For instance, 44% of the city transportation budget for the ’25-’26 fiscal year has already been spent, most of which has gone into salaries for city employees.
And something tells me they’re not working on bicycles.
Never mind that the entire transportation budget is roughly 11% of what the city spends on police alone.
It’s worth taking some time to check it out.
Because it’s your money.
Actual photo of Los Angeles officials spending your tax money by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels.
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True then. True now.
"You are helping by cycling when you can"British WWII propaganda posterca. 1940🧵
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
In a brilliant example of cost effectiveness, the leadership of Medford, Oregon voted to rip out a road diet and two-way protected bike lane, spending $1 million to return the road to the previous layout — and another half million to repay a state grant to do the original work.
No bias here. A Killarney, Ireland website is up in arms after spotting a group of bicyclists riding in the street next to a new $4 million curb-level bike lane, saying “If you build it, they will come… or maybe not.” Except a group ride of a dozen or so fast-moving bicyclists is exactly what you don’t want in a bike lane, which should be used by a) fewer bike riders at once, and b) slower bike riders.
A Fallbrook kid was struck by a driver while riding their bike and knocked completely under the vehicle, then just got back up and rode their bike home before first responders even got to the crash site; sheriff’s deputies found him at home, and paramedics took him to the hospital.
Bicycling drops their paywall to promote a handful of products they think will make your rides more fun, or at least make them a few bucks if you buy them. The bubblegum pink inner tube is kinda fun, but the only way anyone will ever see it is if you’re fixing a flat, which is not so much.
Velo says AI will make you faster on your bike, but not the way you think. Especially if you leave the damn thing at home, whatever device you keep it in, and just ride your bike without the extra weight and distraction.
An Illinois man is riding his bike across the US, 50 year’s after he was one of 2,000 people who took part in the Bikecentennial, which involved riding 4,200 miles across the US to mark the bicentennial.
Police in Savannah, Georgia, have made an arrest in the hit-and-run death of the city’s beloved Flag Man, known for riding his bike with a giant flag, nine months after he was killed while riding his bicycle. Seriously, if you can’t see someone on a bicycle with a giant flag on a flag pole, you’re driving with your eyes closed.
Netflix is developing a documentary series about the death of Tony Parsons, who disappeared on a Scottish fundraising ride only to be discovered years later when a farmer confessed to his girlfriend that he killed Parsons while driving drunk, and with his twin brother, hid Parson’s body in a peat bog; they were sentenced to 12 years and 5 years behind bars, respectively. The moral of this story: don’t tell your girlfriend about the bodies.
Traffic fatalities in Long Beach have more than doubled in the ten years since the city vowed to eliminate traffic deaths within a decade, rising to the highest level in the last ten years.
That corresponds with the City of Los Angeles, which adopted a Vision Zero program that promised to end traffic deaths by last year.
And you know how that worked out.
Now LA’s Vision Zero is a forgotten program, trotted out only when the city wants to assure us that they are really, truly doing something to reduce traffic violence, without actually holding themselves accountable for it.
Like Los Angeles, most of Long Beach’s traffic deaths have been inflicted on people who weren’t encased in a couple tons of steel and glass.
According to the Long Beach Post story in the above link,
Their greatest toll has been on people outside of cars. Last year, 32 people were killed while walking, biking or riding an e-scooter. That eclipses the number of people murdered here last year: 29.
At least in LA, it’s only the total number of traffic deaths that exceeds the city’s murders.
Including a rather underwhelming, if not pathetic, total of 31 lane miles of new bikeways installed during the last fiscal year. Which includes 1.3 lane miles of sharrows, which studies have shown are literally worse than nothing.
According to the judge, the law in Idaho defines a bicycle as a “human-powered” vehicle, and it wasn’t clear to his or her honor if an ebike is actually human powered.
And that’s the problem. Some ebikes are human powered with an electrical assist, while others are strictly throttle controlled, or a combination thereof.
So defining an ebike as human powered could be the solution to the current dilemma of cities cracking down on ped-assist ebike riders for the problems caused by people on electric motorbikes and dirt bikes.
Now Marvin forwards word that Trumed will be the source you’ll have to use.
He adds,
The reason I really like this is because it supports the middle class. if I was poor, I could get help purchasing an e-bike. If I was rich, I could get help purchasing an EV. Finally, with FSA/HSA benefits, I can finally qualify for something that helps me.
The only downside I see is that no one can establish a new or add to an existing FSA/HSA until Nov 2026.
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Streets Are For Everyone will hold a die-in on the steps of City Hall this Saturday to protest the unacceptable level of traffic violence in this city.
In 2025 alone, 286 people were killed on our streets — deaths that were preventable.
This Saturday, SAFE and partner nonprofits will gather to honor lives lost and demand action after a decade-old City pledge to eliminate traffic deaths was missed.
Next City says Victoria, British Columbia is one of the best bike cities not traditionally known for it, after tripling its rate of bicycling in just 11 years. Although they can’t seem to spell Victoria correctly. Or British, for that matter.
A Scotsman resigned from the rat race, quitting his high-stress job as a communications director for a renewable energy company for a much calmer career fixing bicycles. As I know all too well after a career in advertising, the problem with the rat race is the rats usually win.
Noemi Velado was allegedly texting when she hit the 21-year old man and fled the scene, turning herself in to police days later.
According to KTLA-5,
The couple is now making an appeal to local and state lawmakers to officially designate Velado’s offense as a violent crime, which would require the perpetrator to serve 80% of their sentence.
“When you weaponize your vehicle and you’re texting endlessly and you’re high, that’s a violent crime and it should be treated as such,” Kellie said.
While the Montalvos say they keep their son’s memory alive by speaking out against impaired and distracted driving, they worry that Velado is not fully rehabilitated after such a short amount of time in prison.
Just one more example of how unserious California is about traffic crime.
And why people keep dying on our streets, and drivers keep fleeing afterwards. Because they know it’s not likely to result in more than a slap on the wrist.
And they’re usually right.
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Now you, too, can suffer from ‘bicycle eye’, ‘bicycle arm’, ‘bicycle elbow’ and/or ‘bicycle heart,’ and other made-up maladies of the Victorian bike boom.
“One of my favourite facts is about what the bicycle did for genetics,” Will Manners, author of Revolution: How the Bicycle Reinvented Modern Britaintold Cycling Weekly. “For people living in rural areas, being able to get around on bicycles expanded the range of marriage partners available to them.”
According to geneticist, Steve Jones, this phenomenon makes the bicycle one of the most important inventions in recent human evolution.
But even more important, it could also clear up your zits in an ancient age before Clearasil.
The crowning glory in an era of ridiculous cycling ailments, ‘bicycle face’ was said to cause serious disfigurement. According to one account in Pearson’s Weekly, C.A. Pearson wrote that ‘bicycle face’ resulted from ‘the constant anxiety, the everlasting looking ahead, the strain on a nervous disposition which imparts a hard, set look to the face, and gives a haggard, anxious expression to the eyes which is quite painful to observe.’
Cycling, however, took a gentler view, writing: ‘we know riders of both sexes who have ridden for lengthy periods… and the only alteration we have ever noted in the countenances of any one of them is that the complexion has invariably been improved.’
It’s a good read, and more than worth a few minutes of your day.
Just be careful that smile doesn’t freeze on your face.
Although it’s no surprise we’re not on the good list.
While the safest cities are spread out across the US, half of the most dangerous ones are clustered in California and Arizona. Add Florida, and it represents three-quarters of the list.
Which is kind of scary to think that just three states make up 75% of the most dangerous cities for bike riders and pedestrians.
And we live in one of them.
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Congratulations to Streets For All’s Michael Schneider, whose video illustrating the street paving differences between cash-strapped Los Angeles and gilded Beverly Hills was reposted by the New York Post, which never seems to tire of criticizing our (un)fair city.
Then again, we never seem to tire of giving them reasons to.
LA pavement vs Beverly Hills pavement (City border in the middle of the street) pic.twitter.com/T5gqETKQSF
But sometimes, it’s the people on who wheels behaving badly.
A man in Salt Lake City, Utah, faces a murder charge and seven counts of discharging a firearm for shooting a man in the back, from a second-story window, who he thought was stealing his bicycle. To repeatedly repeat, no bicycle is worth a human life. Register it, put an AirTag in it, and just let the damn thing go and let the cops deal with it, because that’s what they’re paid to do.
A Spanish newspaper gets its knickers in a twist over video of a bicyclist drafting a minivan in the Canary Islands, whose driver seems to be working with him, calling it a very dangerous technique. Even though we’ve all done it. Or is it just me?
A year after the AIDS/LifeCycle bike ride ended after nearly three decades, two new fundraising rides are emerging to take their place, with Cycle to Zero supporting the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and Center Ride Out benefitting LGBTQ centers in Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs/Coachella; it remains to be seen if these rides will combine to raise as much to fight HIV/AIDS.
The Disco Biscuits announced a West Coast Tour to mark Bicycle Day 2026, the 83rd anniversary of chemist Albert Hofmann’s accidental discovery of the hallucinogenic effects of LSD as he rode his bicycle home. And yes, I’m just juvenile enough to find the whole thing pretty damn funny.
Streetsblog calls on new New York Mayor Mamdani to rescind Central Park’s new 15 mph speed limit for bicycles imposed by former Mayor Eric Adams on his way out of office, arguing that it misapplies state law and sets a troubling precedent.
Something to watch for, as the University of Georgia’s College of Public Health has received a nearly quarter of a million dollar grant to study just how safe ebikes really are. Although as always, the question is whether they will differentiate between actual ped-assist bicycles, and electric motorbikes that unfortunately are also called ebikes.
She gets it. An Irish columnist says bicyclists should be considered “brave”, “hardy”, “efficient” and “considerate” — rather than reckless or inconvenient — in a country that needs as many people as possible to ride to “alleviate traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, improve public health, make urban spaces more liveable, and cut carbon emissions.”
A new study conducted in Bangladesh, India and Ghana shows that increased bicycling could reduce pollution in the global south, home to 49 of the top 50 countries with the most polluted air, yet policies to improve safety and promote bicycling are far less common in low- and middle-income countries than in the wealthy north.
In a deeply disturbing story from India, a man was beaten to death, and several members of his family injured, when they objected when a woman in their family was struck by a member of another clan riding a bicycle; the other family attacked the victims with sticks and iron rods after the dispute escalated into an argument.
I still haven’t recovered emotionally from writing about that one, and can’t even imagine what they’re going through.
Let’s hope this week is a little better. Okay, a lot better.
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Streets Are For Everyone will host a public press conference at 1 pm today at Kelton Ave and Wilkins Ave in Westwood with founder Damian Kevitt and Jonny Hale of People’s Vision Zero, who went viral when he was arrested for trying to paint a DIY crosswalk when the city wouldn’t.
A press release promoting the event quotes Kevitt as saying,
“The people of Los Angeles want safer roads; they are begging for them. The City has the tools to save lives, but it’s so mired down in bureaucracy, legal red-tape, and fighting lawsuits that it actively prevents simple and effective ways to make roads safer.”
It also quotes Hale,
“We’re not gonna paint every residential intersection, but the same processes that make it hard for us to make roads safer, make it hard for city workers to do their jobs. The city should address this and prioritize street safety and infrastructure.”
Vision Zero failed in this city as much because of the city’s endless bureaucracy as it did for a lack of vision and commitment.
I know it’s the last minute, but maybe a good turnout for this will put some pressure on city officials to do something, or get the hell out of the way and let us do it.
No one should ever go to jail for trying to save lives.
But as usual, failed to consider adaptive bikes and nontraditional bicycles used as mobility devices by disabled passengers.
Unfortunately, once more the absence of diversely disabled people in “the room where it happens” results in continued inequity.
So while this seems to be a compromise, but improvement on the old rules for abled bicyclists, it’s not as good for those riding other types of cycles, particularly disabled people (many of whom need handcycles, trikes, and bikes with seats rather than saddles).
Some will retort this is a compromise and they’ll continue working on it, but (1) I bet they won’t continue working on accessibility & inclusion issues because (2) they probably aren’t working on getting disabled cyclists into the decision making areas of cycle and train advocacy.
And part of the point is that abled cyclists don’t have to do as much work to get answers nor to “prove” their needs.
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Streets For All will host a mobility discussion with city council candidate Faizah Malik, who is challenging CD11 Councilmember Traci Park, on Monday.
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Streetsblog’s Joe Linton demonstrates the danger of slip lanes.
This week’s video ventures onto a porkchop to cross a dangerous #SlipLane
Metro will hold a public meeting to discuss the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Los Angeles River Path Project to close the gap through DTLA, at the Lincoln Heights Community Center this Wednesday.
Bicyclists in Asheville NC are pushing for safer streets in the wake of a collision that killed two men riding bicycles and injured another, when a garbage truck driver drifted onto the wrong side of the road.
That’s more like it. A 35-year old Florida woman agreed to a nine-year sentence for a 2022 hit-and-run crash that killed a 56-year old man riding a bicycle, knocking his body off a bridge and into the river below where he had to be recovered by a Coast Guard crew.
British sprinter Vicky Williamson announced her retirement at 32, despite struggling back from a crash that left her with a broken neck and back, dislocated pelvis and a slipped a disc that knocked her out of the 2016 Rio Olympics.
According to Metro, the bus was traveling south on Compton, when the bike rider allegedly ran the red light while apparently riding on Imperial Highway.
The victim was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. Metro expressed its condolences to the family and friends of the victim.
As usual with collisions in unincorporated Los Angeles County, the crash will be investigated by the CHP. There should be video from the bus to determine what actually happened, and whether the victim actually ran the red light, or if something else may have caused or contributed to the crash.
Which is not to say that the victim didn’t run the red light. But Metro has an inherent interest in saying their driver wasn’t at fault.
This is just the second bicycling fatality that I’m aware in of Southern California this year, as well as the second in Los Angeles County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
Which anyone who lives or works near, or has ever visited, Hollywood Boulevard can attest to, without ever going to the effort of visiting all the other tourist attractions.
The plans are already in place, after undergoing the city’s usual endless series of public meetings, complete with compromises to placate every possible point of view.
Plans are also ready to convert the stretch of boulevard between Highland and Orange into a multi-block pedestrian plaza, which could do more than anything else to improve safety and reinvigorate the area.
I asked former LADOT Executive Director Seleta Reynolds that very question all the way back in 2018, and was told it was shovel ready as soon as a majority of Angelenos demanded it.
Who, I might add, were never asked that question.
Our leaders just assumed, as usual, that most people would oppose it, based on the city’s standard decision making process of giving in to whoever screams the loudest.
Never mind that an overwhelming two-thirds majority of city residents voted to build sidewalks, bikeways and bus lanes when they passed Measure HLA.
Hollywood doesn’t have to suck.
We just lack leaders with the guts to do anything about it.
Which the city is not fixing, due to massive maintenance budget cuts by a mayor and city council who put us on the brink of bankruptcy due to unfunded pay raises for city employees.
But what would be, at worst, an expensive inconvenience for motorists could lead to serious injuries, or worse, for people on bicycles.
Because your front wheel unexpectedly dropping out from under you can result in severe falls. And swerving to avoid a pothole can put you in the path of oncoming drivers and their big, dangerous machines.
So the city might save a few bucks by not fixing potholes now, and pay for it later in the form of massive legal settlements.
But we’ll be the ones who really get stuck with the bill.
Last chance to share your input! We’re planning safety and mobility upgrades along Broadway in South LA, including bus lanes, safer crossings, traffic calming, and bike connections. Community input matters. Take the survey before it closes: https://t.co/anT8UgTaCEpic.twitter.com/gwF1tMQk0F
In a sight not seen for three years to the day, vehicles travel Highway 1 on Jan. 14, 2026, in front of the newly repaired Regent’s Slide. The highway’s full reopening to travel between Cambria and Carmel revives a vital economic lifeline for local business owners and residents. pic.twitter.com/le7qAiuj2s
— Caltrans Central Coast (District 5) (@CaltransD5) January 15, 2026
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British ‘cross competitors demonstrate the many and varied ways you can fall off a bike.
Police busted a man wanted for probation violation and robbery after he led them on a pursuit from National City into San Diego, riding his ebike on the freeway. Although something tells me he wasn’t riding anything that would be called an ebike under the new California bill, let alone British regulations.
Speaking of recalls, if you’re wearing an R.X.Y bicycle helmet, stop; the helmets violate minimum bike helmet standards, and pose a risk of serious injury or death. Which is definitely a bad thing.
A British mother of three was sentenced to 35 years to life behind bars for a road rage-fueled feud, after running down and fatally ramming an ebike rider with her Range Rover at speeds of up to 75 mph. Once again, the victim probably wasn’t riding something that should be called an ebike.
It will be that particular shade known as “Hollywood Green,” allowing filmmakers to work around the color to avoid the disastrous rollout when Los Angeles first went green.
Painting the lanes is probably a good idea, given that most drivers seem to think the Fairfax bike lane is only there to bypass backed-up traffic, seemingly never occurring to them that there might be a bicycle in it.
And usually there isn’t, for exactly that reason.
Green paint isn’t likely to stop those drivers. But at least they’ll have a better idea what law they’re breaking.
AB 1557 would also reclassify more powerful electric motorbikes as motor-driven cycles, which would require a license to operate.
Maybe then we can finally get everyone to stop calling the damn things ebikes, and blaming all of us for the actions of a relative few teen knuckleheads.
No bias here, either. Aussie commenters set their hair on fire when a photo showed a bicyclist riding in a bus lane, insisting that the single rider was somehow “inconveniencing hundreds” during rush hour. Must have been a damn big bus, because no one else in the photo seems to be even a little bit inconvenienced.
Oceanside police are pushing for a change in the city’s ebike regulations to prohibit carrying a second rider and allow cops to temporarily seize the ebikes of scofflaw riders. Although once again, they seem to be conflating ped-assist ebikes with illegally modified electric motorbikes and dirt bikes.
A New York news site says bicyclists and ebikers continue to exceed Central Park’s 15 mph speed limit, endangering lives, while the speed limit is almost impossible to enforce. Yet the photo shows a couple kids on e-motorbikes with full face helmets, one pulling a wheelie, making it clear that regular bicycles and ped-assist ebikes aren’t the problem. And speed guns work just as well on them as they do with motor vehicles.
Streetsblog says the way to solve the problems in Central Park is to build better bike lanes around the park’s perimeter, so non-recreational riders don’t have to use it as the only safe route across town.
Bike Radar explains why your ebike battery loses power when it’s cold, with a lithium ion battery having just half the power at 4 below zero Fahrenheit that it does at 77 degrees. Which is not a problem most SoCal riders are likely to have.
More proof protected bike lanes work. A year-old protected bike lane in the Australian state of Tasmania hasn’t had a single bicycling crash since it was installed, despite seeing 6,000 trips each month, while overall crashes on the street have dropped nearly a third.
Spoiled little daschund ! Grandpaw built this custom snoopy inspired dog house from scratch for his grand dog Louie! #daschund#dogsoftiktok#dogtiktok#dogmom
Or repeatedly getting busted while too drunk or stoned to drive.
And how those overly lenient laws adds to the state’s ever increasing body count due to traffic violence caused by people who shouldn’t have been behind the wheel in the first place.
Now they’re reporting that a number of bills are being proposed in the state legislature to tackle the problem, including one directly addressing DUI.
(Assemblyman Nick) Schultz, a Democrat from Burbank, is the chair of the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee and a former DUI prosecutor. He unveiled a new billlast week – which he called “the tip of the spear” – that would crack down on repeat drunk drivers. The bill would:
Let prosecutors charge a felony for a third DUI — a “paradigm shift” for sentencing, he said, that would bring California more in line with states like Oregon, where Schultz worked. Right now, in California, a driver generally can’t be charged with a felony until their fourth DUI in 10 years.
Require any driver who gets a fifth DUI conviction within 10 years to have their license revoked for five years, and to install an in-car breathalyzer for four years. As we’ve reported, California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the nation, and these measures touch on two reasons why.
Look, I’m glad to finally see some action to address DUI. Any action.
But waiting for a fifth DUI in just ten years to get serious about taking away someone’s driving privileges is like giving someone his gun back because his first few shots missed.
A driver’s first DUI should result in an automatic six-month loss of license, and a requirement to use an interlock device for at least two years.
A second DUI should result in automatic jail time, or at least home vacation confinement. And a third should mean serious prison time, and a permanent loss of license.
That’s three in a lifetime, not 10 years. Or 20.
We should also impound the cars of any drivers who have their license suspended, for whatever reason. Because as we’ve seen, too many people continue to drive even after their license has been taken away.
Does that sound harsh?
So is having to arrange a funeral for a loved one.
The simple fact is, no one has a right to drive. It is a privilege granted by the state, only after passing a test demonstrating a basic knowledge of traffic laws, and the ability to drive safely.
Which means that everyone should know it’s illegal to drive after drinking or getting high. Other than speeding or distracted driving, nothing a person does behind the wheel is more likely to result in the death of another human being.
And don’t get me started on how lenient our speeding and distracted driving laws are.
Right now, we enforce DUI with a wink and a nod, accepting a driver’s promise to never, ever do it again. Until they do, when we usually just do the same thing.
And keep doing it until they kill someone.
It’s long past time we put a stop to it, once and for all. And incremental steps, however well intentioned, won’t get us there.
Never mind that there’s already a Los Angeles bike plan, part of the city mobility plan, that maps that out in detail.
But whatever.
The Venice NC Parking & Transportation Committee met Monday to discuss the creation and distribution of a Bikeway Network for Venice in time for the ’28 Olympics.
According to YoVenice,
The purpose of the survey is to include community input, advice, and suggestions before the final product is distributed to the general public. Should they receive board approval, several methods of distribution will be used for maximum participation and input.
The creation of a Venice Bikeway Network would be the ultimate goal and objective.
It’s not that they shouldn’t take another look at it.
Obviously, things have changed in the decade and a half since the bike plan was unanimously approved by the city council. They should consider how it can be improved, particularly in a neighborhood where residents are five times more likely to ride a bicycle than most Angelenos.
But start with the work that’s already in place, without trying to reinvent the (bicycle) wheel.
He bizarrely told investigators that he knew he had been in a crash, but kept going because he thought someone had just thrown a bicycle at his truck, and had no idea there might possibly be someone riding it.
If he actually believes that, prosecutors should add a DUI charge to his indictment, because he’d have to be whacked out of his mind to have that thought even pop into his head.
He should also have been charged with murder, because it took half an hour to find the victim after he was run down, at which point it was too late to help him.
And to top things off, the driver was out on pre-trial release for a separate domestic battery case.
Nice guy.
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This is the future we could have.
Although as someone else pointed out in the comments, we already have a few Metro Bike Hubs, but nowhere near enough. And you have to have a membership, rather than just using it on demand whenever you need it.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Conservative politicians in England’s Merseyside region are attacking a “ridiculous” new bike lane network as “crackpot stuff,” even as the local government calls for people to ditch their cars for some shorter journeys, insisting it will make area “healthier and safer.”
Apparently, a random video of bicycling through LA’s Skid Row is proof that California is “a third world hellscape,” where the “streets look like Mogadishu.” In other words, sort of like a few streets in any other major city.
A Eureka woman was arrested nearly a year after she used her SUV as a weapon by allegedly speeding up to intentionally strike a bicycle being ridden by someone she knew, while driving on the wrong side of the road, then backing up to run over the victim’s bicycle, and crashing into another car after running a red light as she tried to make her escape; fortunately, the victim didn’t appear to be seriously injured, although the driver of the car she hit was hospitalized afterwards.
She gets it. An Irish coroner looking into the death of a 58-year old bike rider blames the lack of a comprehensive bike path network, while a bike advocacy group says the street where he was killed by a truck driver “is not safe for people walking or cycling.”
Two-time Tour de France and defending Vuelta champ Jonas Vingegaard will race the Giro this year, as he tries to claim the only Grand Tour he hasn’t won. Yet. Note to newspapers — does it really make sense to paywall an AP story that’s readily available on the internet?
Australia’s Royal Automobile Association, the country’s equivalent to AAA, is urging drivers and bicyclists to be patient and courteous, and obey the law, during the upcoming Santos Tour Down Under. Although it’s not the scofflaw bike riders whose impatience and lack of courtesy puts everyone else at risk.
As part of the long-planned Rail-to-River project, Los Angeles turned a neglected right-of-way into a shared-use path lined with hundreds of new trees, bioswales, pedestrian-scale lighting, and bike share stations. The completed Slauson segment of the Rail-to-River project (known as Segment A) stretches 5.5 miles from 67th Street and 11th Avenue to Slauson Station on the Metro A Line. The path links schools, transit, parks, and businesses, providing a safe, accessible route for both recreation and commuting in South Central Los Angeles.
As local advocates celebrate the project’s success, they continue to push for completion of Segment B before the 2028 Olympics, which would extend farther east to the LA River and create a vital link in a regional network that will ultimately connect South LA to Long Beach and beyond.
Now let’s convince Metro finish the rest of this one before 2028.
The parents of Los Angeles Police Officer Houston Tipping are suing the city and LAPD Officer David Cuellar, claiming that Cuellar intentionally injured their son when they were participating in a bicycle patrol training class at the department’s Elysian Park Academy in 2022.
According to the lawsuit, Tipping had launched an investigation after taking a report from a woman claiming she had been sexually assaulted, allegedly by Cuellar. And that Cuellar retaliated by purposely injured him during a training exercise.
Tipping suffered a spinal cord injury, dying three days later.
Morphew had reported his wife missing, saying she had disappeared after leaving alone for a Mother’s Day bike ride. However, police later concluded he had drugged her with an animal tranquilizer, and tossed her bicycle and helmet down a ravine to make it look like she had crashed.
Volunteers kept searching for her, but it was not until 2023 that her skeletal remains were found.
Morphew was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder. He was allegedly the only person, other than wildlife officials, to have a prescription for that particular drug combination in the area.
This is the second time he has been charged in her death. He was first arrested in 2021, before her body was found. But charges were dismissed after alleged prosecutorial misconduct.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Toronto has spent $270,000 to hire outside attorneys in the fight to retain key bike lanes that Ontario officials want to rip out; the executive director of a Toronto bike advocacy group said the money could have been better spent on transit or other projects to reduce congestion, if the province hadn’t been so obsessed with removing the bike lanes.
No bias here. A Dublin, Ireland judge reduced by 80% the damages awarded to a bicyclist who suffered a brain injury, claiming that bicyclists have become a nightmare in the city, and as a driver, he was entitled to take judicial notice of his own experiences. Just wait until someone tells him about the nightmare drivers have become. And not just in Dublin.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Scottish letter writer complains that bicyclists need to show more care around pedestrians on shared paths, with too many riders coming up from behind with little or no warning. Seriously, pedestrians are the only ones who are more vulnerable on the streets or pathways than we are. So slow down, give them a warning and pass them like you wish drivers would pass you.
It may be justice delayed, or even denied, for a Sacramento woman who was nearly killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding her bike in 2023, leaving her with four broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a concussion, a collapsed lung and a lingering bruise on her thigh, after the driver arrested a year later filed for a mental health diversion rather than facing trial — something the victim calls his Get Out of Jail Free card.
The lone survivor of an Asheville NC crash that killed two bicyclists and seriously injured a third, is now the co-founder of the The White Line North Carolina chapter, and fighting for passage of the Magnus White Cyclist Safety Act (H.R. 3649) mandating automatic emergency braking systems for motor vehicles to detect cyclists and other road users.
Momentum recommends the top ten bikepacking routes to tackle this year, including California’s own Pacific Coast Route from Canada to Mexico. Although whether this is actually a new story or another recycled piece from years past is TBD.
Interesting piece from Cycling Weekly, arguing that the WorldTour pro cycling model is broken, as the complexity and cost of bicycles continues to climb, putting high-end bikes out of the reach of most consumers — and that the solution is to ban current pro bikes from being sold to consumers, just like F1 cars may promote the brand, but you can’t buy one and drive it on the street.
According to the study, painted bike lanes showed an actual increase in bicycling injuries, as well as either only slight increases in bicycling rates. Or even a decrease in one city.
Protected bike lanes are another matter. They showed either no effect, or a drop in bike-rated injuries, while resulting in significantly higher riding rates — up to 700% in one city.
Results for converting painted lanes to protected bike lanes were inconclusive, simply because there weren’t enough examples to draw a conclusion.
Another interesting tidbit was that researchers had to verify both the type of bike lanes and their installation dates, because municipal records were often either inaccurate, or misidentified what was installed.
Which makes you wonder if they were referring to what Los Angeles too often calls a protected bike lane, while offering little more than a little car-tickler bendie-post to keep errant drivers out, rather than any form of actual protection.
Photo of the late, great MOVE Culver City protected bike lane by Mitchell Guzik.
The process of widening highways to cure congestion has been compared to losing weight by loosening your belt or buying bigger pants, because traffic will soon increase to meet, or exceed, the additional capacity.
Hence, inducing demand.
Like the widening of the 405 Freeway over the Sepulveda Pass, which cost $1 billion and resulted in increased congestion in less than a year.
We would have gotten more for our money if they had just burned that billion bucks and used it to power the city.
But now a study from England’s iconic Cambridge University shows that the same thing works with bike lanes and transit lanes, as well.
Build or expand a new bike lane, and the number of bicyclists using it will go up; improve train or bus service, and the same holds true — the added capacity encourages more people to use it.
Although as that Canadian study shows, the quality of the infrastructure matters, too.
Build a bike lane that people feel safe using, and they will. Build a bike lane they don’t feel safe using, and they won’t.
Which means we need to demand the kind of infrastructure that will induce demand.
The ATP remains California’s only dedicated statewide funding source for walking and bicycling infrastructure. It is also one of the state’s most effective climate tools. Yet, despite delivering measurable reductions in vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, ATP funding continues to lag far behind demand. In recent funding cycles, the California Transportation Commission has been forced to turn away the vast majority of high-quality, shovel-ready projects. At the same time, the transportation budget preserves billions in highway and freight investments that continue to induce driving, increase pollution, and undermine the state’s climate goals. These backward-facing investments lock Californians into decades of higher emissions and greater exposure to climate disasters, even as the state acknowledges the scale of the climate crisis.
Governor Newsom has been clear: “This January budget is not the final word. It is a beginning—a statement of purpose.” CalBike urges the Legislature to use that opening to correct the imbalance in transportation spending. That begins with significantly increasing funding for the Active Transportation Program and making a clear commitment to a transportation system that prioritizes people, safety, and climate outcomes over vehicle throughput alone.
Let’s hope someone is listening this time.
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Meanwhile, Brooks forwards a LinkedIn profile for one of the people who helped lead the disastrous California Ebike Incentive Program, who seems to frame it as an enviable success.
Because as we all know, gaslighting is an invaluable career skill if you’re going to work in government.
According to the premier, his wife had came to a full stop, and was just starting to turn when the boy came flying out of the woods on a bike path, and slammed into the side of her SUV with enough force to bash in her windshield and fly over her car.
That’s what she says, anyway.
Because after that, things get a little funny. The officer initially assigned to the case — the same one making the allegations — says he was rushing to the scene when he was told, in effect, to never mind.
Mr Hanley, who was initially instructed to attend the crash scene before being ordered to stand down, alleges police committed at least 35 procedural failures.
He claims officers failed to interview Mr Meuleman (the victim) or key witnesses, did not properly examine the vehicle involved, and allowed the investigation to die a natural death.
Mr Hanley has also alleged Mr Andrews delayed calling triple-0 (or 911 in this country) for more than six minutes and that the damaged SUV was moved from the scene, claims the former premier has previously rejected.
It’s not like a sitting premier could have pulled strings to get the investigation dropped or anything, directly or indirectly.
Right?
It’s taken the boy’s family 13 years to get justice in this case. And nothing says they’re going to get it now.
And no, I don’t know how that’s any different from the city’s mobility plan, which purports to do virtually the same thing.
Unless the MAP is how the city plans to implement the mobility plan, which they have so far been doing everything they can to avoid implementing.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A writer for Canada’s conservative National Post says a judge’s ruling that a right to bike lanes is guaranteed by the country’s charter — equivalent to our constitution — makes a mockery of it, and should be overturned on appeal.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Gothamist says a key test of New York Mayor Mamdani’s commitment to bicycling will be what he does with a three-block stretch of bike lanes on Bedford Ave, where the former parking-protected lane was abruptly removed by former Mayor Eric Adams in a effort to appease, and get the votes of, the Orthodox Jewish community.
The best five minutes of your day may be this piece from Canadian Cycling Magazine, recapping the best bicycling cameos in scripted television, from Monty Python and Benny Hill to the Simpsons and Family Guy.We’ll ignore for now that most unscripted television is, in fact, scripted. Just a little less so.
Dutch electronics chain Coolblue will now sell bike helmets, as well as require helmets for their bicycle couriers, after the company’s CEO fell off his bike and broke his front teeth. Even though bike helmets provide little to no mouth protection.
British mountain bikers competed in a 24-hour, snow-covered challenge over the weekend, completing as many laps of the 7.5-mile course as they can in that time period, in temperatures down to 0 degrees. Although that’s Celsius, which translates to a relatively balmy 32° Fahrenheit on this side of the Atlantic.
