Tag Archive for Orange County

Man riding bicycle killed in Santa Ana collision Sunday afternoon; cops blame victim for not riding in nonexistent crosswalk

May 11, 2026 / / One comment

You’ve got to be kidding.

Someone was killed riding a bicycle in Santa Ana early Sunday afternoon. And the local cops were quick to show they don’t seem to understand bike law.

According to multiple reports, the victim was struck by a driver traveling south on Fairview Street while crossing Fairview at 12th Street around 12:09 pm Sunday.

The victim, identified only as an adult male, died at the scene.

The driver remained following the crash, and did not appear to be under the influence.

However, for some reason, the press release issued by the Santa Ana Police Department stressed that the victim was crossing the street outside of a crosswalk. As if there was some super secret section of the law that requires, or even implies, that bicyclists are supposed to use a crosswalk.

There isn’t.

Bicycles are required to follow the same rules as motor vehicles. So until drivers are required to use the crosswalk, there can be no expectation that bike riders should, either.

And just like drivers, people on bicycles can cross or turn mid-block, or continue forward on a cross street.

However, unlike motor vehicles, bike riders are allowed to use a crosswalk, which is considered an extension of the sidewalk. Someone riding legally on a sidewalk can continued forward in the crosswalk, regardless of whether they are traveling with or against traffic.

It’s also worth noting that there is no crosswalk on Fairview at 12th, which would make using one rather difficult.

So whether or not the victim was in a crosswalk is totally irrelevant. Maybe someone could pass that on to the Santa Ana cops, who don’t seem to grasp that concept.

The case remains under investigation. Anyone with information is urged to call Detective K. Briley of the Santa Ana Police Department’s Collision Investigation Unit at 714/245-8215, or the Santa Ana Police Traffic Division at 714/245-8200.

This is the 30th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the third we know about in Orange County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Bass belatedly releases Infrastructure Plan, LA belatedly proceeds with Forest Lawn Dr. project, and OC streets are appalling

May 6, 2026 / / 2 comments

To steal from Hamlet, something is rotten in the state of Los Angeles.

Or so it seems, anyway, as Mayor Karen Bass belatedly released her Capital Infrastructure Plan after more than three years in office. Something she should have done on Day One.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem to pass the smell test, to mix metaphors.

Not only because it reads like a plan to develop a plan, but because it has to be read in the context of an unpopular mayor running for re-election.

If you read the press release, you’ll see a handful of city council members falling all over themselves to praise Bass and the CIP; notably absent is Councilmember Nithya Raman, one of the mayor’s primary opponents.

And you have to wonder if this plan has only been released at this late date because Raman has developed her own plan.

According to the press release,

Mayor Bass’ Capital Infrastructure Program lays out a comprehensive roadmap for L.A. to reform and improve the way it maintains and builds new infrastructure, including 10 recommendations to achieve this vision by reforming City processes and the Charter. Greater transparency is also achieved by laying out a data-based foundation regarding how and where the City must address short and long-term infrastructure needs.

Included in the program are 29 Olympic and Paralympic legacy capital projects that will both prepare the City for 2028 and leave lasting investments for communities across L.A. 16 of these capital projects are currently funded in Mayor Bass’ proposed FY 26-27 budget. Working alongside the City Council, the Mayor’s Office will seek to advance the reforms in the Capital Infrastructure Program and begin the long-term funding and planning for the proposed capital projects.

For years, advocates have called for simplifying LA’s overly complicated infrastructure process by removing the silos separating LADOT, Streets Services and the Bureau of Engineering and combining them into a single department.

Instead, the mayor’s plan calls for greater cooperation between those silos, while creating an additional layer of bureaucracy by strengthening the Capital Planning Steering Committee, giving the Bureau of Engineering responsibility for creating the CIP, and establishing a new Director of Public Works.

It also calls for prioritizing projects for the ’28 Los Angeles Olympics, rather than, you know, resurfacing streets and filling potholes.

Never mind building bus and bike lanes for the people who already live here. And if there’s any mention of complying with Measure HLA, as mandated by the city’s voters, I didn’t find it.

I’m also not thrilled by this line, which places blame on the public, rather than the people we elect to actually do the hard things:

Angelenos do not have a clear understanding of what can realistically be funded and when, nor the city’s long-term priorities beyond those of a given year.

Never mind that Bass doesn’t seem to have any problem approving unfunded pay raises for cops and other city employees. But the public clearly seems to be expecting too damn much.

Although Bass and her staff at least seem to have a reasonable grasp of the problems.

The city’s current capital planning process is falling short:

  • Fragmented systems and data silos
  • No shared vision across city departments
  • Growing maintenance deferrals
  • Slow, inefficient capital planning
  • No capital project intake standards
  • Limited project scoring and prioritization
  • Highly decentralized and uncoordinated grants
  • Limited analytical capacity and predictive modeling
  • Resource planning and staffing misalignment
  • An opaque capital planning process
  • A growing need to quantify infrastructure needs

Missing from this list is the city’s endless series of public meetings before anything ever gets built, which stretches a process that could, and should, take months into years.

Many, many years, in some cases.

So this may be a good start. And it may even be an improvement over our current failed system.

But it’s about three years too late.

………

Speaking of Nithya Raman, her office announced the city is finally moving forward with the long-discussed Forest Lawn Drive Safety and Mobility Project, including what passes for protected bike lanes in the City of LA.

And yes, this should be seen in light of the mayor’s race, as well.

As should any pronouncements by anyone running for mayor for the next six months.

………

He gets it.

A writer for a Minnesota transportation advocacy site visits Orange County on a Costco packaged travel deal, and is suitably appalled by what he found.

Car dependency is a modern California birthright. It is very common to drive on avenues with 10 or more lanes and speed limits of 60 miles per hour. To be clear, that is an avenue with periodic traffic light intersections with five lanes in each direction and more turn lanes at intersections. The speed limits in Orange County were usually about 10 miles per hour higher than what would be expected in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

There were a small number of bicyclists. They typically were enthusiast athletes along Pacific Coast Highway and residents who cannot drive, like teenagers on a bike going to school. I felt sick for how dangerous the intersections were for these children. I also saw a family with a stroller crossing an unmarked intersection, and stopped my car to let them cross the street. Bike lanes are typically one line of paint and sometimes green paint at intersections. I did not see a single protected bike lane with any level of plastic bollard or curb protection. There were, however some multi-use paths in more recreational park areas. Practical cyclists — like the teenagers — typically rode on the sidewalk.

To be honest, it’s kind of pitiful and humbling, if not humiliating, the way people from other places see us.

Especially when they actually do.

………

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

No bias here. A San Diego driver, writing for what may be the city’s least bike-friendly local publication, blames bicycling deaths on “high-risk biking practices, like running stop signs and stoplights,” complaining that she’s never seen a campaign for bicyclists that on focuses putting safety first — except, of course, for the bike safety courses she mentions in her penultimate paragraph, which do exactly that. Never mind all those studies showing that the Idaho stop improves safety. Or that drivers are at fault in many, if not most, bicycling deaths.

No bias here, either. The only Member of Parliament representing the extreme right Restore Britain party complains about “central planning lunacy” resulting in a “very rarely used” used bike lane, saying “I declare bicyclists a very rare breed here.” Although with attitudes like that, it’s no wonder. 

………

Local 

Metro looks at what passes for Bike Month in Los Angeles these days, where no one really seems to give a damn anymore.

WeHo celebrates Bike Month, even if Los Angeles barely does.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers a bike-friendly report card on Los Angeles-area roundabouts, giving high marks to Santa Monica, good to Long Beach, West Hollywood and Culver City, and passing — or C — to Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. Which seems too high for one of the latter two, and too low for the other. I’ll let you decide which I mean.

Pasadena will host a beginner-friendly, six-mile Bagel Ride aimed at building confidence and carbs for city this Saturday. You can tell it’s for beginners because most experienced bicyclists won’t get out of bed unless you promise them a long ride, or donuts. 

Canyon News highlights Bike Month events on the gilded streets of Beverly Hills.

The Signal Tribune provides a non-paywalled look at Long Beach Bike Month events.

Despite all the city’s safety improvements, traffic deaths in Long Beach hit the highest level in a decade, with 53 people killed as a result of traffic violence.

 

State

Calbike invited advocates, community leaders, bike coalition staff, riders, parents and local organizers to meet with state legislators and staffers last month for the organization’s Lobby Day. Contrary to common assumptions, they don’t actually call it that because most legislators won’t let us past the lobby.

Speaking of Calbike, they announced a handful of endorsements in state legislative races in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties. Although I’d really like to see them weigh in on the confounding governor’s race. 

San Diego can look forward to more ghost bikes and more pedestrian deaths, after the mayor’s new city budget eliminates the team of traffic engineers focused on improving safety.

Leaders of the century-old Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood say newly installed bike lanes are limiting access to the church, while making it more dangerous for older parishioners, and forcing them to unload caskets in the middle of the street. Never mind that it’s on a corner, with a side street that dead-ends three blocks away when people could be dropped off, living or otherwise. 

A kindhearted Fresno detective worked with police cadets to get a new bicycle for a local boy whose bike was stolen in a robbery, after seeing the brokenhearted look on the boy’s face when he learned that, even though an arrest had been made and his bike was recovered, he wouldn’t get it back because it was impounded as evidence.

As other bike industry events continue to shut down, Monterey’s Sea Otter Classic is rapidly becoming an international trade event.

Palo Alto will “experiment” with temporary, quick-build protected bike lanes. Because there are no studies showing whether protected bike lanes improve safety, apparently. Although I hear there’s a university in that town where they could look it up. 

This is who we share the road with. Police in Oakland and San Francisco cooperated with the CHP to seize 77 dirt bikes and ATVs following a nearly hour-long street takeover in San Leandro, East Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco, after trapping the riders on the Bay Bridge and cutting off any avenue for escape. Thanks to the cops for making clear the perps weren’t riding legal ped-assist ebikes. 

The UC Davis student newspaper says students and community members are right to demand better bike safety.

 

National

Bike industry advocacy group PeopleForBikes considers what it will take to get kids riding to school again. Hint: Whatever it takes to make parents believe their kids will come back in one piece.

The Hawaii legislature approves plans for speed cams, while joining the parade of jurisdictions cracking down on ebikes.

A bike rider was badly injured in a collision yesterday next to Denver’s Washington Park, exactly where I used to ride on a near-daily basis when I lived in the city back in the Mesolithic period.

This is who we share the road with. A 56-year old woman in Waco, Texas — or maybe Wacko, in this case — faces DUI and attempted assault charges for driving on the sidewalk in a deliberate attempt to run down a young kid riding a dirt bike, then trying to break into a nearby house half an hour later.

A Detroit city worker crashed into a woman riding a bicycle while going the wrong way on a one-way street, waving her on when she stopped for him before lurching forward and running over her; a bystander was placed in handcuffs for trying to record the scene on his cellphone. For anyone unclear on the subject — including Detroit cops, evidently — you have a First Amendment right to record anything that happens in public, as long as you don’t actually interfere with the police. And no, standing several feet away and recording them is not interference. 

Um, okay. A New York bike rider says he was intimidated by group rides until he developed “jalopy pace,” which is his way of describing a moderately paced ride with no one left behind. Don’t tell him those have been around for years. Just let him enjoy the moment.

The Pennsylvania teenager who killed a Swarthmore mathematics professor as he was riding in a bike lane last December, has been charged with “homicide by vehicle, driving without a license, DUI and related offenses” because he was high on cannabis and driving with just a learner’s permit. Something tells me he’s already failed his driver’s test.

Traffic deaths in Pennsylvania dropped to the lowest level since the state has been keeping records, although bicycling deaths were up nearly 50%.

Apparently, the animals are out to get us, too. A woman was injured while riding on a bike trail in Arlington, Virginia when a white-tailed deer crashed into her at full speed, knocking her off her bike and, appropriately, into a patch of deer-tongue grass.

How many times do we have to say it? If you’re riding your bike after dark while carrying meth and a pipe, put a damn light on it — something a Georgia man learned the hard way. And by the way, you don’t have to consent to a search of your body or belongings if you’re pulled over for a traffic stop. 

That’s more like it. Prosecutors will recommend that a Florida woman has her license permanently revoked after pleading guilty to the hit-and-run death of a 67-year old man who was riding in a bike lane, as part of her sentencing next month.

A former Florida cop is on trial for the 2021 murder of a bike shop owner, who was fatally shot and set on fire, apparently for the crime of dating a woman the former cop had been involved with.

 

International

Momentum highlights the year’s best routes around the world for epic bikepacking trips, only one of which is in North America.

They get it. A Quebec coroner concluded that the lack of a bike lane on one of Montreal’s busiest streets contributed to the death of a woman who crashed her bike into a parked and fell into the traffic lane as she tried to avoid a truck coming up behind her, recommending that the city install one there.

The story of Tony Parsons, the man killed by a drunk driver during a Scottish charity ride, who then worked with his twin brother to hide his body for four years before confessing to his fiancee, is now being featured on Should I Marry a Muderer on Netflix.

A writer for the New York Times explores the lasting racial, social and economic legacy of apartheid on a short, ten-mile ride from Cape Town, South Africa to the fringes of the Langa township.

 

Competitive Cycling

NBC looks at plans for bicycling events at the ’28 Los Angeles Olympics.

The “only independent organization representing the views and interests of female professional riders” complains about UCI’s lack of progress in promoting women’s cycling, suggesting staging festivals around women’s races.

The Navajo Nation will host the annual Hashkéníinii Bike Road Race May 25th, with a course winding through the striking terrain surrounding Navajo Mountain in the Four Corners Region; the race commemorates the legendary Diné leader who guided the Naatsisaan, Paiute Mesa and Oljeto communities during the Long Walk period of the 1860s.

 

Finally…

Your next bicycle could be powered by hydraulics. Or maybe it could be a LEGO.

And your next bicycle built for two could be a banana.

On orange slices, no less.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Two more innocent victims on Deadly del Mar, and 81-year old dies 2 weeks after OC teen on illegal e-moto crashed into him

May 4, 2026 / / No comments

Deadly del Mar just got deadlier.

Just four miles long, Playa del Rey’s Vista del Mar is, mile for mile, one of the deadliest streets in Los Angeles; according to the Washington Post, eight people have lost their lives on the beachfront street in the past ten years — a fatality rate nearly equal to the death toll on PCH on a per-mile basis.

Or maybe even worse now, after a 25-year old man and a 1-year old child were killed in a head-on hit-and-run collision early Sunday morning.

A woman was also hospitalized in critical condition, while another man was taken to the hospital with unknown injuries. KABC-7 identifies them as the father and aunt of the one-year old child.

The crash occurred at 4:34 am near the intersection of Vista del Mar and Culver Blvd, when a southbound vehicle crossed into the northbound lane and struck the other vehicle head-on.

The driver of a white Jeep fled on foot, as the victims in the other car can be heard in an apparent Ring video screaming in shock and pain.

If the street sounds familiar, it’s because it received lane reductions in 2017 to slow traffic and improve safety after a 16-year old girl was killed crossing the street — only to be ripped out when then-LA Mayor Eric Garcetti caved to angry pass-through commuters and shock jock radio hosts, who blamed the nonexistent bike lanes.

Since then, the death toll has continued to mount. Now you can add two more innocent victims, who were just on their way home to Van Nuys after a night at the beach.

………

This is who we share the road with.

Heartbreaking news from Orange County, where 81-year old Vietnam vet Ed Ashman died Thursday, two weeks after he was struck by a 14-year old boy who was popping wheelies on an electric motor bike in the middle of a Lake Forest street.

The next day, the Orange County DA’s office upgraded charges against the boy’s mother, Tommi Jo Mejer, to involuntary manslaughter. 

She had originally been charged with child endangerment and accessory, because she had been warned that the bike required a license, the kid was too young to legally ride it, and he was doing so in a dangerous manner.

And she faced criminal charges if she kept letting her son ride it, which was 16-times more powerful than a standard ebike.

Now elderly man is dead, and a mom faces up to four years behind bars.

No word on whether the kid will face charges, too.

………

A Los Angeles LGBT newspaper highlights the $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the hit-and-run driver who killed a bike rider in LA’s Jefferson Park neighborhood last month.

The reward is part of the city’s standing reward program for hit-and-runs, ranging from $1,000 for simple property damage, to $25,000 for hit-and-runs resulting in serious injuries and $50,000 for fatal crashes.

The victim in the crash was identified Saturday as 37-year old Melvin Salgado.

The only description of the suspect vehicle is still just a dark-colored Jeep Wrangler, with no model year given.

………

Metro Bike is holding a free Bike Month drawing for one-year bikeshare pass and swag, as well as offering free rides on Bike Day May 21st.

………

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

No bias here. The London Times says that despite recent panicked stories that 1,300 bike riders were caught jumping red lights in the city last year — an average of 3.5 a day — drivers get caught running red lights an average of 380 times a day.

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

Um, no. A British Columbia letter writer and 60-year bicyclist says there’s no shortage of bad drivers and bad bicyclists, but there’s more of the latter, since drivers have to pass a test. Except studies have shown both break the law in equal measure, but most drivers break the law for convenience while most bike riders break the law out of perceived safety — and drivers who do pose a far greater risk to others. 

………

Local 

Los Angeles is preparing to toss out the baby with the bath water, as the city council instructed the city attorney to draft an ordinance banning ebikes from the city’s outdoor trails, restricting legal Class 1, 2 and ped-assist bikes along with somewhat less-legal e-motos and dirt bikes, like the one the 14-year old in Orange County was riding.

Streets For All wants to know why it costs $10,000 to install two curb cuts in Beverly Hills, $15,000 for Caltrans — and $50,000 to do the exact same thing using the same materials in Los Angeles.

Hundreds of runners took part in Saturday’s Finish the Run in Griffith Park in honor of Regan Cole Graham and her unborn baby daughter Ophelia, both killed by an elderly driver while biking in Playa del Rey, just blocks from where yesterday’s victims were killed; several hundred bicyclists were expected to take part in yesterday’s Finish the Ride in their honor, as well.

The owner of Boyle Height’s Esquina Bicycle Shop is volunteering his time and skills, along with other volunteers, to refurbish nearly 280 bicycles abandoned in the basement of LA’s long-shuttered General Hospital, giving away 45 bikes to mark last month’s Earth Day. Read it on Yahoo if the paper blocks you. 

BikeLA, Los Angeles Walks and Sunset For All are teaming with LADOT and Metro Bike to host a bike ride to Clockshop’s Kite Festival at LA State Historic Park on Saturday.

The West Hollywood City Council will vote today on hosting July’s Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia, which apparently isn’t a done deal yet. So show up at the 6 pm council meeting or contact your councilmember before then to urge them to sign off on it. 

The Signal highlights the Santa Clarita bike trails, as well as the city’s new. bike park, saying they offer a variety of terrain for every type of rider.

Santa Monica kicked off Bike Month by deploying California’s first AI-powered cams to enforce illegal parking in bike lanes, which will be mounted on parking enforcement vehicles.

The Press-Telegram highlights Bike Month events in Long Beach, from tomorrow’s Pedal to the Metal May Ride, to a Bike to Work Week popup on the 15th and a nine-mile Moonlight Mash bike ride on the last day of the month. But you’ll have to get past the paper’s paywall to read it. 

 

State

An annual bike ride honoring the memory of Shannon Morris, a 21-year old woman who died from suicide, raised $32,000 for UC Irvine’s Psychological Services Center in just its third year, more than twice what the ride brought in last year.

Coronado’s Pedal Beach Tours nonprofit e-pedicab service is fighting the city’s one-size-fits-all ebike ban, after the city refused to renew the company’s permit, jeopardizing their annual Christmas giving program for people in need. Sometimes I feel like I’m beating a dead horse — or a dead ebike — but that’s the problem with ebike bans and restrictions that don’t differentiate one type of ebike from another, which is like banning all cars because people in sports cars are speeding. 

A 12-year old boy suffered life-threatening injuries when his ebike was struck by a driver as he tried turning left from the westbound bike lane on Del Mar Heights Road onto Old Carmel Valley Road in San Diego’s Carmel Valley neighborhood, and was struck by a Tesla driver traveling in the same direction, the boy required emergency surgery for a broken collarbone and multiple brain bleeds.

A Victorville bike rider was hospitalized after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver, who fled on foot, Saturday afternoon; no word on his condition, but it appears his bike was flattened when the driver ran it over.

Tragic news from the town of Atwater, in Central California, where a ten-year old boy was killed when he was hit by a truck while riding his bike — although the local TV doesn’t bother to mention that the truck had a driver until the last of 17 paragraphs.

 

National

PeopleForBikes says the next two to three months will determine what bike infrastructure funding and policies — if any — make it into the final federal transportation bill. The GOP has seemed more focused on a return to highway funding since Trump got back in office, so we may have to fight for every scrap we can get.

The runner-up on The Traitors TV game show is one of us, as Rob Rausch ended up with facial cuts and a concussion after going over his handlebars when dog ran out in front of him — and after he had loaned his helmet to a friend he was teaching to ride a bike.

Seattle will pay a whopping $9.25 million settlement to a 25-year old man who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury that his lawyer blamed on a bad bike lane design resulting in a blind spot, which led to a driver turning in front of him.

Forbes makes the case for why you should try gravel riding, calling it the hottest trend in bicycling.

Speaking of PeopleForBikes, the bike industry advocacy group looks to an Iowa City, Iowa bike library to make the case for how and why bike libraries increase bicycle access for everyone.

Roughly 32,000 people fought their way through strong winds to take part in Sunday’s 48th annual TD Five Boro Bike Tour in New York City, while New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani became the first sitting mayor to ride the tour and stop in all five boroughs.

 

International

A New Brunswick woman has given away thousands of bicycles and tricycles over the past 14 years, including 400 in the last year alone, just to see the joy on kids’ faces.

The London-based bicycle and ebike subscription service Buzzbike is selling their bikes to subscribers at a substantial discount, as the company shuts down after the collapse of its largest shareholder.

A travel site considers Europe’s best bike trails, from the Atlantic Coast to the Black Sea.

A judge told a 27-year old woman to expect a long prison sentence after she pled guilty to killing a 27-year old music student as he was riding a bicycle in London, while she was high on nitrous oxide and doing 52 mph in a 20 mph zone; the judge criticized her for not taking any responsibility until she walked into the court, and worried she wouldn’t afterwards.

A British husband and wife team is setting off on an 18,000-mile bikepacking trip, attempting to set a new record for riding around the world in a 150 days or less.

Even as war continues in her homeland, a 35-year old Iranian woman is riding more than 3,700 miles across Asia with a message of peace.

Dozens of Wellington, New Zealand bicyclists stood in the street to form a human bike chain — aka a people-protected bike lane — to protest infrastructure cuts in the city. Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.

Ebike sales have seen a three-times increase in Darwin, Australia, as Aussies struggle to cope with the rapid rise in gas prices resulting from the war in Iran.

 

Competitive Cycling

Sad news from Italy, where former Formula 1 and CART race car driver, and paracycling champ Alex Zanardi died suddenly on Friday; after losing both of his legs crashing in the US CART series in 2001, Zanardi took up hand-cycling, winning four Paralympic gold medals, as well as 12 rainbow jerseys. He was just 59.

Not only is LA native Sean Quinn competing on the WorldTour, he’s also creating his own beats along the way.

The Tour du Rwanda relies on an elite bike mechanic named Jean de Dieu Rafiki Uwimana, better known as Rafiki, to keep the cyclists’ bikes humming.

A Missouri newspaper looks back fondly to the only world championship held in the area — an 1887 bike race on a 20-mile road course, using ordinary bikes, or what we’d know as a Penny Farthing.

 

Finally…

Your next bike camper trailer could feature a built-in toilet. Who says you can’t ride a bike with a bag over your head?

And somehow, you know bikes got the blame for this.

Twitter post

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

70-year old man killed riding a bicycle on PCH in Huntington Beach late Monday morning; 3rd SoCal bike death in 3 days

April 27, 2026 / / 4 comments

For the third time in just three days, someone has been killed riding a bicycle on the mean streets of Southern California.

This time, on Pacific Coast Highway, one of the state deadliest roadways, from Ventura County to Camp Pendleton.

Multiple sources are reporting that a man was killed by a driver on PCH in Huntington Beach just before noon Monday.

The victim, identified only as a 70-year old man, was riding south on PCH when he began to merge left in an apparent attempt to turn left onto Newland Street around 11:50 am. He was struck by a 20-year old driver traveling in the same direction, who stopped following the crash.

Huntington Beach police found the victim lying unconscious in the roadway. Despite the efforts of paramedics, he died at the scene.

Police don’t think drugs or alcohol played a roll in the crash — at least not for the driver.

However, they noted in a press release that it’s “unknown if impairment was a factor with the rider of the bicycle,” which is a very odd statement to make.

It’s not clear what lane the driver was traveling in, or how fast he may have been going. Or why the victim apparently thought he had time to cross the busy roadway, or why police seem to question whether he was under the influence.

Anyone with information is urged to call Traffic Investigator Steve Flynn of the Huntington Beach Police Department at 714/536-5666.

This the 29th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the second we know about in Orange County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones. 

Thanks to Johnson Attorneys Group for the heads-up. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Good news and bad on CA ebike bills, and OC mom charged after son on illegal e-moto injured 81-year old Vietnam vet

April 23, 2026 / / One comment

I hope you had a good, environmentally conscious Earth Day yesterday.

I celebrated by spending most of the day on it.

Meanwhile, today’s image is Metro’s new limited-edition Earth Day TAP card; the fully functional bamboo TAP cards are available at any Metro Customer Center until they run out. 

………

Good news and bad from the state legislature with regard to ebikes.

Let’s start with the good news.

AB 1557, which redefines an ebike as having a motor limited to maximum of 750 watts, and lowers the maximum assisted speed for Class 1 and Class 2 ebikes to 16 mph, passed out of the Assembly Transportation Committee 12-0; the purpose is to clearly distinguish ebikes from e-motos of questionable legality.

AB 2284 passed the committee with 15 votes in favor; it would require the state Attorney General to maintain a public list of electric two-wheeled devices that don’t meet the state’s legal definition of an ebike.

Now for the bad news.

AB 1942 also passed the committee, and would mandate that all Class 2 and Class 3 ebikes have to be registered with the DMV and display license plates, just like cars, trucks and SUVs. It would be one of the most effective ways to put the brakes on ebikes, limit the growth of an otherwise legal alternative to driving, and start us down the slippery slope that could lead to licensing regular bikes and their riders.

Somewhere in between good and bad, and also moving forward, are AB 1569, which requires students from kindergarten up to complete an approved electric bicycle safety training course before they could park an ebike on school grounds, and AB 2595, which creates a pilot program allowing cities in San Mateo County to ban kids under 12 from riding any form of ebike.

………

An Orange County mom faces charges after her 14-year old son critically injured an 81-year old Vietnam vet while doing wheelies on his high-powered e-motorcycle.

Fifty-year-old Aliso Viejo resident Tommi Jo Mejer faces six years and eight months behind bars after she was charged with felony child endangerment and felony accessory after the fact, along with several misdemeanor counts.

Mejer had been warned by deputies last year that the Surron Ultra Bee she purchased for her son was an illegal electric motorcycle capable of speeds up to 58 mph, and that her son had been riding it recklessly.

She is accused of lying to investigators about after the crash, claiming neither she nor her son owned a similar e-moto.

Meanwhile, former Marine pilot and substitute teacher Ed Ashman remains hospitalized, facing a long and costly recovery; a crowdfunding page to help pay his medical expenses has raised over $87,000 of the $90,000 goal.

………

The Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council is hosting a CD13 City Council candidate forum next Thursday.

My finely honed political instincts tell me incumbent Hugo Soto-Martinez will probably cruise to re-election in the June primary. But I’m often, if not usually, wrong about such things, so take that with a bag of salt.

………

The City of LA reminds us about the first West LA CicLAvia this Sunday.

https://twitter.com/LACity/status/2047042954649371115

Meanwhile, Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette reminds us about June’s Giro di San Diego, aka The Palomar Granfondo, with rides ranging from 20 to 95 miles, and a KOM/QOM purse totaling one grand.

………

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

County officials in Ireland are urging the country’s government to reconsider a plan for mandatory hi-visibility clothing at night for bicyclists and e-scooter users, even though the initial plan to require hi-viz collapsed within a day from a withering backlash; then again, they’re also calling for pedestrians to wear hi-viz when walking 24/7. Which is about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.

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

Um, okay. A person was hit on the head with a bicycle on Venice’s Ocean Front Walk yesterday morning, although it’s not clear what sparked the altercation, or if the assailant was actually riding the bicycle or just happened to grab one.

………

Local 

Santa Monica police announced they’re conducting another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation — yesterday. Maybe they could try letting us know with a tad more than seven-and-a-half hours notice. Just saying.

 

State

The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department airlifted an injured mountain biker from a remote Carmel Valley trail yesterday morning.

The Victor Valley News reports an ebike rider was hospitalized after being struck by a driver Wednesday evening — although photos of the bike make it look at lot more like a dirt bike or e-moto than anything that could be classified as an electric bicycle under current California law.

An op-ed from a Santa Barbara writer says a “compromise” to bring cars back to State Street is literally a life-or-death decision, because taking cars off the city’s busiest street for bicyclists and pedestrians resulted in an increase in safety.

The San Luis Obispo bikeshare system is kicking off Bike Month a week from Friday, previewing events throughout the month. Meanwhile, LA Metro hasn’t even bothered to update last year’s webpage. 

Ars Technica says the best part of Monterey’s recent Sea Otter Classic was the accessories, including a Bluetooth-enabled suction cup roof rack. At least that way you know if your bike falls off.

Even bike riders say $4 million is a lot of money to fix a flooding problem on a Carmel bike path.

 

National

Great idea. Volunteers with Bellevue, Washington’s Cascade Bicycle Club rode to an Amazon distribution center to collect perishable food for a local food bank, returning with a whopping 372 pounds of food, including a boatload of bananas.

Seattle Bike Blog says a new billionaire-funded bike path is very nice, even if most people will continue to use one that’s closer to the waterfront and easier to get to.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 80-year old Maine man is planning to bike across the country, because “Why not?”

A Washington website says Trump’s war with DC’s bicyclists is just the first shot in a nationwide car-centric battle against bike infrastructure, while a legal writer says “Apparently, bike lanes and pedestrian trails are woke.”

 

International

Bicycling deaths now account for ten percent of all traffic deaths in the European Union, after dropping only eight percent over the last decade, just a quarter of the decline for motor vehicle deaths.

A writer for Tour rides from Turin, Italy to Nice, France the hard way, taking an “exhilarating” eight-day trip over five iconic passes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Speaking of Tour, the German magazine talks with Eritrean pro Biniam Girmay, the first black African cyclist to win three stages of the Tour de France, as well as the green points jersey.

Nineteen-year old French wunderkind Paul Seixas became the youngest-ever winner of the men’s Flèche Wallonne, setting up a showdown with Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and Tom Pidcock at Sunday’s Liège–Bastogne–Liège

Demi Vollering barely held off Dutch compatriot Puck Pieterse in the women’s edition of Flèche Wallonne, flipping last year’s finishing order.

Ouch! Eighteen-year old German cyclist Moritz Mauss crashed out of a Madison race in Gent, Belgium, ending up with a nearly 20″ splinter in his leg and hip that had to be surgically removed, after he slid across the wooden track.

Instagram post

 

Finally…

Who says you can’t carry four children’s bikes and eight helmets on a bicycle? That feeling when ChatGPT’s bicycle diagram isn’t quite ready for prime time.

Or when your cargo bike won’t fit through the gates blocking the bike path.

Reddit post

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

81-year old man clings to life after Orange County e-moto hit-and-run, and 3-time world paracycling champ killed in Texas

April 20, 2026 / / One comment

This is who we share the road with.

An 81-year old Orange County man was left fighting for his life when he was run down by a 14-year old kid riding a electric motorcycle, who fled the scene afterwards.

The boy was reportedly riding recklessly when he collided with the victim as the older man was crossing the street. Deputies identified the suspect and arrested him after serving a search warrant at a nearby home in Lake Forest.

The Orange County Sheriffs Department reports he was on a Surron e-motorbike, which is not street legal and can reach speeds up to 68 mph, depending on the model.

And thanks to the OCSD for making it clear the boy on an e-moto, and not a Class 1, 2 or 3 ped-assist ebike.

Although not every media outlet was careful to make that distinction.

Meanwhile, Jalopnik correctly observes that confusing electric motorcycles with ebikes is more than just semantics.

………

Tragic news from Texas, where a three-time paracycling world champ and seven-time Paralympic medalist was killed by a driver on Thursday morning.

Fifty-four-year old Dory Sellinger lost his right leg and suffered a TBI in 1993 when a driver suffering a psychotic break intentionally plowed into a group of riders in Alamo, California, after hearing voices telling her to “Get the demons!” Another rider named Vladimir Quinn was killed in that crash.

A crowdfunding campaign to benefit Sellinger’s family has raised nearly $21,000 of the $25,000 goal.

And yeah, I gave to that one.

………

A new Chinese study shows that younger urban adults are more car-dependent than previous generations, but could be quicker to with to active transportation if they get better infrastructure.

Although whether the results can be replicated in other car-dependent countries, such as the US, remains to be seen.

………

We could be getting bike lanes on Vermont Ave after all.

Although the motion only calls on the city to study adding bike lanes to the project. And as well all know, studying is what this city does best, rather than actually, you know, doing anything.

Twitter post

………

Someone please get me this painting for my birthday. Or Cinco de Mayo or Memorial Day, or something.

https://bsky.app/profile/coolbikeart1.bsky.social/post/3mjpo7cbrus2s

………

Video circulated throughout the Mideast showing the President of Iran casually riding a bike with the governor of Isfahan and other officials over the weekend, appearing unfazed by the American and Israeli attacks.

But it was actually video from October of last year.

Twitter post

………

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

No bias here. London police are proudly going after the relatively few bicyclists caught running red lights, but only made arrests in 2% bike thefts, and none of the 106 hit-and-runs involving bicyclists last year; the meager 4% of hit-and-run cases resulting in a conviction were the result of drivers turning themselves in.

Once again, a bike trail has apparently been sabotaged, this time in France near the Swiss border, when someone strung a cable across the trail at eye level that knocked two kids off their bicycles while on a family outing.

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

Maybe it’s the result of a bad translation. Two sets of South Korean parents were arrested and released on charges of child neglect after their middle school kids reportedly threatened people with their “Pixie” bikes, the site says is an abbreviation for “fixed-gear.” Can’t speak for you, but “pixie bike” kinda has a ring to it.  

………

Local 

An op-ed in the new Rupert Murdoch-owned California Post looks at LA’s invention of the phrase “large asphalt repair” rather than repaving, which would trigger legal mandates increasing the costs, concluding that fewer streets will get fixed and we’ll all be worse off as long as “fixing a street means triggering a cascade of costly mandates.”

The ROW DTLA shopping and housing complex is hosting the bike-centered Pedal for the Planet with Playdate this Saturday, with families encouraged to bike between various hands-on sustainability projects.

 

State

Calbike says AB 2168 currently before the state legislature ensures that we’re getting the most out of California’s Active Transportation Program. Particularly since Governor Newsom keeps insisting on cutting it. 

Advocate groups are pushing for a second attempt at a docked bikeshare system in San Diego County, after a previous attempt at both docked and docked bikeshare, as well as e-scooters, failed due to theft, vandalism and improperly parked vehicles.

San Diego’s budget problems are leading to criticism of the city’s daylighting enforcement, since it can’t afford crews to paint curbs leading to intersections.

A writer for Bike Rumor calls this year’s Sea Otter Classic “weird, wacky, unique and a little bit funky,” while admiring the “pretty, unique, and eye-catching custom painted bikes” on display.

Sad news from Sacramento, where a man riding a bicycle was killed by a driver in the North Natomas neighborhood on Friday.

 

National

The Smithsonian, of all sources, looks at the history of yesterday’s Bicycle Day, 83 years after Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested LSD before bicycling home from his lab in Basel, Switzerland, taking the first trip on two wheels.

A new study of 28 cities and more than 14,000 neighborhoods tells you what we all already knew, that a connected bike network is key to growing bike ridership.

A Reno, Nevada bike rider shares what he’s found on the side of the road, from gold and diamonds, organic avocados and bullets, to fear of death from passing motorists.

The Colorado legislature passed a new bill that not only bans blocking bike lanes, but also replaces the word “accident” with “crash” in state statutes.

A kindhearted Texas police sergeant was honored for fixing a student’s broken bicycle on the spot.

Rhode Island doubled down on highway building when the Trump administration pulled $25 million in funding that had been set aside to build a bike path; to save the funding, the state diverted it into making mile-long highway a little more pleasant.

 

International

A Toronto supercar driver murdered a row of bicycles, plowing his orange McLaren through a bike rack and scattering bike parts across the area, before ending up pointed skyward against a wall.

An Edinburgh, Scotland man says he doesn’t feel safe riding his bike in the city anymore, after a group yobs lobbed logs and a bicycle at him as he rode on the bike path.

Dozens of bicyclists descended on Dursley, England over the weekend to honor Danish-born Mikael Pedersen, inventor of the unique Pedersen bicycle, made in the town through 1914.

Off.road.cc offers a list of British bike brands actually made in the UK, for all you bicycle Anglophiles out there.

Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner is one of us, and so is his girlfriend, influencer Laila Hasanovic, as they were spotted on a relaxing bike ride in Monaco.

Taiwan’s Giant bicycle is reportedly on the verge of launching the first ebike powered by a semi-solid-state battery, a step between lithium-ion and solid-state batteries, which could provide more energy for less weight, longer life and less risk of fires.

An Australian Communications professor offers advice on how to get back on your bike after months or years of not riding, including giving up any ideas of what a “cyclist” is supposed to be, and that you’re more likely to ride your bike if you keep it near the door.

Aussie bike shops are being threatened with fines of up to $1.1 million for selling fixies that don’t comply with the country’s consumer safety standards, including having both front and rear brakes.

 

Competitive Cycling

American pro Matteo Jorgenson won’t be leading the Visma–Lease a Bike into the Ardennes Classics after crashing out of Amstel Gold Race when he broke his collarbone colliding with a competitor on a damp, downhill corner, and going down hard.

Twenty-four-year old Megan Jastrab’s 5th place was the best American finish in Paris-Roubaix in 25 years, since George Hincapie’s 2001 4th place; Greg LeMond also finished fourth in 1985. Hincapie actually finished 2nd in 2005, but his podium finish was voided because of his involvement in the USADA doping scandal.

 

Finally…

Probably not the best idea to headbutt a cop after swerving a bicycle at multiple women. Your next ebike could be a woodie.

And that feeling when the pickup driver blocking a bike lane isn’t blocking a bike lane because the bike lane isn’t a bike lane, despite the distinct bike lane markings not marking the bike lane.

Got that?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

25-year old Costa Mesa man dies over a month after being bitten by a rattlesnake while mountain biking in Irvine

March 12, 2026 / / Comments Off on 25-year old Costa Mesa man dies over a month after being bitten by a rattlesnake while mountain biking in Irvine

Heartbreaking news from Irvine, where a man was killed while mountain biking.

From a snakebite.

KABC-7 reports that 25-year old Costa Mesa resident Julian Hernandez was riding on the Quail Hill Trail in Irvine on Sunday, February 1st, when he stopped to wait for a friend near the Quail Hill Community Center.

He lost his balance when he tried to adjust his shoe, fell into some brush and was bitten on the leg by a rattlesnake.

A report by KTLA-5 places the time of the bite at around 11 am.

Hernandez died in the hospital on March 4th, after falling into a coma and spending more than a month in intensive care.

He may have tried riding for help, according to KNBC-4. Even if he didn’t ride after the bite, the exertion of mountain biking could have caused the venom to spread faster.

However, a crowdfunding page put up by his family tells a slightly different story.

They say he was mountain biking with his dad when he stepped aside to let others pass on the trail, and was bitten by the snake.

According to the crowdfunding page,

We are a family that handed our son over to people we trusted and never got him back. Please help spread the word and the love of my brother, who was cherished by so many, and who impacted even more people than we can imagine. Raising these funds will help cover the costs of hospital fees, his memorial service, and any additional financial strain that arises from this ongoing situation.

Julian was a leader in his community. He was a son, a brother, a loving boyfriend, and a friend to everyone. We will pursue the truth about what happened to Julian and we will stand up for him. This is not about anger. This is about accountability. This is about making sure the next family that walks through those doors doesn’t live our nightmare. Julian loved hard, laughed loud, and made everyone around him feel like they mattered. He deserved better. Please help us fight for him.

It sounds like they are blaming the hospital or the physicians who cared for him for Hernandez’ death.

As of this writing, the page has raised more than $28,000 of the $123,000 goal.

The CDC reports that only around five of the 7,000 to 8,000 people bitten by venomous snakes each year end up dying.

Whatever the reason, he was one of us, and his death serves as a tragic reminder of the dangers of mountain biking, and the need to always be on the lookout for unexpected risks on any trail.

Even one close to the city.

This the 20th bicycling fatality that I’m aware of in Southern California this year; it also appears to be the first in Orange County.

And yes, it’s the first death by snakebite in the nearly 20 years I’ve been doing this.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Julian Hernandez and all his family and loved ones. 

Thanks to Megan for the heads-up. 

Photo by Pixabay.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Op-ed argues ebike laws are “tyranny on wheels,” dad modifies ebike to do 60 mph, and Palm Spring bike rider critically injured

March 5, 2026 / / 2 comments

He gets it.

In a Washington Post op-ed, a Virginia bicyclist and writer builds an effective case that new laws cracking down on ebikes are going too far, “making a basic form of transportation and a familiar element of childhood less accessible.”

In fact, he calls said laws “tyranny on wheels.”

Kevin R. Parker explains that ebikes make the bicycles that gave him a sense of freedom as a child more accessible for people who might not want, or be able, to ride.

But laws like New Jersey’s draconian new restrictions that treat every form of ebike the same destroys that newfound accessibility.

The justification for New Jersey’s legislation is safety. A 13-year-old boy was killed on an e-bike when he collided with a landscaping truck in September, and there are real safety concerns for riders and pedestrians when it comes to faster and more powerful e-bikes. E-bikes that hit high speeds can be a problem. But the law doesn’t distinguish between different kinds of e-bikes when it comes to licenses, registration and age limits. A 70-year-old on a pedal-assist bike riding to the grocery store is treated identically to a teenager on a powerful e-bike doing 40 mph. The proposed regulations are a blunt instrument that restricts transportation options and increases cost for people,

New Jersey isn’t alone. Cities across the country are debating new regulations, and not just for e-bikes. After Murphy signed the bill into law, New Hampshire introduced a bill requiring a $50 annual registration fee on all bicycles that operate on paths, roads or trails funded by state or local government, including children’s bikes. In California, progressive Bay Area communities have moved to ban or restrict e-bikes on paths and in public parks — the same communities that spent years and millions promoting alternatives to cars, now cracking down on the most effective alternative.

We’ve seen similar moves up and down the Southern California coast, as cities crack down on ebikes of every kind, repeatedly conflating electric motorcycles and non-street legal dirt bikes with far slower and less powerful ped-assist bikes.

The answer, Parker says, isn’t found in the usual progressive arguments. Instead, he offers a case that should appeal just as well to conservatives, if not better.

Freedom.

Activists fighting e-bike restrictions frame it as climate policy or transportation equity. The political language focuses on progressive political priorities. There’s a stronger argument to be made based on personal liberty: State governments are restricting personal mobility and imposing licensing and registration on bike riders across the board. There are reckless e-bike riders who break the rules of the road and put themselves and other citizens at risk. If they violate the speed limit, ignore traffic lights or blow through stop signs, local law enforcement should hold them responsible. But by pursuing aggressive blanket regulation, policymakers are making a basic form of transportation and a familiar element of childhood less accessible.

Works for me.

Hopefully, it will work for members of the California state legislature when they consider SB 1167, which would redefine electric bicycles, mopeds and motorbikes to create a clear distinction between them.

This is how I explained it last month.

The bill would require that an electric bicycle must have fully operational pedals and an electric motor capable of no more than 750 watts; anything else could not be legally called, marketed or sold as a bicycle or ebike.

What is currently termed a motorized bicycle would be redefined as a moped, with clearer definitions of vehicle design, power output, and a top speed of 30 mph on level ground.

The term motor-driven cycles would include electric motorcycles offering less than 3,750 watts and 5 brake horsepower.

Both categories would require that manufacturers and marketers clearly specify that they are not electric bicycles.

The bill represents a rare case of successfully splitting the baby, allowing restrictions on high-power electric motos while maintaining the freedom offered by lower-speed ped-assist ebikes.

Let’s hope it passes intact.

And not the other one.

………

Apropos of the above discussion, an Orange County candidate for Father of the Year faces charges after his son was seriously injured running a red light and crashing into a car on a modified ebike.

it seems dear old dad helped his son convert the bike to an electric motorcycle by replacing the pedals with motorbike pegs, removing the 20 mph speed governor, and rewiring the engine to do up to 60 mph.

Let’s hope he at least bought the kid a helmet.

………

Bad news from Palm Springs, where a bicyclist was critically injured in a collision yesterday morning, after allegedly riding into the path of an oncoming vehicle, and being struck by the driver.

That driver’s car was then rear-ended by another driver, because of course it was.

However, only person on the bike was injured.

………

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

You’ve got to be kidding. A Pennsylvania driver is accused of intentionally hitting a boy on a bicycle in a road-rage incident that lasted multiple blocks; the man claimed he didn’t hit the kid on purpose, even though security video shows him blaring on his horn before attempting to cut the boy’s bike off, then ramming him from behind at a red light even though he had plenty of room to stop. He also claimed “he would have never struck the kid if the kid had stayed in his lane,” and bizarrely blamed the boy for purposely trying to upset him. Somehow, I’m guess that the only thing the kid did to purposely upset him was riding his bike in front of the guy’s car. 

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Streetsblog’s StreetSmart podcast offers a comprehensive compendium of what transportation bills are moving forward in the California legislature, and what isn’t.

A 61-year old heart transplant recipient set out from Ocean Beach on a 3,000-mile bike ride to St. Augustine, Florida to raise awareness about the need for organ donors. Meanwhile, Southern California drivers do their part to create more every day. 

A Hesperia family is hoping to win an adaptive bicycle for their 13-year old special needs son who suffered more than a dozen strokes after getting a virus two years ago, leaving him with permanent brain damage.

An Oakland man received a $400,000 settlement after he suffered a fractured skull, concussion, multiple spinal fractures, broken nose, ligament tears, and lacerations to his face, neck and shoulders when his bike hit a pothole that was obscured by shadows and a bend in the road.

The Bay Area’s Caltrain commuter line does exactly the wrong thing to address overcrowded bike cars by banning oversized bikes, such as cargo bikes, as well as bikes with panniers, both commonly used by bike commuters, instead of merely adding more space. Because that would just be crazy, right?

No bias here. An editorial from The Marin Independent Journal argues that a $52.6 million plan to re-open the 142-year old abandoned railroad Alto Tunnel for use by bicyclists and pedestrians is just too costly to consider. Never mind that it’s a fraction of the estimated $270 million cost to build a new highway bridge, which they didn’t seem to have a problem with. 

A Davis petition calls on the city to recognize and improve the nation’s first bike lane, built nearly 60 years ago.

 

National

Swedish pop star Zara Larsson is one of us, joining Portland’s weekly elementary student bike bus before her concert in the city.

A Florida couple finds sea lions and romance on a stormy bike-and-surf odyssey along the Oregon coast.

A handful of Chicago drivers staged a protest at the site of a half-finished protected bike lane, saying it didn’t help bike and e-scooter riders who were struck by drivers there. Um, maybe because it’s not finished yet, and there’s nothing to keep cars out of it yet.

Sometimes, I don’t even know what to say. An Ohio ebike rider was killed, and a driver injured, when the ebiker tried to turn left into a church parking lot and struck the side of the other man’s SUV — then they were both stuck by the driver of a second car when the first driver got out to check on the original victim.

New York Mayor Mamdani is requesting $25 million build 500 long-promised bike lockers across the city.

 

International

A website for “the world’s urban leaders” examines how cities are making the European Declaration on Cycling a reality, which recognized bicycling as a fully-fledged mode of transport for the first time.

That’s more like it. After bicyclists packed a Winnipeg, Manitoba city council committee meeting to demand temporary protected bike lanes, the committee voted to make them permanent, instead. Although they’d have to be pretty damn strong barriers to keep out the speeding driver who killed a bike rider in 2024, doing up to 100 mph.

London’s bikeshare system marks International Women’s Day by naming a whole ten bikes after notable women bicyclists. Although something tells me most women would just prefer a safer place to ride them.

Speaking of ebikes, a writer for the London Telegraph calls them the future of bicycling holidays for mid-lifers. Which is evidently a kinder, gentler term for middle-aged. Or maybe it’s just shorter.

An Aussie writer explores the dark side of the bicycle marketplace by deciding to buy and return a hot bike to its rightful owner, and ends up going for a ride with a self-described “licensed gun outlaw.”

 

Competitive Cycling

A new documentary tries to answer what separates world-class cyclists from elite ones.

Former Tour de France Femmes champ Demi Vollering says “it’s very important to keep speaking up” about periods, nutrition and health affecting women’s cyclists.

Cyclist explains “everything you need to know” about this Saturday’s Strade Bianche Classic, which marks its 20th year.

 

Finally…

That feeling when a mountain of “gross stuff” threatens to melt into a bike lane graveyard. Don’t they say, dirty bicycle drive train, dirty mind?

And okay, even I think that’s funny.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Malibu approves watered-down PCH plan, cougar stalks OC mountain bikers, and Calbike fights back on CA ebike incentives

November 6, 2025 / / One comment
Day 310 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

We won.

More or less, anyway.

Less than a week after we joined with other organizations in an urgent call for support — although this is only an organization if you count the corgi — the Malibu Planning Commission voted 4 – 1 to approve desperately needed safety improvements on PCH.

Although there were changes that watered down the project to get commissioners on board.

According to public media site LAist,

  • Caltrans decreased the number of new streetlights from 42 to 27.
  • City planning staff will inspect and ensure the lights are compliant with the city’s Dark Sky Ordinance.
  • Caltrans reduced the total length of new or upgraded bike lanes from 15 to 10 miles.
  • Caltrans must engage with first responders and Pepperdine University about a sidewalk it plans to build between John Tyler Road and Malibu Canyon Road to clear any concerns over emergency access to campus.

Notice that the bike lanes have been cut by a third. So apparently, the goal is now to only cull a few people on Malibu’s share of SoCal’s killer highway, instead of actually eliminating traffic deaths, or anything.

Approval of the project was needed this month, or Caltrans would have shifted funding for the $73 million project somewhere else, likely never to return.

Although LAist makes clear that some aggrieved person could still try to throw a wrench in the works. And there’s no shortage of aggrieved people in the ‘Bu.

Appeals timeline starts: According to the city, an “aggrieved person” has 10 days after approval to file an appeal of a Coastal Development Permit, like the one the commission extended to the Caltrans project. If the project is appealed, the matter will go before Malibu’s City Council.

Meanwhile, the Malibu City Council unanimously approved an additional $1.6 million for “enhanced safety measures” along PCH, including innovative speed detection technology and infrastructure for speed cams.

………

We may have to deal with feral SoCal drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about aggressive mountain lions.

Usually.

Two Orange County mountain bikers ran into one on Sunday, which followed them down the trail as they tried to back away.

They were riding on a trail in Whiting Ranch in Lake Forest on Sunday afternoon when they recorded the big cat walking slowly down after them. Which is not a good sign, since they usually try to avoid people.

Adding to the concern, this is the same area where 35-year old Mark Reynolds was killed by a cougar back in 2004, apparently as he was fixing his bike.

The mountain bikers tried using their bikes to shield them from the big cat and yelling to frighten it off.

You can see from the video how well that worked.

Growing up in Colorado, where cougar encounters are far more common, we were taught to make yourself look as big as possible while maintaining eye contract and yelling while you slowly move away. Holding your bike or backpack up to make yourself appear larger could help.

But whatever you do, don’t run. Because that can trigger an attack response.

Experts say the young cat was probably just curious, rather than hungry. But just be careful and keep your eyes open if you’re riding in the area.

Or better yet, maybe ride somewhere else for the next few weeks.

………

It looks like Calbike is finally starting to fight back over the ill-conceived cancellation of the California Ebike Incentive Program, calling on followers to write their representatives.

Although the better time to send out this email would have been when their executive director first found out about it in mid-October, rather than weeks later.

The state’s response to a wildly popular e-bike program? Cancel it and put the money towards cars. 

CARB just pulled the plug on the E-Bike Incentive Project, folding what’s left of the funding into Clean Cars 4 All, a car trade-in program. Instead of helping people replace car trips, the state is rewarding people who already own one. It’s a telling political moment that mistakes “cleaner cars” for real progress.

This isn’t what climate leadership looks like. Over one hundred thousand Californians lined up for a modest voucher that would help them drive less, save money, and move freely. Ending that opportunity now ignores that clear demand and walks back hard-won progress.

Send a message now

Our state leaders can’t afford to shrug this off.  It’s time to create a permanent fund for e-bikes — a real mobility solution, not another subsidy for car dependence. Contact your reps now.

………

Streets For All is calling on Metro to spend just a tiny fraction of the $600 million it spends building freeways to fully fund CicLAvia.

Tell Metro to fully fund CicLAvia

Metro’s Planning and Programming Committee is currently reviewing Open Streets applications for Cycles 6 & 7 (2026 – 2028), but their own guidelines“include funding only for open and slow streets aligned with the major events 2026 and 2028,” leaving little or no support for local community Open Streets events in between.

CicLAvia is Los Angeles County’s largest recurring Open Streets program, drawing an average of 50,000 participants per event. These events transform city streets into safe, car-free spaces that promote public health, community connection, and environmental benefits:

  • Nearly 50% of first-time attendees said they would have otherwise stayed home or been sedentary.
  • A Preventive Medicine study found CicLAvia delivers measurable public-health benefits.
  • Harmful air pollution (PM 2.5) drops by almost 50% along the route on event days, and by 12% in surrounding neighborhoods.

Yet while event costs continue to rise, Metro’s Open Streets funding has not kept pace. Concentrating funds only around major international events undermines proven, community-based programs that already advance Metro’s mission of improving mobility, public health, and sustainability. Metro invests more than $600 million annually in freeway projects. We urge the agency to fully fund monthly CicLAvias, modest investments with outsized returns for public health, clean air, and community well-being.

TELL METRO TO FUND CICLAVIA [CUSTOMIZE THE BOTTOM]

………

Funny how bike lanes are always the problem when it’s the cars that are getting bigger.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:tr4cft75d5yyfurquqoctgug/post/3m4tlsntvj22n

……….

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

Bike lane haters keep losing at the ballot box in Massachusetts, despite misleading comments that bike lanes cause traffic congestion. Hint: It’s actually too many cars.

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

Apparently, a mass World Naked Bike Ride is okay, but riding naked by yourself along a New Zealand waterfront isn’t. Although most of the story is hidden behind a damn paywall, unfortunately.

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Orange County cities are playing catch-up to the massive boom in ebike popularity. Although once again, most of the problems come from people on often-illegal electric motorbikes, rather than ped-assist bicycles.

With a form of Doublespeak that would make Orwell proud, Encinitas is considering removing safety features on Santa Fe Drive to improve safety.

Sad news from Bakersfield, where a 32-year old man was killed by a driver while riding his bike

Healdsburg’s BiblioBike mobile bicycle library was honored by a national group for Excellence in Book Bike Outreach Programming.

 

National

A 69-year old Las Vegas man faces charges after he told police he killed a 77-year old man riding a bicycle after using marijuana and drinking an “unknown quantity of beers” before the crash; officers described him as “belligerently impaired” after the crash, and before he was taken away in an ambulance.

Voters in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown lived up to their reputation, approving plans to replace the former college football stadium with a shiny new bike park. And yes, that was the same stadium where I used to smuggle bourbon and rum inside my Sousaphone for the marching band.

Bike lanes on a busy Jacksonville, Florida street have gotten a new coat of green paint, although at least some bicyclists say it’s not enough to keep cars out and improve safety.

 

International

Momentum says London, New York and Paris rank at the top of the newest list of the world’s best cities — in that order — and what they have is common is they all put people first.

They get it. An English town is planning to spend the equivalent of $654,000 to upgrade the city’s main separated bike lane to keep delivery drivers from bypassing the widely spaced car-tickler plastic posts to park in it.

In the US, people have protested competitions that allow trans women to compete, but in the UK, several women turned down nominations to Cycling UK’s annual 100 Women in Cycling award because it excluded trans women and non-binary people from consideration.

You can add bikepacking along the Rhine River from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea to your bike bucket list, taking you from “Swiss mountain air to German castles, French Alsace flavors and Dutch windmills.”

Hundreds of people are expected to turn out next month with their bicycles festooned in twinkling lights and creative decorations for The Hague’s fifth annual Haagse Fietslichtjesparade.

 

Competitive Cycling

Good news for LA cycling fans, because multi-time former national champ Justin Williams is getting the band back together, reforming the L39ION of Los Angeles Continental-level cycling team with his brother Cory; the team dominated elite US racing until it was disbanded a few years ago.

Belgian pro Wout van Aert says it feels “pretty weird” to have a fanbase in the US, as he visits Laguna Beach. As if American cycling fans somehow don’t appreciate greatness. 

 

Finally…

The manifold joys of drinking out of a garden hose on an ultra-endurance ride.

And a bet’s a bet.

Although it would have been nice to see Karen Bass on that bikeshare bike. Even if, as Steven put it in an email to me, Bass “would have had a prepared, pothole free, debris free, inconvenience free, (What? Stop at red lights????) route with a large security entourage.”

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Killer of OC bicyclist Jeff Rosenthal on trial for murder, CARB murders CA ebike incentive, and emulating Paris bike boom

October 30, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 303 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Time served isn’t enough.

The bicycling community is being urged to turn out next week, when an Orange County driver with a long criminal record goes on trial for murder.

In this case, for fatally running down a man riding a bicycle, while — allegedly — under the influence of multiple drugs, so high he reportedly didn’t even know where he was after the crash.

And after signing a Watson notice following a previous DUI conviction, acknowledging that he could be charged with murder if he ever killed someone while driving under the influence anytime in the future.

And he did. Allegedly.

Thirty-seven-year old Los Angeles resident Zachary Thomas Haralson has been behind bars since his arrest in September, 2022, accused of killing 72-year old Jeff Rosenthal in Laguna Hills.

According to the Orange County Superior Court, Haralson is charged with felony counts of murder, hit-and-run with permanent and serious injury, and driving on a suspended license. Death being the “permanent and serious injury” in this case.

He has pled not guilty to all charges.

Haralson has been arrested at least ten other times since 2014, on charges including drug possession, illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, burglary, grand theft, and taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent — something most of us would call car theft.

Here’s what Bicycle Club of Irvine posted about the case.

Oct 27th update from Barbara Rosenthal (Ed: Jeff’s widow). “Just letting you all know – The trial for Jeff’s murderer, Zachary Haralson, is tentatively scheduled to begin on Nov 7th.  The court informed me that there will be 2-3 days of “housekeeping” (I.e., motions, jury selection, etc) before my family, friends and I are suggested to participate.  If you can/want to attend some of it, check with me or the following website:  OCCOURTS.org

Case # is 22HF1631.

It will be held at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.  You don’t need to come, but I wanted you to have the info.  Let’s give Mr. Haralson a looooong vacation and keep him off the roads!
Please spread the word to BCI members.
Anyone will be able to access the website with just the case #. It’s finally happening!!!”

The perpetrator has been incarcerated since killing Jeff and he deserves more than time served. Family and community outrage will help extend his punishment.

Another BCI post tells more about Jeff Rosenthal, how the crash happened, and the family he left behind.

So does this letter from his best friend, Orange County bike lawyer Ed Rubinstein, which was posted on this site shortly after Rosenthal’s death, before we learned his identity.

Thank you for your reporting, but I cannot let the rider who was killed remain anonymous. He was my best friend.

I do not have any information on how or why the crash happened, but I do know the wonderful human being whose life was snuffed out too soon.  His name was Jeff Rosenthal. He was 72 years old, retired, and he had just celebrated his 41st anniversary with his wife Barbara. Jeff, like me, originally was from Long Island, NY. He was an experienced cyclist who used to ride over 7000 miles per year until he reduced the frequency of his rides slightly as he recently got back into surfing.  He rode with the Bicycle Club of Irvine where we met about 10 years ago.  He was my best friend, the witness at my wedding and we rode together no less than weekly. Jeff had a quick wit and was always smiling. He was the friend you could always count on to help, but he never wanted to bother others. He was out riding Friday morning. He butt dialed me that morning. He told me he had a flat. and I offered to pick him up as it was hot outside. He said he was almost home, and would call me if he needed any help. I wish he had accepted my offer. I now suspect I was the last person with whom he talked to that day.  I am gutted and the world has lost someone precious.

My guess is this will be a relatively quick trial once they seat a jury, so make plans to attend if you can. With such an extensive criminal record, Haralson shouldn’t have been out on the streets, let alone behind the wheel.

Let’s hope he doesn’t see either one for a very long time.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

………

So much for that.

It looks like the long-promised second round of California’s Ebike Incentive Program is dead on arrival.

Because the program itself is now DOA, murdered by the overly car-centric California Air Resources Board.

According to Calbike, all the remaining funding has been shifted into getting people to keep driving, in ostensibly cleaner cars.

Because no car is really clean.

CARB’s decision to absorb the remaining funding from the E-Bike Incentive Project into Clean Cars 4 All is a telling political moment—one that mistakes “cleaner cars” for genuine progress. It’s easier to imagine replacing every gas car with an electric one than to imagine a California where people can move freely without cars at all. But the latter is what true climate leadership requires. The E-Bike Incentive Project wasn’t flawless, but it represented a rare, tangible step toward that future: a policy backed by funding that helped Californians drive less, not just differently. Reversing it is a step backward for the state and a disservice to the people who believed in it…

The state is taking the wrong lessons from the turbulence of the EBIP roll out; the overwhelming demand makes clear this is a popular program that people want. Tens of thousands of Californians lined up for each round of the e-bike incentives, waiting hours online for a chance at a modest voucher. Their wants and needs are clear and simple – a new, affordable, economical way to get to work, to school, to the grocery store without being locked into the cost and burden of car ownership.

Ending that opportunity now ignores that clear demand and walks back hard-won progress toward a more livable, affordable, and sustainable California.

This is a perfect example of the sheer and utter incompetency CARB has shown in mismanaging the program since its inception.

I don’t know about you, but I plan on emailing my state representatives before this day is over; you can find yours here if you’re as mad as I am.

The only reason I’m not doing it tonight is because I can’t trust myself not to say what I really think, in the language it deserves.

………

Streetsblog USA takes a look at how Los Angeles can replicate the bike boom spurred by the 2024 Paris Olympics, focusing on the efforts of a group called Festival Trail.

And no, I never heard of them, either.

One answer is to combine community, philanthropy, and partnerships — co-aligning the once-in-a-generation investment during the 2028 Games with long-term goals of building the next LA. A project that embodies this ethos is the Festival Trail, a community-driven initiative for interconnected, non-vehicular corridors connecting the dispersed neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

The Trail route aims to connect major venues of the 2028 Games along current and planned transit connections, helping Angelenos safely move around the city car-free during the Games and for years after. Though the vision is bold, the Festival Trail is rooted in a strategic idea: closing a few key gaps in the network can open up Los Angeles in a big way…

In addition to building physical connections, the Festival Trail aims to shift the culture of bike ridership and car-free transportation more broadly in Los Angeles through public space activations. Festival Trail is partnered closely with CicLAvia on Open Streets events, citywide celebrations where Angelenos can walk and bike along streets temporarily closed to cars and reimagine what LA could feel like if it were designed for people.

It’s worth a read.

Although I might be more inspired if I hadn’t just watched the Dodgers tank their second game in a row.

But transforming this auto-centric city is, to put it mildly, an Olympian task. Especially since we have a city administration that’s already doing everything they can to tank Measure HLA.

That comes after years of city officials tanking Vision Zero, the Green New Deal, Mobility Plan 2035 and the 2010 Bike Plan. Which is exemplified by that fact that the Vision Zero website hasn’t even been updated in two-and-a-half years.

Never mind that traffic deaths are now far higher than they were when Vision Zero was adopted ten years ago. Or that the graphic on the top of this page says traffic deaths were supposed to have been ended here 303 days ago.

But maybe, just maybe, if Festival Trails cooperates with the groups that have been working on this for years, like Streets For All, Streets Are For Everyone and BikeLA, and somehow manage get Los Angeles 2028 on board, they might actually have enough leverage to get something done here.

We can hope.

………

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

New homeowners in an Ohio development are furious because they paid a premium for privacy, but failed to notice plans for a bike path in the conservancy land behind their homes, which was in motion before the homes were even built.

………

Local 

A reminder that the 4th annual Cal State Northridge Bike Festival takes place from 10 am to 2 pm this Sunday, with club rides beginning at 8 am.

 

State

Stanton became the latest Orange County city to crack down on ebike riders, approving a list of ebike violations that are already against state law, except for a 5 mph speed limit on sidewalks, and a 20 mph limit on city streets — which is blatantly illegal unless drivers are limited to the same speed.

San Marcos is also cracking down on ebikes, banning their use for riders under 12.

San Diego area triathletes just can’t win, coping with SoCal drivers in the streets, and great white sharks in the waters off La Jolla.

 

National

Seattle is painting 200 new “bike and scooter corrals” on the streets in an effort to rein in dockless bikeshare and e-scooter rentals. Maybe someone should explain to them what a bike corral really is, because this ain’t it. And they’re a great way to get more people to ride.

People in Iowa Amish communities are trading in their horses and buggies for ebikes.

A pair of liberal and conservative Minnesota legislators prove it’s possible to bridge our political divide if you ride bikes together.

No bias here. Police in Pennsylvania blamed a 16-year old boy for riding his ebike into the path of an oncoming van — after redacting an earlier statement that the driver was speeding, insisting the driver’s speed didn’t matter because the boy was at fault. Even though the kid likely based his decision to cross the street on the assumption the driver wasn’t speeding, and therefore had enough time to do it. 

This is how you do it. Arlington, Virginia officially opened a new $11 million Complete Streets project near the Pentagon that will eventually connect to an upcoming bike/ped bridge across the Potomac River, as well as another pedestrian bridge leading to Reagan National Airport.

 

International

Bike Radar offers advice on what to do if your head hits the ground, saying bicyclists are more cavalier about concussions than other athletes. Based on my experience, you regain consciousness wearing an oxygen mask, ride in an ambulance with lights and siren, and spend some quality time in the ICU. But what do I know?

Speaking of murder, a London woman is accused of using her Range Rover as a weapon to run down and kill a man riding an ebike following a high-speed chase, then hiring a man to run down her ex-boyfriend as he rode one — all because of a bad breakup.

Momentum says Antwerp, Belgium is an “effortlessly cool” city best toured by bicycle. Then again, every city is best toured by bicycle, if the city makes it safe and practical. And yes, I’m looking at you, Los Angeles.

 

Competitive Cycling

Speaking of concussions, Italian cyclist Filippo Baroncini is back on his bike, just two months after he was placed in an induced coma following a crash in the Tour of Poland.

 

Finally…

Nothing like setting a new Guinness record for hopping across ten car roofs on a single bike wheel in just one minute, when you’re still way too young to drink one.

And if Tamale, Ghana is as tasty and bike-friendly as it sounds, I’m moving there.

……… 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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