition; there’s a special place in hell for bike thieves — and here’s another great shot from dudeonabike. Sometimes, it’s not hard to tell that the people responsible for placing bike racks don’t ride themselves. Robbers push a Pasadena teenager off the bike he was riding, and steal it and his cell phone; meanwhile, San Francisco bike thieves slash a cyclist who resisted their robbery attempt, but get caught a few blocks later. Critics file suit against a proposed project to widen Highway 101 through Ventura County — not because in would increase the highway from four to six lanes, but because it includes a bike lane on the ocean side.

Cyclists need dedicated pathways, not shared-use paths that don’t work for anyone; South Carolina cyclists could face a 20 mph speed limit on a popular bike path. The problem with treating bikes equally with other traffic is that traffic laws weren’t written with bikes in mind. A Facebook group says we’re people on bikes, not lifeless obstacles in your way. Do we need a special slowpoke lane on bike paths and sidewalks? Portland plans to upgrade bike boulevards to Neighborhood Greenways. A Utah mother forgives the driver who killed her 11-year old bike riding daughter. A look at the Denver premier of Race Across the Sky, a movie about the 2010 Leadville 100 mountain bike race won by Levi Leipheimer. A Tampa Bay hit-and-run victim shows that no life is unimportant.

UCI rules Alberto Contador will face disciplinary action over his failed drug test. Aussie researchers call for scrapping the country’s mandatory helmet laws. An 18-year old Aussie cyclist, a gold medalist in the Commonwealth Games, is suspended after drunk driving collision that left a friend with serious injuries. Australian police force a teenage cyclist to deflate his tires and walk home after catching him riding without a helmet. A Kiwi cyclist asks if it’s unreasonable to expect off-road riders to be considerate of other trail users — and their dogs.

Finally, No Whip does the inconceivable and discovers the seemingly impossible by riding a bike to LAX to catch a flight, and discovering a bike rack in front of Terminal 1 — and actually finds his bike safe on his return four days later.

And best wishes to Claremont Cyclist, who succumbed to the national job layoff epidemic of today; let’s all hope he gets a bigger, better job soon.

Category: Bikes & the Law, General, Guest Columns / Tags: , , , ,

Apparently, bicycling’s own Bull Connor is alive and well and living in Long Beach

November 2, 2010 / / 14 comments

In case you’re still wondering why you need to vote today, consider this.

Even in the most bike-friendly city in Southern California, a seemingly out-of-control police department can engage in a heavy-handed crackdown on cyclists.

Not only did the Long Beach police department halt the city’s first Critical Mass ride for lack of a permit — raising questions over the rider’s First Amendment right to free association and freedom of assembly — they seized up to 40 bikes with no apparent legal basis.

Or at least, no police officer I’ve spoken with was aware of any law that would allow a mass seizure of legally owned bikes.

Maybe they have a different set of laws down there.

One of the reasons for the seizure cited in the Times article was a lack of brakes on 11 of the bikes. Yet the standard under state law only requires that the operator must be able to make one wheel skid on dry, level, clean pavement — a standard that most fixies can easily meet.

Any guesses whether the officers made the riders try to skid their bikes before taking them?

Yeah, I don’t think so either.

The article also says that bikes must be registered with the city and inspected by the fire department. Yet under state law, such local licensing requirements can only be enforced against city residents, and cannot be applied to anyone who lives in a different jurisdiction or is just riding through the city.

And the law only allows for a maximum fine of $10 for not having a license. Nothing in the law allows for the seizure of a bike for not having a license — even for local residents.

The official statement from the city, which goes to great lengths to remind everyone what a cycling Nirvana Long Beach is — or rather, was prior to Friday — says 21 bikes were impounded, and over 70 citations issued. It also claims the riders chose not to get a permit, even though the Times story reports that they attempted to get a permit for the past two months.

And even though that pesky little First Amendment seems to make a permit unnecessary. Does Long Beach plan to crack down on any group of riders who happen to gather together for a ride?

Or only the ones that call themselves Critical Mass?

As more details come to light, the words of Police Chief Jim McDonnell sound even more chilling than they did over the weekend:

“The group known as Critical Mass travels from city to city and as a matter of practice engages in dangerous conduct, violating every rule of the road and endangering the public.” said Police Chief Jim McDonnell. “We take bicycle safety seriously in Long Beach and will not stand by idly while any person or group acts with blatant disregard for safety of the residents of our community.”

If you’ve been reading this for awhile, you may know that I’ve never been a fan of Critical Mass. And I’m the first to agree that police have every right to write up cyclists for legitimate violations such as running stop signs and not having lights after dark.

On the other hand, I’m even less a fan of police officers who seem to operate under their own version of the law. If this is how the “most bicycle friendly city in America” treats cyclists, God help the rest of us.

I thought this kind of policing went out of style with Bull Connor in the ‘60s.

But clearly, not everyone agrees.

.………

More information about the memorial ride for Jim Laing, the cyclist who was killed by an alleged drunk hit-and-run driver on October 23rd.

The ride is tentatively scheduled to begin at 8 am on Saturday, November 20th, at the Agoura Bicycle John’s at Kanan Road and East Thousand Oaks Blvd, and will pass by the site where he was killed on Agoura Road. It will be short, and slow to moderate pace, so it should be something anyone can feel comfortable participating in.

The early start may make it difficult for me to get out there in time for the ride, but I’m going to do my best to be there.

Because we need remember all those cyclists who have died needlessly on our streets, and let their loved ones know we share their grief.

And make it clear that too damn many of us have died already.

Thanks to Dave Mace for the information.

Category: General / Tags: , , , ,

Unidentified cyclist killed in Long Beach Friday night

June 26, 2010 / / Comments Off on Unidentified cyclist killed in Long Beach Friday night

A bicyclist was hit by a pickup around 11:46 pm Friday at Carson Street and Woodruff Avenue in Long Beach.

According to the L.A. Times, the cyclist, identified only as a 58-year old man from La Palma, was riding west on Carson when he was struck from behind by a 70-year old driver; he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Identification of the victim has been withheld pending notification of his next of kin.

Category: General / Tags: , ,

Long Beach Bike Fest this weekend, River Ride’s just a month away

May 7, 2010 / / One comment

First up, a quick reminder that we’re just under a month from L.A.’s largest and most popular organized group ride, the 10th Annual Los Angeles River Ride, rolling June 6th from Griffith Park. Six rides to choose from, ranging from a free kid’s ride to a full century. And you only have one more week to save $10 on early registration.

And speaking of the LACBC, they invite you to attend the 7th Stage of the Amgen Tour of California at Staples Center on Saturday, May 22nd.

………

If you’re looking for things to do this weekend, you could do worse than a Will Campbell-led tour of Watts. Or maybe you’d prefer a quick trip down to Long Beach for the last two days of the Long Beach Bike Festival; Streetsblog interviews the filmmaker behind Riding Bikes with the Dutch, premiering Sunday as part of the festival.

I’m sure L.A. will sponsor it’s own bike festival any day month decade century now. But at least we get Bike to Work Week.

………

If you’re looking for something to do next Wednesday, have a little LAPD BBQ to benefit Kristina Ripatti-Pearce, the former LAPD officer who retired after being partially disabled when she was shot on duty — and currently training for this year’s Race Across America (RAAM).

………

A Santa Monica council member says if a better bikeway system can get just 10% of the city’s cars off the street, their traffic problems will be solved. Stephen Box says LAPD Chief Beck’s words don’t mean anything if they don’t translate to the street beat. L.A.’s Department of City Planning has a rare opportunity to reshape the city’s DNA. Bikeside speaks at Bikerowave on May 22nd. Mr. Bicycle Fixation himself is now writing for the Orange 20 website. A very cool look at South L.A.’s Black Kids on Bikes Freedom Ride. A look at the five best bikeways in L.A. Neon Tommy tests a Walmart fixie. A 64-year old cyclist riding without lights is killed in Twentynine Palms. The CHP offers advice on how to share the road for cyclists and motorists. Support for a San Jose cyclist left severely brain-damaged by a hit-and-run driver. Reno gets a bike boulevard that isn’t. In a bizarre bike safety spot, a bike riding octopus takes a spill and injures one of his eight appendages — which is, evidently, proof that you should wear a helmet. The latest update from Long Beach’s biking expats documents a week in Fort Worth. John Leguizamo offers advice on how to ride in the city. How bike collisions — not accidents — occur in Orlando. Overflowing bike racks are a good problem to have. Graphic proof that safety in numbers really works. Baltimore considers five bills to benefit bicyclists. Another Chicago cyclist intentionally run down by a driver. It may be ugly, but it’s electric — and wireless. Another dead British bicyclist, another slap on the wrist; but life in prison for the road raging driver who killed a cyclist for damaging his mirror. Five Brit women cyclists training in Belgium are injured when they’re hit by a car. An Ottawa, Canada columnist shows he just doesn’t get it, saying bike lanes will only benefit the few at the expense of the many.

Finally, on the heels of DOT Secretary Ray LaHood’s support for Complete Streets, the Centers for Disease Control recognizes that transportation reform is health reform.

Category: General / Tags: , , , ,

Update — Carson cyclist killed in alleged drunken hit-and-run

April 18, 2010 / / 6 comments

A cyclist is dead, a driver faces a drunk driving murder charge.

The news finally broke this morning that the cyclist critically injured in a hit-and-run collision in Carson has died, and the driver has been arrested.

According to KCBS Channel 2, 40-year old William Keith Square was driving north on Santa Fe Blvd when he struck a cyclist at East 218th Place in Carson about 9:05 last night.

The Times reports that the victim, so far identified only as an adult man from Long Beach, was riding north on Santa Fe when he was struck, and was taken to Long Beach Memorial Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. A bystander wrote down the license number of the dark-colored SUV as the driver fled the scene, leading to Square’s arrest at his home in Long Beach.

Square is being held at the Carson Sheriff’s station on charges of gross vehicular homicide while intoxicated.

Category: General / Tags: , , , ,

A last unleavened look back at StreetSummit

March 31, 2010 / / Comments Off on A last unleavened look back at StreetSummit

A few random thoughts on StreetSummit before we move on to other topics.

Just a portion of those in attendance for StreetSummit

New York Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan credited her amazing success in transforming one of the nation’s most crowded and built-out cities to the support she’s received from the city’s highly motivated mayor.

In Los Angeles, where the traffic demands of a built-out city are often used as a reason for attempting little and accomplishing less, our transportation officials have yet to receive a level of support that would give LADOT leader Rita Robinson the political cover she needs to begin the long overdue transformation of L.A.’s transportation picture.

Whether she has the will or desire to take action is another question. As is whether L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa will move beyond his newfound support of CicLAvia and his bold 30/10 plan, and use the political freedom provided by his final term in office to truly transform the livability of this city. And in the process, effectively position himself for higher office.

Or we can continue to follow an unsustainable auto-centric traffic model until it kills us — literally and figuratively.

………

Meanwhile, Long Beach’s seemingly sudden transformation into SoCal’s most bike-friendly community followed a different pattern.

While the city’s Mobility Coordinator Charlie Gandy — the man once named America’s #1 Bike Advocate and the closest thing we may ever see to our own Sadik-Khan — gave credit to the support he’s received from elected officials and the business community, other members of his panel told a different story.

Professional cyclist and Long Beach Bike Ambassador Tony Cruz, BikeStation President and CEO Andrea White-Kjoss and Long Beach Bicycle Festival Director Mark Bixby talked about their 10-year struggle to change local attitudes that began long before Gandy arrived in the city. And refusing to give up despite the knee-jerk anti-bike opposition they initially faced.

When they failed to place a bike boulevard on one street, they simply moved to another street and got the support of local residents and business people before going forward. And kept plugging away until attitudes slowly shifted.

That’s the same model that has lead to whatever limited success we’ve had here in L.A. — and the one we’ll most likely have to follow in the absence of an unexpected turnaround from L.A.’s mayor and transportation officials.

………

As the photo to the right shows, one of N.Y.’s boldest moves has not only proven to be exceptionally popular, but extremely effective, as well.

Closing a long swath of Broadway to vehicular traffic didn’t result in the disastrous gridlock many people predicted. Instead, it actually improved traffic flow while reducing injuries.

We know that because the city tracked vehicular and pedestrian traffic, as well as accident and injury rates, both before and after the transformation.

So there’s no argument that it hasn’t been a success. And no one has to guess what effect it’s had. It’s all right there in black and white. Or sort of a bluish grey and green, anyway.

Their stat tracking ability has also allowed the city to set definitive goals going forward — like doubling bicycle commuting and cutting traffic deaths by 50%. That’s in addition to more concrete goals like continuing to stripe bike lanes at a rate of 50 miles a year.

And that is the key argument in transforming our own streets.

Do we want to continue to follow the L.A. model of moving ever more cars through our streets, with ever decreasing efficiency — while adding bike lanes at an annual rate less than 5% of New York’s? Or do we want to ensure that more of the people who use those streets get home safely, even if that means arriving at your destination a few minutes later?

………

That was something else Charlie Gandy addressed.

What has fueled Long Beach’s rapid transformation was a shift in transportation priorities from moving more cars to livable streets. And changing the city’s privileged class from motorists to pedestrians, bicyclists and businesses, along with a willingness to accept a certain level of congestion in order the achieve other goals.

And that seems like a reasonable trade-off to me.

………

Going back to Sadik-Khan’s discussion of the Broadway transformation, given the success of the project, it’s easy to forget that it started out as an experiment. Broadway was initially closed on a temporary basis; it was only a few weeks ago that the closure became permanent.

And that was something else she stressed.

Bike infrastructure is relatively inexpensive — especially compared to other forms of transportation projects. “You can do a lot with a paintbrush and a paint can,” she said.

And it doesn’t have to be permanent.

“You have to experiment, try things out,” she insisted. “If it doesn’t work, okay, you move on and try something else.”

“There’s no risk, except falling behind and not being imaginative.”

We can only hope that LADOT was paying attention.

………

One last thought before moving on to today’s linkage.

The panel I hosted on bikes and political action at StreetSummit resulted in a clear mandate for a Los Angeles branch of Austin’s successful League of Bicycling Voters. In fact, over 80% of the people who attended the workshop put their email addresses on an impromptu interest list.

More on that soon.

I also left with an invitation from Charlie Gandy to come down to Long Beach and take a look at what they’re doing down there.

And I plan to take him up on that.

………

Josef Bray-Ali may say he’s running out of ideas, but this last one’s brilliant — changing the laws that require parking spaces for residential or retail development to allow bike parking, instead.

………

L.A. is a bike Mecca — or at least it was, 113 years ago. The LACBC reports on the East L.A. meeting for the county bike plan, and will work with the South Bay Bicycle Coalition to develop a plan for the South Bay region. Dr. Alex is highly critical of LACBC’s leap into planning and LADOT’s new blog — and takes Damien to task for being too “balanced” in a story about LADOT’s new blog. Stephen Box takes Metro to task for the non-opening of the long unplanned Bike Room at Hollywood and Vine. Learning to ride in L.A. from the perspective of a veteran driver. Mark your calendar for Bike Night at the Hammer Museum on April 8th. Riders on San Francisco’s Wiggle wobble, but they don’t fall down. A 40-year old cyclist must have caught some serious air to cross onto the other side of the road and hit a car head on; thanks to Opus the Poet for the link. The California Bicycle Advisory Committee is scheduled to discuss bike boxes on April 8th. Road rash is a common — and painful — part of cycling. Tell me about it. Even in these Tea Party days, most Americans support safe walking and biking. If an attractive, cycle-chic woman can be invisible on a bike, there’s no hope for any of us. A busy Portland bridge gets a lovely 15-foot wide bike lane. Free bike use for hotel guests in DC. Contending with BPRs (Bike Path Racers) while riding at rush hour in Seattle. A follow-up to Sunday’s information-free story about a cyclist in my hometown critically injured in a left hook collision. The L.A. Times discusses bike sharing in Los Angeles Mexico City (sorry, from the description of car culture-crowded streets and rude, uncaring drivers, it’s hard to tell the difference). Lance, Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins all get invitations to this years Tour; Dutch teams get shut out despite the Netherlands start. AMEX demands compensation from a Dutch cyclist who damaged a rental car by allowing it to run into her. London’s long-planned bike sharing program — or scheme, as the Brits would say — becomes a reality July 30th. Britain’s pedaling posties are being phased out for safety reasons. Buy a home, get a bike. After surviving the war in Afghanistan, a British soldier dies trying to dodge a 15-foot pothole on his bike. Israeli cyclists protest a ban on riding in national parks. Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority encourages people to ride bikes; Dubai Police respond by confiscating them.

Finally, more proof that bikes are entering the mainstream — a full-head helmet wearing bank robber makes his getaway on a red BMX bike, just days after a similar BMX getaway near Seattle; no report on whether they attempted to leap any cars as they fled.

Happy Passover!

Category: General / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Memorial rides and ghost bike for Gustavo Ramirez tonight and tomorrow

January 15, 2010 / / Comments Off on Memorial rides and ghost bike for Gustavo Ramirez tonight and tomorrow

Just a quick reminder about the memorial ride and ghost bike dedication for Gustavo Ramirez. The popular Manhattan Beach REI employee killed when he collided with a semi-truck on East Shoreline Drive in Long Beach last week.

Actually, there will be two rides.

The first will take place tonight, meeting at 8 pm at Lincoln Park in Long Beach, and leaving at 8:30 pm, following one of Gustavo’s favorite routes.

The second will take place tomorrow morning, following the same route and stopping at the memorial. The ride meets at the same location at 8 am, departing at 9 am.

Full details are available on the Midnight Ridazz website for both Friday’s and Saturday’s rides, as well as on the ghostbikes.org website.

Hats off to the Ridazz for organizing these rides and preparing the ghost bike, and deepest sympathies to Gustavo’s family and friends.

Let’s make this the last one we’ll need this year.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

A cyclist is killed, ignorance abounds

January 7, 2010 / / 8 comments

Yesterday, Will Campbell was right hooked by a driver in a small car.

A day earlier, a Long Beach cyclist was killed when a truck driver did virtually the same thing.

In the video he posted, you can clearly see the car cut directly across Will’s path, and his rapid reduction in speed as he brakes hard to avoid a collision. And you can hear his restraint as he urges the driver to be more careful in the future.

Now contrast that with the incident in Long Beach, in which an experienced cyclist collided with a semi-truck making a right turn.

According to published reports, Gustavo Ramirez, a 30-year old resident of the Belmont Shore area, was riding eastbound on the sidewalk along East Shoreline Drive in Long Beach about 10:30 am Tuesday, when he hit the side of the truck as it turned onto Shoreline Village Drive. The driver reportedly had missed his exit off the 710 Freeway and was attempting to turn around when the collision occurred.

The popular cyclist, who worked at the Manhattan Beach REI, had survived another recent accident when a car cut him off while riding in the Bixby Knolls area.

Charles Gandy, the mobility coordinator for the city, was quoted as saying that many cyclists feel uncomfortable riding a busy street with no bike lanes like Shoreline Drive, so they may prefer to ride on the sidewalk.

Judging by the city’s website, that may or may not be legal. Long Beach’s municipal code suggests that riding on the sidewalk is allowed in most areas, with a maximum speed limit of 15 mph — 5 mph when pedestrians are present. However, there are a number of exceptions where it’s prohibited; I don’t know the area well enough to say if any of those would apply around there.

Then again, as complicated as the exceptions are, I’m not sure if anyone else does, either.

As a general rule, I advise against riding on the sidewalk, because drivers anticipate cyclists on the sidewalk even less than they do on the street, and aren’t likely to look for you when they’re pulling out of a driveway or turning onto a cross street. In fact, according to a 1998 study by Dr. William Moritz, there’s a 24.8 times greater risk for cyclists riding on the sidewalk as compared to a typical street with no cycling facilities.

However, I can also understand why a cyclist would make an exception there. The southern end of the 710 Freeway dumps heavy traffic directly onto the street just blocks from where Ramirez was killed; more than a few drivers fail to make the mental adjustment from freeway to surface street driving.

It’s clear from the description of the incident that Ramirez collided with the truck, rather than the other way around, striking it on the right side just behind the cab.

Some of the comments online suggest that proves he was at fault. But as Will’s video clearly shows, when a driver turns in front of you without warning, there’s not much you can do except jam on your brakes and pray. If there’s time.

The fact that Ramirez hit the truck just behind the cab suggests that the driver was just beginning his turn when the collision occurred, so there probably wasn’t enough time to react. It also implies that he was probably already alongside the truck when it turned, so he might not have been in a position to see its turn signal, assuming the driver used it.

And even if he was wearing earphones, as a friend of his suggested, it’s highly unlikely that any experienced cyclist would be unaware of such a large truck on the roadway right next to him.

It’s more likely that the driver failed to see Ramirez before turning in front of him; a classic right hook. And a heartbreaking tragedy for his family and friends.

Still, that didn’t stop the usual online comments blaming cyclists from running red lights, calling for licensing and testing — or expecting cyclists to yield regardless of who has the right of way. Or even demanding that the new health care plans impose a surcharge on people who engage in risky behavior like riding a bike.

And that’s not counting the many comments that were deleted for being too offensive. Like the ones questioning whether Ramirez — or the driver — were in the country legally, just because of their names.

It’s tragic enough when any human being loses his life. But no one should have to die simply for riding a bike.

And it shouldn’t be an opportunity for people who hide behind the anonymity of the internet to show just how little compassion and common sense they have.

Members of Midnight Ridazz are planning a ghost bike and memorial ride for Friday the 15th.

………

A Downtown cyclist was run down by a hit-and-run driver yesterday, yet somehow managed to avoid serious injuries. Damien offers the definitive response to the bike plan; the deadline for comments is tomorrow. An L.A. rider tries, and fails, to reach Downtown by following the county bike map. Flying Pigeon gets Belgian-made Achielle bikes in stock. An East Coast cyclist learns to take the whole lane — and in a skirt, no less. Ft. Collins, CO cyclists demand equality, and get the same traffic-calming surcharge drivers face. A New York school bus driver backs over a cyclist in a fatal collision. A Louisville writer goes car-free, and gets a new Pashley. A North Carolina newspaper complains about a planned bike route for “design cyclists,” whatever that is. The League of American cyclists wants to make U.S. university campuses bike friendly. London cyclists outrace the Tube. The hit-and-run plague even extends to Oxford Dons. Adelaide cyclists get a boost in infrastructure spending. A Canadian cyclist is killed by a truck’s oversize load, yet the court rules no one is at fault. Tips on riding in the snow, not that it’s an issue here. Finally, proof that not all cyclists are nice people, even in Copenhagen; then again, neither is everyone who offers to help recover your bike.

Category: Bicycle Safety, General, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,
  Recent Entries »
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee