Tag Archive for Measure HLA

PCH public workshops back on the table, support bike lanes on Vermont Ave, and pedestrian safety expo next month

March 25, 2025 / / One comment
Day 84 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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SoCal’s killer highway is back on the table.

Caltrans has rescheduled the public workshops to consider the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study to improve safety on the deadly roadway, which remains one of the state’s most popular riding routes, despite a glaring lack of safe infrastructure.

The previously scheduled meetings were postponed due to the Palisades Fire.

Here’s what their press release says.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FOR THE PCH MASTER PLAN FEASIBILITY STUDY

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the City of Malibu invite the public to the Round Three workshops for the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study on April 9 (in-person), April 16 (virtual) and May 12 (virtual). The first three public workshops in July 2024 (Round One) gathered input from residents, businesses and other stakeholders to identify safety priorities for the highway. Based on that input, Caltrans held three more workshops on Aug. 28, Sept. 12 and Oct. 23, 2024 (Round Two), focused on presenting and soliciting feedback on design alternatives and other recommendations to improve safety on PCH. Following Round Two, Caltrans developed a draft of the Study that it will present during the upcoming workshops (Round Three). At the Wednesday, April 9, meeting, Caltrans will formally release the Study to the public and begin the 60-day public review period.

The upcoming workshops will also cover two PCH pavement rehabilitation projects in the cities of Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Malibu, which aim to extend the pavement service life and improve ride quality for motorists on PCH from Santa Monica to the Los Angeles/Ventura County line. Community members are invited to participate in these workshops to learn about the latest updates and provide input.

For more information, please visit the project website or e-mail: 07-pchmpfs@publicinput.com.

Click here to register for the April meeting, or here for the May workshop.

Photo from the Caltrans press release.

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Streets For All is calling for support for bike lanes on Vermont Ave at Thursday’s Metro board meeting.

Something that’s required under Measure HLA as part of the city’s mobility plan when the street is re-striped to install bus lanes, even if Metro’s lawyers don’t seem to agree.

On Thursday the Metro board has an item on its agenda (Item 9) to approve the LPA (locally preferred alternative) for the Vermont Bus Rapid Transit Project.

Vermont Ave has more bus riders than any other street in LA County, and we think BRT on this street is one of the highest impact transit projects in the region. We are incredibly supportive of the project.

However, Vermont is also one of the most dangerous streets in LA with nearly 50 people killed in the last decade. Despite this, Metro has aggressively pushed back on implementing Measure HLA‘s required bike lanes as part of the Vermont BRT project.

If the bike lanes don’t go in during this project, when Metro is doing the expensive work (curb ramps, repaving, etc.), then the City of Los Angeles will be fully responsible for implementing them at a later time, entirely on its own dime.

At a time when both road deaths and the City’s budget deficit are at a record high, we cannot afford to not implement the bike lanes as part of this project.

Click the link for tips on how to help.

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LA Public Health is hosting a pedestrian safety expo in Roosevelt Park on Friday, April 11th.

And yes, it matters, because we’re all pedestrians at some point (click here if the tweet/xeet doesn’t embed).

https://twitter.com/heybikela/status/1904350768951673220

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. A right-wing group called for a DOGE-style crackdown on “unethical” British bicycling and walking advocacy group Sustrans, and its “taxpayer-funded, deeply unpopular, and undemocratic restrictions on motorists.” Um, sure. Because nothing is more unethical than taking an inch of road space from overly entitled drivers. 

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A 49-year old man was killed as he exited his double-parked car and was struck by New York food delivery rider on an ebike who reportedly blew through a stop sign.

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Local  

No news is good news, right?

 

State

San Diego public TV and radio station KBPS examines the city’s new draft Street Design Manual, which calls for narrower lanes and more options for protected bike lanes, but still allows slip lanes and right turns on red.

Downtown Temecula will get a trio of new green bike lanes, replacing the current white-striped lanes to make them more visible.

Sad news from Sacramento, where a 59-year old man was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle. And no, ABC10, he did not “collide with” the car, someone driving a car crashed into him — as the story itself says in the second paragraph, contradicting the headline and lede. 

 

National

Around 70 Portlanders rode in support of a Palestinian paracycling team 7,000 miles away.

Denver is releasing the year’s first round of ebike vouchers, offering $450 off a standard ebike or $1,400 for an adaptive ebike. Meanwhile, California has only managed to release a single extremely throttled round of vouchers, limiting it to just a tiny fraction of the demand. 

About “100 real-life human beings” turned out for a Chicago bike ride to call for replacing parking spaces with a protected bike lane on an Uptown street.

Untapped New York introduces the bicycling advocates who are keeping up the good fight for better bike infrastructure, despite Trump’s freeze on federal funding.

Philadelphia bike riders are happy to see plans call for a protected bike lane on a bridge over the Schuylkill River, but don’t like the two-way design that doesn’t line up with existing bike lanes on either side.

Speaking of Philly, a bike lane placed in the middle of a neighborhood sidewalk is drawing mixed reactions. So let me simplify this: Sidewalk level bike lanes good, bike lanes in the middle of the sidewalk bad.

 

International

Momentum offers a beginners guide to getting started with bike commuting.

A new British study shows the safety in numbers hypothesis even applies to e-scooters, finding the presence of e-scooters appears to result in a 20 percent reduction in the risk of bicycling collisions.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a 20-year old man will spend just 13 years behind bars for murdering a 34-year old father-to-be, in what began as an effort to retrieve a stolen ebike, and escalated to a series of threatening emails and roadside arguments before the killer stabbed the victim to death; two other men who were with the killer at the time of the stabbing were arrested, but not charged.

You still have time to make it to Liège, Belgium for Bike Week.

 

Competitive Cycling

UCI’s Track Cycling League bit the dust, killed by an apparent lack of interest after just five events in four years; it will be replaced by a new Track World Cup.

Double Tour de France champ Jonas Vingegaard is back to gentle training after suffering a concussion earlier this month when he crashed during Paris-Nice.

Thirty-nine-year old Los Angeles-based former pro and current author Phil Gaimon will be honored with the Legends Award at next month’s Redlands Bicycle Classic, a race he won in 2012 and 2015.

 

Finally….

Start bike commuting, and say goodbye to road rage. Your next ebike could be a boat, or a camper. Or both.

And that feeling when you think you could do a better job of restructuring the government than Elon Musk, and offer your services as a bike-making outsider.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

NM kids face murder in death of bike-riding scientist; killer Playa street claims fresh victim; Metro threatens suit to prevent safer streets

March 20, 2025 / / No comments

This is getting old.

Nearly two weeks in, I’m still struggling with Covid, and need a few more days before I get back to our usual updates. Just another of the many joys of diabetes, which can make Covid hit harder and last longer than it might otherwise.

Hopefully, we’ll be back on Monday to catch up on what we missed.

But there are a few stories this week that can’t really wait, so let’s do a quick update in the meantime.

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It’s happened again.

Or rather, it happened last year, and the authorities are just now catching up.

According to multiple sources, three Albuquerque teenagers face charges for stealing a car, and intentionally crashing it into a man riding a bicycle while they recorded themselves laughing.

And if that sounds familiar, it should. And more than once.

The victim, a beloved physicist at the nearby Sandia National Laboratory, was killed when the kids “bumped” him with the car.

The 13-year old driver and the 16-year old egging them on from the back seat both face murder charges — as could the 11-year old waving a gun and laughing from the passenger seat.

Yes, I said eleven. With a rap sheep of violent crimes that makes John Gotti seem like an extra from Westside Story.

Apparently, New Mexico law allows them to be publicly named, and charged as adults.

Police became aware of the video shortly after the May 29, 2024, murder of 63-year old Scott Habermehl, but it apparently took until now to uncover the identities of his teen and preteen killers.

Habermehl was a dedicated bike commuter who was said to have ridden more than a quarter million miles over the last 30 years, and did absolutely nothing to cause his death.

The older teens each face felony charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm or death, and unlawful possession of a handgun.

The younger boy is likely to join them.

Thanks to Joel Falter for the heads up. 

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It’s happened again, again.

Because once again, an innocent person has been killed on Vista del Mar in Playa del Rey, eight years after then Councilmember Mike Bonin tried to fix the deadly street, only to have then Mayor Eric Garcetti rip it out after caving to angry pass-through drivers.

According to the Los Angeles Times, two cars — excuse me, drivers — collided in the 8200 block of southbound Vista del Mar, near Dockweiler Beach, with one car spilling over the embankment and killing a woman walking below.

Twentynine-year old Cecilia Milbourne died at the scene. A 70-something man also suffered minor injuries.

The crash occurred exactly where a road diet had been installed by Bonin after the city paid $9.5 million to the family of 16-year old Naomi Larson, who was killed by a cab driver as she was crossing the street in 2015.

That road diet was removed, along with other nearby bike lanes and other safety improvements, when Garcetti pulled the rug out from under Bonin, ordering them to be ripped out to appease drivers who were apparently willing to sacrifice a life or two if it meant they could have a little faster commute.

And reverting the road to a four lane speedway.

It only took a few years after that before the deadly roadway claimed another life. And two more after that.

Now, after another woman has been killed — at least the fifth in just ten years — that blood is on Garcetti’s hands, and everyone who demanded the removal of the safety improvements just so they could continue to go “zoom! zoom!”, innocent victims be damned.

Not to mention whoever designed the damn thing.

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Metro has bizarrely come out against bus lanes and safer streets.

According to a post from Streets For All, the ostensibly safety-oriented county transportation agency is threatening to sue if they are forced to comply with Measure HLA when they make changes to the streets.

Even though the law clearly applies to any significant street projects, regardless of who is responsible for them.

Which is kind of like Metro arguing that speed limits and traffic signals don’t apply to them, either.

Here’s how Streetsblog’s Joe Linton responded to Metro’s threat.

So, Metro will fight the city in order not to install bus lanes, bike lanes, crosswalks, curb ramps, all approved a decade ago.

Metro is blocking routine upgrades to all the ways their riders get to bus stops and rail stations, plus blocking bus lane facilities that would improve Metro bus speeds.

Really.

Really, indeed.

It’s worth noting that Metro’s board is made up of elected officials and appointees from cities throughout LA County, and led by board chair and County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

So you know where to direct your anger.

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Finally, Glendale is hosting their own CicLAvia-style open streets event May 31st on South Glendale Ave, in conjunction with Metro and Community Arts Resources (CARS).

Here’s how the press release describes it:

GLENDALE, Calif. (March 18, 2025) — Southern California’s newest open streets event, Let’s Go Glendale, will transform a portion of S Glendale Ave into a car-free space on Saturday, May 31 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The community is invited to explore the area on foot, bike, scooter, wheelchair or any other way that moves you.

The City of Glendale’s Open Streets Event, Let’s Go Glendale, is presented by Metro and produced by Community Arts Resources (CARS). This free day features a full schedule of carefully curated performances and activities along a meaningful vehicle-free route through the city’s south. People of all ages are invited to discover local businesses, enjoy delicious food, listen to live music and connect with the city’s vibrant cultures in the open streets. It’s an opportunity to walk, roll, shop and stroll through Glendale with a whole new perspective! A full schedule of event locations, activations and a detailed route map will be announced in April.

WHEN: Saturday, May 31 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

WHERE: City streets along S Glendale Ave will be closed to car traffic and opened to pedestrians. Full route details will be released soon.

ADMISSION: This event is free to attend and open to the public.

MORE INFORMATION: For more information visit, letsgoglendale.com

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why don’t Angelenos with a “passion” for transit and bikes just move, and AZ man busted for threatening 3-day bike tour

March 6, 2025 / / No comments
Day 65 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Seriously?

A writer asks why people who are “extremely passionate about improving public transit and making the city more bike-friendly,” don’t just leave Los Angeles, when it’s too often the exact opposite.

And especially when it seems like things will never change, thanks to our risk-averse and overly car-friendly leadership.

So I’m genuinely curious—why do people who are really passionate about transit and biking stay in LA instead of moving somewhere that already supports that lifestyle? Cities like NYC, SF, Portland, or even international places like Amsterdam or Tokyo offer great transit and biking infrastructure without needing massive overhauls.

Is it optimism that LA will change? Other factors like work, family, or weather? What makes the fight worth it?

Um, maybe because we live here?

I get that it’s frustrating.

I feel like Don Quixote tilting at windmills most of the time. And Sisyphus the rest.

But Los Angeles can change. This used to be the most transit-rich city in the country, thanks to the Red and Yellow Lines. And it can be again.

The overwhelming support for Measure HLA a year ago shows the demand for safer streets that serve us all, with two-thirds of voters supporting the ballot measure.

So the problem isn’t with the city, or the people who live here.

It’s with the people in charge who refuse to listen, and only hear the angriest voices who fight progress, rather than the ones demanding it.

We don’t need to move. We just need to do something to move them.

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If you see something, say something.

An Arizona man faces charges for threatening to run over bicyclists participating in the three-day El Tour de Zona, after a city worker saw his comment on the city’s Facebook page.

Clearly, they’re taking it seriously in the wake of the Show Low massacre, when a pickup driver intentionally slammed into people participating in a master’s race — then made a U-turn and threatened to do it again, before police shot him and took him into custody.

And taking it seriously exactly what they should do.

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Mark your calendar for this November, when the cities of El Monte and South El Monte will host the five-mile Corazon Del Valle active streets event, courtesy of ActiveSGV, Metro and the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Boston’s mayor is engaged in an active policy of revanchism, reviewing — and possibly ripping out — bike lanes and protective barriers installed during her more bike-friendly first term, as drivers demand their right to reclaim the few feet of street space they may have lost.

Momentum looks at the Toronto business owners who are shooting themselves in the foot by suing to rip out one of the city’s most popular bike lanes, assuming that most of their customers arrive by car. Never mind that bike lanes have been repeatedly shown to create the kind of bike and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods that benefit local businesses. 

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Local  

Streets For All offers their Neighborhood Council endorsements for Region 11, including North Westwood, Mar Vista and Venice.

Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman considers the legacy of redlining, saying the late Nipsey Hussle “understood cities better than you, so why didn’t you know who he was?” Personally, I knew of him as a community activist and business owner for some time before his murder, but had never actually heard his music.

A Culver City writer says they’re obsessed with bike commuting, and the five-to-six mile ride is the perfect way to end a working day. Except the city has already ripped out some of the bike lanes that makes it so enjoyable.

 

State

Congratulations to Caltrans on averaging more than one home or business demolition per mile of new freeways over a five-year period. Because really, who needs a home or a job if it stands in the way of the God-given right to sit idly in induced demand-induced congestion?

Santa Paula is using a $1.5 million county grant to build two-and-a-half mile of bike and pedestrian paths.

Calbike catches up with the ongoing fight to save the bike/ped lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Which is under threat by those poor, put-upon drivers who only want 100% of it.

San Francisco’s transportation agency unanimously approved a new bike plan designed to connect all the city’s bike lanes and put everyone in the city within a quarter mile of one. Then again, that’s what LA’s unbuilt bike plan was supposed to do after it was also unanimously approved by the city council.

Napa is reducing lanes on one of the city’s major east-west corridors to make space for buffered bike lanes and better pedestrian safety.

Sacramento’s bicycle-friendly side streets help bike riders navigate through the city.

 

National

Streetsblog questions why there’s so little research on the “unspoken” travel needs of the women and caregivers when it comes to mobility hubs.

Seattle ripped out a highway that blocked views of, and access to, Puget Sound, and replaced with a new fully separated bike path along the waterfront, which officially opens this weekend.

Even the state college in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown is bike-friendly, as Colorado State University is honored as one of the nation’s first Accredited Transportation Demand Management Organizations, in recognition of their “commitment to innovation, efficiency and providing advanced mobility solutions.”

Houston advocates complain that no one told them a two-way bike lane was going to be completely closed for construction. Evidently, it was on a need to know basis, and someone clearly concluded they didn’t.

Cincinnati has a new interactive bike map that shows all of the city’s bicycle infrastructure, completed and planned, including bike lanes, shared-use bike paths and protected bike lanes. Which is exactly what LA bike riders were promised years ago. And never got.

A new documentary from the Ann Arbor, Michigan public library captures the semi-official, semi-bandit mountain bike trails that make up the city’s Loop of Pain. Yes, the public library.

An Indiana newspaper solves the mystery of a missing ghost bike, which was apparently mangled by a snow plow and taken to a recycling center. On the other hand, it’s nice that people cared enough to want to know what happened to it. 

Good Samaritans came to the rescue of a four-year old boy who was found riding his bike unsupervised in near-freezing temperatures, providing him with a juice box and a fur coat until police arrived. Because every kid should be wrapped in mink for a winter bike ride, right?

A 73-year old Memphis woman faces charges for a drunken hit-and-run, after she allegedly crashed into a firefighter who was just riding a bike around the firehouse.

The rich get richer, as New York defies Trump’s demand to rip out the city’s bike lanes, and widens five of them, instead — including one on 6th Avenue.

 

International

Oxford, England is extending a program to provide local businesses with next-day deliveries by electric cargo bike.

British bike riders complain about a new $20 million bike/ped “bridge to nowhere,” which leads to a dangerous road on one side, and a muddy quagmire on the other.

An Italian website mourns the passing of an 87-year old “giant of journalism” famous for riding his bicycle everywhere — including the time he revived a driver who doored him, then fainted after he realized who he whacked.

An Aussie writer falls in love with biking in Japan.

More young people are biking to work in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City. Young evidently being a relative term, since the story features mostly 30-something bike commuters.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist previews next week’s very nice Paris-Nice stage race.

 

Finally….

The feeling when you’re hooked on Strava, and don’t care who knows it. Did Kevin Bacon and Lawrence Fishburne really star in the worst bicycle movie of all time?

And this is who we share the road with.

 

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Will Chalamet #biketheOscars Sunday?, LADOT ignores HLA on Hyperion Ave, and beach bike path bridge totally collapses

February 27, 2025 / / No comments
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.

Unless you want to confer stardom on Laemmle Theaters owner Greg Laemmle, who rode to the ceremony with his wife Tish and a small entourage as recently as last year.

But there may be hope, since Best Actor nominee Chalamet rode this bike to the London premier of the Oscar nominated Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, famously getting a ticket for illegally parking his bikeshare bike.

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.

Even though this site called attention to that very problem 15 years ago, eventually touring the bike path with the former LA County Bikeway Coordinator and the late, great advocate George Wolfberg.

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.

And now there are a lot more places where you can drop them off.

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Sounds like fun.

Gravel Bike California will host a “Cargopalooza” bike picnic and family meetup in Griffith Park next weekend.

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This is what rush hour in looks like in Copenhagen, in the middle of winter, with hardly a car in sight.

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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.

No bias here, either. A group of Toronto business owners filed a $10 million lawsuit over the city’s popular Bloor Street bike lanes, asking a judge to order their removal and return the street to its previous car-centric configuration. Meanwhile, Canadian advocate Lloyd Alter calls for tossing pro car, anti-bike lane Ontario Premier Doug Ford out of office “before he kills us all.”

Or here. Advocates justifiably accused The London Times of hypocrisy over the paper’s call for car-free streets where children can play, after persistently opposing Low Traffic Neighborhoods, the equivalent of our Slow Streets. Never mind the column they just published from a writer who praised violent masked bikejackers for doing the city a favor.

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Local  

No news is good news, right? 

 

State

Costa Mesa-based ebike maker Electric Bike Company has merged with Integral Electrics, a bikemaker specializing in ebikes for women and other short statured riders.

A 36-year old man suffered a broken arm and leg when he allegedly rode his bicycle through a red light and into the path of an SUV in San Diego’s Midway District Tuesday night; fortunately, his injuries weren’t considered life-threatening.

Bad news from Modesto, where a man was killed when he was hit by a driver while riding his bike through an intersection Tuesday evening.

More bad news, this time from Fremont, where a 73-year old man died a week after he hit a curb while riding in a bike, striking his head.

 

National

Streetsblog examines what little we know in this country about drivers who kill.

Bicycling looks at five of the fastest, most interesting and unique — and dare they say, coolest — bicycles that aren’t raced on the WorldTour. But you’ll need a subscription if you want to read it. 

 

International

Momentum considers ten “amazing examples” of bicycling solutions from cities around the world. None of which are Los Angeles, of course.

A writer for Bicycling Australia calls Canada’s Quebec province a stunning “bicycling heaven.”

Beloved British bike brand Nukeproof could be back from the dead, after it was bought out of bankruptcy by Belgian Cycling Factory, the parent company of Ridley.

A groundbreaking report from the UK shows that the bicycling gender gap starts early, with twice as many boys as girls considering themselves frequent bike riders, even though there’s just a 5% difference between boys and girls in perceived bicycle safety in their neighborhoods.

Be careful on your next trip to Japan, where using a cellphone while riding can cost you the equivalent of up to $1,340 or a year behind bars, and bicycling under the influence will get you a fine up to $3,350.

 

Competitive Cycling

A new video details the remarkable comeback of teenage mountain biker Robbie Seaman, who returned to competition just one year after losing his right arm in an ATV crash; then again, he was back playing lacrosse with his high school team just four months later.

The World Economic Forum calls out the courage and resilience of Olympic cyclist Masomah Ali Zada, who escaped Afghanistan to compete on the Refugee Olympic Team at last summer’s Paris Olympics.

 

Finally….

Someone apparently thought it was a good idea to have a busy bike lane stop without warning in the middle of a busy sidewalk.

And anyone can ride a bike with no hands. But try cooking a hands-free three-course meal on one.

@andrew_the_park_rat

⚠️I’m a professional don’t try this at home! #mtb #mtblife #fyp #CapCut

♬ original sound – Andrew Atnip

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Calbike lists legislative agenda, ignores hit-and-run (again); and LA council committees belatedly consider HLA

February 26, 2025 / / No comments
Day 57 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Calbike updated their legislative agenda for the coming year, calling for better and faster bike infrastructure, while reclassifying electric motorcycles and mopeds that are illegally marketed as ebikes.

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.

Calbike also called for a halt to the recent rash of bikeway removals in the state, specifically in Culver City and San Mateo.

Although I keep hoping that someone, somewhere, will finally decide that hit-and-run drivers, who cause roughly a third of SoCal bicycling deaths, and are involved in up to half of all crashes in the City of Angels, are a problem, and actually do something about it.

Maybe someday.

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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

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Walk ‘n Rollers will host a Walk More Bike More Festival at Ivy Station in Culver City this Saturday, as Bike Culver City looks for bike valets.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Detroit cops demonstrate their windshield bias by ticketing bicyclists for riding in the roadway, incorrectly insisting they have to stay in the bike lane — even if it’s full of snow. And asking to see their licenses, which people who ride bikes don’t need.

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.

No bias here. Bicyclists complained about the BBC’s claim of “a war on our roads,” calling out the false equivalency of framing it as a battle when only one side suffers most of the losses.

………

Local  

They get it. The Los Angeles Times also calls on Culver City not to backslide on their ambitious safe street redesign, arguing that we will “never have safe streets and quality transit if the region’s political leaders scrap or scale back projects when there is opposition to change.”

This is who we share the road with. A 33-year old social media influencer faces DUI and manslaughter charges after allegedly leaving a Malibu 4th of July party after drinking, and killing a rideshare driver in a head-on crash after jumping the center divider on PCH.

 

State

Costa Mesa will present a comprehensive bicycle safety education class, developed in consultation with Culver City nonprofit Walk ‘n Rollers.

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.

A long-delayed, one-and-a-quarter mile, $12 million bike trail connecting Morro Bay and Cayucos along the coast in San Luis Obispo County is now nearly funded and could break ground soon, providing a safer alternative to riding on PCH.

The Napa Valley Transportation Authority is looking for public input as they belatedly develop the county’s first active transportation plan.

The CHP is looking for a hit-and-run driver who left a Sacramento bike rider with major injuries earlier this month.

 

National

American bikemakers are facing yet another economic challenge thanks to Trump’s new tariffs on steel and aluminum, amid fears it will price out some customers and hurt demand.

Cycling Weekly takes an angle grinder to angle grinder-resistant bike locks to rate their resistance to, yes, angle grinders.

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. 

My bike-friendly Colorado hometown is considering building a bike park on the site of the former college football stadium, where I used to smuggle booze for the marching band inside my tuba.

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.

 

International

Cyclist looks at the game-changing tech that has transformed bicycling over the past ten years.

Yanko Design recommends the top five “essential” bike gear upgrades for every bicyclist. None of which actually is. Essential, that is. 

A 33-year old beginning driver will spend the next two years behind bars for killing a 55-year old English man when he drifted onto the wrong side of the road for no apparent reason, and crashed head-on into the victim’s bicycle.

A British pro cycling site says semiconductors are even improving singlespeed bikes, despite their simplicity.

Momentum recommends four “fantastic” bike routes that showcase the best of Paris, for your next trip to the City of Lights, which is rapidly becoming the City of Bikes.

A Punjabi official insists that no government funds were expended on a Lahore, Pakistan bike lane that is already fading after less than a year, and will be repainted under warranty.

 

Finally….

That feeling when your pro cycling diet is a “hate crime against food.” Your new handlebar tape could look like a horned owl.

And for everyone who dreamed of riding a Raleigh Chopper through the Alps back in the day, someone has finally done it for you.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Councilmembers decide not to decide on HLA, public opinion eventually favors bike lanes, and better bike network algorithms

February 13, 2025 / / One comment
Day 44 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

So much for that.

City councilmembers pulled the plug on considering how to implement Measure HLA at Wednesday’s joint session of the Transportation and Public Work committees, after a “fiery” discussion on another matter took up their allotted time.

But they announced proposed amendments to the draft implementation plan, including making projects subject to review and input from the fire and police departments, which is fine as long as they don’t get a veto.

Their input could be useful, as long as the process is how to make projects work, rather than how to water them down. Or kill them.

And let’s not forget that other city’s have invested in compact emergency vehicles to negate the complaint that bike lanes restrict emergency responses. Or that’s LA’s preferred plastic cat-tickler bendie-posts are very easy to drive over with cars, let along bigass firetrucks.

Two other proposed amendments could be more helpful.

First, the draft requires an appeals process for anyone who alleges the city is out of compliance with HLA, but the amendment would make that process optional.

The second would allow the city to expand the scope of grant-funded projects to comply with HLA, as long as it doesn’t jeopardize the funding.

So mark your calendar for February 26th, when the committees are scheduled for their next joint meeting. And hopefully, they’ll actually get around to discussing it this time.

Meanwhile, the city planning department will host a virtual information session on its proposed Standard Elements Table at 6 pm tonight to clarify the minimum features for the differing networks included the city’s Mobility Plan, which are now required under Measure HLA.

………

No surprise here.

A new Irish study shows that public opinion usually shifts in favor of bicycling infrastructure once the benefits become evident, despite initial skepticism and the natural bias towards maintaining the status quo.

And acceptance grows once the bikeways are in place, when people can enjoy the tangible benefits they provide.

The study stresses the importance of highlighting the benefits of active travel initiatives, such as reduced emissions, better air quality and public health, and improving safety for vulnerable road users.

However, it also warns against a paternal attitude in explaining the benefits, which risk alienating some people.

………

Another new study, this time from Switzerland, uses an algorithm to show where to place bike lanes to design an ebike-friendly city, with minimal impact on other travel modes.

The study concludes the best methods design street networks that present the best trade-off between car accessibility and bikeability, providing both lower travel times for motorists and lower perceived bicycle travel times.

………

CicLAvia offers high points along Sunday’s West Adams meets University Park open streets event, including the spcaLA Pet Adoption Center.

Which gives me an excuse to explain that donations made to the national ASPCA — you know, the one with the ostensibly heart-tugging ads showing all those suffering animals — can go anywhere in the country.

So if you want to help dogs, cats and other animals here in Los Angeles — including pets displaced by the recent Palisades, Eaton and Hughes fires — make your donation directly to the spcaLA so your money stays here.

………

Local  

Seriously? The Signal reports someone riding an ebike was injured when they were struck by a vehicle in Canyon Country. Except the article doesn’t even mention whether the vehicle even had a driver, while the headline positions it as an ebike collision, as if the rider hit another ebike, or maybe a tree, rather than getting run down by a motorist. 

 

State

More than a billion dollars in climate funds earmarked for California has been blocked, and could be imperiled by Trump’s executive orders.

A student at Point Loma Nazarene University aspires to be a pro cyclist in Europe, but lost a couple years due to PTSD after suffering a fractured pelvis when he was struck by a driver, while another student is aiming to be a professional triathlete.

Officials in the Coachella Valley are discussing how to improve safety on deadly Highway 74, aka the Ortega Highway, after a man was killed in a big rig crash, including the possibility of banning bicycles in certain areas. Which could be illegal, since California law says bikes can only be prohibited on limited access highways when there is an alternate route available — which doesn’t seem to be the case here. 

San Francisco Streetsblog takes a look at an expanded, fully separated and curb-protected two-way bike lane in Alameda.

Our old friend Megan Lynch forwards news that a local Davis bike subscription service is apparently unsubscribing from the college town, after 500 of their bikes showed up for sale on Craigslist.

 

National

The family of a bike-riding Oregon woman killed by a DEA agent, who allegedly ran a stop sign while on a surveillance operation, has filed a $2.5 million lawsuit against the agent and the DEA, after the courts ruled he couldn’t be charged because he was working for the feds. Because sometimes a lawsuit is the only hope for justice when the court system fails the victims.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A Sedona, Arizona nationally known artist and photographer was killed by a driver when he tried to pass a slow moving car on his bicycle, while allegedly riding without lights.

A suburban Chicago writer sings the praises of wintertime fat tire bicycling, describing a “magical experience” riding through the snow.

A Maryland legislator has dropped a demand for a title and registration for ebike riders, but his proposed bill still calls for licensing and insuring e-bicyclists; needless to say, the Bike League says nay.

 

International

Momentum clearly hopes you get the Seinfeld reference, saying “these bicycle campers are real and they are magnificent.”

A writer for Cycling Weekly pens a breakup letter to his dirty bike after giving up on cleaning it himself.

Cycling Weekly also rates the best and most portable bike locks, including their top choice that “literally turns angle grinder-cutting discs to dust,” while weighing just 2.8 pounds.

The British government is providing the equivalent of $364 million in new funding to build 300 miles of new bike lanes and walkways throughout England; however, Cycling Weekly says it’s not new, and it’s not enough.

An Aussie writer travels through history on a pioneering gravel ride into the depths of Cappadocia.

A Canadian writer says Taiwan may be one the world’s best places for a bicycling holiday.

A tourist visiting from the UK was killed, and three others seriously injured, when a driver in New Zealand crashed into a four-person bicycle they had rented less than an hour earlier to tour a winemaking region.

 

Competitive Cycling

Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel announced plans to skip this year’s road worlds to focus on winning the mountain bike world title.

Cyclist takes a look behind the curtain at a hi-tech Spanish factory where the new kits for the WorldTour’s Ineos Grenadiers are made.

 

Finally…

Your next ebike could come with a detachable bucket. When you’re carrying meth, fentanyl and a wad of funny money on your bike, maybe just don’t.

And why pin down your clickbait slideshow, when you can just recommend riding along “rivers,” “mountain ridges” and “coastal pathways?”

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Parking expert Donald Shoup died, council committees consider HLA ordinance, and killing couple riding bikes just no big deal

February 10, 2025 / / No comments
Day 41 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Let’s get the worst news out of the way first.

Beloved UCLA Distinguished Urban Planning Research Professor Donald Shoup has passed away.

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.

https://bsky.app/profile/mnolangray.bsky.social/post/3lhnbxzgt7s2c

Here’s how Shoup was described in his bio by the university.

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.

Streetsblog reports the ordinance will come up before a joint session of the Transportation and Public Works Committees at City Hall, starting at 8:30 this Wednesday morning.

According to Streetsblog’s Joe Linton,

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.

The committees will also consider a requesting preliminary budget for implementing HLA on the next item.

Meanwhile, Streets For All called out specific problems with another separate, but related, proposed HLA implementation document that specifies facility minimums.

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.”

Streets For All asks you to attend City Planning’s virtual meeting at 6 pm this Thursday, basing your comments on the points above, as well as emailing your comments to City Planning.

If any of that seems confusing, it was for me, too. Thanks to Joe Linton for helping me clarify what I had originally written. 

………

Life is cheap in Napa County, where the driver who killed an Oregon couple as they rode their bikes on vacation got less than one lousy year behind bars.

Nike executive Christian Deaton, 52, and 48-year old Nike designer Michelle Deaton were riding on Silverado Trail in October of 2023 when they were struck by unsecured lumber in the back of a truck driven by 57-year old Porfirio Sanchez.

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.

………

No surprise here, either.

Singletracks reports a number of Los Angeles-area mountain bike and gravel trails were destroyed in the recent Palisades, Eaton and Hughes fires.

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.

biketalk.org/2025/02/bike…@bikinginla.bsky.social @pedalingpast60.bsky.social @nyc.streetsblog.org

— Bike Talk (@biketalk.bsky.social) 2025-02-10T00:33:19.454Z

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

Miami Beach becomes the latest city to rip out bike lanes, removing the bike lanes from one-way, pedestrian-friendly Ocean Drive, and returning it to a pedestrian unfriendly two-way street. Because cars.

Nice guy. The UK’s Health Minister was fired after it was revealed that he had sent racist, sexist and otherwise offensive messages on WhatsApp — including his sincere wish that a constituent named Nick would get run over by a garbage truck while riding on a local bikeway.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly. 

Nice guy, part two. A 31-year old British man will spend a lousy four months behind bars for ramming his bicycle into the legs of his former girlfriend, knocking her to the ground and calling her obscene names while standing over her.

………

Local  

Seriously? Confused Claremont drivers can’t figure out how green bike lanes and bike boxes work.

 

State

SlashGear follows up on what happened after the noseless, gel-padded VSEAT bike seat lured two of the Sharks on Shark Tank to invest two hundred grand for a 25% equity, saying the company founded by a California woman and her trainer is still around, selling the unique seats online while promising to alleviate crotch pain for $119.

A San Diego letter writer says if you really want to keep bike riders safe, enforce the damn traffic laws, already.

An 18-year old Fresno man was hospitalized in critical condition with a head injury after he was struck by a driver when he allegedly rode his bike through a red light.

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.

 

National

The US Bicycle Route System has added another 3,568 miles to its cross-country network, bringing the total to over 23,000 miles, nearly halfway to its goal of 50,000 miles.

Seattle Bike Blog writer Tom Fucoloro, author of Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from Behind the Handlebars, says if the city wants to challenge the dominance of motor vehicles, it “needs support from the people pulling every lever of power.”

A writer for Streets Minnesota says ebikes can mean greater freedom for people with limited vision, for whom driving can be a challenge, if they can do it at all. Thanks to BikeLA Executive Director Eli Akira Kaufman for the heads-up.

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 Maryland tourist has filed a $1.6 million lawsuit after she suffered “significant” injuries when a Virginia Beach, Virginia cop doored her without looking as she rode her bike in a bike lane.

 

International

The Velo podcast talks with a British Columbia bike shop owner about the trials and travails of just trying to earn a profit and stay in business these days.

That’s more like it. A 31-year old British woman will spend the next six years and eight months behind bars for killing a 71-year old man riding a bicycle while she was driving distracted and “persistently” surfing Instagram, Facebook and SnapChat behind the wheel, as well as texting.

A writer in the UK thought a ride with a 66-year old grandmother would be relaxing, until the world class masters cyclist dropped him like a sack of spuds.

More proof that bicycling is good for you, as a new Finnish study shows people who bike to work tend to take fewer sick days off from work, along with a reduced risk of long-term absences due to illness.

Bicyclists in Budapest, Hungary will now enjoy a connected, protected bicycle highway on the city’s Grand Blvd.

A Nigerian evangelical minister braved nine days of bad roads, crashes and bigass snakes to ride his bike nearly 400 miles across the country to wish the General Overseer of the Church a happy 83rd birthday.

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. 

 

Competitive Cycling

The peloton put on the brakes and called a halt to the third stage of France’s Étoile de Bessèges in protest after several cars and trucks made their way onto the course, compressing riders into a single lane on the roadway.

Belgium’s Soudal-Quick Step development team has pulled out of the upcoming Tour of Rwanda over fears the armed conflict in neighboring Congo will spread.

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.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to crash your speeding ebike into a cop. Your new smart handlebars could have been funded through OnlyFans photos — yes, that OnlyFans.

And who needs spandex when you’ve got chain mail?

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Los Angeles belatedly rolls out draft HLA standards, mountain biking ode to LA, and environmentally unfriendly burn scar ride

February 5, 2025 / / No comments
Day 36 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Um, okay.

Streetsblog reports that after nine months of slow walking the legally required implementation of Measure HLA — which requires building out the mobility plan when streets get resurfaced — the Los Angeles City Planning Department has finally released its draft HLA Standard Elements Table.

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.

Click here to register for the session.

Graphic for Healthy Streets LA, as Measure HLA was originally known, from Streets for All website.

………

Mountain biker Eliot Jackson celebrates the City of Angels with his Ode To LA, shredding on his bike and guitar.

………

Freeride mountain biker Dylan Stark is joined by “freeride legend” Josh Bender as they carve up the burn scar from 2024 Macy Fire near Lake Elsinore.

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.

………

Local  

Once again, an LAPD officer has been arrested for a fatal hit-and-run. Sgt. Carlos Gonzalo Coronel is charged with killing a 19-year old man in Tustin early Saturday morning; he’s currently accused of violating probation for a 2011 DUI conviction after he failed to complete his court ordered community service.

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.

 

State

Calbike is working to get the California MUTCD, aka Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, updated to reflect a new law banning sharrows on streets with speed limits above 30 mph.

San Diego is looking for your input on the draft of its revised Street Design Manual outlining how roads and walkways should be designed to accommodate  all users.

Now you, too, can be a star. Or at least make a cool grand demonstrating your bike skills for a healthcare ad shooting in the Bay Area (scroll down).

A San Francisco website says the city’s new bike plan is full of ideas and goals, but short on details, a departure from the its usual approach of ambitious plans that never get built.

 

National

A clickbait slideshow highlights the top ten US bike towns every bicyclist should visit. None of which is Los Angeles, of course. 

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.

People riding bikes in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown on the Winter Bike to Work Day will enjoy coffee, food, drinks and giveaways, both morning and afternoon. Which compares favorably to LA’s most recent Bike to Work Day, when bike commuters got squat. 

In today’s best story, a family of Ukrainian refugees are living proof of the power bicycles to change lives, assuming ownership of a Boulder, Colorado bike shop from the people who became their substitute parents and benefactors when they arrived here with nothing, despite never riding a bicycle before the war started.

Once again, someone on a bicycle has been killed by a cop, as a 68-year old Norwalk, Connecticut man riding in a crosswalk was hit and killed by an on-duty police detective in an unmarked car.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would finally legalize parking protected bike lanes, sending it on to the state senate for consideration.

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.

 

International

Momentum offers 33 reasons to start bike commuting now. Which isn’t quite as catchy as “I got 99 problems but…”, but it will have to do.

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.

Evidently, the wheels of justice turn slowly in India, where a man was acquitted eight years after his arrest for stealing a bike.

An Aussie website says Bangkok is better for bicycling than they expected. Which doesn’t exactly sound like high praise. 

A Melbourne, Australia woman is called a Karen after she lost her temper during a rideout in the Central Business District, getting out of her car to repeatedly point her finger in the faces of the teen bicyclists stopping traffic with their two-wheeled antics.

 

Competitive Cycling

Wout van Aert says it was just meant to be, after failing to overtake Mathieu van der Poel for the ‘cross world championship.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website examines the post pro racing careers of a handful of cycling legends, ranging from The Cannibal to Contador.

Thanks to indoor cycling gear supplied by Zwift and Wahoo, a Congolese cyclist says he’s still able to train, even as armed conflict rages outside, making it too dangerous to ride a bicycle.

 

Finally…

Ethan Hunt has apparently gone rogue and is now raiding Brit bike shops. Your next bike could have two chains — and no, not the rapper. Who says you need to stop pedaling to play the drums?

And surfing, like bicycling, evidently leaves little to the imagination as to the outline of your, um, male appendage.

Assuming you have one, of course.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , ,

Compromise offer on WeHo streets, Caltrans promises bike lanes in San Pedro, and LA failing us on speed cams

October 18, 2024 / / One comment
Just 73 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

I am now officially a non-driver.

Yesterday morning, I went to the DMV to trade my driver’s license for a non-driving ID.

Between my medical issues and the meds I’m on, I simply don’t belong behind the wheel. And I probably never will.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make. I’ve held onto my license despite not driving for the past several years, just in case I needed it at some point. 

But it’s just not worth the risk I could pose to others. 

I only wish more people would realize that. 

………

In a surprisingly reasonable op-ed, West Hollywood city council candidate Larry Block, who has opposed bike projects in the past — especially in front of his Santa Monica Blvd store — offers a compromise on his opposition to removing parking for a lane reduction and protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave in the largely residential Mid-City area.

Or as he puts it, a little argy-bargy, a term that should be familiar to fans of cycling announcer Phil Liggett.

Bike lane supporters need to recognize the daily needs of disabled residents, emergency vehicles, delivery trucks, and basic services. Bike supporters must understand that residents need access to their driveways, and services like city garbage trucks and emergency vehicles need space to do their jobs. We can’t take away that access in favor of a ‘build it, they will come’ mentality’. Residents also need to accept that many people can’t afford a car, and keeping WeHo vibrant means making room for bikes and other ways to get around. Their safety matters, too, and it’s our responsibility to do what we can.

While there’s a lot we could take issue with there — like how ebikes ca serve as mobility devices for handicapped people, and the myth of bike lanes slowing emergency vehicles — Block goes on to call for developing a master plan to improve safety and livability in WeHo’s Mid-City area.

We should focus on creating a Mid-City Master Plan while working on the Fountain Ave. Streetscape and Bike Lane project. Instead of just arguing about bike lanes, we need to shift the conversation to mid-city livability and make Fountain Ave. improvements part of the bigger plan.

There’s a livability and safety problem on Fountain Ave., and we need to look at the big picture. Let’s discuss a Mid-City Master Plan that incorporates the needs of all residents. But for now, after several accidents on Fountain Ave. in recent weeks, our top priority should be making Fountain safe today.

If this is the approach a bike lane opponent — or possibly former opponent — is willing to take, there may be hope for WeHo yet.

………

As a followup to Tuesday’s piece about an apparent violation of Measure HLA along Western Avenue and 1st Street in San Pedro, Ken Shima forwards a screenshot from CD15 Councilmember Tim McOsker saying the current striping is just a temporary measure, and bike lanes really are coming.

But from Caltrans, not Los Angeles.

As Joe Linton clarified in a comment to Tuesday’s post, HLA applies to “any paving project or other modification,” other than limited work like “restriping of the road without making other improvements, routine pothole repair, utility cuts, or emergency repairs.”

Which would mean it should apply here.

However, as a state agency, I’m not sure if Caltrans is required to abide by HLA, unlike Metro or the City of LA. But it’s definitely something to keep an eye on, to make sure those promised bike lanes really do go in.

Regardless of who is responsible for them.

Meanwhile, Linton visits the new bike/walk path along San Pedro’s Front Street from the Vincent Thomas Bridge to just west of Pacific Ave.

………

San Francisco has selected the vendor for the city’s speed cam pilot program, with 33 cams expected to be fully operational by early 2025.

Compare that with Los Angeles, which hasn’t.

Here’s what a press release from Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, had to say on the subject.

“While Los Angeles continues to ignore the problem, San Francisco takes speeding seriously. I commend San Francisco for taking this significant step towards making its citizens safer. Through their selection process, the city has done the hard work and set the stage for other cities to follow,” said Damian Kevitt, Executive Director of Streets Are For Everyone. “Los Angeles and the other pilot cities have no excuse for bureaucratic feet-dragging that is risking people’s lives.”

At the start of 2024, the Chief of Police and Mayor of Los Angeles announced that there were a staggering 336 traffic fatalities, the highest in almost 50 years and more traffic fatalities in 2023 than homicides. Across the state, 35% of fatalities are speeding-related, with over 1,500 speeding-related fatalities in 2021. Traffic violence in Los Angeles continues to get worse, and there is insufficient effort being put into implementing sensible solutions to save lives.

Yep.

That pretty much sums it up.

It took years of fighting in the state legislature to finally pound out a compromise allowing Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale to try a speed cam pilot program, along with three NorCal cities, including San Francisco. That was later amended to allow speed cams on PCH in Malibu, as well.

But all of that appears to be wasted on the City of Angels, which seems to be moving with all due non-haste at its usual glacial pace.

Mayor Bass has often said that she was elected to solve the city’s homelessness crisis.

Too bad that’s the only crisis she seems to think she was elected to address.

………

It’s now 303 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. The anti-bike OB-Rag writes that San Diego officials are “quietly picking our pockets” with things like a $155,000 bike counter, which amounts to a rounding error on the city’s $104.6 million streets budget. Let alone the SANDAG’s $1.3 billion — yes, with a B — highway budget.

No bias here, either. A 76-year old Baltimore man died weeks after a driver pulled out of a sidewalk and cut him off while riding on the sidewalk, but the local press somehow blames the victim for crashing into the car. And waits until the penultimate sentence to mention the car even had a driver.

He gets it. An Ottawa, Ontario columnist says Premier Doug Ford’s plan to give the provincial legislature final say over bike lanes is all about politics, not safety or traffic flow, while the mayor of Waterloo says Ford is stepping directly into municipal jurisdiction.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A 22-year old Novato man faces a felony hit-and-run charge for fleeing the scene after after crashing his bicycle into an eight-year old boy; fortunately, the kid was hospitalized with minor to moderate injuries. Which raises the question of why a felony charge was filed, which under state law on only applies in cases resulting in serious injuries. 

………

Local  

Pepperdine remembered the four sorority sisters killed by an alleged speeding driver on PCH a year ago, as they were walking from their car to a party; their accused killer was reportedly doing 104 mph in a 45 mph zone. But hey, about those speed cams.

 

State

Congrats to the Costa Mesa Police Department for busting a thief who made off with a family’s e-cargo bike; the department has already returned it to the owner.

 

National

CNN considers the best bike lights, settling on a pair from Cygolite.

Annapurna’s scenic bicycling adventure game Ghost Bike is getting a makeover, and will re-emerge next year as Wheel World, with a lighter design to make it more fun to play. Because ghost bikes may be a lot of things, but fun ain’t one of them. 

Parents, classmates and the Littleton, Colorado community came together to call for safer streets, a year after a seventh-grade boy was killed riding his bike to middle school. Yet another reminder that the time to fight for safer streets if before it’s too late, not after. 

A Tulsa, Oklahoma TV station responds to the state’s appalling NHTSA ranking as the nation’s 6th deadliest state for bike riders by examining safety concerns for bicyclists. Meanwhile, in 6th ranked California <crickets>.

A writer for Business Insider takes a 330-mile bikepacking trip from Pittsburgh to Maryland, and says she’d absolutely do it again, despite the challenges.

Prosecutors have added a murder charge to the long list of charges against the alleged drunken and speeding hit-and-run driver who killed a beloved young doctor out for a bike ride; he was allegedly driving over twice the speed limit with a BAC double the legal limit.

Roanoke, Virginia shows how it should be done, installing multiple temporary bike lanes to encourage people to ride their bikes to the city’s largest outdoor fest. Now they just need to make them permanent.

 

International

Momentum rates the six best foldies currently on the market.

A writer for Bike Radar takes a six-day, 400-mile bike tour along South Korea’s “stunning” Four Rivers route from Seoul to Busan.

A cop in New South Wales, Australia faces charges for dangerous driving for a crash that killed a 16-year old boy riding a bicycle.

 

Competitive Cycling

One of the brightest American cycling prospects, 21-year old Boulder, Colorado resident Jared Scott, walked away from his burgeoning European pro career to become a professional DJ.

A Welsh Continental cycling team learns the hard way the dangers of relying on a bikemaker’s promise that their frames will meet UCI standards.

 

Finally…

How to not pull an endo on your mountain bike. Making a Pashley the star of Swan Lake.

And seriously, who doesn’t need a sidecar for your ebike? Or a corgi car, in my case.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Los Angeles promises bike lanes but delivers traffic lanes in San Pedro, and an unexplained bike death explained

October 15, 2024 / / One comment
Just 76 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Western was supposed to get bike lanes, until it wasn’t, apparently.

Which could be a Measure HLA violation.

Or not.

Ken Shima forwards news that Western Avenue and 1st Street in San Pedro recently got a makeover, adding a central turn lane — while removing space for a long-promised bike lane.

LA’s Mobility Plan 2035, which subsumed the city’s 2010 bike plan, includes bike lanes on Western. That means they have been planned for at least 14 years; according to Ken, they were finally scheduled to be installed in 2027.

But the new center turn lane recently installed by the city removed curbside parking, moving the right traffic lane right up to the gutter.

And in the process, removed any possible space for the promised bike lane.

Which means that unless the city is planning a road diet, they are no longer planning on the promised bike lanes.

Yet Measure HLA, which passed with an overwhelming majority earlier this year, requires the implementation of any street safety measures contained in the mobility plan anytime an eighth-mile or more of street gets resurfaced.

And that looks like more than an eighth-mile to me.

But maybe they’re trying to get around HLA by restriping the street without resurfacing.

Ken tells me he’s reached out to Councilmember Tim McOsker’s office, which represents the district, for clarification.

It will be interesting to see how they respond.

If they do.

All photos by Ken Shima

Western Ave prior to restriping

………

Over the weekend, I wrote about the unexplained death of a bike rider in Del Mar Saturday morning.

All we knew at the time was that he fall after somehow losing control of his bike on the 1900 block of Jimmy Durante Blvd.

I speculated about various possible causes, but without more information, all I could do was guess.

However, there’s no word on why he may have lost control. It’s possible he could have struck a pothole or some sort of obstacle while riding at speed, lost a tire, or been the victim of a too-close pass — which would make it hit-and-run.

There’s also no word on whether he had a cycling computer or Strava account that could shed some light on what happened. So unless investigators find a witness or video of the crash, we may never know the cause.

Now longtime San Diego bike advocate Serge Issakov visits the scene to fill in the blanks.

Issakov reports the site is at the bottom of a descent with a typical 4% grade, where road cyclists typically reach speeds of 26 to 30 mph, while a KOM could be somewhere in the 40 mph range.

The typical car-ticker plastic bollards show clear signs of being run over more than once, and would likely have been virtually invisible under the typical Del Mar marine layer — let alone if there was any coastal fog or haze in the morning hour.

But even without hitting the post, the cracks visible in the pavement could have easily destabilized the victim, which could have been enough to send him into the curb or the grate in the gutter, and onto the sidewalk.

And at those speeds, it might not have mattered whether he was wearing a helmet.

All I can say, after watching Issakov’s video, is I hope the victim’s family has a good lawyer.

If not, I can sure as hell recommend one.

………

Talk about misreading the data.

The former Streets Officer for London TravelWatch says ebike crashes are pushing up bicycling death rates in the Netherlands, while the bicycling death rate is declining in the UK.

So why, he asks, is Britain still trying to emulate the Dutch?

Even though the Netherlands has a far greater rate of bicycling, a higher ebike adoption rate, and a much lower per capita rate of bike deaths.

And even though the major reason deaths are declining in the UK has been the adoption of Dutch traffic designs.

But other than that, he seems to have nailed it.

………

It’s now an even 300 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

She gets it. Dame Sarah Storey, Britain’s most successful paracyclist and the Active Travel Commissioner for Manchester, England, says don’t believe what business owners will tell you, because businesses closing after a new bike lane goes in is a “coincidence, not an unexpected consequence.”

British bicyclists were properly horrified by a recent column in the conservative Telegraph newspaper that called for driving dangerous bike riders off the road, as Tory MPs ignored bike safety in calling for a crackdown. I wanted to link to the original Telegraph piece yesterday, but it disappeared behind the paper’s paywall before I could. 

………

Local  

Is anyone really surprised that Los Angeles has already exceeded its $87 million budget for liability claims by a whopping $10 million, just three months into the fiscal year?

Bike Culver City held a vigil last night to mark the city’s latest pedestrian death, after a man was killed on particularly dangerous stretch of National Blvd near Turning Point School last month.

 

State

Smart Cities Dive examines the nine bike-friendly bills signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, along with the two he didn’t.

Tragic news from Orange County, where a man was fatally shot while riding his bicycle in unincorporated Anaheim Sunday night.

This year’s MS 150 Bay to Bay Bike Tour down the coast of Orange and San Diego counties will be dedicated to the late KTLA-5 entertainment anchor and longtime bicyclist Sam Rubin.

Santa Barbara plans a crackdown on wheelie-popping teens and scofflaw ebike riders.

A 73-year old Humboldt Bay woman celebrates the jolting joys of riding an ebike, after a lifetime of riding more traditional bikes.

 

National

Red Bull offers a potentially life-changing beginner’s guide to bicycling.

A new study by Harvard researchers suggest you never forget how to ride a bike because it’s stored deep in your cerebellum.

The Bureau of Land Management wants to know whether you want to see ebikes on the world-class trails of Moab, Utah.

Kansas will invest over $31 million to enhance walkable and bikeable routes throughout the state.

No surprise here, as New York’s predominantly Latino and Black West Harlem still doesn’t have a single bike lane, ten years after the city adopted Vision Zero.

 

International

A new European study shows people who don’t wear bike helmets usually skip it for comfort and convenience, but free helmets, education and nagging might help.

The ancestral home of Pembroke Welsh corgis was forced to cut back the availability of their e-bikeshare system because too many of the ebikes needed repair work, raising fears of vandalism.

Over 8,000 bicyclists turned up with wool jerseys and vintage bicycles for this year’s Tuscan L’Eroica in Siena, Italy.

A German truck driver will spend the next four years in an Italian jail after he was sentenced for the hit-and-run death of former Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin; Rebellin, a three-time winner of Fleche Wallonne, as well as winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Amstel Gold Race, was run down while he was on a training ride.

A new Australian study released in advance of tomorrow’s National Ride to Work Day shows a whopping 40% of commuters currently bike to work, a number that could rise to 72% if they could work closer to home.

 

Competitive Cycling

Champion triathlete Kristian Blummenfelt says he’s putting his dreams of competing in the Tour de France on hold, because he’d take too big a financial hit jumping from his role as the world’s top triathlete to the WorldTour.

There’s something very fishy about this podium prize for Japan’s Tour de Kyushu.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can bike an extended century in your bloomers. Your next cycling shoe could be a sock.

And pissing off bicyclists since, well, now.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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