According to KTLA-5, the victims were riding north on the 6500 block of Winnetka Ave around 12:45 am after leaving their jobs at a nearby restaurant, when they were struck by the driver of a pickup.
A witness reported seeing the driver swerve into one victim, then swerve again to strike the other, in what may have been an intentional attack.
The driver reportedly stopped to look at the crash scene, then got back in his truck and calmly drove away.
Both victims were taken to a nearby hospital, where one of the men died. The other was reportedly conscious with serious injuries.
Neither man has been publicly identified at this time.
Driver may have targeted victims
LAPD investigators were attempting to determine if the attack was intentional or if the driver may have been under the influence.
It’s also possible that they may have been followed from the restaurant at Ventura Boulevard and Tampa Avenue.
The LA Daily News offers a description of the driver and suspect vehicle.
The vehicle was described as a white Ford or Chevrolet “utility style” pickup truck with toolboxes on the sides and possible front-end damage. The motorist was described as a white man in his late 30s or early 40s, with “close cropped” hair on his head and facial hair.
Anyone with information is urged to call 877/527-3247.
This is the 24th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 13th in Los Angeles County; it’s also the fourth in the City of Los Angeles.
Update 2: A ghost bike will be placed at the site at 9 pm tonight.
The Daily News offers an update on the story, focusing on the dangers of the street. Which is irrelevant if the driver really did attack the victims on purpose. Just like the LAPD’s tone deaf suggestion to use lights and helmets, which aren’t likely to fend off someone intent on murder.
Update 3: The LAPD has released news that the two victims were both Hispanic men; as the Daily News noted, they were leaving their work at the Cho Cho San sushi bar in Tarzana.
The victim has still not been publicly identified pending notification of next of kin; the delay suggests that they are outside of the country. Meanwhile, the surviving victim has been released from the hospital and is resting at home.
Here is video of the suspect truck police are looking for.
If you have any knowledge of the crash or driver, you’re urged to contact Valley Homicide at the numbers below.
Anyone with information about this collision is asked to contact Valley Bureau Homicide, Detective Doerbecker at 818-374-1943. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call the LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or go directly to www.lacrimestoppers.org. Tipsters may also visit ww.lapdonline.org, and click on “Anonymous Web Tips” under the “Get Involved-Crime Stoppers” menu to submit an online tip. Lastly, tipsters may also download the “P3 Tips” mobile application and select the LA Regional Crime Stoppers as their local program.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones. And my prayers for the second victim for a full and fast recovery.
Thanks to Steve S, Ed Ryder and Mike Wilkinson for the heads-up.
As far as I’m concerned, police officers should be disciplined, retrained or fired. Except in the most egregious cases, where their actions go far beyond a mistake in judgment or failing to follow policy.
Like this one, for instance.
Because there’s something seriously wrong when an LAPD cop can kick a black bike rider in the head like he was lining up a field goal, and get away without spending a single day behind bars.
Garcia pled no contest to felony assault in exchange for a sentence of 300 hours of community service and a paltry $500 fine to be paid an unnamed charity, along with two years probation. After which time he could have his conviction reduced to a misdemeanor.
However, that also means he could end up keeping his job. Which would just compound the incredible injustice in this case.
And disgrace all the officers who struggle to do the job right and win the trust of the people they serve.
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The free Biko app is now available in Los Angeles, as well as San Diego and San Francisco; the app allows riders to collect credits for each kilometer they ride, which can be redeemed at participating businesses and charities.
So where the hell was this when I was still riding a few hundred miles a week?
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A reminder to always pull over when you have five or more vehicles backed up behind you and unable to pass.
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Apparently, there’s a never-ending supply of sexist stupidity within the bike industry.
Never mind that women ride bikes, as well as fix them. And damn few dress like that to do it.
Houston is just the latest city where police have set up safe bike passing stings using an ultrasound device that measures an exact three-foot passing distance. Now if only we could get the LAPD, LASD and CHP to give it a try.
This is the cost of traffic violence. Relatives of a San Antonio TX bike rider are struggling to find answers after he was left to die in the street by a pair of hit-and-run drivers, one of whom stopped just long enough to remove his bike from the car’s bumper. Thanks to Steve Katz for the heads-up.
A New York woman is out of work for eight weeks and facing $25,000 in medical expenses after she was run down by a cyclist who blew through a red light, claiming he couldn’t stop in time. She says law-breaking cyclists should be treated like drivers; unfortunately, that’s exactly how the NYPD usually treats drivers who kill or injure bike riders and pedestrians.
A user white paper from China’s Mobike bikeshare company offers insights to the country’s emerging cycling demographic; the company says it’s taken the emissions equivalent of 170,000 cars off the roads and out of the air.
May 23, 2017 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: Auto-centric Cal Poly becoming bike friendly, and more events to wrap up LA Bike Month
Good news from Cal Poly Pomona, for a change.
CPP professor Boyonabike! provides a wrap-up of Bike Week at the traditionally auto-centric and bike-unfriendly university. And reports that things are finally beginning to change.
The university’s new President, Dr. Soraya Coley, has been supportive of efforts to encourage alternative transportation (the previous campus president once threatened to ban bikes from campus). The campus installed new bus shelters last summer and this year we’ll be getting new bike racks and bike repair stands at several locations on campus. Even bigger changes may be just around the corner, however.
This year the president created a new campus Transportation Advisory Committee that will take a more holistic approach to mobility, and next year’s update of the Campus Master Plan could provide a blueprint for a more bike- and transit-friendly campus. Better transit connectivity to campus and discount student transit passes will be a priority, but it is in bike infrastructure that we may see some of the most sweeping changes. I still can’t believe I’m writing these words, but the President recently approved installation of protected bike lanes on a stretch of Kellogg Drive that is being realigned to accommodate new student housing. Yes, you read that right. By September 2017 there should be protected bike lanes and improved intersections on a roadway where a cyclist was killed by a distracted driver a few years ago.
That would be the best possible memorial to fallen cyclist Ivan Aguilar, to transform the university he never got to graduate from into one where no one else needs to fear for their lives, however they choose to travel.
My apologies to John Lloyd and everyone at Cal Poly; I meant to include this one last night, but lost it as I struggled to get yesterday’s post online despite a balky, and since replaced, trackpad.
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These are the people we share the roads with.
A drunk, speeding Corvette driver gets six years for running down a 77-year old Oregon man as he rode his bicycle in a bike lane; a lawsuit is proceeding against the six bars that allowed him to achieve a BAC three and a half times the legal limit. A previous DUI (or DUII in Oregon) was dismissed after he completed a diversion program, which obviously didn’t take.
And Michigan driver was high on heroin when he fled the scene after killing a 61-year old man riding his bike on the shoulder of the roadway.
Clearly, more has to be done to keep drunk and drugged drivers off the roads. Especially if they’ve already been arrested — not merely convicted — for driving under the influence.
After finishing second in her first road race, a Roseville cyclist serves as a “human shield” — otherwise known as a domestique — in the women’s tour of California.
Estonian cyclist Tanel Kangert is out for the season after breaking his arm and shoulder after falling in the Giro; he was the leader of the Astana team, which lost Michele Scarponi earlier this year when he was killed in a collision while training.
Coronado will reduce fines for bike riders in hopes of encouraging police to write more tickets; officers sometime are reluctant to ticket bicyclists if they think the high fines aren’t justified by the offense.
People For Bikes says that connecting bikeway networks is going to be harder now that cities have built the easy “low-hanging fruit,” but worth it. Or you could do it the Los Angeles way and give up, calling the difficult ones merely “aspirational.”
Riding a bikeshare bike home from the local pub after downing a few pints in Bristol, England could get you a fine up to £2,500 — the equivalent of over $3,200.
Former pros Alexander Vinokourov and Alexander Kolobnev will stand trial in Belgium on charges of corruption after Vinokourov was accused of paying Kolobnev 150,000 euros to let him win the 2010 Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
The rich get richer. New York plans six miles of protected bike lanes to connect bikeways in Eastern Queens. Which is how you make an actual bike network. And actually encourage more people to ride.
Treehugger says it’s time to stop traffic terrorism in the wake of the deadly drug-fueled attack in Times Square. Thanks to Fred Davis for the heads-up.
Let alone eliminating traffic fatalities entirely by 2025.
Surprisingly — and not surprising — the vote was unanimous to adopt the budget; not surprising, since the council usually votes in lockstep, but surprising that safety curmudgeon Councilmembers Koretz, Cedillo and Ryu went along.
It’s just a fraction of the amount New York spends on Vision Zero each year — let alone the additional $400 million in Vision Zero funding the city will spend over the next six years.
NYC added bike lanes, increased space for pedestrians and slowed traffic on Queens Boulevard, choosing to save lives at the risk of slightly inconveniencing drivers.
A candidate for the Olympic track team was injured in a collision with a trash truck in Santa Barbara while he was riding his bicycle; he was riding, rather than running, due to an ankle injury.
A Chicago woman is suing the police department, claiming that she was struck by an unmarked police SUV while riding her bike, and the officer falsified the report to blame her for the crash.
That’s more like it. A Pennsylvania man gets five to ten years behind bars for causing the chain reaction crash that led to the death of a woman on her bike; he was driving despite a suspended sentence and had synthetic marijuana in his system.
A Florida doctor somehow feels the need to point out that pro cycling is dangerous before offering safety tips for bike riders. Just like you should always point out how dangerous F1, NASCAR and IndyCar racing is before telling drivers to buckle their seatbelts.
Which as of early Thursday morning, had managed to collect a whopping 70 signatures — 44 of them anonymous.
Maybe someone should point out that an anonymous signature is the same as no signature at all. Which leaves just 26 people brave, and mistaken, enough to put their name where their mouth is.
Mistaken, because California law allows bicycles on any public roadway where motor vehicles are allowed, with the exception of some limited access highways.
Which means that the only ways to ban bicycles from those roads is to —
A) Change the state law;
B) Start a crowdsourcing campaign to raise the several million dollars it would take to buy the roadways from the city, and convert them into private streets; or
C) Ban all motor vehicles from the streets, requiring residents to walk up the steep hillsides to get to their homes.
Personally, I’m all in favor of the last option; if they want to get rid of bikes, they can give up their expensive cars and massive SUVs. At which point they’d complain about all the damn hikers clogging the streets.
Then again, there is one other option.
They could accept that the public roadways belong to the public, and that anyone who wants to use them is entitled to do so, for any reason, using any form of street legal conveyance. And then slow the hell down and learn to drive safely.
But that’s not likely to happen anytime soon.
Which is not to say the people on bikes aren’t part of the problem.
We can all make a point to be more courteous and ride safely, and make room for others on the road to get by when it’s safe to do so.
Even if we’re the only ones who do it.
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Congratulations to Michelle Mowery on her new job with the City of Long Beach.
She spent years struggling with LADOT’s notoriously auto-centric senior engineers — and often, the city’s more vocal bike advocates. But showed what she could do when she finally got the chance under former Mayor Villaraigosa.
Too bad the progress they made has come to a screeching halt since then.
And don’t forget tonight’s Bike from Work Handlebar Happy Hours, in Claremont, Downtown LA and Santa Monica, just to name a few. Just try not to be like the beer-toting guy at the bottom of this post.
Writing for the International Journal of Transportation Innovation, the LACBC’s Tamika Butler asks uneasy questions about the role of Vision Zero in a racist society, and whether the engineers and policy makers responsible for implementing it have the skills to rectify inequity in city planning.
Bad news from Turlock, where a man on a bike was run down from behind by a pickup driver. Note to Turlock Journal: When someone is hit by a truck doing nearly 60 mph, it really doesn’t matter if he was wearing a helmet. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
In yet another example of allowing dangerous drivers to remain on the road until they kill someone, an Oregon driver gets three and a half years for killing a bike rider, by driving with bald tires that caused his truck to fishtail in wet weather. He admitted to receiving somewhere between 30 to 40 tickets for driving with a suspended license, but would just buy another cheap used car when his got impounded.
It shows just how much damage was done by the revelations of Bray-Ali’s online history trolling a racist website when he couldn’t muster more than 30% against the single most unpopular member of the city council.
And now we, and the residents of CD1, have to live with him for the next 5-1/2 years.
Seriously? Unable to come up with the $1 million bail, a Long Beach man has been behind bars for nearly a year awaiting trial on felony charges of assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon and resisting an officer — all for throwing his bike at the cop who tried to stop him for riding without a headlight.
Just days after a New Orleans cyclist was shot in the back with a pellet gun, a Mobile, Alabama woman was shot repeatedly with a pellet gun from a passing pickup while riding her bike; fortunately, she wasn’t seriously hurt and was able to get the truck’s plate number.
Caught on video too: A Florida 7th grader somehow managed to walk away after he was run down by a fishtailing hit-and-run driver. Warning: The video is very hard to watch, even knowing the kid came out okay.
International
A new high-tech fiber promises to make carbon frames lighter, stronger and less brittle than ever before. And they float, too.
Even though the council’s Transportation Committee had voted to devote 60% of Measure M return funds to stop killing bicyclists and pedestrians.
And even though LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds estimated it would take $80 million to meet the mayor’s goal of reducing traffic fatalities 20% this year. Let alone ending them by 2025.
And even though the mayor’s own budget had included a woefully inadequate $16.7 million for Vision Zero.
Instead, the council’s Budget Committee voted to zero out funding for Vision Zero, while saying it was no one’s intention to zero out funding for Vision Zero. They promised to circle back at a later date to consider giving some unspecified piece of the pie to improve safety, while channeling much of the funding to repaving streets.
And we’ve learned from experience what their promises are worth.
As Linton wrote,
Despite LADOT having submitted a Vision Zero work plan with costs (see budget memos 130 and 131), Krekorian and Englander both asserted that directing monies to LADOT for Vision Zero was – in Krekorian’s words “buying a pig in a poke” – paying for an unknown quantity lacking “specific expenditures.” The Bureau of Street Services has not submitted an expenditure plan, but can pour money into its perpetually backlogged repaving programs, which divide expenditures by 15 for the 15 council districts….
In an interview with Streetsblog this morning, Bonin expressed frustration that his colleagues were praising the city budget for its no-kill animal shelters, while not yet dedicating any money to no-kill sidewalks. Bonin said that it didn’t make any sense for the council to put off Vision Zero funding that would prevent deaths and save lives. Bonin further stated that he is continuing to push for a genuine city commitment to Vision Zero.
So for now, at least, it’s exactly what so many of us have feared.
LA may have a Vision Zero plan. But zero commitment to follow through.
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Forget those reports from a few years ago that bicycling can cause erectile dysfunction or other sexual problems.
But we already knew that, right? And so did our undoubtedly very pleased significant others.
And you can stop riding those cut-out and cutoff saddles, because bike seats didn’t matter, either.
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Metrolink will be hosting a Bike Week Twitter Party this evening.
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As a public service, no more news about today’s elections in CD7, and especially, CD1 until we have actual results, and can kiss this seemingly endless election cycle goodbye.
Team Sky’s Ian Bosewell wants to rebuild fans’ trust in American cycling by showing the new generation of riders can succeed without doping; he’s going to participate in a bike giveaway at the Hollywood Boys and Girls Club the day after the race’s Pasadena finish.
The Daily News says business owners are struggling to deal with the increasing homeless encampment along the Orange Line bike path in Van Nuys, with open drug dealing and prostitution, as well as people turning the bikeway in an open air toilet. I’ve heard from several riders who no longer feel safe riding the bikeway, and asked an LAPD officer to look into it; he reported that they couldn’t be legally removed because they’re on private property.
Writing in the Fresno Bee, a conservation advocate seems to believe the prospect of allowing bicycles in American wilderness areas will crack the final seal holding back the two-wheeled apocalypse.
A Michigan woman gets six months in jail for a fatal collision with a bicyclist because she had THC in her blood, even though she had the right-of-way and, according to her lawyer, police concluded there was nothing she could have done to avoid the crash.
Heartbreaking news from Indiana, where a driver lost control swerving to avoid a bike rider who had fallen while crossing the roadway and collided with a truck, killing an 11-year old girl in the passenger seat.
This is the 21st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 12th in Los Angeles County; it’s also the third in the City of Los Angeles.
Update: David Wolfberg provides more information about this tragedy, along with photos from the site.
The ghost bike was placed last night. We learned from after-the-crash witnesses that the bike and victim had been dragged for half a block on southbound Crenshaw before stopping just north of Brynhurst – literally between a billboard for a personal injury attorney service to the north on the east side of Crenshaw (“Don’t wait, Call 8!” you can see on the street view) and the Harrison-Ross Mortuary on the west/south. Apparently there’s also a pedestrian & bike safety billboard on the other side of of the personal injury one – I’ll check that tonight.
The Google Map view (see street view link above) from January still holds except the cones are gone – so, two lanes of not so great pavement between curb and k-rails. There’s even a worn out sharrow in front of Highly Favored Hair Studio. Last night, instead of slowing down for a construction zone, cars were speeding and speeding up as they passed us, and we nearly witnessed another crash as a car stopped just north of the ghost bike to pick up a passenger from the sidewalk. I worry not just for cyclists, but for everyone here including construction workers who park (in a heavily guarded lot) a block down on the NW corner of Crenshaw and 48th then must cross into the construction area.
We’re told the victim was male. A reply on NextDoor indicates the victim was a minor. We had guessed, given the timing, that it was a kid biking home from school. I don’t want to speculate too much, but it did not look like an intersection crash where the bike flew in from out of nowhere. I could picture a rider trying to hug the curb and coming across the rough patch adjacent to the sharrow (check street view at 4427 Crenshaw) and faltering in front of the bus.
Update: According to a comment by the victim’s sister, his name is Luis Alvarez, a 21-year old resident of Cicero, Illinois. The family has started a GoFundMe account to bring him back home and pay funeral expenses.
According to the LAPD’s South Traffic bike liaison, Alvarez apparently passed the bus on the right, then was hit by the bus when he attempted to move back to the right to make a right turn onto Brynhurst. There’s no word yet on whether the bus was stopped or moving prior to the crash; however, a street view does not show a bus stop on that corner.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Luis Alvarez and all his loved ones.
The one week of the year devoted to getting more people out on bicycles, when elected officials, which some notable exceptions — both good and bad — act like we actually matter.
As opposed to the other 51, when they generally forget we exist.
And there’s a long list of events to celebrate this week.
Bike Week officially starts with a kick-off event at Union Station at 10 am today, along with the groundbreaking for the new Union Station Bike Hub.
Also on Tuesday, the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition and BikeSGV host a free Taste of Pasadena ride in cooperation with Metro and the Pasadena Playhouse District Association.
While we’re on the subject, a few more events are coming up on three of the next four Sundays.
The SoCal Cross Prestige Series is hosting the SoCal Gravel Trofee #2: Jewel City Grind! next Sunday, offering your choice of a 30 or 40 mile ride with up to 4,700 feet of climbing, 40% of it on dirt.
Despite the controversy over the last few weeks, my personal feeling is that Bray-Ali is still a better choice than the incumbent Gil Cedillo, who has proven himself to be unresponsive and out of touch with his district, and inexplicably committed to keeping the streets of CD1 dangerous.
But only you can make that choice for yourself.
So vote your conscience.
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Before we move on, let’s pause for a quick sponsored post from my friends Jon Riddle and Sarah Amelar, authors of Where to Bike Los Angeles.
Don’t let National Bike Month slip by without adding Where to Bike Los Angeles to your cycling library. It’s the best riding guide for LA by far, and you can pick it up during the ongoing one-month sale — this May only — for less than twenty bucks a copy directly from the authors’ Amazon store.
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This is what life looks like from inside the peloton at the women’s Amgen Tour of California.
Meanwhile, women from Pakistan and Afghanistan are competing in Pakistan’s second annual Women’s Cycling Championship, in a far more challenging environment where women are actively discouraged from riding, let alone racing, bicycles.
The long-discussed bike, pedestrian and equestrian bridge across the LA River in Atwater is finally nearing approval this month, despite a $16.1 million price tag. Hopefully, separate spans for horses and humans will keep the horse riders from trying to get bicyclists banned, unlike another bridge in the area.
The San Diego Union-Tribune says it’s ludicrous for city projections to call for eighteen percent of people who live within half a mile of transit station to commute by bike by 2035. Even though that’s a very limited subset of the population, and just calls for an increase of roughly one percent a year, which should be doable if the city follows through on its ambitious plans to improve infrastructure.
A former traffic safety engineer says Paso Robles needs to stop painting bike lanes in residential neighborhoods, because he thinks they’re too wide and will make property values go down. Never mind that narrowing traffic lanes slows drivers — which he should know — and bike lanes usually make property values go the other way.
Sad news from the Bay Area, where a Hayward man was killed riding his bike in nearby Sunol when a pickup driver rear-ended him on a road with no shoulder; the driver played the universal Get Out of Jail Free Card by claiming the sun was in her eyes and she just didn’t see him.
Sixty-six years old, riding a bicycle, and slinging heroin laced with fentanyl on New York streets. Which is pretty much my entire retirement plan.Thanks to Tim Rutt for the heads-up.
A writer for the Wall Street Journal demonstrates that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, celebrating the walkability of the city, while lamenting the safety improvements that help keep that possible, because it makes her cab rides take longer.
A DC columnist mostly gets it, saying it’s illegal for anyone to run a red light, whether walking, riding a bicycle or driving, but that only drivers pose a significant risk to others. However, he fails to consider that Idaho bicyclists are allowed to go through a light after stopping and observing the right of way, and that riders in several other states can legally go through a light that fails to change, including here California. But good luck telling a cop that.
When an Indian woman jumped in front of a train after fighting with her parents over replacing the stolen bicycle she used to commute to college, her mother jumped in front of it to try to save her; sadly, both women were killed.
What the hell is wrong with people? An Aussie man intentionally ran a bicyclist off the road with his motorcycle, then bragged about it in a nearby café as his victim lay dying; he faces up to 25 well-deserved years behind bars after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
