Day 349 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Last week, we mentioned that Torrance will consider new ebike regulations at tonight’s City Council meeting.
Make that over regulating, once again lumping ped-assist ebikes together with electric motorbikes, and safe bike commuters with overly entitled teen gangs on high-speed dirt bikes.
It’s hard for me to effectively evaluate proposals in cities I barely know, and haven’t ridden in for years.
Fortunately, North Torrance Bike Bus organizer Kyle Richardson has shared an open letter to the Torrance council that clearly spells out just how far overboard this proposal goes.
So if you live or ride in the area, give this a close read. Then attend the meeting if you can, or submit your comments before the meeting.
Because this crap is just ridiculous. And dangerous.
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What comes after Vision Zero?
That’s the question San Francisco is attempting to answer after the expiration of the city’s Vision Zero program, which was supposed to end traffic deaths in the city by last year.
But didn’t.
In fact, according to public television station KQED, the city saw 41 traffic deaths last year, the highest total since 2007. This year has been better, with 23 traffic deaths to date, although pedestrians account for over two-thirds of those deaths.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced the new approach will involve streamlining the decision-making process into a new Street Safety Initiative Working Group.
Which doesn’t quite have the same ring as Vision Zero, but still.
Lurie framed the city’s initiative as a more aggressive implementation of the “Safe System” approach, of which zero deaths on the roads is the goal. Lurie said the policy directs streets to be built to handle human error, managing vehicle speeds so that common mistakes don’t become fatal tragedies.
“Too often, traffic injuries are the result of predictable patterns and preventable conditions,” Lurie said. “This initiative will make streets safer for everyone … In San Francisco, safety is non-negotiable.”
The problem is that the Safe System is based on the concept of shared responsibility, which means a seven-year old kid biking to school has the same responsibility for safety as the people in the big dangerous machines.
Even though only one of those is likely to kill anyone.
And it ain’t the kid.
KQED reports the main difference between the new Street Safety Initiative Working Group and Vision Zero — aside from having an actual defined goal — appears to be the involvement of the mayor’s office.
A primary task within the first 100 days of this directive is to confirm and publish the 2025 High Injury Network — the map of the specific streets where the vast majority of severe crashes occur. Once confirmed, the city is tasked with identifying a priority list of “quick-build” projects, which use paint and physical barriers to rapidly improve safety in high-risk areas.
Within six months, the working group is required to release a Traffic Enforcement Strategy Report identifying the top crash-causing behaviors to target.
For advocates who have spent years pushing for safer streets, the directive represents a hopeful, yet overdue, step. White noted that while the Bicycle Coalition sees this as an extension of previous work, the direct involvement of the mayor’s office offers a new level of accountability.
All of which should have been done already, of course.
Still, it’s worth watching, in case Los Angeles ever decides to take another stab at reducing traffic violence, let alone traffic deaths, after the abject failure of this city’s Vision Zero, which was supposed to end traffic deaths a whopping 349 days ago.
Although streamlining doesn’t seem to be a strongpoint in Los Angeles these days.
Never mind accountability.
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No surprise here.
An administrative law judge ruled that CD12 Councilmember John Lee violated Los Angeles ethics laws by accepting expensive food, alcohol, hotel stays and other gifts from three men trying to influence City Hall, in the same case that put his predecessor behind bars.
If you can call a Club Fed minimal security camp “behind bars.”
The judge recommended a $43,730 fine for violations committed when Lee was chief of staff to then-City Councilmember Mitchell Englander, who ended up sentenced to 14 months for his role in the pay-to-play scandal.
Lee was never charged by prosecutors, however, despite being the notorious “City Staffer B” referred to in Englander’s federal indictment, and won re-election last year despite the scandal.
The city Ethic Commission will make a final determination on any penalty for Lee tomorrow. I’m tempted to say that if Lee had any ethics, he’d step down if the commission rules against him.
But if he had shown any ethics, he wouldn’t have gotten caught up in the scandal in the first place.
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‘Tis the season.
Chance the Rapper teamed with chicken strip outlet Raining Canes to sponsor a bike giveaway for 100 kids in Chicago Ridge, giving back to the community where he grew up.
An annual holiday bike giveaway program in Newport, Massachusetts matched 85 local kids with new bikes, helmets and safety lessons.
The sheriff of Louisiana’s Lafourche Parish is asking people to nominate kids to receive a refurbished bicycle; the program gave away 225 bicycles to families in need last year, and more than 5.700 since 1992.
Bike giveaways aren’t limited to the US, either, as more than 90 refurbished bicycles were distributed to kids in County Clare, Ireland.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
‘Nuff said.
Clearly there was just nowhere else to park.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
An Amazon delivery driver in an unidentified city says he “went postal” on a road raging bike rider who allegedly called him an “idiot” and the n-word, then spit in his face, after the delivery driver reportedly got too close for comfort by edging out into the rider’s path. Look, we all get pissed off by dangerously obtuse drivers who just don’t get it. But spitting, and spitting out racial slurs, is going too damn far.
London’s former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, aka the head of Scotland Yard for those of us over here, is urging a crackdown on “rogue cyclists,” saying too many pedestrians are being injured by people on bicycles. Just wait until someone tells him about all the pedestrians injured, or worse, by people in cars.
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Local
Boyle Heights Beat offers photos from the inaugural two-day Camino City Terrace open streets event this past weekend; Streetsblog’s Joe Linton provides his photos, as well.
State
UCI Health offers advice to teens on how to stay safe riding an ebike. Once again conflating the dangers of throttle-controlled electric motorbikes with ped-assist ebikes.
We discussed this one last week, but it’s worth mentioning again as Steven forwards the Cal Matters License to Kill investigation alleging that California leaders looked the other way as more than 40,000 people died in roadways in the state.
A writer for Planetizen says San Diego’s car-centric planning makes the city a paradise for cars, but it’s literally killing children. Then again, considering the toll of school shootings as well as traffic violence, our society doesn’t seem to have a problem with that.
San Diego may follow the example of other SoCal beach cities by banning the use of ebikes for kids under 12.
A 62-year old driver was arrested in Palm Springs for the drunken hit-and-run that left a bike rider with moderate injuries Sunday night; no word on how they tracked him down.
National
No news is good news, right?
International
How holiday boozing affects your biking. Aside from the obvious risk of falling off it.
Ghost bike takes on a different meaning in Mexico City, where two “ghost” bike parking facilities remain abandoned for as long as five years after they were built to improve urban public space.
Residents of Havana, Cuba were up in arms after a man was killed when he hit a massive pothole on his bike in broad daylight, and his body was just left lying in the roadway next to it for hour afterwards.
A Welsh truck driver is on trial for careless driving after killing a woman riding a bicycle, claiming the sun was in his eyes. Which should be seen as a confession, rather than a defense; if you can’t see, pull over and wait until you can.
British foldie maker Brompton continues to suffer from falling sales after the pandemic bike boom went bust.
The Emerald Isle now offers the first cross-border bikeway between Ireland and Northern Ireland, providing a 12-mile route along fjord-like coastal landscapes.
Prosecutors in the Netherlands are calling for the makers of Stint cargo bikes to spend five years behind bars for a 2018 train crash that killed four children riding in a cargo bike, alleging that the bike’s many technical flaws caused the rider to lose control and fall onto the tracks.
A new public survey shows a plurality of New Zealanders support investing in bikeways by a 6% margin over opponents, with the highest support among younger people, Māori, and people in the highest income bracket.
Speaking of New Zealand, mountain biker Samuel Shaw set a new record for biking across the country, covering the 396 miles from Aukland to Wellington in 17 hours and 21 minutes, breaking the previous record of 18 hours, 26 minutes set by Lachlan Morton in February.
Competitive Cycling
Longtime pro cyclist Peter Stetina is calling it a career after the coming gravel season, calling it his “Farewell Tour.”
Outside profiles the Gaza Sunbirds paracycling team, composed of Palestinian amputees who deliver aid to refugees as well as racing, “turning loss into resilience on and off the road.”
Finally…
What to put in your kid’s stocking, if a new bike doesn’t fit. Turning lost hubcaps found on bike rides into art.
And your next ebike could be kinda car-adjacent.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
