The fun thing about health problems is the learning never stops.
For instance, I learned Wednesday that I can cope with low blood sugar, and I can cope with low blood pressure. What I can’t cope with is low blood sugar and low blood pressure.
My night was like an endless version of an Elvis Costello song.
And can someone please tell me if Lake America is anywhere near the Gulf of America? I get so confused.
………
They got him.
Finally.
Police made an arrest for the intentional hit-and-run crash that killed 16-year old Jonathan “Junior” Flores, after chasing him into the parking lot at BMO Stadium two years ago.
Thirty-three-year old Los Angeles resident Jonathan Rodriguez was arrested after fleeing first to Mexico, then to El Salvador.
Flores was taking part in an afternoon ride with around 40 other teens when an altercation took place between the driver of a BMW and some of the kids as they rode on Figueroa Street.
When the kids tried to escape through a gap in the fencing around the parking lot, the driver of a second car, who police allege was Rodriguez, broke through the gate and chased the teens into the parking lot, slamming into Flores before backing out and fleeing the scene.
To make matters worse, Flores was an innocent victim who had nothing to do with the original altercation, in which someone allegedly broke one of the cars’ mirrors.
Flores had been wanted on $2 million bond after police tracked both cars to his home.
He was taken into custody at LAX when police negotiated his surrender after tracking him to El Salvador.
Let’s hope the negotiations that led to his surrender didn’t include reducing the charges or possible sentencing, even though that seems likely.
………
It only took five years, but we’ve finally seen justice for 16-year old Pedro Valdez.
Thirty-three-year old Samuel Matthew Rocha pled guilty to 2nd degree murder and using his car as a weapon for the road rage death of Valdez, and injuring four other teens — two “significantly” — when he plowed his car through a group of seven bike-riding kids.
That comes four months after a jury convicted Rocha of four counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and two counts of battery, along with the special allegation of causing great bodily injury in the commission of a felony.
Rocha ran down the kids, who were just out enjoying a bike ride, eleven minutes after he had battered a man and a woman at a laundromat, and intentionally stuck an employee with his car as he was leaving the parking lot.
Rocha remains in custody without bail, and faces 27 to life when he is sentenced on October 27th.
I just hope he gets enough time that he’s not back out on the streets in a few years, thanks to the revolving door on ur state prison system.
………
Another mass casualty crash, this time in Australia, as a “vehicle” — evidently the 40-year old driver was not in control of it — plowed into five members of a Canberra bike club, resulting a scene a senior cop described as “beyond comprehension”.
Three riders were injured; one, a 32-year old woman, died at the scene, while a 39-year old man remains in critical and unstable condition. The other victim, a 34-year old man, was treated and released.
The victims were in the left lane of a four lane divided highway — the equivalent of our right lane — when they were struck by a driver traveling in the same direction, for some unknown reason.
Yet the driver still has not been charged or cited, for reasons known only to the local police.
………
I’m including the information from this email I got yesterday.
We’re launching Bike Streets in LA County! Log every ride with Bike Streets and help us build the Low-Stress Bike Map. Ride and help us reach our first weekly goal of 20 riders. bikestreets.com/join
- Here’s the web link to the map: bikestreets.com/ca/los-angeles As we add Low-Stress routes, a network of dark blue lines will start to take shape. (See Denver’s as an example.)
- Here’s some additional reading.
- Join our Discord and chat with other Low-Stress bike mappers around the country.
- Get the free app and start riding with it to help build the Low-Stress map: bikestreets.com/join
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bike just keeps on going.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol has released dashcam video of an Elizabethton cop striking a bike rider in a crosswalk, in a left cross collision; the FHP says the bike rider failed to observe a stop sign. But the video also shows the cop failed to slow down or look for any other traffic before turning.
Nope, nothing to see here. Half of drivers in the UK say they honk at bike riders at least once a week, and half of bike riders have experienced drivers shouting or swearing at them in the last year. Which is either an indictment of the country’s crappy bicyclists, or its impatient drivers. Or both.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Scottish teen faces charges for the attack that deliberately knocked a man off his bicycle, as the bike-riding thief takes off with it, in an attack captured by a trailing bike rider.
………
Local
Secret Los Angeles discovers the not-so-secret Bicycle Kitchen bike co-op on Fountain Ave, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro weighs in on LA’s mayoral race, saying Councilmember and mayoral challenger Nithya Raman was ridiculed for celebrating a new crosswalk in her district, even as the pavement beneath it remained cracked. So Shapiro evidently thinks the councilmember somehow controls the Bureau of Street Services, which is under the mayor’s purview. And that she was the one responsible for bankrupting the city, which halted street repair work.
SF Gate looks at SoCal’s killer highway, and the ongoing efforts to improve safety on the deadly PCH from Malibu to Huntington Beach, including a bill in the state legislature that would allow speed cams on the state highway through Long Beach.
The invaluable LA Streetsblog is less than $3,000 short of their fundraising goal with just one week to go.
State
That about sums it up. The Los Angeles Times says Orange County DA Todd Spitzer’s buyback program for illegal e-motos and hacked ebikes means the country is treating ebikes like guns. I don’t know if that means they are taking ebikes too seriously, or not taking guns seriously enough.
A Coronado letter writer says we don’t need any new ebike laws, we just have to enforce the ones we already have.
The San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, broke ground on two complete streets projects in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, with new bike lanes, improved pedestrian crossings and roadway repairs along Orange and Central avenues.
This is who we share the road with. Two teenagers riding an e-scooter and an e-motorbike hospitalized in extremely critical condition after they were struck by elderly driver in Riverside, who struggled to come to a stop with one of the victims embedded in their windshield.
National
Salon considers the Trump administration’s battle to restore the manhood of America rooted in speed and strength, with nary an unmanly bicycle to be seen. Although his administration also revisited a 2016 park management plan for Teton National Park, opening the way for a bike path along the primary roadway through the park.
Forbes says legislation, lawsuits and tariffs may pose a bigger threat to ebikes than any bike-lane feud. And says ebikes are changing the way we think about bike helmets. Maybe we could start by offering more protection than the current standards of 12.5 mph.
Vinyl and Velvet says that $50, 60-year old Schwinn Sting-Ray in your garage could be worth real money. If I had one of those hidden away, they’d have to back up a Brinks truck to get me to sell.
Illinois follows California’s lead, and establishes a three-tier system for legal bikes, while requiring a license and insurance for anything outside the system.
There’s a special place in hell for whoever stole a ghost bike that had been in a Pittsburgh neighborhood for over a decade.
New York bicyclists held a die-in on Wednesday to protest the deaths of three bike riders and a pedestrian over just a five day period.
A 38-year old man in was arrested and charged with two counts of first degree homicide, along with a host of other charges, for the hit-and-run death of Savannah, Georgia’s “Flag Man,” who was known for riding around the city with a giant American flag attached to his bicycle; the charges suggest police believe the driver acted intentionally when he veered off the roadway to strike the victim on the center median.
International
The Hackernoon website says retail analytics consistently fail to account for bicycle traffic, counting customers who arrive by car, transit and on foot, but apparently failing to consider than anyone might actually ride a bike to their shops.
A travel writer rides Bolivia’s Death Road, and lives to tell about it.
A Canadian bike rider takes the scenic route, traveling roughly 280 miles roundtrip through “wild as hell” woods on mostly off-road trails from Gatineau, Quebec to Montreal.
A London paper considers the city paradoxically seeing a 21% surge in bicycling injuries, even as bicycling deaths fall.
A bike nonprofit calls on the government to prioritize bicycles for short trips, as successive heatwaves continue to pound the UK.
British TV hosts were left flabbergasted when a man known as Britain’s “most hated cyclist” for his helmet cam videos of lawbreaking drivers, said the new 20 mph speed limits in Birmingham don’t apply to bicyclists, arguing that speed limits are for motorized vehicles. He may be right, depending on exactly how the law is written. Or not.
Bike riders in Flanders, Belgium say they feel “most unsafe” when drivers pass too fast or too closely. In other words, just like bike riders everywhere.
Competitive Cycling
Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar continue to dominate the Vuelta, padding his lead on a day when he barely survived a near-crash on a descent. Unless disaster strikes, the race is now a question of who else will be on the podium with him, rather than who will win.
The Guardian asks if the revival of the Philly Classic could lead to another Golden Age of American cycling. We can only hope.
American gravelist Chad Haga reluctantly called it a career, after mounting injuries and a heavy training crash forced him into early retirement.
Finally…
Evidently, computerized bikes are nothing new, you could have had one 40 years ago. And at least we don’t have to worry about riding into the nearest bomb shelter.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
