Day 49 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Is the late, great Golden State going too far when it comes to ebikes?
A writer for CleanTechnica makes exactly that case, arguing that California is overregulating ebikes by prohibiting riders from using the sidewalk and banning throttles.
Instead she suggests the real solution is to improve safety by building protected bike lanes and dedicated bike highways, while improving infrastructure to keep cars, fast bikes and pedestrians apart.
In this case, banning e-bikes from sidewalks while not making safe space for riders somewhere else is the thing being pushed. Children who died because an inattentive driver ran them over aren’t going to be made more safe by banning them from having electric assist, and if anything, this punishes victims. Banning throttles doesn’t stop the practice of “ghost pedaling,” and doesn’t stop people from being able to go fast by pedaling at bit in a high assist mode. These “feel good” policies just don’t make much sense.
But, let’s assume for the sake of argument that these policies make any sense. If we want to save that one life, we have to think about all of the lives lost to emissions. If emissions could be reduced, thousands of people could be saved every year from heart disease, respiratory problems, and cancer. Saving a handful of lives that could be saved in some other more narrowly-tailored way at the cost of keeping the emissions murder machine going by discouraging e-bike ownership simply doesn’t make sense!
Where to even begin.
I’m all for better bike infrastructure and improving safety for everyone on our streets.
But there is no statewide effort to ban ebikes from sidewalks. Even if I agree that a bike that can do 20 mph or more with little or no effort shouldn’t be mixing it up with pedestrians, though stopping short of a total ban.
Instead, numerous municipalities have prohibited ebikes from being ridden on sidewalks, which is their privilege under state law, just like they have the option to ban or allow other bikes.
However, they don’t have the legal right to prohibit them from local streets or bike lanes, where they are allowed under state law.
I also haven’t seen any attempt to ban throttles, though I would like to see higher speed, throttle-controlled ebikes reclassified as something between an ebike and an electric motorcycle, akin to a mo-ped.
Cities in California also have the ability to ban ebikes for children under 12, which seems prudent, since many lack the judgement and motor skills to control something that can go up to 20 mph, or often higher.
But so far, the state has been remarkably hands-off in regulating ebikes, for the most part appearing to take a wait-and-see approach to permitting their use.
For better or worse.
Meanwhile, Dutch researchers have concluded that “The debate over the conflicts between fatbikes, mopeds, and bicycles overshadows the real problem: cars get too much space.”
Which is probably something most of us can agree on.
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Police in Glendale are looking for a 12-year old boy with autism and ADHD who went missing on a bicycle ride on Sunday, after he was last seen in the 1600 block of Rock Glen Avenue, near Eagle Rock Plaza.
The Glendale Police Department seeks your help in locating a missing child, Matthew Rocete, 12, male, 5' 5", 90 lbs., brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a red beanie or cap, green t-shirt, black shorts, black and red Nike shoes. pic.twitter.com/iEheYFZ7Mv
— Glendale PD (@GlendalePD) February 17, 2025
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Bad news from unincorporated Del Rio, north of Oxnard, California, where a young kid described as just 10 to 13-years old suffered major injuries when he was cut off by a driver while riding his bicycle at an uncontrolled three-way intersection.
He was not wearing a helmet, even though a bike helmet is required for anyone 17 or younger under California law. Which for once actually matters, since he suffered injuries to his head and eye.
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Metro will host a virtual public meeting this Sunday to consider first mile/last mile connections to the upcoming NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit line, or BRT.
Although you’d think they’d know enough not to schedule it during Sunday’s CicLAvia, which they also sponsor.
Here’s how Walk Bike Glendale describes it.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The New York Post says complaints over drivers blocking fire hydrants have skyrocketed — and somehow finds a way to blame bike lanes for “gobbling up” parking spaces. Rather than blaming scofflaw drivers for, you know, breaking the law.
No bias here, either. A Welsh city has pulled the plug on plans for a “vital” segregated bike lane after residents complained the $1.8 million project would be the “biggest waste of money.” Because evidently, protecting human lives just isn’t worth what amounts to a piddling sum in most roadway budgets.
British bike riders lashed out at the “vitriol and lies” being spread about active transportation advocates, after drivers accused the local council of forcing bicycling on communities.
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Local
LAist remembers iconic UCLA parking meister Donald Shoup, who died last week at 86, although the parking reforms he fostered will live on in cities and towns around the world.
State
This is who we share the road with. Encinitas wants to harden a traffic circle on the Coast Highway near an elementary school to keep speeding drivers off the sidewalk, after averaging over one crash a month for the last 18 months — most involving drunk drivers.
National
Mountain bikers in Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument could be required to stick to designated trails and off-road vehicle routes under a new proposal from the Bureau of Land Management. Although with the current federal staff reductions and budget freezes, there may be no one to stop you.
Huh? Police in McKinney, Texas ruled that there was no criminality in the hit-and-run crash that killed a 14-year old boy, after deciding that the driver did stick around, after all. So either the driver was there or wasn’t, which doesn’t seem that hard to figure out.
Bike riders in Jersey City NJ fear a state grant intended to improve bike safety will instead be watered down to favor people in the big, dangerous machines.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 94-year old man in an Atlanta suburb has earned the name “Bicycle Man” by refurbishing and giving away bicycles for the past 13 years, while riding a bike himself up to his 92nd birthday; his father rode one into his 90s.
International
Momentum considers just what cities give up by surrendering to car culture by removing bike lanes.
A British website billing itself as “the ethical choice” says making pedestrians and bike riders wear beacons to alert inattentive drivers to their presence is just driving us to dystopia while threatening both.
This is who we share the road with, too. A 21-year old English man was convicted of murder for intentionally running down an ebike rider, chasing the victim after becoming enraged by his wheelie-popping showboating, just to teach him a lesson. All while appointing himself judge, juror and executioner — literally.
The rich get richer, as newly bike-friendly Paris is installing “grands feux vélos,” aka traffic lights specifically designed for bicycles, on a major bike route through the heart of the city. It’s also worth remembering that the dramatic transformation of Paris to a 15-minute city promoting bicycling and walking began little more than a decade ago.
Cops in Spain’s Canary Islands are trying to figure out what happened to a British tourist who was found dead on the side of the road where he had been riding his bicycle, with no evidence he’d been struck by a driver.
More sad news from Spain, where authorities appear to have found the body of American expat Matt Opperman, who disappeared while mountain biking last month; searchers found his van near Castillo de Segura de La Sierra shortly after he vanished, but no sign of Opperman until this week.
A writer for Electrek returns to China’s Bafang factory for the first time in five years, and is surprised to find a massive, modern R&D and manufacturing site that now makes the entire drivetrain for many of the world’s ebikes.
Competitive Cycling
Former Tour de France champ Egan Bernal’s hard-fought comeback from a near-fatal training crash is on hold for now, after breaking his collarbone in Andalusia, Spain’s Jaén Paraíso Interior Classic.
Britain’s Geraint Thomas decides to call it a career after this season; the former Tour de France winner and Olympic gold medalist has been racing for nearly two decades.
Finally…
Riding outside trumps indoor cycling, even in winter. That feeling when mountain biking down a volcano is enough to end your thrill-seeking days for good.
And a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it slap at New York ebike riders.
Thanks to Megan Lynch for forwarding the clip.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
