Usually police look for the driver following a hit-and-run.
This time, they’re looking for a victim.
Azusa police acted on a tip to find a driver who admitted to hitting a bike rider, even though his story seems to have bigger holes than the one in his windshield.
A press release from the Azusa Police Department says the driver doesn’t even know when he hit the cyclist, telling the police it happened at an unknown time and location, sometime between Saturday night and Monday morning.
The driver reportedly said the victim’s friends laughed about it, and that he drove off after talking with the rider he hit, who also left the scene. Which seems improbable, given the major damage to his windshield, suggesting a significant impact.
Never mind that someone would have to be pretty wasted to crash into someone and not even know when it happened, let alone where.
Police don’t know if a crime actually occurred, but are asking anyone with information to call the Azusa Police Department at 626/812-3200.
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This is who we share the roads with.
Bike commuter weshigh was the victim of not one, but two dangerous passes from the same driver — the last one just a foot away, in clear violation of California’s three foot passing law.
And adding insult to injury, the driver yelled at him to “get a car, bitch!” when he caught up to him at a red light.
A better solution would be if the driver wasn’t allowed to use one anymore.
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Congratulations to the LACBC’s Tamika Butler on her well-deserved award from the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals for 2016 Professional of the Year – Nonprofit Sector.
Streeetsblog quotes Alta Planning’s Jessica Roberts, chair of the APBP’s awards committee, explaining why she was chosen.
“Los Angeles and the entire region are really important right now, not just to the many people that live there but as a national example,” Roberts explained. “What is in the city’s Mobility Plan demonstrates where our nation needs to go, where active transportation is not an after-thought, but a core strategy…LACBC and Tamika are part of writing that important story.”
Then there’s this from another committee member.
“Tamika has challenged the pedestrian and bicycle professional community to grapple with the ways that privilege and structural inequality are embedded in our transportation system and our profession,” wrote Sarah Fine, a member of the APBP awards committee and a planner with the City of Oakland. “We’re all better for it.”
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Caught on video: Cycling Weekly offers a bike cam perspective of the Vuelta’s crash-filled stage 10.
Trailing by nearly three minutes, Alberto Contador says his chances of winning the Vuelta are close to nil, although third place Chris Froome thinks he still has a shot.
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Local
The LACBC talks with 11-year old bike advocate Matlock Grossman, who impressed everyone with his insightful comments about the Rowena road diet.
The Hollywood Reporter offers a detailed look at the terrifying attack on a Beverly Hills surgeon, which started when three people in Venice claimed he damaged a bicycle and demanded $150 on the spot.
KPCC reports on the launch of West Hollywood’s WeHo Pedals bikeshare, with UCLA up on deck.
Pasadena Star-News columnist Larry Wilson gets it, saying despite the fears of merchants — one in particular — over lost parking, it’s time to give bikes a chance. On the other hand, Susan Shelley of the Daily News apparently doesn’t, insisting that free parking and avoiding poetry readings is fundamental right.
CiclaValley continues his tale of a recent Napa wine tasting bike tour.
State
Only a few months after confiscating the bikes of off-road riders for trespassing on the base, the Marines’ MCAS Miramar, the former home of Top Gun — yes, that Top Gun — may open a trail to cyclists.
Five members of Ventura’s Channel Islands Bike Club finish a 3,400 mile ride across the US.
Apparently, it’s not just Coronado. San Jose residents complain about the sharrows “defacing” their neighborhood, describing them as blight and graffiti. On the other hand, it’s nice to know they don’t like sharrows, either.
San Francisco breaks ground on the city’s first protected intersection to reduce conflicts between people driving, walking and biking.
National
The federal case against Lance Armstrong reaches a critical phase as both sides request a summary judgment.
The Federal Highway Administration addresses several common misperceptions about bicycle and pedestrian funding.
That’s more like it. An Oregon man gets six years and loses his driver’s license for life for killing a teenage bike rider while visibly drunk. Any conviction for killing another human being while driving should result in the automatic loss of license. Period.
The Detroit News writes about fallen cyclist Karen McKeachie, saying the champion triathlete died doing what she loved. Seriously, if anyone says that about me, I’ll come back and haunt them and their descendants for all eternity.
A Pennsylvania man says he shouldn’t have been driving after using heroin, cocaine and marijuana before getting behind the wheel; unfortunately, it came a little too late for the bicyclist he killed.
Buried in the 3,721 page records of Hillary Clinton’s schedules at the State Department is news that she dedicated a basement shower for employees who wanted to bike or run to work.
International
A Vancouver cyclist says a new bike lane is completely terrifying, dumping riders into a shared lane with right-turning drivers.
That super-rich Canadian senator deleted her Twitter account after comparing Toronto’s bike lanes to a third-world country.
A writer for the Montreal Gazette says ghost bikes contradict the city’s myth of shared roads.
Caught on video too: Celebrity is clearly no protection from road raging drivers, as a BBC presenter suffers the wrath of a driver who assaults him and threatens to knock him out for the crime of riding his bike outside the door zone.
A South African mountain biker could face murder charges for fatally stabbing two men he says were trying to steal his bike.
Aussie cyclists call for repealing the country’s mandatory bike helmet law, while physicians warn the rate of head injuries could go up. Of course, the only way to find out is repeal, or at least suspend, the law and study the outcome.
Turns out the Aussie truck driver we mentioned yesterday who buzzed a cyclist, then got out of his truck to repeatedly threaten him is a member of a neo-Nazi group. Which doesn’t seem that surprising in retrospect.
A former soccer player and cancer survivor is planning a 750 mile ride across Japan to encourage people suffering from the disease.
A Beijing blog list 16 things that need banning more than the just banned e-scooters, including cyclists who ignore road regulations, and elderly riders who kick their legs over their bikes without looking first to see if other riders are passing.
Finally…
If you’re going to celebrate your victory, wait until you actually do. If you’re already on probation and riding a stolen bike at 3:30 am, don’t attract attention by nearly getting run over trying to cross the street.
And if you can’t sleep, you may be overtraining. But at least you should be happy.
