March 5, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New bill requires quick-build bikeways on CA highways, turns out swearing is damn good for you, and mind the bridge gap
Day 64 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Maybe there’s hope for Caltrans yet.
That’s because a new bill introduced by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who represents a sprawling district stretching from Santa Monica to Glendale, would require the agency to develop quick-build bike lane and intersection projects on state highways.
Streetsblog defines a quick build project as a “temporary, easily adjustable infrastructure improvement that can be installed rapidly using readily available materials,” installed as a pilot project to gauge community feedback, or as a temporary placeholder for a larger, more permanent project.
The point of the bill, AB 891, is to get something on the street quickly while reducing planning and engineering costs, rather than waiting years to go through the usual process that moves with the speed of a snail stuck in molasses.
One example of a state highway that would benefit from this legislation is the Pacific Coast Highway, State Route 1. Following a high-profile fatal crash in 2023, the City of Malibu has worked with the state to change the character of the highway which currently features high speed limits, beautiful views of the ocean and mountains and high volumes of bicycle traffic.
We can only hope.
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Good news for all of us who struggle to control our language after getting cut off by a driver, or yet another too-close pass.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Bloomington, Indiana wants bike riders to stop not stopping, as the city council votes to re-install stop signs along a protected bike path, after they were removed because bicyclists complained about losing their momentum having to repeatedly stop while riding up and down hills. And because there was no reason to have them there in the first place, let alone the second place. Thanks to Ben Fulton for the heads-up.
March 4, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Gap closure on LA River path through Griffith Park inches closer, and why LA drivers get fatter in slow traffic
Day 63 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
The plans call for a 12-foot wide paved path, with one lane in each direction and shoulders on either side, next to a 10-foot wide equestrian trail.
But don’t plan on riding it anytime soon.
Los Angeles has punted on previous promises to complete the full LA River path in time for the 2028 Olympics, which is why this one little segment isn’t scheduled for completion until over a year later.
And God only knows when the long missing segment through DTLA and points south will finally get built, with anticipated federal funding now up in the air.
A study looks at the relationship between slow traffic and fast food.
The study published in the Journal of Urban Economics shows that Los Angeles drivers who are stuck in traffic are more likely to stop for unhealthy fast food than drivers with less congested commutes.
A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, published in the Journal of Urban Economics, examined weekday traffic data from Los Angeles County highways between 2017 and 2019 and compared it with cellphone GPS data tracking customer visits to fast food restaurants in the same county during the same years. They found that when traffic was worse due to unexpected slowdowns, visits to fast food restaurants went up. This effect was especially strong if the traffic delays occurred around evening mealtimes, when drivers were leaving work and probably starting to feel some predinner hunger pangs.
In fact, for every additional 30 seconds delayed in traffic per mile traveled, there was a 1% increase in visits to fast food restaurants.
Just more proof that driving is bad for your health. And your diet.
On the other hand, bike riders are more likely to stop for tacos, based on a nonscientific study of yours truly.
Metro will hold the final two community meetings of the current round to discuss the Segment B of the Rail-to-Rail/River Active Transportation Corridor Project, focusing on active transportation improvements on Randolph Street through Bell, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park and Maywood; a virtual meeting will be held Thursday at noon, and a real world meeting in Bell at 10 am Saturday.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
More proof that bike lanes aren’t divisive after all, despite the loud angry voices screaming on talk radio and at public meetings, as a Berkeley poll shows that 73% of city residents support expanding bike infrastructure — including 57% who don’t bike and don’t want to.
Nevada could become the next state to adopt a Stop As Yield Law, aka the Idaho Stop Law, to improve safety for people on bicycles. Meanwhile, the California legislature has passed it twice, only to see the bills die on Governor Newsom’s desk.
Day 62 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Look, I don’t want say today’s news is earthshaking, but we did have a 3.9 while I was writing this.
Just saying.
Today’s picture is the window over 98,000 Californians saw when they tried to claim one of the measly 1,500 ebike vouchers in the state’s deliberately botched rollout.
And even some of those didn’t have an easy time of it.
Streetsblog did hear from two people that navigated the gauntlet and received their vouchers from CARB and have purchased their e-bikes.
After successfully managing to create an account and submit information, something that many prospective applicants were unable to do, the pair still ran into issues right off the bat…
CARB, the California Air Resources Board, intentionally throttled the first round of funding, releasing just 10% of the 15,000 available vouchers, or just $3 million of the $31 million approved by the state.
Making the chances of actually getting a voucher — let alone an ebike — akin to finding one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets.
That’s after the state selected San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead to mismanage the program, then booted them after both the company and its founder came under multiple investigations, criminal and otherwise.
Let’s just hope CARB can somehow manage to get their shit together, and right this sinking ship before it goes under completely.
And with her daughter, who had to be hospitalized following the fight, in the car when she did it.
The unnamed woman faces four counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of felony child abuse and endangerment, and a single felony count of hit-and-run.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps going on.
No bias here. Calling it a “cycle of insanity,” the bike-hating New York Postblames “car-hating bureaucrats” for a plan to eliminate a traffic lane on 6th Avenue to make more room for one of the city’s most popular bike lane, arguing that it will make traffic worse. Apparently forgetting that people on bicycles are traffic, too. And every person on a bicycle is one person who’s not causing congestion.
Canadian researchers make the case for why bike lanes should remain on the streets of Toronto, despite Ontario Premier Doug ford’s plan to tip them out, citing research that bike lanes improve safety for all road users, while making the streets more inclusive and benefitting local businesses.
A Nevada court found the 19-year old driver accused of murder for killing a bike-riding former cop competent to stand trial; Jesus Ayala was just 17 when he and another boy recorded themselves intentionally run down retired Bell, California police chief Andreas “Andy” Probst.
This is the cost of traffic violence. Sixty-three-year old hip-hop and R&B star Angie Stone was killed when her car overturned on a freeway near Montgomery Alabama, after performing at a Mardi Gras ball; members of her band who were also in the car were injured, but no details were available.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 77-year old Kiwi man is preparing for a nearly 1,000-mile gravel ride through New Zealand’s rugged South Islands, climbing the equivalent of one-and-a-half Everests. Although there’s a big difference between planning a ride and actually doing it.
Bicycling Australia highlights some of the best bike scenes from the silver screen, from Kermit and Miss Piggy to a curly-haired, redheaded Nicole Kidman making her film debut. Although they left out bothPee Wee Herman and Mary Poppins riding on two wheels.
February 28, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hollywood meets Koreatown CicLAvia, help provide bikes for fire victims, and 2 boys arrested in mob driver beatdown
Day 59 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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CicLAvia returns to Koreatown and Hollywood on the first Sunday in April, with a semi-new route traversing Wilshire, Western, Santa Monica and Highland.
Which makes it one of the easiest CicLAvia’s to get to, with Metro subway stops at either end.
Not to mention the semi-protected bike lanes on Hollywood Blvd, although they dump you off three blocks from the Hollywood and Vine Hub, leaving you to deal with the Amoeba Records and Funko traffic on your own.
The Los Angeles Times’outdoor newsletter The Wild calls out a pair of bike events this weekend we touched on earlier this week, both helping to provide bicycles to people and families affected by the recent firestorms in the LA area.
1. Walk and bike for a good cause in Culver City
Walk ‘n Rollers will host its annual Walk More Bike More Festival from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday at Ivy Station in Culver City. The event raises money for Walk ‘n Rollers’ adopt-a-bike program, which has refurbished and donated more than 350 bikes to families in need. This year, bikes will be primarily donated to families affected by recent wildfires. At the festival, guests can participate in free bike repairs, a scavenger hunt and a prize raffle. There will also be e-bike and skateboard demos. The event is free, but registration is requested, with the option to donate. Register at walkmorebikemore.org…
3. Build bikes in Mar Vista to help Eaton fire survivors
Bikerowave Co-op needs volunteers with bike wrenching experience to prep bikes that will be donated to people affected by the Eaton fire. The repair event will be from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday at its shop (12255 Venice Blvd.). The shop has several bikes to repair but welcomes donations. All bikes will be checked by a head mechanic before they’re distributed. Learn more at the shop’s Instagram page.
Both boys have been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, but aren’t likely to be publicly identified unless they are tried as adults. Although it’s questionable what the deadly weapons may have been, unless the DA is counting the shoes they kicked him with.
Hopefully, these two can help identify some of the other kids, who deserve to be grounded until they’re 30, at the very least.
Life is cheap in Fremont, where a 31-year old man was sentenced to a lousy year of home vacation detention — and will likely do less than half of that — for the 2019 hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle, after swerving to strike the victim for no apparent reason while doing 25 mph over the posted speed limit.
This is the cost of traffic violence. The 47-year old Vallejo man killed this week while riding his bike on a deadly Napa County highway has been identified as a beloved nurse and humanitarian, as well as a Tahitian dancer.
A 78-year old hit-and-run driver critically injured a 78-year old Florida bike rider while fleeing from an earlier hit-and-run crash, while on his way to yet another crash before finally stopping. Once again raising the eternal question of how old is too old to drive, and why the hell we can’t get people off the road before this kind of crap happens.
Police in Buena Vista, Florida arrested a fake “homeland security officer” for impersonating an officer, after he tucked a loaded gun inside his jacket and rode his bicycle to an apartment complex to look for “Mexicans” in the country illegally — and handing the cops a blue ID card, which was actually his application to become a licensed security officer.
February 27, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Will Chalamet #biketheOscars Sunday?, LADOT ignores HLA on Hyperion Ave, and beach bike path bridge totally collapses
Day 58 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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There’s one question that’s on everyone’s lips in advance of Sunday’s Oscar ceremony.
Will Timothée Chalamet bike the Oscars?
Back in the heady pre-pandemic days, there was an active campaign to get someone, anyone, to arrive at the Oscar red carpet on a bicycle.
As I recall, the only star to take us up on it was actor and environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr.
So if you know Mr. Chalamet, or know anyone who knows him — or even if you’re just within the proverbial five degrees of separation — encourage him to leave the gas-guzzling limo at home.
And hop on a bike, even if it’s just for the final few blocks.
Today’s photo shows Tish and Greg Laemmle preparing to #biketheOscars last year.
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My city councilmember took to Twitter/X yesterday to give LADOT a little pat on the head for improving safety on Hyperion Avenue, which has long been a virtual freeway for speeding drivers.
But as Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports, the work on Hyperion should have triggered Measure HLA, requiring the city to build out the already-approved mobility plan.
Mobility Plan 2035, so called because it provided what has been a largely-ignored roadmap to transportation improvements through that year, calls for bike lanes on the decidedly bike-unfriendly street, as well as handicap curb cuts and crosswalks.
Instead, Linton says the work has made the street even less safe and inviting for people on bicycles, while doing little for pedestrians other than slowing drivers.
Which, as I understand the provision of HLA, means you or anyone else are now free to sue the city to force compliance, on their dime.
So what are you waiting for, already?
This also gives provides an opportunity to remind you what a great resource Streetsblog LA is for this city, and for all of us who care about traffic safety, and how we get from here to there.
So show them a little love, if you haven’t already. Or if you have, show ’em a little more for me.
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It’s enough to make you cry.
According to Westside Current, a $6 million bike bridge on the Marvin Braude bike path through Will Rogers State Beach has collapsed.
Again.
Just a year after heavy rains washed out the bridge, causing a partial collapse, last week’s atmospheric river finished the job.
Which might be more of a problem, if much of the pathway wasn’t already virtually impassable in places due to sand obscuring the pavement — despite nearly $5 million in City and County funds allocated for bike path repairs and maintenance for the current fiscal year.
At that time, the county was very responsive, sending out crews with miniature bulldozers — and some not so miniature — to clear it off, while committing to keeping it clear.
So much for that.
Now the internationally recognized crown jewel of LA bikeways lies in ruins, collapsed and buried. A sad metaphor, perhaps, for what has happened to so much of the city and county we call home.
But one that doesn’t need to be. And shouldn’t.
Thanks to David Drexler for the heads-up.
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Thanks to Todd Edelman for reminding us that while the media was obsessing over Tuesday’s near-miss between a Southwest Airlines plane and a private jet at Chicago’s Midway Airport, countless people riding bicycles throughout the US had their own near misses with people in the big, dangerous machines.
And more than a few probably didn’t. Miss, that is.
But there were no breathless news reports. No endless analysis of what might have gone wrong.
Just a lot of bike riding people thanking whatever power they may favor for making it home in one piece, even as the person driving probably forgot the whole thing seconds later.
If they even noticed at all.
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As we discussed last week, Pasadena-based nonprofit Day One is collecting bicycles that can be refurbished and donated to victims of the Eaton Fire in Altadena.
This is what rush hour in looks like in Copenhagen, in the middle of winter, with hardly a car in sight.
Instagram post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Cycling Utah calls out a group pushing a bill in the state legislature by using falsehoods — aka lies — claiming that traffic calming is somehow bad for local neighborhoods.
And yes, there’s more, so click through for the full thread.
February 26, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Calbike lists legislative agenda, ignores hit-and-run (again); and LA council committees belatedly consider HLA
Day 57 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
Which, as we’ve repeatedly pointed out, are what are driving most of the complaints mistakenly directed towards electric bicycles.
Which they ain’t.
Other priorities include safe routes to schools, assessing the vulnerability of California cities to climate change, and removing roadblocks to bikeways and sustainable transportation projects.
Streetsblog reports the LA Transportation and Public Works Committees will belatedly get around to considering two Measure HLA measure they put off earlier this month, ’cause they just didn’t have time to get around to them after dealing with constituents angry over another matter.
And that’s after failing to consider it in any of the previous 11 months following the measure’s overwhelming victory last March, of course.
Wednesday 2/26 – The L.A. City Council will host a joint meeting of its Transportation and Public Works Committees at 8:30 a.m. at L.A. City Hall room 401. The agenda includes two Measure HLA items postponed from earlier this month (see earlier SBLA coverage previewing HLA items and recapping the meeting when they were postponed
You’ve got to be kidding. A so-called London “journalist” says that violent armed bikejackers “are doing society a favor” by targeting people whose only crime is riding a bicycle in the early morning hours, saying bicyclists have turned Regent’s Park into a circle of hell. Maybe he’d feel a little differently if they were mugging newspaper columnists, instead.
Santa Barbara approved an amendment to the city code to provide more enforcement tools to rein in “excessive” ebike riders, even though excessive bicycling isn’t a crime, electric or otherwise. And even though it was inspired by a close call with a pocket bike, which is a mini motorbike governed by the state vehicle code, and not a bicycle subject to city regulations.
DoorDash says that San Francisco is the nation’s biggest market for bicycle deliveries, with 76% of the company’s deliveries done on bikes, ebikes and scooters, compared to 58% in New York and 57% in DC. Although my understanding is a lot of New York deliveries are made directly through the restaurant, without relying on a third-party service.
The governor of Arkansas signed a new bill allowing lift-access downhill mountain bike parks to help boost bicycle tourism, in a state where that is actually a priority. Unlike a certain populous Left Coast state I could name, although we seem to do okay attracting bike tourism, anyway.
Day 56 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.
My pancreas decided to remind me Sunday night that I’m still diabetic, and it’s still in charge.
Good times.
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For the second time in two months — and at least the third in six months — a Los Angeles driver has been attacked by a mob of angry young bicycle riders.
It occurred just seven weeks and a few miles from where a man was attacked and his car severely vandalized after driving aggressively through a teen rideout on Olympic Blvd just seven weeks earlier.
Which is exactly what California’s ebike voucher program could and should be doing, if it had actual leadership, and wasn’t focused solely on providing transportation to low income residents who may not even own cars.
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Former LA-based pro cyclist Phil Gaimon, of Worst Retirement Ever fame, provides a tongue-in-cheek look at 10 facts about bicyclists that haters get wrong.
And my apologies to whoever sent this one to me after I lost track of who did it, but thank you, anyway!
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The Encinitas city council replaced two members of the city’s Mobility & Traffic Safety Commission, as the mayor called for a “course correction” from the previous focus on bicycles and pedestrians, to “make sure vehicles and their drivers aren’t forgotten in the roadway planning process.” Because because cars and drivers must have somehow been left out in the newly 40 years of auto-centric traffic planning since the city’s founding.
The BBC remembers Paul Varry, the 27-year old Parisian bike advocate and father who dreamed of a bicycling revolution in the City of Lights, until he was run over — allegedly on purpose — by an SUV driver after Varry became understandably upset when the driver ran over his foot in a designated bike lane.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The Voice of OCupdates the current state of anti-ebike regulations in Orange County, with new ordinances in Buena Park and Laguna Hills. However, the cities continue to conflate relatively slow speed ped-assist bikes with higher speed Class 3 ebikes, and illegally modified virtual electric motorcycles.
In an opinion piece we can only hope is tongue-in-cheek, a writer for the UC San Diego student newspaper makes the case for giving bikes, scooters and skateboards undisputed right-of-way over pedestrians, even in crosswalks. Which is no different than drivers who insist they are entitled to the road, and people on bicycles should get the hell out of their way.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. A Las Vegas man faces charges for the allegedly drunken crash that killed 62-year old man riding an ebike — while he was already facing charges for another DUI, as well as ten previous charges for failing to appear.
In a hard-hitting op-ed, a Black ex-con who has turned his life around to become a Connecticut lawyer and Harvard professor discusses how it felt to go to a bike shop, where he had been a customer six times before, to buy a bicycle, only to have the manager call cops after mistaking him for a vagrant. Yet he somehow went back a week later to buy a high-end Trek anyway.
That’s more like it. A British man will spend the next eight years behind bars for killing a 16-year old kid riding a bicycle, while doing 70 mph in a 30 mph zone stoned on coke and weed; he initially left the scene, but came back shortly afterwards and called the cops to report the crash.
A writer from the Netherlands calls cul-de-sacs the enemy of ebikes, because they force people to ride next to high-speed traffic on overly wide boulevards.
The Washington Postremembers “inveterate adventurer” Shirley Duncan, who died just shy of her 100th birthday; Duncan was just 21 when she set off with a friend and a dog to ride across Australia in the days after WWII, a nearly three-year journey recounted in her 1957 book, “Two Wheels to Adventure,” now out of print.
America’s only seven-time ex-Tour de France champ offers his tips for how to stay safe while riding a bicycle, including riding a gravel bike and going where cars can’t go. And waiting for self-driving cars to take over, which could take awhile.
February 21, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Banning non-existent 39 mph ebikes from sidewalks, the year’s first CicLAvia on Sunday, and riding to remember civil rights
Day 52 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
Although leaving it too broad could make the ordinance unenforceable if it leave it up to officers to decide on the fly what’s legal and what isn’t.
Then there’s this.
The city’s mayor pro-tem demonstrated from the dais just how little research and preparation went into the promised ordinance.
Mayor Pro-tem Tanya Doby said she read that e-bikes can travel at nearly 39 miles per hour on a sidewalk. “So my question is, what, if anything, is within the realm of possibility to limit or restrict e-bikes or just no e-bikes on the sidewalk,” she asked.
“Is there anything that can be added for that,” she wondered?
Never mind that anything capable of doing 39 mph would be considered an electric motorbike under California law, requiring a motorcycle helmet, driver’s license and license plate.
And as a police captain explained to her, Class 3 ebikes capable of exceeding 20 mph are already prohibited from being ridden on sidewalks.
Let alone 39 mph motorbikes.
But other than that, it’s nice to see a city official so well versed on the subject she’s attempting to legislate.
And if you see someone with a corgi walking or riding a pedicab, say hi. Because that just might be me.
The person, that is. Not the corgi.
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Local
No news is good news, right?
State
Business owners are “concerned” about a new bikeway project on San Diego’s Imperial Ave, which will remove the center lane they use to unload trucks, even though it will provide bike access for underserved communities. And even though studies have repeatedly shown that bike lanes are good for business.
Ebike and e-scooter injuries have “skyrocketed” a “whopping” 300 percent in a single year at an Australian children’s hospital — although that reflects a jump from just six to 24. And in all likelihood, has more to do with the increase in ebike ridership than an increase in risk.
Day 51 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Nope. Nothing to see here.
Pedal Ahead, the San Diego firm chosen to manage the California Ebike Incentive Program is being sued by their former manager, accusing the nonprofit of what basically sounds like fraud and embezzlement.
But I’m not a lawyer, so what the hell do I know?
According to San Diego’s CBS8, it also may have explain why it took so long to roll out the state ebike vouchers.
In a newly filed non-conformed copy of a lawsuit obtained by CBS 8, former Pedal Ahead manager Rodrigo Rodriguez says he was forced out of his position after he reported misuse of funds, discriminatory statements from the nonprofit CEO, Ed Clancy, and evidence that Clancy was using Pedal Ahead to steer business to his own e-bike ventures, thus delaying a statewide initiative to provide grants to lower-income residents to purchase e-bikes.
In December 2024, the program moved on from Pedal Ahead and finally rolled out its e-bike incentives.
According to the lawsuit, the rollout was postponed for a long time due to Pedal Ahead’s alleged misconduct. However, not before Pedal Ahead secured over $10 million in grant funding from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the San Diego Association of Governments.
So those of us who accused the program of mismanagement and called for a criminal investigation may have been onto something.
You’re welcome.
And apparently, Pedal Ahead is not involved with the program any more, with the state taking over management of the program, which is the first I’ve heard about it.
So we have them to thank for the intentionally botched rollout of the first and only round of vouchers.
Clancy is also accused making discriminatory comments about the low-income communities they were intended to serve, as well as neglecting required outreach to communities of color in the state, including Barrio Logan, Richmond, Hunters Point, Fresno and Native American reservations
Evidently, oversight wasn’t a high priority for the California Air Resources Board, aka CARB, which was supposed oversee the program.
Trump could have a say in the matter, since the program involved highways and bridges built using federal funds, which legally gives Washington a voice, if not a veto, over how they are used.
Although whether Trump can summarily overturn the four-year process blessed by the previous administration will depend on the outcome of the inevitable lawsuits.
Meanwhile let’s all wish a happy third birthday to LA Metro’s own congestion pricing study, which still hasn’t been released, evidently out of fear of pissing off LA drivers and the elected leaders who love them.
It may be a moot point now, though, since a Los Angeles edition of congestion pricing is no more likely to be approved by the Trump administration than New York’s was.
Maybe they assume bicycles come standard with airbags. Or maybe they’ve forgotten that it isn’t the hard surfaces of a bicycle that matter in a crash, but the soft, squishy parts of the person on it.
Whether you’re in a solo crash or struck by a speeding driver, even the heaviest, most shock-absorbing frame will offer little protection when your entire body is exposed to the impact.
Which raises the question what the hell they’re thinking — or maybe what they’re on.
Or maybe they just let AI write the whole damn thing, and no one bothered to read it before they put it online.
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Finish The Ride founder Damian Kevitt will join a discussion on the future of ebikes at Claremont’s Harvey Mudd College on Monday.
Twitter post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Ontario, Canada’s ongoing war on bike lanes made its way into the campaign for provincial premier, as current leader Doug Ford, brother of the late crack-smoking Toronto mayor, attacked his opponents for their belief in “bike lanes and riding bikes and planting trees…But the problem is, you won’t be able to afford the trees because the economy will go down the tubes with all three of you.” Because apparently, trees and bikes are somehow bad for the local economy. Or something.
San Francisco finally installed its first speed cam, as allowed under a state pilot program approved a year ago. Which makes them one up on Los Angeles, which, to the best of my knowledge, hasn’t installed any.
Residents of New York’s wealthy Upper East Side say they were blindsided by the new green wave on Third Ave, with traffic lights now timed to give constant green lights to anyone traveling 15 mph. Like on a bicycle, for instance. Or a car stuck in traffic thanks to Trump’s cancelation of congestion pricing.
A Louisiana high school senior who rode his bike to school everyday received a surprise upgrade from two wheels to four, when school officials gave him the keys to a donated used car. Although some of us would consider that a downgrade, instead.
Evidently, winter isn’t a problem for bike riders in Brussels, Belgium, where ridership is up 4% over last year, on top of a nearly 14% increase the year before, despite record rainfall.
February 19, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Collecting bikes for Altadena fire victims, 12 years since crash inspired Finish the Ride, and NY congestion pricing works
Day 50 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Hats off to my old friend and former longtime LACBC staffer and volunteer Colin Bogart, who has organized a bike donation program for victims of the Eaton Fire for Pasadena nonprofit Day One.
According to the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition, the nonprofit is working with the Bicycle Kitchen, the Bike Oven, the Bikerowave, and the Long Beach Bicycle Co-op to collect and repair the bikes, along with local bike shops including Around the Cycle, Pasadena Cyclery, and Trek Pasadena.
The organization has received requests for over 300 bicycles.
So if you have a bike you don’t need, or can help in some other way, drop it off at Day One’s Pasadena office at 175. N. Euclid Ave from 9:30am to 5:30pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, or by special arrangement 626/657.8744 or colin@godayone.org.
Remarkably, Damian channeled the trauma of the crash that cost him a leg, and nearly his life, into the creation of Finish The Ride and Streets Are For Everyone to fight for safer streets and an end to hit-and-run.
And no, the driver was never found.
Twitter post
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More proof New York’s congestion pricing is working, even as Trump vows to kill it.
Twitter post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Seriously? A writer for the Boston Globeinvestigates who has the right to public space on the streets, after a mayoral candidate calls for hitting pause on building bike lanes, and can only manage to conclude that bike lanes are the third rail of Boston politics. Even though the law is clear that bike riders have a right to the road, and well-designed bike lanes improve safety for all road users.
As we noted the other day, some people are criticizing a new demonstration bike lane in Santa Clarita, complaining that the flexible plastic bollards separating it from motor vehicles are a form of visual blight, but even the president of the Santa Clarita Valley Bicycle Coalition sympathized with the outcry over the “aesthetic unattractiveness.”
State
Calbike is hosting a webinar this Thursday to discuss creative approaches to funding active transportation infrastructure, as the usual sources threaten to dry up.
