There’s no information on how the crash occurred. However, it sounds like the initial impact may have been minor, and could have been survivable if the second driver had stopped in time.
There’s also no word on whether either driver may have been speeding, driving distracted or under the influence.
There appears to be a buffered bike lane on Melrose, which has a 45 mph speed limit. That speed could have contributed to both the force of the impact, as well as the inability of the second driver to avoid the victim.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 888/580-8477. There’s a $1,000 reward for any details that lead to an arrest.
This is at least the eighth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
Three of those fatal crashes have been hit-and-runs.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and their loved ones.
June 29, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Encinitas declares bicycling emergency, support for Pacific Beach Slow Street, and car death cult piece misses mark
However, the planned state of emergency action items reported by San Diego’s NBC-7 seem a little lacking.
The local emergency allows the city quicker access to resources necessary for education and enforcement, if needed. Some actions that the city council hopes to accomplish include the rental of 10 messages boards that will be placed in high-visibility areas reminding both riders and drivers to share the road, 300 yard signs urging safety, additional work with schools to educate students on-campus and a bike safety video made in unison with the San Diego Sheriff’s Department that can be played at assemblies and meetings.
The declaration places the most of the onus for safety on the potential victims riding on two wheels, rather than the people in the big, dangerous machines.
Because yard signs and message boards aren’t likely to slow drivers down, and won’t do a damn thing for the distracted drivers who don’t even see them.
Thanks to Phillip Young and Marcello Calicchio for the heads-up.
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These days, every street project that might possibly inconvenience someone is contentious.
Usually, needlessly so.
That’s certainly the case with the Slow Street project on Diamond Street in San Diego’s Pacific Beach neighborhood, where all of four — yes, four — people rose up at a recent Town Council meeting to complain about it.
Did I mention that it was just four people who complained?
Fortunately, the local representative for the City Council Mobility Board, who was also the researcher who evaluated the project, wrote to the San Diego Union-Tribune to support the project.
…The benefits are staggering. The project led to an increase in walking and biking mode share, and children and older adults using the street. Driving mode share decreased by nearly 60 percent with a smaller impact on traffic on adjacent streets.
People reported a greater sense of community and well-being. Most were using the street for transportation and half planned to visit a business during their trip. Most importantly, there was overwhelming support for making the project permanent.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but “overwhelming support” is probably more than four.
A lot more.
She goes on to say that making Diamond a permanent slow street shouldn’t even be up for debate, since it gets San Diego that much closer to meeting its Climate Action Plan and Vision Zero goals.
Let’s hope the city council is listening.
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Progressive magazine The American Prospect missed the mark.
But he goes off track at the end in blaming neoliberalism of the 1980s and ’90s for the American failure, which he argues resulted in less government oversight, drawing a straight line leading to today’s massively oversized vehicles, overly wide roads and high traffic death rates.
There’s no arguing that traffic deaths are too high, and getting higher, and that poor road design and the ever-increasing size of motor vehicles are at least partly to blame, along with a dramatic increase in distracted driving.
But fondly remembering the good old days when traffic death rates were even worse doesn’t help.
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I have somehow miraculously recovered the ability to embed tweets.
— People Powered Media (@pplpoweredmedia) June 28, 2023
here's the TL;DR for what we are asking of LADOT / officials. three things:
1. The Venice Bike Lanes needs regular sweeping/cleaning, especially given their gutter nature. There’s lots of trash and broken glass. pic.twitter.com/QFZppGLKWL
— People Powered Media (@pplpoweredmedia) June 28, 2023
— People Powered Media (@pplpoweredmedia) June 28, 2023
To be clear, we don’t begrudge city officials and activists for celebrating the Venice realignment as a big win. The project took years of work from electeds and stakeholders.
We just ask that the job be finished.
— People Powered Media (@pplpoweredmedia) June 28, 2023
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I’m not sure if we shared this short film from Nimesh in Los Angeles when it came out last December.
So we’ll correct that possible oversight today.
In it, he argues that LA’s flat terrain and year-round Mediterranean climate should make it the bicycle capital of the world. But it isn’t, because Los Angeles makes biking in paradise a nightmare.
Thanks to Steven Hallett for the heads-up.
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Robert Leone forwards news that the Marines will apparently be blowing things up on Camp Pendleton again.
Which means that the popular bike path through the base will be closed from July 31st to August 4th.
So if you’re planning to ride south from Orange County, or north from San Diego County, you’ll have to use the shoulder of the freeway from the Las Pulgas Gate north to the tunnel under I-5.
Like he says, Google Translate is your friend. But I don’t make friends easily, so I’ll let him give you the shorthand.
I got a newsletter from the German Cycling Federation ADFC, and in this issue it shows a proposal to do a street makeover for a major arterial into the center of town. Next step is through the city council.
The numbers for users from 2011 to 2022 are amazing. The north end of the project runs into a nasty intersection that has been undergoing total renovation for the last 4 years. The existing situation shows 9,300 users on bikes daily. There are a couple of pictures of the existing bike lane. Unreal usage, but it is a main route direct into the city center.
It would be great if it gets through the city council.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
This is who we share the world with. Even the bike-riding mayor of Emeryville has to deal with wannabe killer drivers. Unfortunately, though, this doesn’t cross the legal threshold for a threat, since it lacks a statement of intent — “I would” vs “I will.”
At a business mixer tonight an attendee heard I had biked to the event and said “I hate bicyclists so much. I would absolutely run you over and kill you if we left here at the same time. You don’t belong on the road.”
Two hours later and I’m still processing all of it.
Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus says we’re having the wrong conversation about ebikes, as people predictably point fingers at kids on bikes while calling for mandatory licensing after the death of a teenage bike rider.
The family of a 14-year-old boy pinned to the ground by an off-duty Chicago cop who mistakenly accused him of stealing a bike is suing the city and the police officer; Michael A. Vitellaro was acquitted of official misconduct and aggravated battery in the incident earlier this month.
For the first seven months of this year, it was one of the safest places to ride a bicycle in Southern California, with just four deaths.
Even though just one is one too many.
Yet the county has doubled that total in just the last ten days, with the latest death coming yesterday in Carlsbad, where the victim was collateral damage in a police chase.
The victim, who has not been publicly identified, died at the scene, while both the 28-year old motorcyclist and his passenger, a 22-year old woman, were hospitalized with serious injuries.
There’s no word on when or where the pursuit started, or how fast the motorcyclist was going at the time of the crash.
However, it raises inevitable questions about the wisdom of police chases that place innocent people at risk, and whether a parks cop was properly trained in how to conduct a chase.
Anyone with information is urged to call Carlsbad Police Investigator Adam Bentley at 442/339-5559.
This is at least the 58th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
It’s also the 4th bicycling death in the county in the last ten days, and the second in Carlsbad.
Catcott was reportedly moving from the bike lane to a turn lane when he was run down by the fleeing motorcyclist, and succumbed to blunt force trauma.
The paper reports Carlsbad Police referred questions to State Parks officials, who said there “is no new information to share with the public” ten days after the crash.
Not that they’re trying to cover their collective ass or anything.
My deepest prayers and sympathy for the Brad Allen Catcott and all his loved ones.
The driver briefly stopped a short distance away before driving off, leaving his victim bleeding in the street.
Investigators ask anyone who lives in the area to check their surveillance cameras for any video that might show the crash or the suspect.
Something sheriff’s investigators should have done themselves in the first few days, if not hours, following the crash, before any video would be deleted or recorded over.
But maybe they were, like, busy or something.
Anyone with information is urged to call San Dimas Traffic Detective Christopher Bronowicki at 909/859-2818.
The video is difficult to watch, so make sure you really want to see the crash and its aftermath before you click play, because you can’t unsee it once you do.
Seventy-four-year old John Burgan is in a coma in critical condition with internal injuries, as well as fractures all around his skull, face, ribs and right femur, after an apparent hit-and-run.
The location and condition of his undamaged bicycle suggest he may have been struck by the wing mirror of a driver’s vehicle while making his way to the left turn lane at Hosp Way.
Anyone with information is urged to call Carlsbad Police Officer Adam Bentley at 760/931-2288 or email adam.bentley@carlsbadca.gov.
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Finally, a little good news from LA City Hall.
Streetsblog is reporting that the City Council Transportation Committee has taken the unprecedented step of — wait for it — actually lowering speed limits in the City of Angels, in hopes of maybe making a fewer of them.
Angels, that is.
The city’s hands have long been tied by the deadly 85th Percentile Law, which worked in conjunction with speeding drivers to push limits ever higher, regardless of whether the new speeds were actually safe.
It took a new state law, sponsored by Burbank Assemblymember Laura Friedman, to reform, but not repeal, the 85th Percentile Law to allow the city to begin reducing speeds on city streets.
However, the committee’s action covers just 177 miles out of LA’s more than 6,500 miles of streets.
But it’s a start.
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It looks like New Yorkers overwhelmingly support safer streets, and using automated traffic cams to do it.
New Yorkers want these changes to make streets safe. An Emerson College poll found that 68% of city residents support lowering the speed limit to 20 mph, and 72% want the city to have authority to set its own speed limits. A Siena College poll found that 85% of New York City voters, including 84% of car-owners, support red light enforcement cameras. More than three-quarters of New York City voters, including just about the same share of car owners, support automated speed safety cameras.
Not only are the speed and red light cams popular, they’re also effective.
As one example of the consequences, consider New York City’s speed safety camera program, which is currently only permitted by Albany to operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. In effect, Albany forces cameras to be off for more than half of the hours in any given week. Speed safety cameras are wildly effective: A 55% drop in all traffic fatalities and a 72%decline in speeding followed the launch of the program. Speed safety cameras also avoid racial biases that may be present in armed police stops and avoid risks of stops turning violent or deadly. However, in 2020, nearly 40% of people killed in fatal traffic crashes died in speed safety camera zones, but when the cameras were forced to be off. Speeding doesn’t sleep, but state law forces our speed safety cameras to get plenty of shut-eye.
Let’s hope California legislators are paying attention.
Not to mention the LA City Council, which cancelled the city’s red light camera program, for reasons that mostly boiled down to angry drivers who didn’t like getting tickets for breaking the law.
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I wouldn’t count on plastic bollards to keep you safer. Even if these are better than the flimsy car-tickler plastic bendy posts.
Santa Monica has these in a few spots but goes for the truly useless ones like these in most places. Disappointingly the latter for the Ocean Ave "protected" bike lane and, shocker, half of then were gone in less than a year and it constantly has motor vehicles in it. pic.twitter.com/5xG7g9zNuS
— lana Negrete mentioned me on rightwing fake news (@schroedinger_) February 17, 2022
Personally, I consider anything marked by plastic bollards to be a separated bike lane, rather than a protected bike lane.
Because those little posts don’t protect anyone.
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Burbank police will be offering bicycle registration next Wednesday afternoon.
And cookies, too.
Join us for our first ever Cookie with a Cop next Wednesday at Sliders, from 2-4pm. We will also have bicycle registration available, too! @BurbankCApic.twitter.com/yXwRNRRDZS
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Cincinnati op-ed calls bike lanes a “misappropriation of funds,” calling for the money to be spent fixing potholes rather than catering “to a small group of citizens that happen to bicycle.” Never mind that potholes are more dangerous for people on bikes than those safely ensconced in a couple tons of steel and glass.
Life is cheap in British Columbia, where a man got a lousy 30 months for the drunken hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle, then tried to blame an innocent co-worker for the crash. Never mind that it was the third time in six years he’d been accused of DUI. Just one more example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until they kill someone.
According to NBC7, some people have complained on Nextdoor — as if everyone on Nextdoor doesn’t complain about something — and circulated a petition demanding that ebikes be banned from Moonlight Beach.
But the station widely misses the mark when they try to make the case that ebikes are somehow dangerous, by lumping them together with e-scooters and hoverboards to argue that 41 Americans were killed due to the devices over a three-year period.
Not that ebikes have anything in common with the other two, aside from having a battery.
And never mind that an average of 13.6 deaths a year pales in comparison to the 42,000 people killed in traffic collisions last year alone.
Yes, some people on ebikes may ride in a rude or unsafe manner. Just like some people do on regular bikes, on foot or in motor vehicles.
However, many of those scofflaw ebikers likely stem from their popularity with new riders, and people who haven’t ridden in years, if not decades, and haven’t learned decent bicycle etiquette yet.
So just use a little common courtesy and common sense, however you get around.
But don’t try to ban ebikes just because you don’t get it.
And someone please tell North County residents to get their collective ebike-hating heads out from whence the sun don’t shine.
The new and improve Golden Gate Bridge railing isn’t exactly working out that way for people on bicycles.
Yes. I biked on the GG bridge on a windy, howling day and thought I was going to die. The wind blew my helmet off—almost choking me—and my bike rammed into the railing. I'm absolutely terrified of biking on the bridge, but it's the only route out of SF. ☠️ https://t.co/fBAedfSFq1
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton rides the Expo Bike Path, and complains that Culver City abandons bike riders on a short gap in the bikeway near the Culver City Metro station, forcing people to take a poorly marked half-mile detour along city streets. And offers a long list of recommended fixes.
Speaking of the SDMBA, the group is partnering with Canyon Bikes and the founders of the popular Canyon Belgian Waffle Ride for a new fundraising campaign to support local trails, with a grand prize of $4,000 towards any Canyon bike.
The driver continued a short distance to a nearby strip mall, where he pulled over to call 911 and wait for the CHP to arrive, telling them he never saw the man he killed until after the impact.
A CHP spokesperson says he was not under the influence.
No mention is made of whether he was driving distracted, however, or if there was some other reason why he couldn’t see a grown man on a bicycle right in front of his car.
Investigators are unsure where the victim was riding prior to the crash, although it’s likely he was riding in the painted bike lane on the right shoulder. Which raises the question of whether he left the lane for some reason, or if the driver somehow drifted into it.
No word on whether the victim was visiting from Colorado, or living in the area.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the CHP’s Vista office at 760/643-3400.
This is at least the 71st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, but just the fourth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
Update: The victim’s hometown newspaper has identified him as 63-year old William Tyson, an experienced bike rider who lived part-time in the San Diego area.
According to the paper, police suspect Tyson swerved into the traffic lane in order to make a left turn at the upcoming intersection, and that the driver was unlikely to be charged as a result.
However, that doesn’t explain why an experienced bicyclist would swerve into the traffic lane without apparently looking on a highway with a 55 mph speed limit. Or why the driver failed to see him until the moment of impact, when he should have at least been aware of someone riding in the bike lane in front of him.
There are still far too many questions out there to accept such a simplistic answer. Especially coming from the CHP.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for William Tyson and his loved ones.
Fourteen minutes later, they got another call, before officers could arrive, saying in effect there was no need to hurry.
The victim, who was not carrying identification, was hit by a vehicle while riding in the #2 lane. A satellite photo indicates that would seem to be the far right lane of the four-lane freeway, since the left two lanes appear to be Express Lanes.
That’s assuming he was past the northbound offramp; if it happened further south, it would place him in the fourth lane from the right out of five lanes.
San Diego 7 indicated the driver of a white pickup stopped at the side of the road for about 10 minutes before driving off. Police are looking for a white GMC pickup based on debris found at the scene.
The victim appears to have been struck by multiple vehicles following the initial impact; none of the other drivers seem to have stopped, either. A CHP spokesperson said they don’t know how many times he might have been hit or run over.
Under those circumstances, the victim may be very difficult to identify, for obvious reasons.
There was no word on whether he was using lights at the early morning hour. And no apparent explanation for why he was riding in a traffic lane on a high-speed freeway, rather than on the shoulder.
Bikes are allowed on the shoulder of the 15 freeway a little further north, according to the U-T. But never in the traffic lane.
This is the 41st bicycling fatality in Southern California and the eighth in San Diego County; that compares with 61 in SoCal and six in the county this time last year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
More bad news, this time from North San Diego County.
According to the Union-Tribune, a bike rider in his 40’s has died following a wreck in unincorporated Escondido. The Times of San Diego lists his age as 47.
The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was riding south on Mesa Rock Road north Windsong Lane just before 7 pm yesterday when he was struck by a Jeep Cherokee traveling in the same direction.
He was taken to Palomar Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The 26-year old driver remained at the scene. The U-T reports it’s not yet known if drugs or alcohol were factors, or how fast the SUV was traveling.
A satellite view shows a two-lane road with no visible turning points, increasing the likelihood that it was a rear-end collision.
This is the fifth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first in San Diego County. That compares with 17 in SoCal this time last year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
You’re not required to ride to the right when sharrows are present
It’s said that ignorance of the law is no excuse.
But what if the ones who appear to be ignorant of the law are the same people charged with enforcing it?
It looks like cyclists in San Diego’s North County may be about to find out.
In a case reminiscent of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s deputy who was captured on video demonstrating his lack of knowledge about sharrows recently, a San Diego County Sheriff’s Captain spoke — or rather, misspoke — on the subject with community members last month.
Sheriff Capt. Robert Haley said sharrows are a great concept but there has been some confusion on the proper way to use them.
Problem is, he’s the one who seems to be confused.
“Some people think it’s a giant bike lane,” he said, adding that, according to the law, cyclists are always supposed to ride as far to the right as possible anytime they are on a roadway, even in a sharrow or bike lane.
Uh, no.
Excuse me. Hell no.
Bike riders are not required to ride to the right within a bike lane, which in most cases would put you in the door zone. Or in the gutter.
Instead, bicyclists are legally allowed to ride anywhere between the two lines they feel safest or most comfortable. And a sheriff’s captain should know that.
He should also know that cyclists can leave a bike lane anytime, for any number of reasons. And that they aren’t required to ride in a bike lane unless they’re travelling below the speed of traffic.
Which means that if you’re riding as fast or faster than the cars around you, the requirement to ride to the right doesn’t even apply, and you can ride anywhere in the roadway you damn well please.
And it doesn’t apply at all within a bike lane.
Any officer foolish enough to ticket a cyclist for not riding on the far right of a bike lane can, and should, be laughed out of court.
The same goes for anyone who tries to ticket a bicyclist for riding on sharrows.
Sharrows, or shared lane markings, are intended, among other things, to indicate where a bike rider should position him or herself on a lane that’s too narrow to be safely shared by a bike and a car travelling side-by-side in the same lane.
And that’s the key point.
Sharrows are intended for use on substandard-width lanes, which is generally considered any right-side traffic lane narrower than 14 feet.
Think of it this way.
You take up about three feet on your bike, and need a three foot cushion for an eight-foot wide vehicle to pass you safely.
And that’s if there’s no parking on your right. If there is, add another four to five feet to keep you safely out of the door zone.
Which means that, according to CVC 21202, the requirement to ride as far right as practicable — not as possible, despite what Capt. Haley said — does not apply on any lane less than 14 feet wide, or 18 if it contains parking.
So sharrows not only indicate that the lane is to be shared between bikes and cars, they should serve as an indication to everyone concerned that the requirement to ride to the right does not apply on that street.
Then again, it doesn’t apply on many, if not most, right hand lanes in Southern California, sharrowed or otherwise, where a 14 foot lane would be a luxury.
You’d think those charged with enforcing our laws would get that.
Of course, you’d also think that police, sheriffs and CHP officers would know that there is no requirement to ride single file under California law. In fact, it’s not even mentioned anywhere in the California Vehicle Code.
And one of the basic precepts of English Common Law, which forms the basis of the American legal system, is that anything that isn’t expressly prohibited is therefore legal.
But like Capt. Haley’s, many police agencies — including the CHP and at least some sections of the LA County Sheriff’s Department — frequently misapply CVC 21202 to ticket cyclists who are legally riding side-by-side.
“If a person is riding to the left of someone else, he isn’t as far to the right as possible,” he added.
Haley said he verified the law with Traffic Commissioner Larry Jones, who confirmed that cyclists must ride in a single line while on a street.
As one cyclist I know put it, “I couldn’t ride any further to the right, officer. There was another bike there.”
Except, as pointed out above, CVC 21202 doesn’t apply on substandard lanes.
Which means that bike riders can legally ride side-by-side — or side-by-side-by-side, or more — on any lane that’s less than 14 feet wide, or 18 to 19 feet wide if there’s parking on the right.
And again, that’s virtually every right lane in Los Angeles, and most in Southern California.
Or, as pointed out above, if you’re riding at the speed of traffic. Which means if your double paceline can ride at the speed limit for the roadway you’re riding on, you are perfectly within your rights.
Of course, it’s not just the police that get it wrong.
Bicyclists may ride side-by-side (two abreast) on roadways, but they must ride single file when being overtaken by other vehicles. Bicyclists may only travel more than two abreast on a shoulder, bike lane or bike path intended for bike use if there is sufficient space. However, they must be in single file when passing vehicles, pedestrians, or other bicyclists.
None of which appears in CVC 21202, despite their citation. Or anywhere else in the Vehicle Code, for that matter.
Not the part about being allowed to ride two abreast, or being required to ride single file when passing or being passed.
Which makes you wonder just how they came up with it. And how they justify spreading false information with no basis in the law in an official publication.
But back to our sheriff’s captain from San Diego County.
Haley said cyclists who don’t like the laws can work to get legislation enacted to change them.
Or he, and other police officers, could just try enforcing the laws as they are actually written, rather than misinterpreting and misapplying them to prohibit behaviors they were never meant to address.
Fortunately, Haley says his department doesn’t intend to target riders for violating their misinterpretation of the law.
But anyone who does get a ticket for riding abreast or not riding far enough right — with or without sharrows, in San Diego or anywhere else — should measure the lane they were riding in.
Yet they apparently failed to consider the possibility that it was a massive truck passing too close and/or turning across her path that caused her to lose control.
So let’s get this straight once and for all. Skilled, experienced cyclists don’t just fall over. And a vehicle doesn’t have to actually hit a rider in order to cause her death.
Something made her to lose control. Until the police can offer some reasonable explanation of what that was, we should not accept the results of this investigation.
And until police everywhere figure that out, no bike rider will ever be safe on our streets.
Update: A commenter who claims to have known a friend of Leaf disputes the contention that she was an experienced rider. By his account, she was a novice rider on a borrowed bike, who had been urged by a friend not to ride that day. And according to him, the reason she fell because she was unfamiliar with clipless pedals. However, as he did not actually witness the collision, that should be taken with a grain of salt; hopefully, we’ll learn more on Monday when the Chief of the Newport Beach Police Department meets with the city’s Citizens Bicycle Safety Committee.
Byun faces up to four years up to four years in prison — or as little as probation. Hopefully, the court deliver a sentence that shows Bojorquez’ life had value.
Be on the lookout for a maroon or purple 1995 to 2001 Ford Explorer or a 1997 to 2001 Mercury Mountaineer with light to moderate damage to the right headlight area. Call Investigator Matthew Hassoldt at 310/217-6189 if you have any information.
And on a related note, his step-daughters are asking cyclists to join them in honoring Torres and calling for bike safety on November 10th.
