Tag Archive for memorials

Four years for motorcyclist who killed bike rider while fleeing cops, and Carlsbad’s ebike state of emergency proves effective

March 8, 2023 / / 3 comments

Life is cheap right here in California, too.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that 29-year old Eric Monte Burns pled guilty to killing 68-year old Bradley “Brad” Allen Catcott as he fled from police in Carlsbad last year, agreeing to a four-year term behind bars.

Burns was attempting to evade a Carlsbad State Beach ranger while speeding along Carlsbad Blvd on his motorcycle last August, with a 22-year old woman on his bike, when he slammed into the victim’s bicycle as Catcott was merging into the turn lane from the bike lane.

Catcott died at the scene, while both people on the motorcycle suffered serious injuries.

With good behavior, Burns will be out in less than two years. Meanwhile, Catcott received the death penalty, and his loved ones have been sentenced to a lifetime without him.

A similar crime in some other states could result in a decade or more of hard time.

But California’s too lenient traffic laws too often allow killer drivers to escape with a relative slap on the wrist.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels.

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In the same story, The Union-Tribune reports that ebike injuries have dropped considerably since Carlsbad declared a state of emergency last year, allowing city officials to “expedite increased attention and expenditures for enhanced enforcement efforts, new traffic safety measures and safe driving education programs.”

There were just two ebike-related injuries reported last month, compared with ten the previous February.

However, a 14-year old girl is recovering from serious injuries after she was struck by a turning driver on the first day of March.

The victim suffered a skull fracture, concussion and several broken teeth while riding her ebike on Carlsbad’s Tamarack Ave, near where Christine Embree was killed by a driver while riding an ebike with her 16-month old daughter last August.

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LADOT installed a sign honoring Monique Muñoz, who was killed by a teenage driver in an overpowered Lamborghini SUV traveling at over 100 mph.

But as others have noted today, a far better memorial would be to fix the streets so drivers can’t travel at speeds that would be illegal on any highway in the state.

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The LAPD released security cam video showing the car that killed 51-year old Oscar Montoya in San Pedro shortly after midnight Saturday morning, although initial reports mistakenly located the collision several miles away in Venice.

Police describe it as a possible light-colored Toyota Scion, though it looks more like a Kia Soul to me.

The driver reportedly paused briefly after the crash before hitting the gas and disappearing out of view.

Meanwhile, Guy Piddock described the terror he feels riding the less than one-third mile gap in the bike lane on Pacific Ave where Montoya was killed.

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A video from Not Just Bikes calls for banning dangerously oversized SUVs larger than WWII tanks.

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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 San Diego TV station reports that a new protected bike lane and dedicated bus lane on Park Blvd will improve safety and connectivity, while opening the street up to all road users. But all they seem to care about is the loss of hundreds of parking spaces.

No bias here, either. A Sonoma County man can’t believe the CHP didn’t even cite the reckless driver who rear-ended him on his bike; the cop mistakenly blamed him for not riding as close to the right edge as practicable, while ignoring the section of the law allowing riders to take the lane when it’s too narrow to safely share. Proving once again than no one understands bike law less than the CHP.

Or here. Seattle bike riders are getting the blame for the city’s plan to remove eight aging cherry trees near the iconic Pike Place Market, even though the project will downgrade bicycling facilities while increasing space for cars.

But sometimes, its the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Montana man faces charges for using his bicycle as a weapon to attack a truck driver, after allegedly crashing his bike into the truck, then striking the victim several time before slamming the bike over his head. Three witnesses reported the victim, who apparently has major anger management issues, crashed his bike into the side of the passing truck, even though it’s more likely the driver passed too close.

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Local 

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is working with LADOT to make the Angeleno Heights neighborhood safe from fans of the Fast & Furious franchise, who try to recreate racing scenes from the original movie while putting residents at risk.

 

State

Carlsbad fire officials suspect a lithium-ion ebike battery was the cause of a recent garage fire.

A 17-year old Ocean Beach boy calls on the hit-and-run driver who left him in a wheelchair with a broken pelvis to turn themselves in, saying the driver who fled after hitting his ebike “took everything from” him.

That’s more like it. A new mixed-use housing project in Imperial Beach will give you a free ebike and reduce your rent if you don’t have a car.

San Luis Obispo is preparing to break ground on a $6 million bike lane project, although, as usual, local residents decry the loss of parking.

Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick argues that a planned $200 million bike and pedestrian bridge connecting an 800-foot gap over an estuary between Oakland’s Jack London Square and Western Alameda is just too damn complicated; the plans call for a drawbridge mechanism to make room for passing boats, but Rudick says just build a higher bridge with elevator access.

 

National

Streetsblog reports the Biden administration has caved to Republican legislators, and removed the Fix-It-First requirement for using federal infrastructure funds to improve the safety and condition of existing roads before building new ones or expanding existing roads.

Ebike maker Velotric compiled a field guide to different types of bicycling infrastructure common in the US, from sharrows to bike paths and protected bike lanes.

A Boise public radio station examines the origin of the Idaho Stop Law, which has been rapidly spreading across the country in recent years. Except in California, where our governor vetoed it. 

Life is cheap in Missouri, where a convicted hit-and-run driver walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 50-year old man riding a bicycle, after the judge gave him five years probation and a lousy $500 fine.

A Massachusetts judge has dismissed a lawsuit by opponents of a Cambridge bike lane demanding the return of parking spaces that were removed to make space for it; the dismissal also allows the city to move forward with additional bike lanes that had been in limbo because of the lawsuit.

Lawyers concluded their closing remarks in the death penalty trial of convicted Manhattan bike path terrorist Sayfullo Saipov; jurors will begin deliberating tomorrow whether he will be executed for killing eight people as he plowed down the bike lane in a rented truck, or spend the rest of his life in a high security prison.

New York is attempting to reduce ebike battery fires by banning the sale of ebikes without UL-listed batteries.

A New York op-ed argues that the city’s dangerous streets should be illegal.

Relatives of a fallen North Carolina bike rider worry that evidence against the alleged drunk driver who killed him could be thrown out of court, after the state trooper who collected the evidence was arrested for soliciting a prostitute. Although what one has to do with the other is beyond me.

Kindhearted Coral Gables cops gave a new BMX bike to a 13-year old boy from Honduras who crossed the Mexican border with his brother two years ago, before his mother was able to join them last year.

 

International

Cycling Weekly rates the best women’s road bikes, while noting that not every woman wants or needs a bike designed for feminine riders.

Cyclist explains how to select the right tire pressure for your bike.

Hundreds of people turned out to ride for safer streets for women in London, where they make up less than a third of bike riders. Meanwhile, Strava data shows British women are less likely to ride after dark. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

A London bike rider is attempting to overcome windshield bias by posting his bike cam videos online with a dashboard overlaid on it to make it look like it was filmed inside a car.

A woman in the UK has filed an appeal over her three-year sentence for knocking a 77-year woman off her bike and into traffic, where she was killed, for the crime of riding her bike on the sidewalk to avoid a dangerous street. But the British press is trying to paint her as the victim, stressing the dificulty she’ll have in prison while suffering from partial blindness, cerebral palsy and a deformed right foot — even though none of that kept her from pushing the victim off her bike.

British Cycling warned the country’s bike riders that bike helmets don’t prevent concussions, and urge riders to sit out for awhile after a substantial bang on the head.

A the overwhelming majority of UK residents support the concept of 15-minute neighborhoods, despite the bizarre conspiracy theories.

Bergen, Norway is preparing to open the world’s longest purpose-built bike and pedestrian tunnel, stretching nearly two miles beneath the city’s Løvstakken mountain; it’s expected to take around ten minutes to bike through.

 

Competitive Cycling

Aussie cyclist Caleb Ewan’s Lotto Dstny team is demanding proof the sprinter lost Sunday’s GP Monseré in a photo finish, challenging the grainy image that awarded the win to Intermarché-Circus-Wanty’s Gerben Thijssen.

Ouch. Cycling great Tom Boonen says two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar is being held back by Colnago, arguing that the UAE Team Emirates’ bike sponsor hasn’t mastered the “super-hyper-aero stuff yet.”

 

Finally…

That feeling when you take your last ride in a rainbow wicker coffin on a tricycle hearse. Probably not the best idea to ride your bike up to a lawyer while swilling wine and threaten to kill the judge that sent your dad to prison.

And that feeling when St. George is a sword-wielding girl on a BMX bike, slaying the dragon holding girls back.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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Murder victim Dr. Michael Mammone remembered as kind, adventurous; LADOT’s pretty plastic bollards criticized

February 17, 2023 / / 5 comments

More on the tragic death of Dr. Michael Mammone.

Mammone was murdered two weeks ago by a man suffering from mental illness, who first ran the emergency room physician down with his car on SoCal’s killer highway as he waited at a Dana Point traffic light on his mountain bike, then got out of his car and stabbed the injured bike rider to death.

Mammone was remembered at a memorial service at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach yesterday as someone who devoted his life to helping others, and always seemed calm and collected, even in the face of crisis.

His sister described him as the life of the party, calling him “intelligent, funny, adventurous, curious, easy to be with, loved card games and genuinely cared about everyone.”

Mammone leaves behind his wife and two sons; the couple was about to celebrate their 30 years of marriage with a trip to Italy.

His death was just a needless waste of a precious human life, all because his killer was allowed to fall through the cracks of America’s failed system for treating the mentally ill.

And because Vanroy Evan Smith was allowed to keep driving, despite his apparently untreated paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Photo of ghost bike for Dr. Michael Mammones by Walt Arrrrr.

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Ted Faber sends photographic proof the Jackson Street gate to the Ballona Creek Bike Path is now open.

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Streets For All is clearly not a fan of flimsy plastic bollards, even when they look chunky.

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This is the first feeder ride I’m aware of for next weekend’s San Fernando Valley CicLAvia.

https://twitter.com/CicLAvia/status/1626358787429879810

Thanks to Ravener for the heads-up.

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The Bike League will host a webinar next month on how to write a strongly worded letter to the local paper.

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

A London website comes to the defense of bike-riding British broadcast personality Jeremy Vine, saying the country’s Highway Code is on his side, after he was unfairly criticized for a near collision when he was left hooked by a driver cutting across a protected bike lane.

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

After a Washington state bike rider was the victim of a hit-and-run driver, sheriff’s deputies discovered he was struck while he was loading stolen merchandise onto his bicycle.

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Local 

They get it. LA’s new 45,000-square-foot, 1,600 seat Bellwether nightclub and concert hall will come complete with guarded rooftop bicycle parking.

A 19-year old mountain biker was helicoptered out from Mandeville Canyon, after suffering a “substantial” leg injury.

More on Liam Garner, the LA teenager who recently became the youngest person to bike from Alaska to the tip of Argentina, despite tearing off his right ear going over his handlebars along the way.

 

State

Spectrum News 1 highlights five SoCal bike paths, from Ventura’s Rincon Bike Trail to the Mount Rubidoux Trail in Riverside, and down to San Diego’s Bayshore Bikeway.

Orange County advocates are calling for greater investments in public bus operations, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, despite the country transportation authority’s insistence on flushing $2 billion on an induced demand inducing project on the 405 Freeway.

Carlsbad cops teamed with city staffers to talk with elementary and middle school parents about traffic safety, as part of the state of emergency the city declared to fight a rise in bike-related injuries.

They get it, too. Santa Cruz is moving forward with a long-delayed bike lane project on Soquel Drive, calling them buffered bike lanes with flex posts. Unlike Los Angeles, which insists on calling them protected bike lanes, even though the flimsy plastic posts won’t stop anything. 

 

National

People For Bikes says local governments now have unprecedented access to billions of dollars for safe, connected bike networks and trails, thanks to a variety of federal government programs.

A new book relates the author’s journey by bike, along with two friends, following Harriet Tubman’s road to freedom on the Underground Railroad; he was inspired to take the trip because one of his ancestors was a ship’s captain in the Atlantic slave trade.

Linus has recalled their Cesta 500 ebike due to risk of a cracked front fork, posing a crash risk.

Seattle is beginning work on a new bikeway connecting Capital Hill with the iconic Pike Place Market; the work is being overseen by former LA Bureau of Streets Services head Greg Spotts, now director of the Seattle Department of Transportation.

A San Antonio, Texas bike rider used his skills as an urban planner to develop his own cohesive bike map, showing how to comfortably ride between disconnected bike lanes and paths.

Two men are dead in Garland, Texas, after a bike shop worker was murdered before the store opened, then a police SWAT team found the 58-year old suspect dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound; it turned out both victims were employees of the shop.

Grunge remembers Orville and Wilbur Wright’s younger sister Katherine, who kept their Ohio bike shop running while they were learning to fly.

Kindhearted Kentucky organizations pitched in to buy a new adaptive trike for an eight-year-old boy with a previously unheard of medical condition. The look on the kid’s face when he was given the bike is priceless.

A small Rhode Island community doesn’t want visitors to leave their dockless bikes behind, announcing plans to impound any bikeshare bikes or e-scooters that spill over the city limit from nearby Providence.

Residents of New York’s upscale Upper West Side are opposing plans for an outdoor ebike hub for food delivery workers, arguing it will increase congestion and block access to the nearby subway. Apparently confusing bicycles, which relieve congestion, with the cars that cause it.

A reminder that bike-riding women face risks that most men don’t, as a Florida woman was lucky to escape when a man attempted to force her into his van as she rode her bike.

There’s not a pit in hell deep enough for the Florida man who attacked a passing bike rider, knocking him off his bicycle while hurling antisemitic comments, apparently enraged because the victim was speaking Hebrew on his phone as he rode.

 

International

Bike Radar wants to teach you to bunny hop in five simple jumps.

Off-Road.cc explains everything you need to know to start mountain biking.

Vancouver’s Critical Mass will return at the end of the month after a three-month hiatus, to protest a decision to rip out a bike lane through the city’s Stanley Park so angry drivers can more easily use it as a cut-through route.

A Sikh woman in Ontario developed her own bike helmet so her sons could safely ride their bikes, with a special space on top to accommodate the faith’s traditional hair topknot.

Residents of Cardiff, Wales are mourning the death of a bike shop owner who ran his shop for more than 65 years — despite being told 20 years ago that he had just two weeks to live when doctors discovered cancer during an operation.

A new study from MIT concludes that most stolen bikes remain in the local area, where they are resold and remain part of the local bike fleet. At least in Amsterdam, anyway. Thanks to Tim Rutt for the link.

Japanese bicycle component maker Shimano had a record year in 2022, topping their previous best sales year by over 16% despite a slowing down of the pandemic bike boom.

Philippine bike riders and pedestrians continue to protest plans to convert a protected bike lane in Manilla to sharrows.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogacar added another double to his resume, winning the first two stages of the Vuelta a Andalucia.

The BBC remembers trailblazing women’s cyclist Eileen Sheridan, who died this week at 99-years old; she still holds five of the 21 records she set during her career.

Now you, too, can ride the famed Mont Ventoux and other French mountains with the legendary Jan Ullrich, for the low, low price of 20,000 euros — that’s $21,270 for those of us on this side of the Atlantic. As usual, you can read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you. 

 

Finally…

Bad enough to return home to find someone burglarizing it, worse when they escape on your own bicycle. That feeling when you intend to set the bike world on its head by inventing the e-cargo bike, which is already a thing.

And your next bike tires could be made from your last bike tires.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

 

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

LA to audit failed Vision Zero, memorial for Prynsess Brazzle, and guilty plea in drunken Solana Beach hit-and-run

May 4, 2022 / / One comment

No irony here.

Outgoing CD5 City Councilmember and city attorney candidate Paul Koretz called on Los Angeles to audit the city’s Vision Zero plan, in an effort to determine why traffic deaths continue to rise seven years after it was adopted.

And just three years before traffic deaths were supposed to be a thing of the past.

Yes, that’s the same self-proclaimed environmentalist who has blocked bike lanes and Complete Streets projects in his district, including on Westwood Blvd and Melrose Avenue, since taking office 13 years ago.

Which certainly couldn’t have anything to do with it, right?

According to the story by LAist, the city saw 186 people killed in crashes in 2015, when the plan was adopted, with a jump to 294 last year. And it’s on a pace for over 330 traffic deaths this year.

Los Angeles Walks Executive Director John Li pointed out one glaring problem with the program.

“Structurally, we have a political system that has not had a unified vision of Vision Zero — it’s 15 different approaches to Vision Zero,” Yi told LAist. “How do we give political elected officials the confidence, or the political courage… to get more bike lanes, more bus lanes, flatter sidewalks, [and] slower streets? Because right now, it’s just too politically risky for elected officials and they’re not willing to be a leader on this.”

But honestly, how do you audit something that was never more than the political equivalent of vaporware?

LA’s Vision Zero has never received more than a fraction of the funding required to implement it, let alone the support from the mayor’s office necessary to even make a dent in traffic deaths.

There was no multi-agency task force dedicated to implementing it. No dedicated staff at LADOT, or any other public agency. No one with the power to cut through the red tape and NIMBY objections to reimagine our mean streets.

And no one with the ability to overrule LA’s 15 little kings and queens, who each rule their own fiefdom from their offices at city hall. Each of whom has the power to unilaterally water down or halt any changes to the streets in their districts, just as Koretz has proudly done.

Never mind “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo in CD1, Mitch O’Farrell in CD13, or Paul Krekorian in CD2, each of whom halted major shovel-ready lane reductions and other badly needed traffic safety programs.

Or any of the other councilmembers who, with very few notable exceptions, cowardly hid behind claims of public opinion and the demands of the almighty automobile to avoid making any of the tough choices necessary to make even a modest reduction in traffic deaths.

Let alone put an end to them.

The simple fact is, LA’s Vision Zero has never been more than smoke and mirrors, with a little modest nibbling at the edges so minor no one could complain.

But that was exactly what we warned about when the plan was first adopted, questioning whether Los Angeles elected leaders had the political will and courage necessary for the plan to succeed.

In retrospect, the clear answer is no.

And 300 Angelenos, and all of their friends and loved ones, are now paying the price every year.

Mayor Garcetti signs the Vision Zero order behind his comically huge outdoor desk; photo from Streetsblog LA.

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Speaking of Vision Zero, we live in a city where officials are willing to honor the victims of traffic violence.

But won’t lift a finger to keep them alive.

https://twitter.com/RIDEInLivingCol/status/1521590864820113408

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A 22-year old San Diego man faces 15 years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run death of 75-year old Allen Hunter II as he rode his bike on South Coast Highway 101 in Solana Beach last year.

Beau Morgan pled guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, hit-and-run causing death and driving under the influence; he was over twice the legal limit when he turned himself in 45 minutes after the crash.

Once again destroying two lives with one careless act.

Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.

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

No bias here. San Jose drivers call a proposal to make them change lanes to pass bike riders insane and evil. Then again, so is hiding the story behind a paywall. 

No bias here, either. A Berkeley writer complains that the city’s policies are turning bicycles into a “weapon of civic destruction…damaging neighborhoods, endangering bicyclists and undermining the legitimacy of governance while squandering millions of dollars.” Okay, so some articles would be better hidden behind a paywall. Or under a rock.

Police in Britain are looking for a road-raging driver who head-butted a bike rider after a dispute.

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Local

The LA Times endorses Katy Young Yaroslavsky — longtime LA politician Zev’s daughter-in-law — to replace Paul Koretz in CD5, although they also like Scott Epstein, who has a much better bike safety pedigree.

Plans are in the works for new bus only lanes on Florence Ave in South LA, which would also allow bike riders to use them; however, like other LA bus lanes, they would only be in effect during peak traffic hours.

A South Pasadena website looks back fondly on Sunday’s 626 Golden Streets.

Palmdale will conduct a Complete Streets overhaul of Avenue R, including walkable sidewalks and painted bike lanes.

 

State 

Social media users are understandably up in arms after video of San Diego workers destroying bicycles during a homeless sweep went viral.

A homeless man already on probation for another crime is back behind bars after shoplifting merchandise and stealing a bicycle from an El Cajon Target, then forcibly taking another bicycle in a strong arm robbery.

The Los Osos woman who got out of prison after just two years of her seven-year sentence for the drunken death of a bike-riding San Luis Obispo college student was released early thanks to pre-sentencing credits and a re-entry program; she’s now back behind bars after crashing into several parked cars with a BAC four times the legal limit.

A new bill in the state Assembly would mandate secure bike parking in new residential buildings; AB 2863 would also require the California Building Standards Commission to update its bike parking standards for commercial buildings. Although they should also require building owners to allow tenants and workers to take their bikes inside to their homes and offices.

Calbike is once again asking for your support for the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill, aka Stop As Yield, aka the stop sign portion of the Idaho Stop Law, somehow assuming Gavin Newsom will sign the bill after vetoing it last year.

Streetsblog talks with a San Francisco ER doctor, who says preventable injuries dropped when JFK Drive was closed to drivers, and pleaded with city officials to keep it that way.

 

National

America Walks takes a deeper look at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s call for public comments on how to make motor vehicles safer for pedestrians — and for people on bicycles. You have until Monday to get your comments in.

A writer for Popsugar replaces her car and reduces her carbon footprint with an ebike from women-owned Bluejay.

Seriously? A Utah paper asks if it’s time to get serious about road safety after three pedestrians were killed in a single hour, with four bike riders killed in the state in recent weeks — wait, make that five. The time to get serious was before anyone got killed.

More proof that NIMBYs are the same everywhere, as Houston residents decry plans for a 1.5-mile lane reduction and bike lanes, calling it a disaster that will cause traffic congestion and force drivers into neighborhoods.

Surprisingly, Minnesota has the nation’s longest paved bike trail, running 800 miles along the Mississippi River, as well as a 315-mile path through two national parks and nine state parks.

 

International

A Welsh police official is “hugely supportive” of bike cams, saying police can’t be everywhere but the public can.

That’s more like it. British drivers complain that they could be fined the equivalent of $6,250 for distracted eating behind the wheel, calling it nonsense and daylight robbery. Although everyone else on the road likely likes the idea.

A Melbourne, Australia city councilor says a proposal to remove bike lanes would be economic vandalism.

A Perth, Australia e-scooter rider was killed in a collision with a bike rider when the two crashed on a blind bend; the bike rider was treated for minor injuries.

An Aussie op-ed complains that Sydney’s new bike plan completely ignores half the city.

 

Competitive Cycling

Mark Cavendish insists there’s no rivalry between him and Fabio Jakobsen for a spot on the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team in this year’s Tour de France.

Women’s cycling continues to grow, with plans for a women’s Milan-San Remo next year.

  

Finally…

Your next bike could be the two-wheeled offspring of Formula 1. We may have to put up with angry LA drivers, but at least we don’t have to deal with road-hogging grizzlies.

And that feeling when a bike path is named after a creepy clown, or maybe the other way around.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Morning Links: LA approves memorial signs instead of fixing streets, BAC agenda, and Yerba Buena Road closed

April 1, 2019 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: LA approves memorial signs instead of fixing streets, BAC agenda, and Yerba Buena Road closed

I honestly don’t know what to think about this one.

The LA City Council has approved a plan to replace ghost bikes with semi-permanent memorials to fallen bike riders.

The signs can be requested by the families of fallen bicyclists, memorializing the victim while offering a general nod to bike safety.

They’ll stay in place for five to seven years, after which families can pay to have them replaced.

However, a maximum of just 20 signs will be installed each year, which will barely keep up with the number of riders killed on an annual basis in Los Angeles.

According to LAist,

In an interview withKPCC’s Take Two, (Councilmember Bob) Blumenfield explained how the idea for the signs was borne out of a tragedy in Woodland Hills last April. On Easter Sunday, 15-year-old Sebastian Montero was struck by a car and killedwhile riding his bike on Burbank Boulevard.

Blumenfield was in contact with the boy’s family, as well as local police officers— together, they discussed ways to prevent future tragedies. 

“I’ve been to too many of those ghost bike ceremonies, and they’re heartbreaking,” Blumenfield said.

After one officer, Duke Dao, suggested the idea for the memorial signs, Blumenfield ran with it.

I’m told be someone who worked closely with Blumenfield on the proposal that he’s absolutely sincere in wanting to do something to both remember the victims of traffic violence, and keep it from happening again.

But a simple sign’s not going to do that.

Blumenfield is one of the city’s better councilmembers on traffic issues, and is working to get a bike lane installed where Montero was killed.

But many of his peers have taken active steps to block desperately needed, potentially life-saving bikeways.

Despite the unanimous vote to establish the memorial program, we have to wonder how many of the councilmembers voted for memorials to fallen bicyclists instead of taking active steps to prevent their deaths.

Because it’s a lot easier to put up a small memorial sign than to fix the roads to avoid the need for them.

Among those voting yes,

All voted to approve the memorials, while helping create — or at least not alleviate — conditions likely to require them.

Meanwhile, there’s a reasonable fear that the memorial signs will just blend into the streetscape, no more noticeable than the street signs indicating where police officers have been killed.

And if you haven’t seen those, that’s exactly my point.

Ghost bikes are intrusive and evocative. Granted, many drivers don’t know what they are. But once they do, they notice them every time they pass, and that drives the meaning home.

I’m not sure that will happen with these.

Especially if the limit of just 20 a year stays in place. It should be expanded to include not just those riders killed in the future, but the many riders who have needlessly lost their lives in the past.

And it should include pedestrians, as well, since they die in much greater numbers on LA’s mean streets than we do.

Maybe if hundreds of these memorial signs started to appear every year, blanketing every part of the city, people might finally get it. And realize that too damn many people are getting killed just because they rode a bike or went for a walk.

Then the council might finally do more than put up a sign.

Maybe.

Thanks to everyone who sent me links to this story.

Note: I’ve been reminded that today is the one year anniversary of Sebastian Montero’s death.

No word on whether the alleged speeding driver who killed him was ever charged.

Photo by Steve S

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The Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee will hold its bimonthly meeting this Tuesday. As always, the meetings are open to the public, and you are encouraged to attend.

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Don’t plan on riding Yerba Buena Road anytime soon.

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Fed up with people driving under the influence, Taiwan is considering instituting the death penalty for killing someone while driving drunk or stoned.

I’d like to think that might actually make someone think twice before getting behind the wheel after drinking, smoking or downing pills.

But the threat of the death penalty hasn’t seemed to stop anyone from murdering other people.

So there’s that.

Thanks to Evan Burbridge for the link.

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Local

LAist notes the problems with LA’s troubled Vision Zero program, including a lack of social media presence for the past seven months. What the city doesn’t seem to get is that most of us really, really want to support Vision Zero LA — if they ever get their shit together.

Famed bike rider LeBron James has gone Hollywood, building a production company on the Warner Bros. lot that has made him a major player in the industry. Word has it he also plays a little basketball.

This is who we share the roads with. A 17-year old boy will likely face a vehicular homicide charge — or worse — for killing one person and injuring three others in a violent crash while apparently street racing in Woodland Hills.

Good for him. A chef at the Long Beach Gladstones will be joining this year’s edition of the 300-mile No Kid Hungry ride. You can donate to support his goal of raising $7,500 by next month’s ride, and help ensure every child has enough to eat.

State

What the hell is wrong with some people? An Irvine man will spend the next 50 years behind bars for killing the person he accused of stealing his bicycle, after vowing to do exactly that.

San Diego police are looking for a man who approached a nine-year old girl as she rode her bicycle and offered to take her to a game; fortunately, she knew to ride home and her parents called the police.

The San Francisco Chronicle complains about the mythical war on cars, exemplified by a discussion of congestion pricing. Never mind that congestion pricing is intended to help improve traffic flow, which is hardly anti-driver. Or that nearly 100% of the roads are already dedicated to motorists, and the rest of us are just hoping for a few crumbs.

Sad news from Selma, where a man was shot and killed while riding his bike Saturday night; police believe he was targeted by the killers.

An Oakland man was busted for trying to break into a secured bike storage area.

An Irish writer takes a ride through California’s wine country.

Even in bike-friendly Davis, local residents break out the torches and pitchforks following a road diet to improve traffic safety.

National

ABC New has caught up with what most of us already know — killer hit-and-run drivers seldom face jail time.

Small towns can have bikeshare too, thanks to a startup dedicated to bringing bikeshare to towns the larger providers pass by.

Bike Snob’s Eben Weiss says Trek’s WaveCel claims aside, it’s better to get more asses on bikes than get more heads in helmets. Meanwhile, Bicycling lists the 16 best helmets you can buy right now.

NPR hops on the e-scooter injury and blocked sidewalks bandwagon.

A Tucson writer says a bike resort is a great idea, just not across the street from Saguaro National Park.

A Grand Junction CO shelter is helping to house homeless youths on Colorado’s Western Slope, while a local bike shop is reconditioning unwanted bikes to get them onto two wheels.

Two Kansas men were killed when a driver slammed into their bicycles from behind. No word on why the driver apparently didn’t see a couple grown men on bikes directly in front of him, but I’m sure we could all take a pretty reasonable guess.

An Oklahoma man learned the hard way not to wear a skull mask while carrying meth and weed on his bike. Although his lawyer might want to argue that simply wearing a mask, scary or otherwise, on a public street is not probable cause for a traffic stop. Which makes everything that followed moot.

Slate tells the tale of a bike-riding Ohio teenager who scandalized the nation by wearing bloomers to church.

An Ohio college student discovers you’re never too old to learn how to fall off a bike.

A ti bike from a Schenectady NY builder was the first place winner at the recent National Handmade Bicycle Show in Sacramento.

The upstate New York jerk who wrote a ten-year old boy a letter of non-apology after a judge let him off easy for sideswiping the boy’s bike will now have to perform community service.

A Bronx councilmember loses his perfect ranking from a conservation voters’ group for not supporting ebikes and scooters.

A New York cop resigned after getting caught writing a ticket to a nonexistent bike rider when he was actually still in the precinct. Then billing the city for the overtime he didn’t work.

Taking a cue from LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s playbook, Baltimore’s mayor decides to rip out a protected bike lane, and says no way to a planned road diet. Although to be fair, she’s replacing the protected lane with a painted green lane. And she gave it four years, while Garcetti removed the non-protected bike lanes and road diets in Playa del Rey after just one month of driver complaints.

New Orleans is slowly building a bicycle culture, though in typical Big Easy style.

International

A Vancouver radio station asks if bicyclists and drivers will ever see eye-to-eye. Short answer, not until people are required to ride a bicycle in city traffic before getting a driver’s license.

Vancouver’s former chief planner writes in praise of slow cycling and upright bikes.

Only after he passed away at the ripe old age of 93 on Saturday was it revealed that a Montreal man was the secret “Mr. Bike Man” who gave away over 1,700 bikes, helmets and locks to children in the Montreal area for the past 34 years.

This one’s hard to watch. A Brit bike rider gets hit head-on by a driver cutting a corner at an intersection, despite stopping at a stop sign and using daytime lights.

Britain’s anti-bike Lord Winston is back at it, renewing his call for all bike riders to be licensed and insured after claiming he was attacked by a woman when he reprimanded her for riding on the sidewalk. Except he never bothered to report it to the police and no one can seem to verify his claim.

French drivers are apparently vandalizing speed cameras, costing the country the equivalent of nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars. And it may have contributed to a jump in traffic deaths.

An automotive writer rides a borrowed Peugeot racing bike up France’s legendary Alpe d’Huez, and finds it a lot easier to do in a borrowed car.

Amsterdam plans to reduce driving by turning 1,500 parking spaces into trees and bike parking each year for the next six years.

Vitaliy Klitschko, former world heavyweight champ and current mayor of Kyiv — or Kiev, to most non-Ukrainians — is one of us, riding his bike to cast his ballot in this year’s presidential election.

American cycling legend and newly married Indian resident Alexi Grewal says bicycling is seen as a poor person’s vehicle, and that needs to change.

Sydney, Australia residents rise up against what they term a “nonsensical” bicycle superhighway, fearing it would somehow jeopardize pedestrians more than all those cars zooming past. Seriously, why is it that people continue to fight bike lanes that have repeatedly proven to be a net benefit to the surrounding community, regardless of any loss of parking?

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling Australia looks at the all-Type 1 diabetic Team Novo Nordisk, and how they overcome diabetes to ride competitively.

Chris Froome proved he’s comfortable in his domestique role, giving Team Sky leader Egan Bernal a ride back to the bus on his handlebars, after a mechanical forced Bernal to walk across the finish line.

The Australian press is suitably scandalized that Lance was paid $1.5 million in taxpayer funds to compete in the 2009 Tour Down Under, an agreement that was under seal for ten years.

Evidently, it’s considered bad form to toss another racer’s bike off the course after you crash with her, as Italian cyclist Elisa Longo Borghini learned the hard way on Thursday.

Finally…

Next time time you get attacked by a gang of kids, all you really need is a Good Samaritan armed with a bicycle seat. When the bike stencil doesn’t fit in the new bike lanes, it may be just a tad too small.

And taking a cue from Kafka, that angry driver may see you as a cockroach.

………

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