He was pronounced dead at the scene. He has been identified only as a 32-year old Long Beach resident.
The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators; at this time, police don’t believe they were distracted, speeding or under the influence.
Anyone with information is urged to call Long Beach Police Department Collision Investigation Detail Detective Kevin Johansen or Detective Jeff Meyer at 562/570-7355.
This is at least the 38th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 14th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and her loved ones.
Jelmert was run down from behind as he neared the finish line of a training ride for this year’s AIDS/LifeCycle Ride, which would have been his seventh time completing the weeklong San Francisco to Los Angeles fundraising ride.
He had already raised over $20,000 for the ride, which could now be lost along with his life.
Thirty-seven-year old Jairo Martinez was attempting to pass another car when he slammed into Martinez with enough force to shatter the windshield of his BMW, as well as Jelmert’s bike. The impact scattered bits of the bike across the hillside, where they were later found by Jelmert’s husband.
The only blessing is that in all probability, Jelmert literally never knew what hit him.
Martinez was arrested by sheriff’s deputies shortly after the crash, after he attempted to run away on foot. At last report, he was being held on suspicion of vehicular homicide, with more charges likely to follow pending results of his blood tests.
Uranga succinctly captures the problem bike riders face riding in the park/freeway bypass.
Griffith Park, which occupies more than 4,000 acres of rolling hills, is popular with cyclists who whiz down its tree-lined roads, often crossing over from the nearby L.A. River bike path.
But the few bike lanes that exist do not have barriers separating riders from cars, according to the L.A. Department of Transportation.
Crystal Springs Drive parallels the 5 Freeway and is sometimes used as a cut-through during traffic jams. The posted speed limit is 25 miles per hour, but many drivers go significantly faster.
Too often, drivers come off the 5 and 134 Freeways, and continue through the park at freeway speeds.
I’ve had the crap scared out of me by speeding drivers using the wide shoulder to pass slower cars on the right, while I was riding on it.
We should all demand — not ask — that city leaders move immediately to block the offramp leading into the park, as the first step in banning cars entirely from Griffith Park.
Let the park flourish as just that — a park, not a high-speed sewer for overly aggressive drivers.
Because the simple fact is, parks are for people, not cars.
And tragedies like this will inevitably keep happening if we don’t.
The 73-year old man from a small village in Mexico’s Sinaloa state was in Long Beach visiting his sister when he suffered shortness of breath, and died 30 minutes after being transported to the emergency room.
However, he went unidentified for weeks because he had left his ID at home, and was considered missing until his body was discovered on Saturday.
Yet another reminder to always carry ID when you ride.
………
Jim Lyle forwards a Nextdoor notice about a Palos Verdes resident targeting people on bicycles.
The male owner of this green truck has been accelerating towards people riding bikes on the street as though he’s intending to hit them with his car. And, I don’t mean the part of the street where cars belong. I mean the parking area near the gutter not in the way of vehicle traffic. He’s done this to me twice, once so close I was sure he was going to hit me. He swerves away before contact. Be aware of this truck if you ride…I don’t know his name or or know him personally. I learned from a neighbor who saw him accerlerate towards me this morning that he’s known for unsafe, aggressive behavior (I wasn’t given other examples). This info has been given to the sherrif’s department as well.
………
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from longtime bike advocate, neighborhood council member and Bicycle Advisory Committee member Glenn Bailey, who forwards photos of Waste Management trash bins illegally blocking the heavily used bike lane on Reseda Blvd in Northridge.
He’s filed a complaint with the city’s Bureau of Sanitation, so hopefully he’ll get a response soon.
Or better yet, actually get action to keep it from happening again.
An LA City Councilmember creating an inspirational 2 minute video about how our roads are for everyone and cyclists deserve to feel safe. So rare. And so on point.
Join Sunset For All and the LACBC as they explore the corridor while promoting local businesses and plans for protected bike lanes on Sunset Blvd.
Our next Coffee Walk is this Saturday! Join us for neighborhood business outreach along Sunset Blvd with @lacbc. Local business support is crucial to the success of Sunset4all–help us share our vision! pic.twitter.com/5QxgCgL8HS
Also from Texas, the owner of a car customization business is catching well-deserved flack after posting video of a pickup driver rolling coal at an unsuspecting bike rider, then claiming to be just “vaguely aware” of the video he himself posted, while suggesting that someone’s personal actions shouldn’t reflect on the business they work for. Or own, evidently.
A Colorado judge dropped the murder case against Barry Morphew, whose wife disappeared without a trace after leaving for a Mother’s Day bike ride two years ago. However, it was dismissed without prejudice, allowing prosecutors to refile when and if they have a better case.
Once again, a bike race spectator has taken down a competitor, as a fan applauding on the side of the roadway caught the handlebars of Belgian pro Yves Lampaert during Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix.
First, thanks for all the kind words and well wishes following my surgery. Things seem to have gone well and are progressing nicely; I have nearly full use of my left hand again, which is more than I could say before the operation.
We have a lot to catch up on. I’ll get through as much as I can today, and try to finish up over the next few days. Including the failed rollout of an innovative San Diego street design.
And my sincere thanks to everyone who sent in tips while I was out, especially for the story below. There’s just too many people to thank everyone individually this time, let alone keep track of.
But I’m truly grateful for all your help.
Fractured bike helmet photo by WikimediaImages from Pixabay.
The victims were found unresponsive, and died later at a local hospital.
There’s no information on their names, or where they’re from in California. However, rumors are circulating that at least one was a popular rider from the Los Angeles area.
Let’s pray it isn’t true.
Forty-seven-year old Julie Ann Budge faces two counts of negligent vehicular homicide, as well as double hit-and-run and DUI charges for the two needless deaths. Hopefully they hosed her down before booking her.
Manuel Aboyte was last seen stopping for lottery tickets at a Circle K gas station in North Long Beach on March 30th.
The 74-year old resident of Sinaloa de Leyva was in the city visiting his sister, who was suffering from illness, and was hospitalized just before he disappeared.
Costa Mesa wants a minute of your time — no, literally — to introduce a new bollard-protected bike lane, as they work to install “high-quality bicycling facilities” throughout the city.
Although as we’ve seen in Los Angeles, a bike lane isn’t really protected if the bollards are spaced widely enough for drivers to park in it.
………
This seems like a good time for a reminder that yellow traffic signs are advisory, and don’t carry the force of law.
Although you’ll definitely get blamed if something goes wrong after you ignore one.
A broadcaster for NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights hockey team is one of us, after suffering “significant injuries” in a bicycling crash. However, it’s not clear if he was struck by a motorist or fell off his bike.
Colorado’s state legislature has approved a true Idaho Stop Law, allowing riders to treat stop signs as yields and red lights as stop signs; the bill is now on the governor’s desk awaiting his signature. Hopefully it won’t suffer the same fate as California’s attempt to allow bicyclists to treat stop signs like yields, which was vetoed by Governor Newsom last year.
A British Columbia man is fighting back after the provincial driver’s insurance agency billed him $3,700 for damage to the Mercedes-Benz that ran him down as he pedaled through an intersection, somehow concluding he was 50% at fault for the crash — even though the driver ran the stop sign.
This is who we share the road with. In yet another example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, a 22-year old British man will spend 30 years behind bars for using a stolen car as a weapon to run down another man outside a pub, dragging him under his car; he was accused of using a vehicle as a weapon twice before, yet somehow kept driving until he killed someone.
Former German great Jan Ulrich raised the equivalent of over $43,700 for children in Ukraine by auctioning his custom yellow Pinarello from the 1998 Tour de France; the never-used bike was created for him to ride into Paris for what would have been his second consecutive Tour win, until he was upset by Marco Pantani.
That video we linked to yesterday showing a BMX rider educating a Long Beach cop and standing up for his right to ride may not have gotten it right after all.
This comment from Steve suggests that the cop may have been right, if the video was filmed after 10 am, and the riders were going any faster than a slow walk.
Re schooling the cop…the law was a bit more complex and of course no one bother to look the law up and read it. Typical. the cop was right (unless the riders were under 3 mph..looks like it was daylight hrs from the video..after 10 am?)
§ 16.08.502. Bicycles on Rainbow Harbor Esplanade.
Latest version.
Bicycle riding on the Rainbow Harbor Esplanade is prohibited in excess of three (3) miles per hour between the hours of ten o’clock (10:00) a.m. and ten o’clock (10:00) p.m., except City employees in the performance of their duties.
Although personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing someone crowdfund money for a cruise missile pre-programmed for Putin’s dacha.
But maybe that’s just me.
………
A DC website says maybe the viral bike rider shown below giving the so-called “People’s Convoy” truck driver’s protest a taste of their own medicine was just demonstrating safe urban bicycling skills.
Why wouldn’t William Shatner ride an ebike accompanied by a robed gospel choir?
Born on this day, March 22, 1931: William Shatner, actor, here commanding a gospel choir e-bike parade in a commercial for Pedego electric bicycles. Happy #bicyclebirthday, William!#BOTD
The accused hit-and-run driver who killed an older married couple riding their bikes in Tucson, Arizona Saturday morning claims he blacked out and has no memory of the crash; he admits to drinking and getting stoned the night before, and was still apparently wasted at the time of the 10 am wreck.
San Antonio, Texas bicyclists say a poorly designed bike trail crossing that hides oncoming traffic from view was responsible for a bike rider’s death. The crossing calls for bicyclists to dismount and walk their bikes across the street, demonstrating that the people who designed it live in an alternate reality.
Retired pro cyclist Dan Craven is starting a new brand of handmade steel frame bicycles in his native Namibia to help put skilled craftsmen to work in his home town of Omaruru; the brand name Onguza “comes from the Namibian word ‘okuti-onguza’, meaning ‘the great expanse of desert out there’ in the Himba and Herero languages.”
This time in Long Beach, at the hands of a city employee.
According to the Long Beach Post, the victim was struck by a city worker, driving a city-owned pickup, when the man on the bike allegedly ran a stop sign at 17th Street and Oregon Ave around 7:40 Friday morning.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Long Beach Press-Telegram reports the driver was headed south on Oregon, which would suggest the victim, who has not been identified, was traveling on 17th when he was struck in the middle of the intersection.
The crash was reportedly witnessed by another city employee, who remained at the scene with the driver. Police do not believe the driver was under the influence, speeding or driving distracted.
There’s no word on why the victim would have run the stop sign directly in front of an oncoming truck, which did not have a stop sign.
This is at least the 15th bicycling fatality in Southern California already this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County, in what has been a very bloody start to the year.
The hit-and-run epidemic show no sign of stopping.
The same day a Santa Ana bike rider was murdered by a driver who fled the scene, leaving his or her innocent victim to die in the street, another bicyclist was lucky to survive being run down by a hit-and-run driver on the Ventura County section of Southern California’s killer highway.
Or maybe calling PCH a serial killer highway is more accurate.
Here’s a brief press release from the victim’s family.
Santa Barbara family seeks answers and witnesses in PCH hit-and-run
On Saturday, February 12 at 11:10 a.m., Santa Barbara resident Jeff Sczechowski (seh-CHOW-ski) was struck from behind and thrown into a parked vehicle while riding his black mountain bike on the shoulder of the northbound side of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). This was just north of the Sycamore Canyon State Park entrance across from the Thornhill Broome Beach Campground that is south of the large sand hill on the inland side of the PCH. He was wearing a white helmet and grey and yellow cycling clothing. The victim was transported by ambulance to the Ventura County Medical Center, where he is hospitalized and receiving care. He has sustained significant injuries to his back, leg, and arms. Jeff, a chemical engineering PhD, manages a research center in the UCSB Department of Physics. He is also an avid cyclist and bonsai tree artist. Jeff, his wife, and their children ask anyone who may have been involved in or witnessed the event to please contact Ventura California Highway Patrol Officer Bowen at 805-662-2640.
Shamefully, fully half of the 12 people killed riding bicycles in Southern California this year have been the victims of hit-and-run drivers.
Yes, 50 percent.
There is simply no excuse.
Not for the heartless cowards who lack the basic human decency to stick around after a crash. Or for those in elected office who lack the courage to do anything about it.
The project would have added 4.75 miles of offroad trails along a pair of channels, where they would have had zero impact on traffic and the surrounding community. And provided much needed safe routes through the beachside city, which is already one of the most dangerous places to ride a bike in Orange County.
Instead, the responses from local residents were apparently so bad that local officials decided not to do the right thing, and killed the project instead.
Never mind the current dangers faced by bike riders and pedestrians in the city. Or the desperate need to get people out of their cars, at a time when Orange County is already a year-round fire zone.
And never mind that access to a safe bikeway increases local property values.
There’s simply no rational reason to oppose a project like this, let alone cancel it.
But they did anyway.
Thanks to Eric Eberwein for the tip.
………
Say goodbye to the green bollards on Del Amo Blvd in Long Beach, and hello to a new curb-protected bike lane.
………
The Davis Bike Counter wasn’t just removed. It was killed by an errant driver.
No bias here, either. An Indian protected bike lane was removed after drivers were “inconvenienced” by the lane reduction to make room for it, never mind that bike riders were inconvenienced by the drivers parking in it.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
San Francisco ripped out a protected bike lane due to a construction zone, temporarily replacing it with a painted bike lane, despite being on a street where three people have been killed in three years. Never mind that removing the protected lane will make the city liable for any injuries that happen as a result.
Utah’s law cutting the blood alcohol level required for DUI to .05, from the .08 allowed the other 49 states, is showing demonstrable benefits, with drunk driving deaths and crashes dropping 20% in the state since the law went into effect.
A cautionary story from Charleston, South Carolina, where police are reopening a crash investigation after a man died two months after he was hit by a driver, despite being released from the hospital the same day with an apparent misdiagnosis of just minor injuries.
Retired Irish pro Nicholas Roche has been warned not to ride in the mountains south of Dublin, while he’s filming the British version of Dancing With the Stars in the city, because thieves are known to knock riders off their bikes, then toss them in their van and drive off while the rider is still sprawled in the roadway.
The Italian movie The Pantini Affair should be coming to the US, after Capital Motion Picture Group picked up the North American rights to the 2020 film about the last five years in the life of legendary cyclist Marco Pantani.
January 12, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New ADA in Woon hit-and-run case, LA paid out 300 grand in hit-and-run rewards, and bike theft down 22% in Long Beach
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from our anonymous courtroom correspondent.
So let’s have her kick things off today by catching us up with the latest happenings in bike jurisprudence and other related stuff.
Mariah Kandise Banks (charged in the hit-and-run death of Frederick “Woon” Frazier) has yet another DA newly assigned to her case. He was tranfserred from the Van Nuys courthouse on the morning of her most react hearing, December 6th. He had a whole new caseload to familiarize himself with, but was present for Banks’ appearance. I was able to speak with him very briefly and he indicated that the prosecution is continuing to work with the defense on a plea deal.
(Editor’s note — Let’s hope they finally get a conviction while Woon’s long-suffering mother is still around to see it.)
………
Samantha Cunha killed her friend during a bizarre road rage incident. On December 1st, the charge was dismissed.
(Editor’s note — This was the case where Cunha was a passenger in a car driven by Sophia Ardalan when they became involved in a running road rage dispute on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Ardalan was killed when she either got out, or fell out, of her car attempting to confront the motorcyclist in front of a West Hollywood apartment building, and Cunha somehow put the car into reverse, crushing her against a tree.)
………
In the latest episode of Drivers Hitting Buildings:
On the 6th, a driver smashed into a building at Los Altos Dr. & Caricia Dr. in Hacienda Heights.
On Sunday morning, a speeding driver in a Nissan Frontier took out a parked pick-up, a light pole, and the garage at the T-intersection of City Terrace Drive & Ditman.
In the wee, wee hours of Monday, the flower shop at Colima & Lambert, the site of a Black Friday fatality, was again collateral damage in a 3-vehicle collision. This time a driver made a drive-thru of it.
A driver fled a hit and run on the 710, went zipping down surface streets, and ended up hitting the house at 5th St. & Sydney Dr. (This is not the first time that house has been hit.)
On the 3rd, a dipstick departed the Sinclair gas station at Alameda & Nadeau with the gas nozzle still attached. Counts as structural damage?
………
There was a candlelight vigil Sunday for a mother & daughter killed on my coworker’s commute route. Last week, she asked, “You do this all the time. Do I take a candle, or will they hand them out there? Is it okay to take more flowers?” I’m kinda upset to be the go-to for advice on this subject, tbh.
The speed limit on this stretch is 40mph, and this intersection is close to the terminus of the 105 at Studebaker, which has frequent collisions, sometimes involving the already red-tagged building on the east side of the street. Currently, the guardrail “protecting” the sidewalk has a 20-inch dent. Just a half mile up the road, Chandler Ray was killed on his bike.
The killer was released last Tuesday before the tox exam was even returned. She’s out there. Just like Mariah Banks.
………
This was the third Christmas in a row that it was too wet for me & my friends to put up our hit-and-run reward posters… y’know, the some people are in such a rush on Christmas Eve that they really don’t watch out for grannies trying to make their way home. We have really sharp pictures of the suspect and his vehicle, too! The posters and the reindeer hoof print stencils have to wait til next year.
Prior to last year, the city had only paid three people a total of $55,000 in the previous four years of the program.
The sudden explosion of payments was most likely due the time it takes to make an arrest and for the case to work its way through the court system, according to a police spokesman.
The site also reports that serious hit-and-runs are up in the city, while overall hit-and-runs decreased somewhat.
Los Angeles has seen a rise in people dying or being seriously injured in car crashes. In 2021, there were 359 felony hit and runs in the city that resulted in serious injury or death, up 25% from the 286 in 2020, according to LAPD Traffic Division Compstat data.
Altogether, there were 3,536 felony hit and run cases in Los Angeles last year. That was a decrease of 17% from the 4,273 in 2020.
………
Time is running out to voice your thoughts on the planned rush hour bus lanes on La Brea Ave, which would provide a relatively safe route from Hollywood to South LA.
Longtime CNN reporter and host Christiane Amanpour is one of us.
Born on this day, January 12, 1958: Christiane Amanpour, international journalist, who arrived at her first job at CNN in Atlanta "with a suitcase, with my bicycle, and with about 100 dollars." Happy #bicyclebirthday, Christiane!#BOTDpic.twitter.com/04o95o2LXT
San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick takes an Oakland TV station to task for displaying its windshield bias by criticizing bicycle rideout taking over a local freeway, while failing to criticize dangerous drivers using bike lanes. Because one is a lot more dangerous than the other, and it ain’t the kids on bikes. Even if riding on a freeway isn’t the brightest choice.
Kind of a strange post from Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss, who finds his knickers in a twist after criticism from Peter Flax and Doug Gordon of The War on Cars podcast, who made their comments without actually naming him.
Bike mechanics, co-ops, and various advocates and nonprofit advocacy groups are joining together to call for more durable and repairable budget bikes that can last at least 500 riding hours before breaking down, and be fixed when they do. You can sign the petition here. However, you’ll be required to give your full address, which is usually a deal breaker for me.
The second shoe has fallen in Las Vegas, where the family of one of the five bike riders killed by a meth-fueled truck driver have filed suit against the driver and his employer, as well as the ride’s escort driver, leaving just three more shoes to inevitably fall. The driver, Jordan Barson, is doing 16 to 40 years behind bars for the crash.
You’ve got to be kidding. Life is cheap in Florida, where an accused hit-and-run driver who killed a man riding a bicycle copped a sweetheart plea deal in a long-delayed conclusion to the 2016 case, walking without a single day behind bars in a case that should could have resulted in four to 15 years behind bars.
Now surprise here, as Australian researchers report three-quarters of people surveyed in the country’s Victoria state want to ride their bikes more, but only if there’s safe bike infrastructure to do it in. Which pretty much corresponds with similar surveys everywhere else, including Los Angeles.
Louisiana’s “challenging” Rouge Roubaix bike race is back this year after a five year hiatus due to flooding and Covid, as well as a misguided local ordinance banning groups of more than ten people on bicycles. Which makes it kind of hard to host a race with hundreds of competitors.
October 28, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Driver flees on foot after hitting salmon scooter rider in DTLA, and Long Beach teen rideout marred by shoplifting
LA’s hit-and-run plague just keeps on going.
The LAPD is looking for a shirtless driver who ran off on foot after crashing into a woman riding an e-scooter in DTLA.
The victim was riding against traffic when she was struck, which means the driver probably wouldn’t have faced any consequences if he’d just stuck around.
Instead, he abandoned his car and fled on the sidewalk, for reasons known only to him at this point. It could be that he was drunk or stoned, the car was stolen, or possibly he was in the country illegally and feared deportation.
Or any one of a number of other possible explanations.
Meanwhile, the victim was hospitalized with a head wound, which means there is an automatic $25,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
An Arizona driver who ran a red light and slammed into a Flagstaff bike parade last March, killing one woman and injuring several other people, now faces multiple felony charges for kiddie porn after police discovered thousands of images on his phone when they got a search warrant to determine whether he was distracted at the time of the crash.
This is the cost of traffic violence. A Minnesota man whose license had been revoked faces a charge of criminal vehicular homicide after killing a 73-year old Catholic priest who was riding his bike on the shoulder of a highway; the 26-year old driver has 10 previous convictions for driving with a revoked license in just the last three and a half years. Just one more example of keeping a dangerous driver on the roads until it’s too late. He should have been jailed and his car confiscated after the second offense.
Talk about a rough year. A celebrity chef has filed suit against the NYPD alleging he was brutally beaten for violating a curfew when he attempted to deliver a pizza for a bicycle delivery service, after losing his restaurant when he caught Covid-19.
No bias here. After a Louisiana bike rider was injured in a collision, police bent over backward to blame the victim, while the story fails to mention that the pickup that hit him even had a driver.
International
No surprise here, as data from around the world shows that bikeshare usage goes up with warmer temperatures until it gets too hot, and wet weather discourages people from riding. In other news, water is wet, the pope is Catholic, and bears defecate in wooded areas.
But what they failed to mention is that original plans called for a protected bike lane.
Santa Fe Ave in West LB was to get protected bike/ped facilities (it's the #8 worst corridor for bike/ped injuries). Yet those facilities have been downgraded to lowest class in $3.7M project in an area continually dismissed. Public meeting TOMORROW: https://t.co/kRVi2s17ym
West Long Beach is no exception as this type of lack of safety, particularly along bicycle corridors, has been addressed by urban planners and traffic engineers nationwide through the use of the “8-80 rule.”
It basically goes as such: Would you feel comfortable letting an eight-year-old ride down the street with an 80-year-old as their guide? If your answer is even a remote hesitation, planners feel that road requires “8-80 facilities,” or fully protected bike lanes with bollards and parking as buffers before aligning directly with traffic.
Santa Fe Avenue, according to our own city’s Master Bicycle Plan (Appendix E), is such a facility. These bike lanes are typically Class I bike paths: They do not share, in any capacity, their space with cars.
And yet, for reasons known only to city planners, this ostensibly bike and pedestrian friendly city is going out of their way to maintain the automotive hegemony on this corridor.
Not to mention keeping it dangerous, if not deadly, for anyone who isn’t in a motor vehicle.
It’s up to you to tell Long Beach that’s not good enough.
If you walk or ride in the area, or would like to if it was safer, you owe it to yourself to attend tonight’s virtual meeting.
The virtual meeting—set to be presented in English with interpreters for Khmer, Spanish, and Tagalog speakers on hand—begins at 6PM on Thursday, Oct. 7. To register for the Zoom meeting, click here. For those using phones, you may also call 213-338-8477 and enter the meeting using the following ID: 998 6180 2751. Anyone wanting more information can contact the Public Works Department at contactlbpw@longeach.gov or 562-570-6383.
Thanks to Brian Addison for the heads-up.
……..
CD14 Councilmember and 2022 mayoral candidate Kevin de León has fired a shot across the bow for next year’s campaign, staking out a transit, bike and pedestrian friendly position with a series of motions introduced in the LA city council on Wednesday.
LA City Councilmember Kevin de León has introduced 5 transportation motions: • Develop bus stop improvement policy. • Plan uphill bike lanes and downhill sharrows. • Reports on bike lanes, adding crosswalk beacons. • Study closing some downtown roads.https://t.co/D1nuuq7sU0pic.twitter.com/22UMT0IhL9
The fifth motion not mentioned above calls for studying the purchase of more electric mini-street sweepers to keep protected bike lanes clean, as well as the possibility of buying hybrid electric street sweepers.
Although a street sweeper that could keep cars out would help a lot more.
The most interesting motion calls for closing one block segments of some Downtown Streets to car traffic, including
Grand Ave between 1st and 2nd
Broadway between 3rd and 4th
Traction Ave between 3rd and Hewitt
However, a far better option would be to pedestrianize the full length of Broadway, from City Hall south to at least 8th Street.
And while placing bike lanes on the uphill side of some streets and sharrows on the downhill side has some promise, the question becomes whether it would work in practice, since drivers tend to pick up speed going downhill, often far in excess of the speed limit.
Which wouldn’t exactly be comfortable, or safe.
The bigger problem is the motions don’t call for actually doing anything other than conducting yet another a study. Or rather five studies.
Which is what the city does best.
Los Angeles has a long and unproductive history of studying problems to death, without ever taking any real action.
So we’ll have to see if anything actually comes of de León’s motions.
Or if he’s just staking out a position for what promises to be a bruising mayoral campaign.
Then again, there is something he could do to show he really is serious.
Evidently, the problem isn’t just biking where Black or Brown, but biking where Black or Brown.
A new study from a UC Davis researcher shows that eight times more traffic tickets were issued to bike riders in majority Black neighborhoods, compared to majority white areas. And three times more in majority Latinx neighborhoods.
The study also shows that most traffic tickets are written on major streets, but 85% fewer bicyclists are ticketed on streets with bike lanes. Except few communities populated primarily by people of color have bike lanes.
The study also shows there’s no apparent correlation between higher rates of ticketing people on bicycles and improvements in safety.
The obvious solution is to build more bike lanes in Black and Latinx neighborhoods, in consultation with the community to address fears that bike lanes contribute to gentrification.
Less obvious is the author’s suggestion to remove traffic enforcement from strategies for safer streets, since it doesn’t have any apparent benefit and unfairly target people of color.
………
If you ride an Elliptigo bike, you could be looking at a recall to avoid the risk of your frame breaking while you ride.
Billings, Montana is building a network of neighborhood bikeways. Unfortunately, Los Angeles isn’t, even though the Mobility Plan calls for it as one of the three bike networks included in the plan.
The CBC talks with the ER doctor who was in exactly the right place at the right time, riding a Minnesota bike trail when he came upon an unconscious mountain biker on the side of the trail, and saved his life with an emergency on-site cricothyrotomy.
Heartbreaking news from Minnesota, where a ten-year old girl lost her leg and suffered life-threatening injuries when she was run over on her bicycle and dragged for over a block, after a 73-year old semi driver jumped the curb she was on while making a right turn; needless to say, no charges have been filed yet.
Please help us find BG1! Some rotter has stolen Rachel's #brighton#gin#bike (stolen from Dyke Road), essential for our zero-carbon deliveries. Pls help us find it & if you hear of someone selling a bike with #BrightonGin branding please shout! (Gin-based reward for recovery) pic.twitter.com/eVt5Zfp9fk
August 9, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Who we share the road with: Alleged road raging DUI driver kills pregnant woman; and help keep Culver Blvd partially carfree
The driver was allegedly chasing another driver through several blocks in Long Beach when he lost control of his truck, and crashed into a number of other vehicles.
One more tragic reminds that getting behind the wheel brings out the worst in far too many people.
And that some people just shouldn’t drive.
………
This is who we share the road with, part two.
And speaking of people who just shouldn’t drive. Or maybe shouldn’t be allowed to drive ever again.
I was getting ready to order breakfast when I heard a driver coming down Magnolia at 70mph. He didn't notice the dip at Whitest and flew 50 feet before flipping and hitting two people on coming. One idiot has just mangled two other people's lives. @StreetsblogLA@streetsforallpic.twitter.com/yAwGRADBrP
Meanwhile, my old friend and longtime LA bike advocate Kent Strumpell forwards a reminder about tonight’s webinar to explain upcoming changes to restore the Ballona Wetlands, which will impact the popular Ballona Creek Bike Trail.
Reminder: WEBINAR: RE-ENVISIONING THE BALLONA CREEK TRAIL IN THE WETLANDS
An online presentation hosted by the Friends of Ballona Wetlands including a Q&A by CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, the project planners.
But it’s a good reminder of what we’ve been saying here for some time. Bike helmets are designed to protect you from a fall off your bike. Not protect your skull — or anything else — from a motor vehicle.
The people who need to read this will never read this and / or cannot read. Including / especially elected people. https://t.co/kOLLtHLPUx
Tragic news from San Jose, where a young girl was killed when she struck a raised curb while riding her bike downhill and hit her head on a concrete retaining wall. And no, she wasn’t wearing a helmet, despite a California law requiring one for anyone under 18.
Wired offers a rudimentary how-to guide for getting into BMX for anyone inspired by the events in the Tokyo Olympics. But no, it’s not everyone’s favorite event, regardless of what the magazine says.
This one’s easily the story of the day. A New Zealand woman wants to thank the young man who loaned her his own “expensive” bicycle so she could make a followup exam with her cardiologist on time, after her bike suffered a flat he couldn’t fix. He then walked her bike to the office to exchange it for his, before riding off without a word.
