At least one LA councilmember is living up to campaign promises when it comes to safe streets.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton is reporting that CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman is moving forward with plans for seven new bikeways, though her efforts are hampered by short staffing at LADOT.
Linton blames the staffing shortages on the feared budget shortfalls due to the pandemic, which failed to materialize thanks to federal COVID recovery funds.
However, the department has been understaffed for years, particularly in regards to bicycling and walking infrastructure, which has severely hampered the department’s ability to make much-needed changes to our streets.
The bikeways are currently being planned or implemented in Los Feliz and the San Fernando Valley, including —
- Replacing sharrows on Riverside Drive south of Griffith Park with a lane removal and parking protected bike lane, the first in the 4th Council District, due to be complete in the next few months.
- Adding protected bike lanes on Riverside Drive north of Griffith Park, in cooperation with Glendale and Burbank.
- New bike lanes on Hyperion Blvd from Griffith Park Blvd to Rowena Ave to connect current bike lanes on Rowena and Griffith Park Blvd, as well as bike lanes promised for the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge.
- Closing an existing half-mile gap in the bike lanes on Burbank Blvd between Hazeltine Ave and Van Nuys Blvd, part of the city’s Vision Zero High Injury Network.
- Adding protected bike lanes leading from the G Line — nee Orange Line — bike path to the North Hollywood Metro Station and the Chandler bike path.
Raman is also assuming shared responsibility for portions of projects already underway in what was formerly other council districts, which were moved into her district under the recently redistricting.
- A new three-mile long segment of L.A. River Greenway from Vanalden Ave to Balboa Blvd, which will nearly complete the river path west of the Sepulveda Basin, shared with 3rd District Councilmember Bob Blumenfield
- The 3-mile long Reseda Boulevard Complete Streets Project currently under construction from Victory Boulevard to Parthenia Street, shared with Blumenfield and CD12’s John Lee.
Unfortunately, she no longer has responsibility for much of Hollywood, Mid-City and Hancock Park, so any hope for changes there will depend on who replaces Paul Koretz in CD5, and whether Mitch O’Farrell remains in office in CD13.
Thanks for covering my office's work on bikeways in the district, @streetsblogLA!
As always, if you have requests for transportation or traffic safety improvements in CD4, you can fill them out here: https://t.co/QPrPnIh2cV https://t.co/THEqiPoXUh
— Nithya Raman (@nithyavraman) January 24, 2022
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Suspected stoned driver Richard David Lavalle is set to go on trial this week for killing a 12-year old boy near a Costa Mesa park.
The 59-year old Long Beach resident faces a single murder count for running down Noel Bascon as he was riding a bike with his father near Tewinkle Park a little over a year ago.
Lavalle was driving a rented moving truck when he allegedly ran a stop sign, and slammed into the boy as he rode in a crosswalk on Arlington Drive.
He was previously convicted of DUI in San Diego County in 2013, which justifies the murder count for a second violation under California law, and was on parole at the time of the crash.
He faces up to 30 years behind bars if he’s convicted.
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He gets it.
A columnist for The Spectator says the UK’s updated Traffic Code will civilize the streets entitled motorists have ruled for far too long.
Without digging into the details, the main point of the changes is to give greater priority to vulnerable road users. Or put another way, unlike 007, they’re taking away drivers licenses to kill.
One they apparently issued themselves.
No one set out to turn our towns, cities, villages and rural roads into dangerous hellholes. It just happened as motorists assumed the right to highways which were never designed for motor traffic. It was the exercise of raw power: drivers of motor vehicles lording it over the rest of us because they could.
It’s worth a few minutes to give it a read.
On the other hand, there are people who don’t get it at all. Take this gasoline-addled automotive troglodyte.
Please.
Under cover of Covid, they have turned our city centres into crazy golf courses, intended to frustrate freedom of movement by giving priority to Lycra-clad lunatics on racing bikes and suicide jockeys on e-scooters.
Transport policy has been captured by single-issue, anti-car fanatics, hell-bent on bankrupting businesses and causing the maximum possible inconvenience to the traveling public…
Our other major cities have suffered from pollution-spewing traffic jams created by Town Hall Guardianista polar-bear huggers in thrall to the cult of the great god cycling.
Maybe that should read ‘Cyclops’, since the pushbike lobby are terminally myopic when it comes to seeing any point of view other than their own warped ideology.
Nope.
No bias there.
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When is a Culver City protected bike lane not a bike lane?
When it’s a parking spot.
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Good question.
What does Rancho Palos Verdes have against kids riding bikes at the park?
https://twitter.com/cyanginpedro/status/1485207813278162945
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It looks like San Gabriel Valley state Senator Anthony Portantino is one of us.
Well, well, well look who it is on a bike. pic.twitter.com/AIeJETqb5V
— Let's Get Neighborhood Approval to Save the Planet (@ChrisByBike) January 25, 2022
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Someone is sabotaging a pilot bike lane on a Boston bridge installed to test plans for a more permanent lane, tossing orange cones marking the lane into the Charles River, not just once, but twice over the last weekend.
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Local
LADOT will host a virtual community meeting at 7 pm today to discuss the Lincoln Fast Forward project, which includes pedestrians improvements and rush hour bus lanes, but no bike lanes; however, bike riders are allowed to use the bus lanes, as long as you don’t mind an impatient bus driver running up your ass. You can register here.
A man was shot in a driveby while riding his bike at Whites Canyon Road and Delight Street in Santa Clarita; there’s no word on his condition, or if the shooting was gang-related or a road rage attack.
State
Singletracks looks at the California Mountain Biking Coalition, calling it a “squeaky wheel for trail advocacy.”
The Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at UC Berkeley, aka SafeTREC, is opening applications for the next round of its Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training program.
Oakland completes a previously missing bikeway gap on Telegraph Avenue, albeit with just painted bike lanes, rather than the protected lanes found on other segments.
National
Peloton is forced to explain once again that their indoor cycling bikes really aren’t dangerous, after a character on Billions suffers a heart-attack following a session on the bike; needless to say, the company was none too pleased.
Here’s your chance to break into the glamorous bike biz, as PinkBike lists 19 open jobs available right now.
Home improvement guy Bob Vila has a seven-point plan to change a bike tire for you.
New York’s Daily News says the city’s new mayor is right to prioritize safe streets, after mixed Vision Zero results under the previous mayor.
Miami reopens iconic Ocean Drive to cars after two years, but with a new two-way bike lane facing the beach.
International
Road.cc looks forward to eleven big bike launches expected to be unveiled in the coming year.
Unbelievable. A sheriff’s deputy found a British Columbia driver smoking heroin shortly after he ran down a 67-year old man riding a bike and kept going, even though he knew he hit something but was too scared to stop.
Bicycle holding company Pon.Bike announced plans to return bikemaking to Europe with a Lithuanian production facility capable of building up to 600,000 bicycles a year; they are the parent company of Gazelle, Cervélo, FOCUS, Santa Cruz and other bike brands.
Your next Japanese foldie ebike could come with just 57 low-maintenance parts.
Competitive Cycling
Bad news from Colombia, where former Tour de France and current Giro champ Egan Bernal was seriously injured in a collision with a parked bus while training with teammates in his hometown of Zipaquira; Bernal suffered a broken femur and kneecap, requiring surgery to reconstruct his right leg, as well as to stabilize a spinal fracture and traumatic disc herniation.
Former national and Pan-American ‘cross champ Stephen Hyde is calling it a career after ten years on the pro circuit.
Finally…
Crashing bicycles, houseflies and infinite series mathematics. Why waste energy pedaling when you could just power your bike with an electric drill?
And seriously, who hasn’t jumped a bike off a hovering helicopter?
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
