May 9, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Beverly Hills marks bike month, bike/ped bridge plans safe for now, and prosecution rests in Tour de Palm Springs murder case
Chances are, if you’ve been here awhile, you’ll recall how I used to call Beverly Hills the Biking Black Hole for its complete lack of biking infrastructure.
Not to mention what was, at best, an antagonistic attitude towards bikes on the city’s behalf.
But clearly, things have changed.
They may still have work to do — hello, BHPD! — but Beverly Hills has made a number of improvements on the streets.
It looks like funding for the bridge is secure for now, and officials are moving forward with a required feasibility study, a relative handful of anti-bike NIMBYs notwithstanding .
So I’m told the best course of action, for now, is to hold off on contacting the state senators we listed yesterday.
Or if you still want to reach out, thank them for securing funding for the project.
Maybe George is still busy guiding things and stirring the post from the afterlife.
Huerta is facing a murder charge for the alleged stoned driving death of Mark Kristofferson during the 2018 Tour de Palm Springs, while driving at speeds up to 100 mph.
Without a driver’s license.
He also faces charges for severely injuring Huntington Beach resident Alyson Lee Akers in the same crash, who has been left with lasting injuries.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
The Mark Bixby Memorial Bicycle and Pedestrian Path on the new Long Beach International Gateway Bridge will officially open on Saturday, May 20th. Maybe we can just unofficial shorten that unwieldy title to “the Bixby.”
An Indian man has been sentenced to a year behind bars for killing a 64-year old Singapore man riding a bicycle, after failing to give way at an intersection, and somehow convincing his passenger to take the blame.
No bias here. Retired Olympic cyclist Inga Thompson wants pro cyclists to adopt the anti-racist gesture of taking a knee to “save women’s sports” from trans athletes. In other words, she wants to use a gesture intended to support oppressed minorities to further oppress another oppressed minority. Which is just wrong, regardless of whether or not you approve of trans women competing in women’s sports.
May 8, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Guns versus cars, NIMBYs want to ban beach bike bridge in park named for late bike advocate, and SaMo anti-bike bias
Thank you everyone for the kind comments. I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to me.
I’d like to say I’m better now, but my blood sugar is still more reminiscent of a ballistic missile than a placid stream. And my mental state is still swirling around the drain, in part due to my health issues, and in part due too many stories like the ones below.
The former should get a boost when I see my doctor this week, and impress on her the need for more urgent and aggressive action; the latter should improve once the former does.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t count on the health of our streets getting better anytime soon. Or our society, for that matter.
Now let’s catch up on a little news.
I’ve lost track of who sent me what over the last week, so let me just apologize in advance and thank everyone who sent me something.
The next day, a speeding driver plowed into a crowd of migrants standing outside a homeless shelter in Brownsville, Texas, killing eight people and injuring at least eleven others, in a crash witnesses allege was intentional.
If there is a difference between these two events, it appears to be one without distinction.
The body count is remarkably similar; the only difference is the choice of weapon, and the only question is one of intent. Which something tells me matters not one wit to the victims or their loved ones.
We will continue to fail as a nation, and a society, until we take comprehensive action to rein in guns and cars, and the out-of-control people in possession of both.
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George Wolfberg, right, talks with LA County’s Kristofor Norberg.
I received an email from a friend who lives in the Pacific Palisades area while I was out of commission last week.
She writes that a new park in Potrero Canyon has been named after our mutual friend George Wolfberg, a lifelong civic advocate and volunteer who fought for better beach bike paths, bike lanes and other safety facilities to help Angelenos bike more and drive less, both for cleaner air and to combat climate change, and just for the sheer joy of riding a bike.
George worked on what will now be known as George Wolfberg Park at Potrero Canyon for over 30 years, part of his larger vision of an interconnected Los Angeles.
What he envisioned was a park that would be open to all of the public, an oasis for recreation and beauty, in a fully sustainable environment of coastal native plants, while a restored riparian water capture system would protect the canyon.
And taking nearly eight decades of civic pride and advocacy with him.
But more than just a park, George envisioned a bikeway that would safely allow average people to ride from downtown Pacific Palisades, through the park and across a bridge to the beach, as well as connecting to the bike path to take riders south to the Metro Expo (E) Line in Santa Monica, or even further to Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes.
The final step seemed to be when Senator Ben Allen and others earmarked $11 million for the bridge and bikeway,
But as we’ve seen too often in the past, someone always seems to step in at the last minute to throw a wrench in the whole thing.
In this case, it’s a group of wealthy NIMBY homeowners who bizarrely don’t want bikes of any kind to besmirch a park honoring a lifelong bike advocate.
Here’s how she described it.
HOWEVER, there is a group of homeowners in the Palisades with homes on or near the rim of the park who have been very vocal about not wanting any bicycles or any type or e-bikes to be allowed in the park (which goes against what the community came to agreement upon years ago). They are making a lot of noise and asking to return the funds and cancel the bridge.
Even though the Coastal Development Permit for the Potrero Canyon Park requires access to the beach;
The Recreation and Park Board of Commissioners’ approval for the George Wolfberg Park at Potrero Canyon envisions a bridge access across PCH to the beach parking lot;
A bridge would provide safe passage across PCH rather than the danger of people trying to cross through the traffic on foot;
The bridge is also something that Caltrans supports (and it does not support adding a crosswalk or light at that location).
Yes, they want to cancel an already funded, and potentially life-saving, bike project.
Where have we heard that before?
But here’s the problem.
Because it was assumed that this was moving forward and funds were set aside, elected officials are only hearing from people opposed to the project, and not from anyone advocating FOR the bridge.
To complicate matters, supporters of the project only learned about the opposition last Wednesday, while the vote is set for this Wednesday, May 10.
Which means if you want a bike path and connectivity to the beach via a safe bridge over PCH, you need to speak up now.
No, now.
Email your support to the following California state senators today —
Because banishing bikes from a park named for one of their biggest advocates would be this city’s ultimate bike fail.
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Speaking of NIMBYs, a group of motorists are once again raising their anti-bike heads to demand the removal of a SoCal bikeway, this time Santa Monica’s new 17th Street bikeway project.
And once again, they are arguing that a Complete Streets project designed to improve safety for everyone somehow makes them less safe for people in motor vehicles.
Which is just a socially acceptable way of saying they don’t want to be inconvenienced, and are willing to risk sacrificing human lives for their God-given right to go zoom! zoom! to their hearts content.
Calbike is asking you to email the California State Senate and the Senate Budget Committee to demand that California policymakers to “divest from regressive road-building” and invest $10 billion in Complete Streets and California’s transportation future. Works for me.
This is who we share the road with, too. A Corona man was found guilty of killing three teenagers, and critically injuring three others, when he ran their car off the road and into a tree, for the crime of playing Ding Dong Ditch and speeding off after mooning him.
Hundreds of people rode their bikes in the annual Davis Loopalooza, as residents tried to reclaim their city in the wake of a serial stabber who killed two people, including one who was killed as he rode his bike through a local park.
A Spokane, Washington woman is — allegedly — a two-time hit-and-run loser, charged with killing two people after getting drunk and falling asleep behind the wheel, a decade after she was convicted of fleeing the scene after killing a bike rider. Which is precisely why drivers should lose their license for life after a single hit-and-run, because they’ve shown themselves to be unwilling to obey even the most basic requirement for driving. Let alone human decency.
The definition of chutzpah. An Arizona driver, apparently dissatisfied with the gentle caress on the wrist he received for the hit-and-run crash that killed a bike rider, appealed his conviction and sentence of less than six months behind bars and five years probation; thankfully, the appeals court politely told him to pipe down and do his time.
A Pittsburgh columnist argues the city should commit to zero traffic deaths by 2035. Although as we’ve learned the hard way, it’s one thing to commit to no traffic deaths, but it’s another to get elected leaders to actually invest the money and make the hard choices to make it happen.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. The Washington Postlooks at DC’s failure to rein in dangerous drivers, as one motorist manages to run up $186,000 in unpaid traffic fines. Just one more example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the streets until its too late.
And fortunately, this helped mitigate the trauma caused when Britain’s new figurehead not only failed to include a regiment of royal corgis in the coronation parade, but didn’t even his loyal four-foot soldiers a shoutout.
https://t.co/eVnISQLK8h does it for me without sound even! OR failing for me an oldy so maybe not seen too recently? [The AI pics are insensitive this is real woman and dog! (if marketing )]https://t.co/qwuTTzOt7d
April 28, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Deliberate vehicular assault in Point Loma hit-and-run, CA ebike rebates, and comment on Redondo Beach Blvd plan
Tristan Gonzalez, a former San Diego police helicopter pilot and a high school mountain bike league board member — and, I’m told, a really nice guy — was riding on Catalina Blvd near Bernice Drive when he was run down by the driver around 4:50 pm.
He posted about the crash from his hospital bed, describing the suspect as a white male around 35-45 years old, wearing a lighter colored baseball cap, and driving a smaller white pickup truck with an extended cab and non-tinted windows.
He said he first encountered the driver of a white Toyota Tacoma a block earlier near Catalina Boulevard and Narragansett Avenue. He said he sensed the driver was getting dangerously close to him. At one point, he said the driver hit the handlebars of Gonzalez’s bike.
Gonzalez said he approached the truck and looked into the window. He said the driver stared straight ahead and didn’t acknowledge him.
As they both continued down Catalina toward Bernice, he sensed he was about to be hit.
“All of a sudden, I hear honking. I hear a car speed up, and sure enough, the same white truck came up alongside me,” said Gonzalez. “I just had time to look over and to see it was the same truck and to see the driver steer and turn the truck and speed right into me. I went flying and landed in the street with several injuries.”
To make matters worse, I’m told a witness pulled over to help, but accidentally left her car in drive, only stopping when Gonzolez’ helmet was wedged between the front tire, fender and bumper as a wheel chock.
He was hospitalized with a broken hip, clavicle and punctured lung. The good news is, he was scheduled to be released on Wednesday.
Police are reportedly taking the incident seriously, investigating the crash as an assault with a deadly weapon. Although it should be considered attempted murder.
A still photo taken from a doorbell video shows the white extended cab pickup.
An anti-bike member of the British Parliament called for removing a bike lane where 59 people have been injured in the past year as a result of a pale line painted the same color as a curb, creating an optical illusion; he has also used racist terms in the past in criticizing bike lanes. Or they could just paint one or the other a different color, and solve the whole problem.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The LA Times gets it, saying walking to school shouldn’t be deadly, in the wake of the crash that killed a mom and critically injured her daughter as they crossed the street to get to the girl’s school. Then again, biking to school shouldn’t mean risking life and limb, either.
Metro says this year’s Bike Week is scheduled for May 15-19 and Bike Day, formerly known as Bike To Work Day, will be Thursday, May 18. Let’s just hope it doesn’t fizzle out for lack of interest like it did last year.
The family of fallen Encinitas bicyclist Jennings Worley have begun settlement talks in a lawsuit against Shea Homes, three years after Worley, a leading scientist working on a cure cystic fibrosis, was killed when moving truck driver right hooked him turning into one of the builder’s developments. Which raises the question of how many CF patients will needlessly suffer because he isn’t there to develop a treatment for the devastating disease.
A Spokane, Washington website says 750 bike riders have been struck by drivers in the city since 2014, along with 1,500 pedestrians, and examines what can be done to stop the carnage.
Road.ccexplains what all-road bikes are, describing them as “drop-bar bikes that are fast and capable on any kind of road surface from smooth asphalt all the way to light gravel tracks.” In other words, what we used to call a “bicycle.”
April 27, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Huerta on trial for Tour de Palm Springs death, examining the racial gap in traffic deaths, and too little too late for LA mom
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today, so settle in and let’s get to it.
Huerta was allegedly stoned and driving at up to 100 mph when he lost control of his car and plowed into the Lake Stevens, Washington man and 48-year-old Huntington Beach resident Alyson Lee Akers as they were riding their bikes.
Kristofferson died at the scene, while Akers miraculously survived the impact despite suffering significant head trauma, resulting in lasting injuries.
Huerta was arrested after he was detained by witnesses as he tried to escape into the desert.
He faces charges of second-degree murder, driving under the influence of drugs resulting in great bodily injury, reckless driving and driving on a suspended license.
NBC Palm Springs had this to say about Huerta’s driving history prior to the crash.
According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, Huerta was a repeat traffic offender, racking up seven citations over a two- year span for speeding, failing to obey traffic signals and signs, making unsafe lane changes and driving while distracted due to use of a cellular telephone.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended his driving privileges in 2017 because he had accumulated so many points on his record that he was deemed a “negligent operator” of a vehicle and unsafe to be on the road, the brief said.
Huerta had been suspected of driving under the influence of marijuana during a Desert Hot Springs police investigation in January 2017 stemming from his plowing through a stop sign on Palm Drive. However, no charges were filed due to a lack of conclusive results in blood screenings that were done after his arrest, according to court papers.
Despite that, he still retained possession of his car, so he able to get behind the wheel despite his horrendous driving record and lack of a valid license.
Across the US — and right here in Los Angeles — your risk of dying in a traffic collision increases exponentially if you live in a community populated primarily by people of color, as well as lower income neighborhoods.
Which are too often the same thing.
The design of our cities is partly to blame for these troubling disparities. Pedestrian and cyclist injuries tend to be concentratedin poorer neighborhoods that have a larger share of Black and Hispanic residents. These neighborhoods share a history of under-investment in basic traffic safety measures such as streetlights, crosswalks and sidewalks, and an over-investment in automobile infrastructure meant to speed through people who do not live there. Recent research from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, found that formerly redlined neighborhoods — often the targets of mid-century “slum clearance” projects that destroyed residences and businesses to allow for new arterial roads and highways — had a strong statistical association with increased pedestrian deaths. The neighborhoods graded D for lending risk by the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation had more than double the pedestrian fatality rate than neighborhoods graded A.
He writes that on a per mile basis, Black people are more than twice as likely to be struck and killed by a vehicle as white pedestrians, while fatality rates for Black bicyclists are a whopping 4.5 times higher than white cyclists.
For Hispanic walkers and bikers, the death rates were 1.5 and 1.7 times higher, respectively, than they are for white Americans using the same modes of transportation.
Then he brings it home for those of us living here in LA.
In Los Angeles, for instance, a 2020 analysis by U.C.L.A. researchers found that although Black residents made up 8.6 percent of the city’s population, they represented more than 18 percent of all pedestrians killed and around 15 percent of all cyclists. From 2016 to 2020, the Los Angeles metropolitan area had more pedestrian deaths than any other metro area in the United States and a pedestrian death rate higher than the metropolitan areas around New York, Philadelphia or Washington…
Last year, 312 people died in traffic accidents in Los Angeles, the majority of them pedestrians and cyclists. “If 300 people died of something in the city, whether it was something violent or whether it was something else like Covid, the resources were put behind it to try to prevent those things, to respond to those things,” said Eunisses Hernandez, a member of the Los Angeles City Council. “We have not seen that same urgency with people dying in traffic accidents as pedestrians and as cyclists.”
Shameful doesn’t begin to describe it.
The solution, he says, is investing in safer road design with proven interventions like “narrowing streets, reducing the amount of space devoted to cars, enforcing speed limits and adding trees to provide visual cues for drivers to slow down.”
And he adds,
City planners must recognize that we all should be able to walk or ride a bicycle through our own neighborhood without fearing for our life.
It’s well worth a few minutes of your day to read the whole thing.
Go ahead, we’ll wait.
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Call it yet another example to too little, too late.
Which raises the obvious question of what the hell took them so long — particularly since the city has ostensibly had a Safe Routes to Schools program for the past several years?
And why the hell do we always have to wait until someone is needlessly killed before making even the smallest safety improvements?
At least they’re doing something now. Too late for an innocent mother and her equally innocent child.
Americans are in a toxic relationship with their automobiles. They’re bad for us—polluting, noisy, and increasingly dangerous to pedestrians—yet we remain fully committed to them. They’re also bad at their primary function: transport.
The program will be limited to California residents 18 or older, with a gross annual household income less than 300% of the federal poverty level.
The station reports that the standard tax credit will be $1,000, with an additional $750 for cargo or adaptive ebikes.
You can also receive another $250 if you live in a a disadvantaged or low-income community, or have a gross income 225% of the federal poverty level, or less.
Streets For All reminds you to take the survey about changes to Eagle Rock Blvd between Colorado and York boulevards, and select Option 2, which they say is “safest for cyclists, widens sidewalks, adds more sidewalk trees and preserves the most parking (ie. less likely to experience community pushback).”
San Diego continues to make massive payouts to settle personal injury lawsuits, with the latest example a $2.95 million settlement for a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was thrown off his bike after hitting sunken pavement in the city’s Bay Ho neighborhood, and now suffers permanent disabilities. Thanks to Phillip Young for the link.
This is who we share the road with. A Temescal Valley man is on trial for murder in the hit-and-run death of three teenagers, and critically injuring three others, when he allegedly ran them off the road in a fit of rage after one of the teens rang his doorbell and mooned him before speeding off in their car; he also claims he seldom drinks, but somehow chugged two six-packs of beer in two and a half hours before the crash, yet was miraculously driving under control, “even using his turn signals” as he pursued their car. Sure, that’s credible.
The Kelly Clarkson Showfeatures Sacramento’s Mercy Pedalers, a religious nonprofit that uses bikes to distribute water, food and other vital resources to the city’s homeless residents.
A bill in the Oregon legislature targeting civil disorder has bike advocates worried that it could ensnare people protesting while riding a bike or corking an intersection on charges of engaging in paramilitary activity.
The family of a Pittsburgh man tased to death by cops for the crime of test riding a bicycle he thought was abandoned has reached a super secret settlement with the city; five officers were fired over the incident, while three others were disciplined.
The chair of New York’s city council transportation committee insists local community boards should have veto power over street safety projects. Which would turn New York’s successful traffic safety work into the same failed system we suffer with in Los Angeles, where councilmembers overrule any and every project in their districts.
Two new bike lanes across the Mississippi River from New Orleans are causing confusing among apparently easily confused drivers and local officials, with contradictory complaints that one lacks protective barriers, and the other one doesn’t.
And when you’re riding your bike with an outstanding arrest warrant, stop for the damn stop sign, already — and don’t fight with the cops after leading them on a bicycle chase.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
April 25, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Stop as yield passes Assembly committee, MOVE Culver City debate goes late, and bike-riding teens shot in Florence drive-by
The state Assembly’s Transportation Committee has once again passed a version of the Idaho Stop Law.
San Diego Assemblymember Tasha Boerner tweets that AB 73 would allow bike riders 18 and over to treat stop signs as yields, but only when it’s safe to do so.
She also notes that “9 other states already allow policies like these because the data shows it’s safer for cyclists & other drivers.”
The city council meeting discussing a proposal to rip out the successful MOVE Culver City mobility project is still ongoing as I write this; delaying discussion of controversial issues like this is a time-tested method of waiting out the opposition in hopes they’ll leave before the proposal comes up.
However, as the following tweet suggests, opposition to the project is firmly entrenched, wrong though it may be.
Councilmember Dan O’Brein says comments tonight were overwhelmingly for keeping/expanding move. But still wants to remove the protected bike lane for more cars. He cites the survey of just Culver City residents “because that’s who votes”
Meanwhile, the list of elected officials coming out in favor of the project continues to grow.
Electeds who have publicly urged council to not add cars to Move:
– Asm. Isaac Bryan – Sen. Ben Allen – Asm. Laura Friedman – Sup. Lindsey Horvath – Sup. Holly Mitchell – LA Councilmember Katy Young Yaroslavsky – SaMo Councilmember Jesse Zwick – WeHo Councilmember John Erickson
Move Culver City has been a transformative project for street safety in LA county. Across the border in CD5, we’re working hard to bring similar safety interventions to Venice Blvd. I hope we can work with Culver City to create a truly connected network between our cities.
— Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky (@CD5LosAngeles) April 24, 2023
Finally, it’s hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like a good turnout for the protest ride in favor of retaining the project.
Seriously, why the hell isn’t this bigger news when a pair of teenagers get shot riding a bike in LA’s Florence neighborhood?
Accordingto the Daily Breeze, a 16-year-old boy and 18-year-old girl apparently sharing a bicycle when they were critically injured in a drive-by shooting.
So is the problem that we just take shootings for granted now? Or just shootings “down there”?
Or do bike riders — or communities of color — just not matter anymore?
Or maybe all of the above.
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Tragic news from Newport Beach, where bike shop owner Don Feuer was struck by a driver while riding a scooter.
The page has raised just over $8,600 of the $50,000 goal in five days, though word of his injuries is just getting out.
Given the extent of his injuries, however, even the full $50,000 is likely to be just a drop in the bucket for his future medical expenses.
Thanks to Psmith for the heads-up.
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Guerrilla DIY infrastructure group Crosswalk Collective demonstrates LA’s firm commitment to whatever is the opposite of Vision Zero, in which the death of a pedestrian results in a memorial sign and the removal of the group’s DIY crosswalks.
And shamefully, no other action in the seven years since.
Gabriela Futsi was killed crossing here in 2016.
After 7 years, LADOT took action: They installed a memorial sign. We painted two crosswalks on April 10 and within days, they removed them.
No bias here, either. A Minnesota letter writer says it’s time to stop giving carte blanche to bike path developers, accusing proponents of being divided between absolutists and “rational people.” As if developers of any bike path, anywhere, have ever been given carte blanche.
An Indiana man was sentenced to up to forty years behind bars — or as little as three — for the hit-and-run crash that killed a man riding a bicycle four years ago; he also got a whole eight-day sentence for driving without a license — suspended, of course.
That’s more like it. An Israeli driver will spend the next ten years behind bars for the drunken Yom Kippur death of a 12-year old boy riding his bike in Jerusalem two years ago, as well as being banned from driving for 20 years.
Let’s start with news of yet another bike rider injured by a heartless hit-and-run driver.
Steve Messer forwards news that a friend of his was the victim of a hit-and-run while riding in San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood.
It’s hard to read the small type, but the victim, a former cop and board member with the high school mountain biking league, was riding on Catalina Blvd when he was run down by the driver around 4:50 pm.
The suspect, described as a white male 35-45 years old, wearing a lighter colored baseball cap, was driving a smaller white pickup truck with a regular cab and non-tinted windows.
If you live or ride in San Diego, try to get the word out to get more eyes out on the street looking for the suspect. And if you know anyone who works in the news media, give them a push to cover this story.
A review of the project after a year found an 18% increase in people walking and 32% more people biking through the area. At the intersection of Culver Boulevard and Main Street, the number of bikes counted nearly doubled. Bus travel became faster and ridership increased more on the corridor compared with citywide.People said they were biking, walking and taking transit more often in the area, according to the review. They felt safer, more comfortable and noticed fewer speeding cars.
As for traffic? It moved faster in the morning hours, and in the evening it took drivers about two minutes longer to pass through the area. Two minutes. That’s a minor inconvenience. It certainly seems like a fair trade-off to make the corridor safer and more convenient for alternative modes of transportation — which was the purpose of the project.
Yet remarkably, but perhaps unsurprisingly, MOVE Culver City is in danger of being unceremoniously ripped out by the new conservative majority on the council in response to the windshield bias of some motorists, many of whom may only pass through the city without stopping, on their way to somewhere else.
Yet somehow demand that the city cater to their needs, rather than that of people walking shopping, dining and biking in the downtown area, as well as those riding buses.
According to the paper,
Yet even the modest encroachment of Move Culver City may be too much for opponents of the project, who seem particularly offended by the bus lane. There is a proposal to add back a car lane and make buses and bicyclists share a lane, which would dissuade all but the most confident cyclists and slow the buses, thus making alternative modes of transportation a lot less appealing. And for what? So some drivers can get to their destination two minutes faster…
Like most communities across California, Culver City has plenty of plans detailing its commitment to bike lanes, public transit and sustainable city design as strategies to reduce greenhouse gases from vehicle pollution to help fight climate change. But those plans are meaningless if elected leaders don’t have the political backbone to see them through.
As the paper’s editorial bard makes clear, we will never have safe streets and more livable communities if elected leaders lack the backbone to stand up to opposition from motorists, which is virtually inevitable with any project.
Meanwhile, local elected leaders, both current and former, are adding their voices in support of the project.
Assembly transportation chair @LauraFriedmanCA joins Sen. @BenAllenCA and Asm @ib2_real in publicly supporting Move Culver City’s protected bike lane and bus lane … not removing them for more cars. That’s a lot of state muscle— hope our council doesn’t ignore them! https://t.co/Ku3ZlKFd1H
— Bubba for Culver City Council! (@vote4bubba) April 24, 2023
Asm Bryan saying what some of our local leaders are still afraid to. Lets hope Culver City Mayor @AlbertVeraJr meets this moment tomorrow and makes Move permanent without adding more cars. https://t.co/ILKZeoAzNl
Streets For All is asking you to call for more funding for LADOT at tomorrow’s LA City Council Budget Committee, and support bike and walk-friendly motions at Wednesday’s Transportation Committee.
Budget Committee (6:00pm, Tuesday 4/25)
The committee will take up the Mayor’s proposed budget for next fiscal year. We are asking you to:
– Advocate for 18 more positions for LADOT’s activate transportation team which is sorely under resourced and stymying our efforts
– Advocate for 4 litigation support positions for LADOT so they can focus on getting bus and bike lanes in the ground and not on lawsuits – Public comment can be made virtually in real time or in advance
Transportation Committee (2pm, Wednesday 4/26)
– Advocate that the committee approve LADOT’s plan to revisit peak hour lanes
– Support new protected bike lanes on Lincoln over Ballona Creek
– Support a new dedicated speed hump program around schools – Public comment can be made in advance or in person (no virtual option)We’ve put together a toolkit to help you make public comment in the easiest way possible:
This is how you design a hospital for people, not cars.
Ottawa's new hospital will have an impressive 630 bicycle parking spaces, including 186 in a secure room outside the staff entrance. Visitors will be able to ride on a dedicated cycle track *right up to the front entrance* where they will be greeted with U-racks. pic.twitter.com/qJF653Fl0w
British police used deadly force to bust a fleeing ebike rider, intentionally hitting the suspect head-on to end a “high-speed” chase before swarming him as he lay writhing in pain; he was charged with possessing a fake weapon and a “bladed article,” as well as weed. Although it’s questionable how high speed the chase could have been on an ebike.
A California appeals court concluded that drivers don’t have a first amendment right to honk their horns, ruling that the law “prohibits all driver-initiated horn use except when such use is ‘reasonably necessary to [e]nsure safe operation’ of the vehicle.” Now if we can just find someone to enforce that.
Accused killer Kaitlin Armstrong appeared in an Austin, Texas courtroom, charged with the murder of gravel cycling star Moriah “Mo” Wilson, as the press focused on her new face after undergoing plastic surgery in a failed effort to hide her identity before her arrest.
Surprisingly, a sizable majority of New Yorkers want the city to make streets safer for kids to bike and walk, even if it means removing parking or making it harder to drive; a new poll shows two-thirds of New Yorkers think the city should prioritize pedestrian safety over driver convenience, while nearly six in 10 support doing it even if it means removing parking, adding to traffic congestion or closing down streets.
If only there was some sort of sustainable, non-polluting form of transportation that could improve the health of the planet, as well as those who use it.
Better yet, something that had been successfully proven to work for more than a century.
And was safe and simple enough it could even kids could use it. Or nearly anyone else, for that matter.
It's referred to here as the Mead Ranger "Motorbike" model, but it just looks like a motorbike, and does not actually have a motor. The cylinder on the top of the top tube is a battery for the light, and under it is a toolbox.https://t.co/K1SLIdm2kHpic.twitter.com/fgoldjw8yF
The new bikeway will finally provide a seamless connection from San Pedro to Downtown Long Beach, while offering sweeping views of the harbor from both the Gateway and Vincent Thomas bridges.
Correction: While the article promises a seamless connection, commenters below clarify that there is no safe bikeway over the Vincent Thomas bridge, and not likely to be anytime soon.
The City Council will discuss the project at the Monday, April 24, 2023 City Council Meeting. This item is agendized as A-1. Please visit https://t.co/8iiZqq8VmY for more information on the project. pic.twitter.com/I3nHvRdmid
Eco-Village is talking with the Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, tonight about their plans to improve transportation and livability in the region.
We are hosting an event tomorrow evening to discuss SCAG's visionary plans for our region and then following Mark Lakeman for an inspiring talk on Community Building and Placemaking. Hope you can make it! pic.twitter.com/Q8RGUo1Z6d
The Argonautprofiles Santa Monica’s Thömus USA, the only location outside of Switzerland to sell the ebike brand, which is built by hand on site at the Santa Monica location.
Good news from Maine, where a community organization is working to house a homeless woman living out her car, after she spent the last of her money to buy a new bike and helmet for a three-year old boy when his bike was stolen; meanwhile, community members have raised over $9,000 to pay off the loan on her car.
A stoned, wrong way driver will spend the next six years behind bars for the head-on crash that killed a man riding a bicycle, and will be prohibited from driving for 12 years; he had five drugs in his system at the time of the crash, including morphine and “street valium,” as well as several previous traffic convictions, including two for drugged driving. Just one more example of officials keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.
Bicycling journalist Caley Fretz remembers reporter Chris Baldwin, the former press officer for all-diabetic cycling team Team Type 1, followed by a stint with Astana before returning to Team Type 1 successor Novo Nordisk; Baldwin passed away in his sleep from a heart attack last week. He was just 52.
I came within inches of getting run down by a driver last night.
I was walking the dog across the street, at a red light, in a crosswalk, with the crossing light, and had waited until all the cars were stopped before walking into the street.
Then just as we stepped into the turn lane, an overly aggressive driver sped through the red light to make a left turn, barely missing us.
Seriously, I don’t know we’re supposed to keep people safe on our streets if none of that works to keep drivers from killing people.
On the other hand, at least he wasn’t driving like this.
Pedestrians dive for cover as a driver fleeing police goes off the road and into an outdoor dining area. The wild scene unfolding on a busy Manhattan street. Eyewitness News with the condition of an officer injured in the chaos. Tonight at 11 from ABC7 https://t.co/wEQkq04nhepic.twitter.com/eY25nPgZ7g
As a Culver City resident, mom, cyclist and enthusiastic supporter of public transit in my private and professional life, my position on the mobility project is not detached. I’m one of the many people enjoying the benefits highlighted in Move Culver City’s mid-pilot report (literally — that’s me on the cover, the mom on the cargo bike with my daughter, her friend and their stuffed animal friend Marley).
Drivers complain that the bus and bike lanes slow down traffic on the street. But the lanes don’t do so by much: According to the report, during peak afternoon traffic, travel time in a car has increased by a maximum of two minutes compared with a 2019 baseline. Meanwhile, overall traffic on the corridor has diversified and increased, with marked gains in bus ridership, cycling and pedestrian activity. Also important, the bus and bike lanes protect bikers, pedestrians and even other drivers from traffic violence that occurs with increased speeds.
She goes on to argue that the project’s perceived flaws aren’t reasons to remove it, but make it better, instead.
A common argument coming from some council members and opponents of the project is that because bus service is currently inadequate, prioritizing buses over cars with a dedicated lane does not maximize use of the road. They argue the infrastructure lacks support and utilization because of our car-centric culture and low ridership.
Those are not reasons to remove bus and bike infrastructure — those are reasons to double down. Council members are the decision makers. If bus service is not up to par to maximize the protected lane, then it is on them to make it better. If the project lacks support, then they need to invest in the service frequency, reliability and connectivity to strengthen the ridership and thus the buy-in.
Take a few minutes to read the full thing.
Then do something about it. Because if they can remove this, no street improvements will ever be safe from reactionary motorheads.
Seamus Garrity tweeted that ticket is actually nearly $500 — about what it costs if a driver gets caught running a red light, which poses far more risk for everyone else around them.
Having ridden that path hundreds of times myself, I can attest that riding through there poses virtually no risk to anyone crossing from the parking lot to the pier, as long as you slow down and show a little basic courtesy to others.
I could possibly see a $50 fine, though I’d still object to getting one. But $485 is far out of proportion for the risk posed by such a minor violation.
Should have I suppressed being startled when they yelled at me? Should I have not avoided eye contact? Should I have said “Home to my kids” instead of just “Home,” and said it more meekly? But it wouldn’t have made a difference… (2/7)
Santa Monica Lookout offers more information on the upcoming Vision Zero improvements to Wilshire Blvd in the city. Although if 89 percent of severe injuries to bicyclists and pedestrians happen at unsignalized intersections, and approximately one out of five collisions at those intersections occurs when drivers make a left turn or continue straight, that means 80% of crashes come from cross traffic or drivers turning right. So shouldn’t they be working on that?
The Brooklyn Academy of Music may have “whimsical” bike racks designed by famed former Talking Heads lead singer and folding bike rider David Byrne, but it’s still fighting plans for a nearby protected bike lane, citing vague concerns over safety. Apparently deciding it’s safer to leave the people who already use the busy bike lane unprotected, because something.
A machete-wielding teenaged robber will spend the next six months behind bars, and another six months on probation for a series of violent bikejackings, including using a moped to knock British pro Alexandar Richardson off his bike and drag him the length of a football field before making off with his bike.
A science website celebrates the 80th anniversary of Bicycle Day, which marks the date Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann sampled the new drug he had developed before setting off for home on his bike — and experiencing the world’s first psychedelic LSD trip on the way.
Photo shows a bike dismount sign in Manhattan Beach, because I don’t have one from Redondo.
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I’ll let someone else start things off today.
Daryll Strauss writes that the Redondo Beach City Council was hearing a recommendation from city staffers last night about the long-standing requirement to walk your bike on the beachfront bike path as it passes the city pier.
Not to mention the ridiculous 5 mph speed limit as the bike path snakes through the pier parking garage, which makes it a challenge to keep your bike upright while getting anywhere close to it.
Redondo Beach Pier has a bike path that travels through the pier parking garage. The RBPD has begun a maximum enforcement ($300 ticket) policy requiring bicyclists to walk their bike through the garage through the south end of the pier. A distance of about 300 yards.
The laws in the city allow police to enforce a walk your bike requirement anywhere signs are posted, and signs can be posted anywhere city staff wants. There are signs and flashing lights that say walk your bike when flashing, but they flash all the time.
The South Bay Bicycle Coalition and the Redondo Beach Harbor Commission have recommended loosening the restrictions, but the recommendations from city staff is to keep the status quo.
The staff recommendations are ludicrous. They don’t provide any data to justify their recommendations and make specious arguments. It basically comes down to the fact the police can’t legally enforce a speed limit so they’ll make it “walk your bike”. Their safety concerns for bicycles riding through turns, at an arbitrary 5mpg, are outright ludicrous and can be mitigated with textured pavement. It’s also ironic that they just installed a skate park on the pier which would have much larger safety issues.
I ride this route regularly. I completely understand walking my bike where the bike path crosses the main entrance of the pier when there is significant pedestrian traffic, but the majority of the restrictions are ridiculous.
This is the beginning of the process, so there may be an opportunity to change these rules if the city council doesn’t rubber stamp the staff recommendation tonight.
I always thought the requirement was absurd when I used to ride through there on a semi-regular basis.
Unfortunately, I received this too late to get the word out for last night’s meeting. But hopefully we’ll let you know if they reconsider it at a future meeting.
It will take someone with more financial acuity than I possess to dig into it and see what she’s budgeted for alternative transportation, bikes and Vision Zero, and how it compares to previous years.
But a cursory examination didn’t reveal any mention of it in the budget, or in LAist’s detailed look at the budget. Which doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.
This is what she had to say on the subject when she was campaigning for mayor. We’ll see how much actually made it into the budget.
8. Prevent Traffic Fatalities and Champion Walking and Biking
Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of traffic fatalities in the nation 11 – and those deaths disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. 1213 That is unacceptable. Traffic safety is a public health issue.
Meanwhile, survey after survey shows that Angelenos don’t feel safe getting around their neighborhood on foot and by bike – even though they want to. 1415 Angelenos shouldn’t have to worry about being struck by a car when they’re trying to bike to work or walk their children to school. Bass will stand up for safe streets, and prioritize accessibility for the most vulnerable members of our community.
As Mayor, Bass will:
Treat street safety as the public health crisis it is, and leverage all available city resources to address unsafe speeds and save lives.
Prioritize first and last-mile access to transit so that all Angelenos can use the region’s growing rail and bus network.
Invest in street safety infrastructure that saves lives.
Create family-friendly bicycle and pedestrian routes to connect neighborhood destinations and transit stops.
Support and expand monthly open streets events across L.A. like CicLAvia that bring communities together.
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Metro Bike is offering free rides for Earth Day this Saturday.
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BikeLA, the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, supports a more equitable distribution of street space on Eagle Rock Blvd.
BikeLA is supporting our friends at @EquitableER to advocate for a transformative vision for a stretch of Eagle Rock Boulevard between Colorado Bl and York Blvd. We urge you to join us and vote Option 2 on the survey: https://t.co/viXeWAPLLHpic.twitter.com/LipVypRXTZ
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An Illinois man faces up to 30 years behind bars for riding his bicycle over a homeless man sleeping in a parking garage, then attacking the victim with both ends of an axe; the horrific assault only ended when the victim was able to reach an emergency phone.
Bills to authorize speed cams and camera enforcement of bike lanes passed their first committee hearings in the state legislature; unfortunately, a bill that would rip out the bike lanes on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and replace them with another lane for motor vehicles did, too.
Heartbreaking news from Florida, where an 83-year old man was murdered by a heartless hit-and-run driver, after he was struck by a motorcyclist while trying to ride his bike across the street; the motorcycle rider was critically injured, as well. Seriously, anyone who can still ride a bike at that age deserves a hell of a lot better. Then again, so does anyone else.
More bad Florida news, as Dartmouth College football coach Buddy Teevens had his leg amputated, as well as suffering spinal injuries, as a result of last month’s collision while he was riding his bike home from a restaurant; police naturally blamed him for the crash, and never bothered to test the uninsured driver for drug or alcohol use.
Remarkable news from France, where the 50-year old man who received the first double arm and shoulder transplant two years ago was able to ride a bicycle for the first time after losing both arms when he was electrocuted by power lines 25 years earlier.
The project is under fire from the newly auto-centric conservative majority on the Culver City council, which wants to rip it out so cars can once again go zoom, zoom without having to make room for anyone else.
Here’s just a part of what Rubin has to say.
A recent analysis of the corridor shows MOVE Culer City has delivered substantial benefits with few tradeoffs.
A 52% increase in bus ridership
A 32% increase in cycling activity
A 18% increase in pedestrian activity
Only a 2 minute increase in average peak period travel time for people in cars
Hard-won progress deserves defending. So this week, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sent a letter to the City Council expressing our support for the MOVE Culver City initiative. In doing so, we joined over 20 other organizations that advocate for sustainable, safe, healthy and equitable transportation.
He also notes that removing the project could violate state environmental laws, as well as federal civil rights requirements.
In our letter, we make the case that any action by the city to increase the number of lane-miles available for mixed-flow vehicle traffic would require analysis, disclosure, and mitigation of potential environmental impacts pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The City must comply with CEQA before making any final decision on a project that changes conditions on the ground today.
Full removal of MOVE Culver City would entail adding approximately 2.6 lane miles of vehicular lanes to principal arterial highways, which is likely to significantly increase vehicle miles traveled, according to the state’s official CEQA guidance. That increase in VMT would contribute to additional greenhouse gas emissions impacts, as well as criteria air pollution, including ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and PM10 and PM2.5, from tailpipe exhaust and brake, tire, and roadway wear.
Further, we note that the City is required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to analyze changes to transit service that might disproportionately affect people of color, immigrants and other protected communities who ride transit.
Celebrate Earth Day this Saturday on your bike! We’ll do the usual group ride to get some coffee — this time aiming for Belmont Heights. Then back to Pedal Movement.
For EXTRA CREDIT, keep rolling with us and climb Signal Hill for a chat with the Sierra Club about the threat of future oil drilling in our community.
Hard to tell just where this is, but it looks like it might be the Santa Monica Civic Center complex.
Or maybe SaMo High.
For how long were you going to keep this thing a secret @santamonicacity ? This is PROPER infrastructure; now that you’ve shown you know how to do it right, gimme some more! pic.twitter.com/ABWwXwlLbN
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
No bias here. Officials in a Massachusetts town are up in arms after state officials begin work to remove a traffic lane and install bike lanes on a local bridge, insisting no one told them about the plans; one city councilmember actually insists there’s not enough bike traffic on the bridge to justify a bike lane, apparently forgetting that most people don’t enjoy risking their lives in traffic with safe infrastructure.
A New Orleans driver faces up to 15 years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a “beloved” local butcher as he was riding his bike six years ago; no word on why it took so long to bring the man’s killer to justice.
L39ion of Los Angeles founders Justin and Cory Williams announced the launch of their third co-ed, multi-racial city-based cycling team in Austin, Texas, following the launch of another team in Miami. They may be single-handedly — okay, double handedly — doing more to ensure the survival, growth and spread of cycling in this country than anyone else.
