Day 42 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
………
We mentioned last week that a man from the UK had gone missing while mountain biking in Spain, prompting an all-out search.
Now it turns out that the victim is 50-year old US expat Matt Opperman, who has lived in Spain off-and-and on for several years, after serving as head mechanic for the Australian mountain bike team at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Police concluded that Opperman, who worked for Yeti Cycles, set out on his electric mountain bike two weeks ago yesterday, after finding his black van parked in Segura de la Sierra, west of Alicante, Spain.
Family members say the father of two had planned to stay at a cabin and explore local trails, but hasn’t been seen since.
Opperman is a former resident of both Houston, Texas and Longmont, Colorado.
Which suggests that if the sheriff’s department really wants to improve safety for older bike riders, maybe they should start with a seminar on how to drive safely around people on bicycles, older or otherwise.
Because it’s not the people riding bikes who are killing people.
NACTO says there’s a lot of new and revised rules in the latest edition of the organization’s Urban Bikeway Design Guide(click to make graphic mo’ bigger).
You know, in case you need a little light reading.
Anti-urbanist President Trump is reportedly in talks with New York’s governor to not only get rid of New York City’s successful congestion pricing program, but also rip out the city’s bike lanes, which have improved safety for everyone. Although it’s questionable what authority he has to force their removal on state and local roadways, but that doesn’t seem to stop anyone these days.
New York takes another dramatic step to slow traffic by installing a “green wave” on a 36-block stretch of Third Ave, where traffic signals that had been timed for vehicles traveling 25 mph have been reset for a 15 mph, allowing bicyclists — not drivers — to travel without stopping.
Life is cheap in Ireland, where a 62-year old man, who had faced up to ten years behind bars for running a red light and killing an eight-year old boy riding a bicycle, was sentenced to just three years in jail, with one suspended, after the judge considered mitigating factors; the boy’s father says he will never get over the “violence of the impact.”
A new Dutch study shows that promoting bicycling can help create more compact cities, while eliminating bicycle infrastructure increases commuting times and distances and exacerbates traffic congestion, while resulting in a significant reduction in worker welfare.
Known to friends and fans as Shoup Dogg, Donald Should gained fame among urbanists, traffic planners and advocates with his 2005 book The High Cost of Free Parking, which established him as one of the world’s leading experts on parking, and the hidden costs it imposes on builders and cities.
Donald Shoup is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA. His research has focused on transportation, public finance, and land economics.
In his 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking, Shoup recommended that cities should (1) charge fair market prices for on-street parking, (2) spend the revenue to benefit the metered areas, and (3) remove off-street parking requirements. In his 2018 edited book, Parking and the City, Shoup and 45 other academic and practicing planners examined the results in cities that have adopted these three reforms. The successful outcomes show that parking reforms can improve cities, the economy, and the environment.
Shoup is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and an Honorary Professor at the Beijing Transportation Research Center. He has received the American Planning Association’s National Excellence Award for a Planning Pioneer and the American Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Distinguished Educator Award.
But that doesn’t begin to do him justice, starting with the love his former students and associates held for him, along with virtually anyone else he came in contact with.
Myself included.
I always found Shoup engaging and helpful, whether in person or on social media. Whenever I reached out to him, he responded immediately, offering me a Cliff Notes education in urban planning, while challenging me to do my own research.
Much of what I know today today about parking and urban planning I learned from him.
But more than that, Shoup has done more than anyone else to get cities to reform their parking policies, including eliminating parking minimums, here in the US and around the world.
The world will be poorer place without Shoup, but far better off because of him.
He was 86.
………
No surprise here.
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has come back with a proposed ordinance setting minimum standards for Measure HLA.
And advocates have found it, well, lacking.
The city has been slow walking the legally required implementation of HLA — which requires the city to build out the ten-year old mobility plan whenever a street gets resurfaced — since its passage by an overwhelming margin nearly a year ago.
Item 4 (council file 24-0173) includes the City Attorney’s draft implementation ordinance, a new law essentially designed to specify how the city will comply with Measure HLA. Some advocates anticipate that the ordinance will be helpful to remove some city department excuses currently blocking HLA upgrades. But the ordinance also attempts to water down some parts of HLA, including introducing a few loopholes where the city could opt out of some improvements required under Measure HLA. It also sets up a cumbersome extra appeal process that would likely mean serious delays before the city improves streets. The item also looks to codify current relatively driver-centric outreach standards for HLA upgrades that “may result in closures or disruption of access to the public right-of-way.” That “access” is not the everyday dangers/barriers faced by people walking, in wheelchairs, or bicycling – it’s a euphemism meaning repurposing space currently for driving or parking cars. Safe streets advocates face Hobson’s choice on this one: push for modifications hoping for a somewhat stronger ordinance (changes could mean sending it back to the City Attorney for months further delaying delayed safety upgrades) or get a weak city processes approved that could facilitate some improvements.
While most of the minimums make sense, there are some that either violate HLA or have the potential to violate it. Specifically, the city should:
1. Not include shared bike/bus lanes as acceptable for the Bicycle Lane Network. Bus lanes are bus infrastructure that brave cyclists can also use; they are not a substitute for actual bike lanes.
2. State how they will accomplish speed, volume, and crossing control on the Bicycle Enhanced Network (neighborhood streets); right now, the draft just says they will implement it, but not it should specific treatments such as speed humps, traffic circles, chicanes, etc.
3. Include basic improvements for the “moderate” tier on the Transit Enhanced Network; currently, they have state “none” are required. Improved bus stops, better signage, and transit signal priority are basic things that should be included.
4. Bus lanes should be implemented as envisioned in the Mobility Plan 2035. Currently, City Planning suggests the City can forgo the implementation of a bus lane on a TEN street if the bus lane “would not support a transit operator’s planned or existing service pattern.”
Sanchez had faced up to four years behind bars, but was sentenced to just 364 days in jail after pleading to two counts of vehicular manslaughter; prosecutors dismissed charges of felony hit-and-run, providing police with false information and altering evidence as part of a plea deal.
He will have to serve just over half of his overly lenient sentence before being released.
Proving once again that killing two innocent people is just no big deal, as long as they’re riding bicycles.
According to the magazine, the Mount Wilson, Mount Lowe, Middle Sam Merrill and Sunset Ridge trails above Altadena were burned, along with the Backbone, Rogers Road and Sullivan Canyon trails near the Palisades.
Others, such as the famed El Prieto trail, were also damaged.
While some may re-open as early as May, it will take years to fully recover from the damage.
………
Traffic violence hits a little too close to home for the folks at Bike Talk this week, and Walk ‘n Rollers steps up to help kids affected by last month’s LA Fires.
Once again, a police chase has led to another mass casualty crash, after six people were hospitalized, two critically, when a driver fleeing from the cops crashed into a San Francisco restaurant’s outdoor seating area while people were watching the Super Bowl.
America’s leading anti-urbanist has come down strongly against congestion pricing, as President Trump announced plans to kill the program in New York City, even though it has already proven successful in reducing congestion and improving safety. Which doesn’t bode well for implementing it in Los Angeles for the next four years.
A new Chinese study shows a one-size-fits-all approach to bicycle and motorcycle thefts won’t work, because bicycle and motorcycle thefts are clustered in different areas, under different circumstances; surprisingly, it also showed that the proportion of low-income residents in a given area led to more motorcycle thefts, but fewer bicycle thefts. Although it would be interesting to see if those results would hold over here.
Sixty-one-year old Vietnamese cyclist Hoang Hai Nam won that country’s first gold medal at the 2025 Asian Road Cycling Championships in the over-60 men’s individual time trial while riding a borrowed bike, after the Vietnamese team’s bicycles and gear were burned in a truck fire.
Bystanders came to the rescue of a New Zealander competing in the country’s annual coast-to-coast run, kayak and bike race after he crashed his bike just three miles into the 34-mile bicycle stage, loaning him a foldie from their camper when his derailleur snapped completely several miles later.
Day 38 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
………
My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.
Whether it’s diabetes, a migraine, my meds, all of the above or something else, I’ve been so dizzy past two days I can’t keep my eyes open without feeling sick.
Good times.
But thanks to the wonders of modern pharmaceuticals, I should be okay to work now, as long as I keep my laptop at arm’s length and don’t mind a little double vision. Okay, a lot of double vision.
So let’s give this a shot, and see if I make it through.
Denver, Colorado conducted “a fascinating psychological experiment” by paying people to ride a bicycle instead of driving.
Not only did they ride more, they kept riding after the experiment ended, offering hope for reducing traffic congestion and fighting climate change.
And demand for the program far exceeded availability, with 1,400 people applying for just 101 slots, demonstrating significant room for growth going forward.
The city invested $442,000 in incentives, paid for through a Climate Protection Fund sales tax approved by voters, while breaking participants into three groups:
The first group was paid $1 for every mile they rode, as tracked by an app
The second group received subsidies to buy a bike or accessories, plus training and coaching
The third group was paid $1 per mile, along with receiving training
Of the three groups, those paid $1 per mile ended up biking the most number of miles. Those who received both training and $1 per mile experienced the most long-term changes in commuting behavior. The program ran from April through June.
The question is how that compares to the cost of subsidizing motor vehicle use, and the benefit to society and public health of getting people out of their cars.
At the very least, it’s worth trying on a larger and longer basis.
You’ve got to be kidding. A British cop testified that he made “light,” “tactical contact” with an ebike shared by two people while driving at 30 mph, “because of the risk they posed to themselves and the public,” resulting in significant injuries to one of the victims. As if it’s possible to make light contact with someone at that speed. Or with a moving car, period.
That’s more like it. A Georgia man will spend the next 20 years behind bars after he was sentenced for a road rage attack on a bike rider; he deliberately rammed the victim with his pickup after they had exchanged words, then stood over him yelling and flipping the bird — and even chest bumped a bystander who came over to help.
An Italian ultra-cyclist and former Continental level pro plans to ride more than 1,800 miles through the Himalayas, complete with over 31 miles of elevation gain, to call attention to the role that bicycling can play in reducing global warming.
The HLA SET sets out the minimum standards for each tier in the plan, from the Transit Enhanced Network and Pedestrian Enhanced Network, to three tiers of bikeway networks.
Which makes sense, since the bare minimum is all they’ve done so far.
You’ll have your chance to weigh in when the Planning Department hosts a virtual information session on its proposed HLA Standard Elements Table a week from tomorrow, from 6-7 pm.
Never mind the environmental damage to nascent vegetation and animal life as the hillside struggles to recover from the fire damage.
Schmucks.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Philadelphia woman tried to get out of paying after her car was towed for parking in a parking protected bike lane by claiming the four-year old bike lane didn’t exist, because the signs and symbols normally denoting a bike lane were missing due to construction. Never mind that it looks pretty damn obvious even without them.
No bias here. Drivers in Oxford, England complain about Schrödinger’s bike lanes, of which there are simultaneously too many blocking the roads and causing congestion, and too few, forcing drivers to somehow cope with people legally riding in the traffic lanes.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Only in Florida. A 67-year old Lake City man kidnapped a woman at knifepoint after she struck him with her car as he rode his bike in a crosswalk, demanding that she drive him home — then called police and her employer to report the crash when she didn’t return with a promised payment, and refused to have a relationship with him.
Oops. KCBS-2 says former US National Crit champ Rahsaan Bahati partnered with “Costa Mesa nonprofit” Walk ‘n Rollers after someone stole the trailer with all their gear. Except the group dedicated to teaching kids how to ride their bikes safely is based about 45 miles north in Culver City.
A new Utah bill could eliminate mountain bike and gravel racing in the state by imposing a 20 mph speed limit on all trails and pathways, while also revising the definitions of electric motorcycles, e-scooters, mini-bikes and ebikes, and requiring helmets for anyone under 21.
This is why people hate defense lawyers. Attorneys for the man accused of killing the hockey-playing Gaudreau brothers the night before their sister’s New Jersey wedding allege they were both over the legal alcohol limit as they rode their bikes, as if that had anything to do with the driver running them down from behind while passing a slower car on the shoulder of the highway.
A Nova Scotia city councilmember says the city needs a 2,000 percent increase in bicycling rates if they want to have any hope of meeting their climate goals. On the other hand, at least they have climate goals, unlike a certain SoCal megalopolis I could name, which tossed the last mayor’s Green New Deal out the window before the new mayor even came in.
Not Just Bikes says the reason Canadians can’t bike in the winter and Finns can has nothing to do with weather, and everything to do with safe bicycle infrastructure. Then proceeds to refute their own argument by showing Canadians bicycling in, yes, winter, albeit less comfortably than their Finnish counterparts.
Seriously? A 32-year old British man is facing ten years behind bars for killing a 75-year old Finnish man with an axe as he lay in his bed, bizarrely claiming it was self-defense after the older man tied him down and raped him — yet the press somehow insists on identifying him as a “cyclist” because he arrived in Finland on a bike tour.
Or maybe it had something to do with a civil rights complaint filed with the EPA citing close ties to Ed Clancy, head of the San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, which administers the California ebike incentive program.
The complaint alleges the ebike voucher program discriminates against Black people, making their vouchers harder to redeem and charging additional fees, along with a number of other allegations.
Just one more example of the total shitshow this program has devolved into.
The only question here is whether the DOJ investigation Reichert mentions is the state investigation we already knew about, or whether a federal investigation has been launched as well.
Why did Super Sanctuary Nora Vargas resign? She had heat coming from every direction. A whistleblower filed a civil rights complaint with the EPA alleging her ties to Pedal Ahead, a nonprofit run by Ed Clancy, & claimed he donates to her campaigns. Meanwhile, the DOJ has been… pic.twitter.com/oHMpV9QyDb
Despite lifting the new tariffs on Mexico and Canada yesterday, at least temporarily, Trump allowed the additional 10% punitive tariff on goods imported from to go into effect, as we discussed yesterday.
Adding insult to financial injury, he is also reportedly closing the de minimis loophole, which allows goods from China valued below $800 to be shipped directly to the consumer, bypassing import duties and regulatory scrutiny.
That’s what allows Chinese websites such as Shein and Temu to offer such low prices.
It’s also what has allowed low-end Chinese ebikes sold through Amazon and Walmart to flood the market.
So it may not necessarily be a bad thing. Even if it means you could pay more for components.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
My bike-friendly Colorado hometown will join other cities across the state in celebrating Valentines Day with a Winter Bike to Work Day, allowing bike riders to spend the day with their one true love — their bicycles. Yet somehow, no one marks the day to encourage people here in Southern California to bike to work in winter, despite having nearly ideal weather for it. Then again, the summer Bike to Work Day has been nearly moribund here post-pandemic, so why should a winter one be any different?
This is why people keep dying on our streets. An Irish parliament member is calling for a public inquiry into the death of a 23-year old man riding a bicycle, after it was revealed the driver of the car had 42 previous convictions, including convictions for traffic violations, theft and possession of heroin, and was was on bail at the time of the crash.
Those previous tariffs already amount to 36%, according to Bicycle Retailer, with the 25% punitive tariff imposed by Trump in his first term, and continued by Biden, added to the previously existing 11% protective tariff approved by Congress.
Which means that with the new 10% punitive tariff Trump imposed over the weekend, the rate will be 46% added to the cost of anything coming in from China.
And despite Trump’s repeated insistence that it will be a tax on and paid for by China, the added costs cost are likely to passed on to the consumer, amounting to a nearly 50% tax on bikes and components that will have to be paid by someone.
In other words, you.
It could also result in shortages if importers balk at the higher taxes, after bike shop are just getting back to full inventory after the pandemic-fueled shortages.
So don’t wait.
Peddle yourself down to your favorite local bike shop now. Or you could be the one who pays the higher prices, or find yourself unable to buy anything at all.
The incident started when the driver got out of his SUV to fight with a group of bike riders on the side of the road, after they had argued on the street.
But following the brawl, the man allegedly drove onto the sidewalk to purposely hit the two teenagers as they tried to ride away.
He then backed off the sidewalk and continued down the street, before swerving into a bike lane to deliberately ram the older man, who does not appear to have any connection to the other group.
Not surprisingly, the driver was assaulted by a group of bike riders following his vehicular attacks. And no, that doesn’t mean it was justified, just understandable given the circumstances.
He was hospitalized with minor injuries, apparently stemming from the assault following the crashes
All three victims were taken to a local hospital, but there’s no word on their condition.
The article from the Fresno Bee appears to be hidden by a paywall, but I was able to click through to read it.
Gravel Bike California returns with a ride across the rolling foothills of Bakersfield with Grizzly Cycles.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Citing insufficient evidence, Florida prosecutors refused to charge a road raging 76-year old woman for attempting to run down a man riding a bicycle, after the two argued when she cut him off in a roundabout — even though the whole thing was captured on the victim’s bike cam, as well as two security cams. Which makes you wonder just what they would consider sufficient.
Friends and fellow cops held a 37-mile memorial ride for LAPD officer Paul Jordan, who was killed in an off-duty crash on the 118 Freeway while driving home from work last week; Jordan was a frequent road cyclist who reportedly loved bicycling.
West Hollywood may be jumping the gun just a tad, as the city is planning first and last mile connections to the K Line subway, which could be decades away since it hasn’t yet been approved, let alone funded; it also may never even reach the city, with three routes remaining under consideration, two of which would bypass WeHo all or in part. But I do applaud the effort.
Sigh. A writer for Streetsblog says Trump is putting safety last and politics first by freezing the federally funded “Road to Zero” program, in an apparent attempt to undo anything approved by the Biden administration, even though the funds were intended to improve traffic safety in both red and blue states.
An automotive website says there is no truth to the rumor that Tesla is building an ebike, revealing it was dreamed up by a freelance industrial designer and the internet ran with it. But would you really want an electric bicycle made by the manufacturer of the “the polarizing and fault-ridden Cybertruck,” anyway?
This is why people keep dying on our streets. A middle school teacher in my Colorado hometown was convicted of misdemeanor careless driving for killing a bike-riding 10-year-old boy while driving distracted, after previously pleading guilty to another lousy misdemeanor for deleting texts and tampering with physical evidence. Because evidently, killing a little boy and trying to hide the evidence just isn’t a big enough deal to warrant a single felony count. Or at least that’s the message drivers will take from this kind of chronic undercharging.
The kindness and generosity of the bicycle community is on display once again, as West Springfield, Massachusetts’ Bob “The Bike Man” worked with local boy and girl scout troops to package gear to get the city’s homeless people through the worst of the winter; he’s best known for refurbishing bicycles to give to people in need.
An Ontario bike rider responds to the provincial plan to rip out Toronto’s bike lanes by saying “I don’t want to be in this province anymore.”Which is a feeling a lot of us can relate to when government actions — or inaction — threaten our safety.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a delivery driver was fined the equivalent of a lousy $1,200 and banned from driving for an equally lousy 12 months, after leaving a woman with a broken neck when he cut across the bike the victim was riding in
Bicyclists in Chennai, India — formerly known as Madras — call for more bike lanes and better infrastructure, and government action to “sensitize” drivers of heavy vehicles to traffic safety. Showing once again that we all face the same issues, regardless of where you ride.
Highlights include Koreatown meets Hollywood in April, Historic South Central meets Watts in June, a return to the popular Culver City meets Venice route in August, and a comeback to last year’s Melrose CicLAvia in December.
We’ll also see CicLAminis — shorter routes better suited to walking than bicycling — in Pico Union and San Pedro in May and September, respectively.
Along with the annual return of the ever-popular Heart of LA in October, just in time for another Dodgers playoff run.
Just saying.
………
Maybe it’s no surprise that driverless vehicles are safer than the kind with an actual human behind the wheel.
But that doesn’t mean you should let down your guard around them.
Based on data collected by Waymo, their driverless vehicles had 81% fewer airbag deployment crashes, 78% fewer injury-causing crashes and 62% fewer police-reported crashes than traditional vehicles driving the same distance. Waymo vehicles rely on cameras, sensors and a type of laser radar called lidar to operate autonomously…
A Waymo taxi collided with a cyclist in San Francisco last year and another vehicle crashed into a pole in Phoenix in May. Customers have reported various glitches on social media, including one Reddit user who posted a video of a Waymo driving the wrong direction into oncoming traffic.
And that’s not counting the guy who filmed himself locked inside a Waymo cab as it drove in circles for five minutes, before it finally straightened out and took him to his destination. Let alone the well-documented problems with Tesla and Cruise.
So maybe, just maybe you might be safer sharing the road with a motor vehicle if there’s no one behind the wheel.
Bay Area mountain bikers finally got the okay to ride 6.6 miles of trails on 2,579-foot Mount Tamalpais overlooking San Francisco after six years of community outreach and lobbying, only to be stopped in their singletracks by a court order.
Strong Towns podcast The Bottom-Up Revolutiontalks with a San Antonio, Texas mom and bike advocate about her path to advocacy and her work improving the city’s bike infrastructure; the city unanimously approved a 25-year bike plan yesterday that could cost up to $8 billion to completely build out. But as we’ve learned the hard way in LA, it’s one thing to approve an ambitious bike plan, but another to actually fund it and approve the work.
This is the cost of doing nothing. An Ohio mayor brings back the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee after it was left unstaffed for several years, in response to the death of a nine-year old boy killed by a driver while riding his bicycle. Although just maybe the kid might still be here if they hadn’t disbanded the damn thing for so long.
A Kiwi man confronted a retired, uninsured driver at her home to demand payment for over twelve grand in repair costs to his custom-made bicycle, after she pulled into his path during a group ride, flipping him 180 degrees through the air — and posted video of the confrontation online.
Day 30 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
……..
I neglected to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year/Spring Festival in yesterday’s post.
So 新年快乐, 恭喜发财, 설날, Chúc Mừng Năm Mới, 旧正月おめでとう, Tahun Baru Cina, and Tahun Baru Imlek!
And my apologies if I didn’t get all that right, since my mostly monolingual mind means I have to rely on translation apps.
………
The 47th Annual Chinatown Firecracker run, walk, bike, dog walk and festival has been rescheduled for March 8th and 9th in Los Angeles Chinatown Plaza.
Usually timed to coincide with Lunar New Year, the popular event was postponed in the wake of the devastating wildfires earlier this month.
WHAT: L.A. Chinatown Firecracker 5K Fun & Timed Run, 10K Timed Run, 1K Kiddie Run, 2K PAW’er Dog Walk & 17th Annual 20/50-Mile Bike Rides — Celebrating 47 years, the L.A. Chinatown Firecracker is one of the largest and oldest running races in the U.S. with its upcoming Lunar New Year run, walk, cycling and dog walk events takes place over the weekend of March 8-9, 2025, at the historic Los Angeles Chinatown Plaza.
March 8-9 are the new dates for the 2025 Firecracker L.A. Year of the Snake Chinatown events with a choice to participate in-person or virtually. Each registered participant receives a commemorative 2025 Firecracker race bib, exclusive collectible finisher’s medal, limited edition t-shirt (even for registered kids and dogs), goody bag, and much more. In addition, participants and their guests will enjoy the Lunar New Year Celebration in the heart of historic Chinatown with an opening ceremony filled with lion dancers and the traditional lighting of 100,000 firecrackers. The Firecracker post events festival is a two-day expo including exhibitors, beer garden, vendors, activities for children, plenty of live entertainment, and free to the public. The 47th Annual Firecracker runs are approved 2025 USATF Sanctioned Events.
The 47th Annual L.A. Chinatown Firecracker is produced by the nonprofit L.A. Chinatown Firecracker Run Committee (LACFRC), a group of volunteers who donate their time and energy to organize and stage events and programs promoting healthy lifestyles, fitness, cultural awareness, supports education and encourages community participation. LACFRC continues to give back with proceeds reinvested in the community providing service and programs benefiting elementary schools and local nonprofit organizations.
WHEN: March 8-9, 2025
Sat, March 8: 50-mile Bike Ride; 8:00 a.m. – via Chinatown, LA River Bike Trail, Griffith Park, Glendale, Eagle Rock, El Sereno and Lincoln Heights
Sat, March 8: 20-mile Bike Ride; 8:20 a.m. – via Chinatown, LA River Bike Trail, Griffith Park
Sat, March 8: 2K PAW’er Dog Walk; 9:00 a.m.
Sun, March 9: 5K Run/Walk; 8:00 a.m. Run / 8:20 a.m. Walk
Sun, March 9: 10K Run/Walk; 8:20 a.m. Run / 8:40 a.m. Walk
Sun, March 9: 1K Kiddie Run: 9:00 a.m.; includes Kiddie Fun Zone
(Carnival Games, Face Painting, Petting Zoo, Arts & Crafts activities, Puppet Shows, and much more…)
Bike Index reports its numbers show bike theft in the US jumped 15% in the US last year, while a recent survey shows thieves snatch an average of 2.4 million bikes each year, with a value of $1.4 billion.
Yes, with a b.
Bikes are also two-and-a-half times more likely to be stolen than a car, while 59% of bike thefts occur in residential areas.
Which is why your bike shouldn’t sleep outside at night. Or even in the relative protection of a garage, which is far easier to break into and get out undetected than your home.
And while you can report a stolen bike to Bike Index after it’s taken — right here on this website, in fact — it should be registered before anything happens to it, which offers your best hope of actually getting it back.
Which is something else you can do right here, right now, with their free, transferable lifetime bike registration service.
Full disclosure, there’s no need for any disclosure, full or otherwise, because I don’t get anything out of hosting their registration service, other than the satisfaction of helping protect your bike and maybe stick it to a few bicycle rustlers.
Because the law won’t let us string ’em up anymore, dammit.
A Fresno columnist says there’s a way to stop that rash of post-pandemic traffic deaths, but it will require the public to buy into the Vision Zero program. Unlike Los Angeles, where even the slightest opposition is enough to kill any and all traffic safety projects.
Dallas bike advocates say the city needs to giddyup in building out its bike plan, as it lags behind other Texas cities when it comes building bikeways. Something their peers in Los Angeles can more than relate to. You know, other than that “giddyup” part.
A British bike tourist learns the real value of the Warmshowers website when a virtual stranger took him in and nursed him until he could fly home, after he was struck by a driver while riding in Turkey, with no insurance or other local contacts to call upon his release from the hospital, once again demonstrating the kindness of strangers in the bicycling community.
Bad news for cycling and tri fans in the UK, as Warner Bros. Discovery shuts down the cable channel carrying the races, telling sports fans they’ll now need to pay 343% more to subscribe to another Warner channel; a British cycling official says it’s the beginning of the end of pro cycling in the country.
Day 29 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
……..
Well, that was fun.
We ended up taking the corgi to the vet yesterday for emergency treatment, after we pulled a grape stem out of her mouth Monday night.
That’s because grapes are highly toxic for dogs; even a single grape can be fatal a dog many times her size.
Five hours, $1200 and a shit ton of fluids later, she came back home with a clean bill of health, aside from a little inflammation that should resolve in a few days.
Good times.
So you’ll excuse me if I’m a little distracted and emotionally frazzled while I work on this tonight.
The city earned an Honorable Mention citation in their first attempt, in recognition of its efforts to improve safety and bikeability on their streets.
Of course, an honorable mention is like a pat on the head saying nice try, but keep working at it, even as much of the city will need to be rebuild from the ground up.
Meanwhile, Cheyenne, Wyoming was named a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly Community, something that would have been unthinkable back in the day, when I feared for my life dodging pickups and cowboy Cadillacs the few times I had the temerity to even try riding north from my Colorado hometown.
A new report from auto-parts retailer Motointegrator finds that California is the most car-dependent state, and New Jersey the least, based on the number of motor vehicles compared to how many could be expected given the relative population.
Santa Ana was the most car-dependent city, not just in California but nationwide, followed by ostensibly bike-friendly Long Beach and Chula Vista in San Diego County, with Riverside and Anaheim coming in at 5th and 6th, respectively.
Although the only real surprise is that Los Angeles somehow didn’t make the top ten.
“Bicycle Boulevards” are one big part of the Big Bikeway Bluff. That is what city managers do when they update the marketing material about “Transportation, Children, and Youth” but accidentally forget to do the real thing. As far as bicycle con-jobs go, “Bicycle Boulevards” play one league above “Bike Routes”, “Slow Streets”, and “Sharrows”. And mainly because the name has a nicer ring to it. “Boulevard” sounds like a quiet, tree-lined street without air pollution. Portland calls the same thing “Neighborhood Greenway” to play with the tree theme as well. I have to admit, it is a very clever and sophisticated con, and it runs very deep. It is running for over 40 years now and counting.
But in the end, all these different names stand for the exact same result: no bike lanes for children, no space for older citizens, and no safety for people with disabilities. Instead, they are just mixed in with 4,000 lbs. vehicles on 30 mph, car-lined streets. So the big question still remains: could “sharing the road” ever be made safe?
Yes, the streets are shared, but they are usually designed to physically slow drivers, and often include diverters to prevent drivers from going more than a few blocks without turning, while allowing bicyclists to pass through.
He goes on to accuse the Bike League of offering a false promise of safety by advising bicyclists to take the lane and dress like a clown.
No, literally.
And yet it’s US bicycle advocacy groups – like The League of American Bicyclists(LAB) – that will tell people on bicycles that they are safe as long as they follow these rules:
Ride like a vehicle
“Take The Lane”
Dress like a Clown
Always wear a bicycle helmet
Statistically, this kind of advice is killing several hundred Americans each year. And since any real bicycle advocacy group will recognize this as bad advice, we can say something seems very off with LAB. Organizations like these have money, people and resources to develop better policies. In fact, much better information is available for free through many research projects done by different universities.
Granted, it’s been a minute since I’ve been involved with the Bike League, but my understanding from their Bicycle Friendly Communities program is that they are big proponents of bike lanes, and especially protected bike lanes, as well as other safe bicycle infrastructure.
And yes, that includes bike boulevards.
Taking the lane is a strategy for when that bike infrastructure isn’t available, and riders are forced to mix it up with motor vehicles.
That’s opposed to riding in the door zone or hugging the curb like a gutter bunny, encouraging drivers to squeeze by in an unsafe manner. Taking the lane simply forces them to move left to go around you.
Never mind that the number of bicyclists killed while taking the lane pales compared to riders killed at intersections.
Then there’s this.
In case of emergencies, fire departments would use their fire trucks as a way to block off the street. Basically, the fire trucks are “Taking the Lane” to secure the firefighters and others. In the transportation world there is nothing bigger, brighter, and more visible than a bright yellow or red fire truck with its flashing lights on. And yet, in 2019, an estimated 2,500 vehicles crashed into these “blockers” that are “taking the lane” to protect fire crews. That is 6.8 crashes daily or 16% of all fire truck collisions. Tesla’s vehicles seem to have an especially bad relationship with fire engines. They constantly run into them. Who would want children riding in front of such technology?…
So if “Taking the Lane” and “Sharing The Road” are demolishing 2,500 parked fire trucks and countless more emergency vehicles, why would any city manager in San Mateo County assume this to be safe for children? Why would any respectable bicycle coalition recommend “sharing the road” experiments?
Well, if you put it that way.
No, there’s nothing to guarantee that drivers will see you in the road directly in front of them, no matter how garish your outfit. And yes, too many drivers can’t manage to avoid people, objects and vehicles in the roadway.
But the point of taking the lane and wearing bright or reflective clothing — or using ultra-bright lights — is to improve your chances of being seen, and force drivers to go around you.
It’s not preferable to having safe bike infrastructure, however, and only the most passionate John Forester disciples would argue otherwise.
And no, sharrows and bike routes are not safe infrastructure, and can actually increase the risk for riders, while too many painted bike lanes offer little better protection.
And don’t get me started on LADOT’s favored little white plastic car-tickler bendie posts.
………
Caltrans announced they are postponing the release of the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study due to the recent fires along the highway.
In light of the recent fires and the ongoing recovery efforts, we have temporarily postponed the release of the draft Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) Master Plan Feasibility Study and the 45-day public comment period. The Round Three Community Workshop to present the draft Study’s key findings will also be postponed.
Our hearts are with the residents of Malibu and all those affected during this challenging time. Please be assured that our District is actively collaborating with the City of Malibu to determine the most appropriate time to restart the Study’s engagement activities. We encourage you to continue providing comments through the project’s portal site, as we will monitor it closely. Your input is invaluable to us.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Phoenix, Arizona man says he was intentionally run down by a road-raging driver after he slapped the man’s truck to alert him to his presence following an overly close pass. Too many drivers somehow consider touching any part of their car, for any reason, as akin to spitting in their face. Just another example of Driver Derangement Syndrome.
No shock here, as traffic fatalities exceed murders in the City of Angels for the second consecutive year; the sort-of-good news is that traffic deaths last year dropped 12.5% over 2023, to a still obscene 302 people killed on the mean streets of LA.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that newly released documents show Forest Lawn Cemetery argued against safety improvements on deadly Forest Lawn Drive because they “have not observed substantial bicycle use” on it. Because people will usually rush out to ride streets where they don’t feel safe. And where they aren’t. Right?
Danville is looking for two new members for the city’s Bicycle Advisory Commission, after councilmembers tossed a couple well-known bicycle advocates out on their asses over “personality differences,” which appears to translate to getting on a councilmember’s nerves for advocating a little too strongly.
Chicago Streetsblog remembers a local artist and bike advocate who literally flipped his way through life on his handmade chopped bicycle with a circular roll bar attached, allowing him to roll over on the roadway; Arthur Travis Duffey, better known as “Flip Bike Travis,” was 54 when he died in San Diego last year after a long battle with cancer.
The British government finally followed through on threats promises to pass a law against dangerous bicyclists by adding ten new laws concerning bike riders, including “cycling on a road dangerously” and “cycling on a road without due care and attention,” as well as belatedly requiring bike lights after dark.
Day 28 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
……..
The good news is, I don’t seem to have suffered any lasting effects from that knock on the head.
The bad, our corgi ate a grape off the ground, which are highly toxic for dogs, before we could stop her. Although the poison control center tells us up to three grapes “should” be okay for a dog her size.
So now we’re facing 48 hours of watchful waiting looking for any sign of toxicity.
Good times.
Like I said yesterday, it’s just one damn thing after another these days.
Francois Auroux was clutching the large oil paintings on his bicycle as he escaped the fire, which began three weeks ago today, when he encountered Kovacik doing a live remote broadcast.
Kovacik offered to hold the paintings for him — which ironically included Man on a Bicycle by Greek artist Alekos Fassianos — promising to return them at a later date, as the falling ash and embers surrounded them.
The two men met again Thursday as Kovacik kept his promise and returned the paintings, which is all that Auroux has left of his home of 39 years, other than the bicycle he escaped on.
However, lost in that story is another, more important story.
Because as residents struggled to get out with their belongings packed in their cars on the gridlocked streets, Auroux was able to quickly pedal to safety.
Yes, he had to leave most of his things behind, and struggled to ride with the awkward artwork. But he was able to get out when many others couldn’t.
I’ve been told by a number of people, including some who barely escaped other major fires in the state, that no one would ever use a bicycle to flee a raging wildfire.
Yet Auroux did, as did several other people who have lived to tell the tale.
A bicycle may not be the best way to take everything with you. But when you have to get out fast, it may be your best choice.
………
Last week, we mentioned that Berkley is looking for feedback on the city’s 2017 bike plan, as they prepare to develop a new one. And asked the obvious question, in light of LA’s failure to build out its plan, of just how much of the old plan was actually built.
But for a change, we actually got an answer. In the comment below, we heard from our old friend Christopher Kidd, who is in now charge of the project.
Ted – thank you so much for picking up coverage of the Berkeley Bike Plan Update! I’m serving as the project manager for the update.
Since the old Plan’s adoption in 2017, the City of Berkeley has implemented almost 11 miles of network facilities (include 3.5 miles of separated bikeways) and upgraded 20 intersection crossings on the low-stress network.
More than that, the City has in queue 4-5 more miles of Bicycle Boulevards going into construction in the next 24 months.
And while we’re on the subject, congratulations to Kidd on being named to the board of the California Bicycle Coalition, aka Calbike. He brings a passionate, and very knowledgeable, voice for bike and traffic safety.
Which means we should be in good hands.
And Berkeley, too.
………
Streetsblog posts a lengthy thread of public record documents showing Forest Lawn’s efforts to drum up business by fighting bike lanes on dangerous and deadly Forest Lawn Drive.
Received some L.A. City public records today regarding the mortuaries' fight against Forest Lawn Drive safety improvements – a thread. See background at SBLA coverage in December la.streetsblog.org/2024/12/19/c…
The host of the LA in a Minute podcast talks with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider about whether Los Angeles can really become bike and transit friendly.
Ready or Not, L.A. Bike Lanes are Coming!
I sit down with @schneider of Streets For All to debate whether L.A. can REALLY become a transit friendly city:https://t.co/Iro9FSfMwF
If we could get smoking out of bars we can make safe places to ride a bike. Check this out @bikelaneuprising.bsky.social @bikelanesla.bsky.social @bikinginla.bsky.social
A prewar photo of an early British bicycle, and the man who built it.
Cool is right.
A.L. Whale, 82, riding his 'boneshaker' bicycle with iron wheels. He built the bicycle himself in 1871; it was believed to be the second such machine built in England.Tewkesbury, UK16 May 1935
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
The condition of a Eureka bike rider is unknown, after the bicyclist was the victim of an apparent intentional hit-and-run as a woman in a minivan ran them down, backed over the victim’s bicycle, then fled the scene before causing a number of other crashes; she was finally stopped when two men open the minivan’s doors and pulled her out, holding her for the police. Although it took until the last paragraphs before the story even mentioned that the seemingly sentient minivan actually had someone behind the wheel.
Um, okay. An Indianapolis man faces charges for pushing a 14-year old boy off his “motorized” bike and threatening to kill him if he didn’t stop riding it in the street — never mind that the man was infamous in the neighborhood for yelling at kids to stop riding on the sidewalk, too. Which raises the question of where the hell did he want them to ride.
The good residents of Birmingham, England seem to be fed up with “inconsiderate and dangerous” bicycling and skateboarding, as the city prepares a new public space protection order to address the numerous “near misses and accidents that cause alarm and distress to pedestrians.”
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son Pax was involved in another bike crash last week when he “barreled” his BMX into the side of car in Los Feliz, six months after he was seriously injured crashing his ebike. Although it’s unclear from the description if he crashed into the side of the car, or if he was doored by the occupants.
No bias here. A San Diego letter writer, and the former chair of the City Heights Planning Committee, complains about the neighborhood’s empty bike lanes, describing them as “miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles,” while a road project goes unfinished. Never mind that bike lanes are far cheaper and easier to install than road work, and significantly more efficient. Or that drivers still enjoy the lion’s share of the streets.
Over 200 people turned out for a memorial bike ride to honor an Albuquerque, New Mexico bike advocate and city worker, after he was killed by a hit-and-run driver last week. I can’t recall 200 people ever turning out to honor any fallen bicyclist here in Los Angeles, or any other bike-related cause, even though we have nearly six times as many people.
New York has opened its trade-in program for delivery riders to take uncertified e-bikes, mopeds and their dangerous batteries off the streets, and replace them with safer, certified ebikes.
In yet another mass casualty event, six members of the German national cycling team — including former European U23 champ Tobias Buck-Gramcko and World Championship bronze medalists Benjamin Boos and Bruno Kessler — were injured, some seriously, when they were run down by an 89-year old man while on a training ride; fortunately, none of the injuries were life threatening. Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive, and how the hell can we know before something like this happens.
The mother of 16-year old SoCal pro mountain biker Cash Shaleen says he’s home from the hospital and slowly healing, though sill unable to walk, after he was struck by the driver of an off-road vehicle while he was working on his own in Glamis, California, last month, badly compressing his spine.
