Tag Archive for protected bike lanes

Another bike rider critically injured on PCH in Orange County, and Caltrans proposes bike lanes on PCH in Long Beach

October 29, 2025 / / No comments
Day 302 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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At least the driver stuck around this time.

City News Service is reporting that yet another person was critically injured riding a bicycle on PCH in Orange County Tuesday morning.

The crash occurred around 8:30 am yesterday on northbound PCH near Fernleaf Ave in Newport Beach. Unfortunately, there’s no word on the identity or current condition of the victim, or how the crash occurred.

The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.

This comes just eight days after an allegedly stoned driver killed a popular pastor on PCH in Huntington Beach, and seriously injured two other people riding bikes with him.

Let’s hope the victim recovers quickly.

Photo by Artyom Kulakov from Pexels.

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SoCal’s killer highway may finally be getting a little safer.

At least in Long Beach.

Caltrans is proposing a lane reduction on PCH, from the city’s traffic circle to the Los Angeles River, reducing it from the current seven lanes to five, while installing protected bike lanes.

There are two designs on the table to improve safety on the city’s most dangerous roadway.

A public workshop will be held this evening to discuss the options. There is also an online survey for the next month, or you can email 99335@publicinput.com. Or the chronically offline can call 855/925-2801, Project Code: 11835.

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Lime is offering free ebike and e-scooter rides to the polls for Election Day next Tuesday, matching Metro’s free Election Day rides.

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

A New York funeral home is calling on the city to rip out new protected bike lanes it says interferes with their hearses, in an apparent attempt to drum up new business.

No bias here. An English council supplied a newspaper with a quote saying bicyclists were disrupting funerals and riding through mourners to save 30 seconds using an unofficial shortcut, even though the initial press release simply said the cut-through was being used by bicyclists, pedestrians and scooter riders.

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

A 50-year old British man pled guilty to manslaughter for killing 91-year old man in a crash while riding an ebike on the sidewalk, as the man was putting out his garbage cans. Although once again, there’s no word on whether he was on a ped-assist bike, or an electric motorbike. 

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Local 

The Culver City council approved a proposal to move forward with research and design work for new bike lanes on Sepulveda Blvd, despite one councilmember arguing for saving parking since he owns a market on the corridor; the city hopes to finish the work before the 2028 Olympics.

Nearly 900 people turned out for the 8th annual Halloween-themed Finish the Ride and Finish the Run in Santa Clarita over the weekend.

Harrison Ford may be 83, but he still looks like he could drop most of us, as he rides on the beach bike path. Okay, maybe just me, but still. 

 

State

San Francisco Streetsblog examines new first & last mile bicycle connections for a North Berkeley transit station, calling it great bike infrastructure that needs more concrete.

The new shuttle service that replaced the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on weekdays began operations on Monday, with riders loading their bicycles into a cheap-ass open air industrial trailer before climbing into a van to get to the other side; operators expect to carry just a few people and bikes at a time. Proving once again that making bicycling exceptionally inconvenient somehow reduces ridership.

 

National

No surprise here, as People For Bikes says a study of 500 cities shows that more people buy bicycles in areas with safe and accessible places to ride. But they also want to know why people aren’t buying more bikes if they’re riding more.

Bloomberg City Lab says US companies are refurbishing secondhand ebikes in an effort to create a market for used ebikes and lower the barriers to ebike ownership.

A Las Vegas TV station says police are investigating e-scooter and ebike deaths, citing a rise in fatality rates with four and two, respectively. Even though they only started tracking them this year, and have no idea how many people were killed on them in any previous year.

Chicago bike riders are combating ICE raids by riding around the city buying out tamale stands so the workers can go home, then distributing the food to people in need.

A 25-year old New York man was killed when he was doored by a driver while riding a bikeshare bike — yet the driver hasn’t been charged due to an “ongoing investigation,” despite a state law requiring motor vehicle occupants to only open their doors when it’s safe to do so. We have the same law here in California, which should mean drivers are automatically at fault in virtually any dooring, but too often doesn’t.

In yet another example of authorities keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, a 19-year old man pled guilty to killing a popular New Orleans bartender, by slamming into his bike without braking, then fleeing without stopping or slowing down — and still had a .7 BAC and coke in his system when he was finally tested 12 hours later; a TV station later found multiple alleged reckless driving crashes on his record, including allegedly crashing his car while doing 100 mph with a car full of teens.

 

International

What took so long? Look has finally introduced the first mass-produced clipless pedals with built-in lights that are visible up to 1 kilometer away, or slightly less than 2/3 of a mile.

To the shock of absolutely no one, a new London study finds near misses of bicyclists happen most often at rush hour and on streets without safe infrastructure. Because that’s when streets are busiest, and where they’re most dangerous.

Multi-modal bike commuters are afraid to lockup their bikes at a South London train station, in a neighborhood — excuse me, neighbourhood — termed a “hotbed of thieves.” Which makes sense, since the cops said they won’t investigate if people leave their bikes parked at a train station more than two hours.

Eleven British bicyclists have now been attacked by axe-wielding, mo-ped riding bike thieves.

Two-thirds of the bike lanes in Thessaloniki, Greece are considered high or very high risk due to a lack of protective barriers.

In a bizarre case, a Kenyan cop was fatally electrocuted while using the department’s electric car wash machine to clean his personal bicycle.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you ride over 3,500 miles a year, and still fall off your bike at red lights. Or when you end up in the hospital after going over your handlebars — but your lipstick is still perfect.

And repurposing one bicycling meme to reference another.

Thanks to Taco the Cat for the heads-up. 

— Kevin (@kevinsteinley.bsky.social) 2025-10-26T16:53:32.327Z

 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Tell LADOT to build the Ohio Ave protected bike lanes HLA demands, and keep traffic violence from ruining your Halloween

October 28, 2025 / / No comments
Day 301 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Damn straight.

Streets For All is urging you to demand that LADOT follow the legal mandate in Measure HLA, and put protected bike lanes on Ohio Ave between Westwood Blvd and Westgate Ave in West LA.

As someone who used to ride that stretch of Ohio several times a week, I can attest it would be a huge improvement over the current situation, which varies from wholly inadequate painted bike lanes to nothing.

Unless they’ve added sharrows to Ohio in the years since I stopped riding there, which studies show are literally worse than nothing.

Tell LADOT to add protected bike lanes on Ohio Ave!

LADOT’s Ohio Ave Safety and Mobility Project looks to reimagine Ohio Ave between Westwood and Westgate, as well as surrounding streets, to provide better connectivity between UCLA and areas West of the 405.

The Mobility Plan 2035 – now required under Measure HLA – mandates protected bike lanes between Federal and Westwood. Unfortunately, due to lack of political will, there are no planned bike facilities on Westgate, Rochester, Saltair, or Texas.

Take their survey and ask for protected bike lanes for the entire stretch

TAKE THE SURVEY

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Streetsblog is recommending four ways you can help keep traffic violence from ruining your Halloween, which is the deadliest day of the year for children.

Which is something to remember before you get behind the wheel this Friday. Or better yet, a damn good reason not to.

Walk or ride a bike if you can, take transit if you can’t. Or at least try to get home before all the little rugrats hit the pavement just before or after dark.

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The open streets event Active Streets: Corazón del Valle rolls this Sunday, transforming five miles of El Monte and South El Monte streets into a vibrant community space, just in time for Dia de los Muertos.

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Christian singer Forrest Frank encountered a man singing one of his songs from an ebike on the Santa Monica bike path, and stopped to join in.

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Thanks to Megan for forwarding this story of a family’s fight to keep their rail bike business going, which she says is a way to preserve rail corridors for future transit use.

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

A Saint Paul, Minnesota group calling themselves Save Our Streets is suing to halt a bike trail project. Which, oddly, is exactly what the project is intended to do. 

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

He gets it. A Scottish writer says new laws intended to crack down on reckless bike riders are “pointless,” because only nine people were killed by bike riders in the six years leading up to 2022, while 30,000 people are killed or seriously injured by drivers in the UK every year — regardless of how the tabloids try to frame it.

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Local 

Pasadena was set to adopt a Vision Zero plan in all but name at yesterday’s city council meeting, pledging to eliminate traffic deaths and significantly reduce serious injuries by 2035. Let’s just hope they take it more seriously than a certain nearby megalopolis we could name, which only managed to make things worse in a decade of neglect. 

The high desert community of Lancaster has transformed its downtown area with a nine-block, walkable and bikeable boulevard, as the initial $11.5 million investment has been repaid many times in the 15 years since it opened.

 

State

No, that wasn’t Britney Spears seen driving erratically in a viral video after leaving a Thousand Oaks restaurant in a white Mercedes that looks just like hers. Unless maybe it was.

Sad news from Bakersfield, where a man riding a bicycle was killed Saturday afternoon when he was run down from behind by a 32-year old woman, who tried to take evasive action after she “suddenly noticed” him while traveling up to 50 mph. Even though a grown man riding a bicycle in broad daylight should have been pretty easy to spot.

Horrible news from San Luis Obispo, where the Executive Director of Bike SLO County has been charged with a single count of a lewd act upon a child, with the victim reportedly under the age of ten; he’s pled not guilty. Let’s hope it’s just a misunderstanding, because there’s not a pit in hell deep enough if he actually did it.  

Redwood City cops weren’t able to find the schmuck who stole an 11-year old kid’s bicycle, but at least they found the boy’s bike secreted behind a nearby business.

Sorry, Bay Area bike commuters. The erstwhile bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge is now a breakdown lane for motor vehicles on most weekdays.

 

National

People For Bikes says this has been a record-setting year for expanding access for e-mountain bikes. Although whether that’s actually a good thing is still being debated. 

Hats off to Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus, who got a shoutout from Northwestern University’s school of journalism, recognizing how he’s grown the site from a leading bike blog to a vital local news site.

A DA in Oregon’s Rogue Valley is reopening an investigation into an alleged reckless motorcyclist who killed a 17-year old boy riding an ebike after discovering new information, including that the boy’s bike did, in fact, have lights on it, and the motorcyclist had admitted to drinking “a little,” but was never tested for drug or alcohol use.

A Seattle bicyclist has launched what he calls a AAA service for ebikes, promising to come to your rescue if you get stranded on your ebike; however, it currently only serves the Seattle area. Although it sounds like reinventing the wheel, since the Better World Club and some regional AAA clubs have done that for years with conventional bikes, and probably now with ebikes, as well. 

Close, but no cigar. A Colorado Springs, Colorado TV station repeatedly gets it wrong, saying that bikes aren’t allowed on most streets with a few exceptions, then saying they are — but apparently meant to say it’s only legal to ride on the sidewalk on a handful of streets. I’d say the story was written by AI, but most AI systems would have done a much better job. 

Denver opens their final round of ebike rebates for this year, offering qualified residents vouchers up to $950, which can be combined with a state tax rebate of $450. That compares favorably to California’s one successful round of ebike rebates, period. 

Evidently, Los Angeles isn’t the only place that will have a Stranger Things bike ride with the upcoming Melrose CicLAvia, as cities around the US will host similar rides on November 23rd, including Houston.

He gets it. A Minnesota writer says it’s easy to complain about bike lanes and make fun of people in spandex, but it’s just a fig leaf for serious traffic safety concerns.

 

International

Your next bike saddle could be custom-made for your very own butt cheeks.

A new study shows how bike lanes can reveal the hidden inequities of our streets, with painted bike lanes too often “symbols of tokenism rather than transformation, a thin sliver of space separating cyclists from fast-moving traffic rather than a true reclamation of streets for human-scale movement.”

Unsurprisingly, the London man who was repeatedly struck with an axe by motorbike-riding bike thieves says he’s no longer comfortable bicycling by himself. Gee, ya think?

A man who was severely disfigured by a drunk driver while riding his bike became the first person in the UK to receive a custom-fitted, 3D-printed face. Yes, an entire face, which is pretty damned amazing. 

 

Finally…

If you left your muddy mountain bike in the New York woods, I think someone found it. That feeling when you bust into a bike shop disguised as a Beavis and Butt-Head character, and leave like J. Wellington Wimpy of Popeye fame (look it up, kids).

And nothing like being a 14-year old weight weenie.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Car becomes WMD in Santa Monica, Incomplete Street on SaMo Blvd, and it’s science: bikeways make bikes safer

October 27, 2025 / / One comment
Day 300 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Once again, a motor vehicle has become a weapon of mass destruction, in what sounds a lot like an intentional assault.

Even if no one is using that word yet.

According to multiple sources, four pedestrians were struck when a speeding, wrong-way driver suddenly swerved onto a busy sidewalk on Wilshire Blvd between Euclid and 14th in Santa Monica.

A man and a woman in their 60s were killed, and another two people were injured, including one who may have been in critical condition, though both were expected to survive.

Police are still looking for the driver, who fled the scene on foot.

Witnesses described the driver passing other vehicles on the wrong side of the road at a very high rate of speed, and repeatedly going on and off the sidewalk before the crash.

So the question remains whether this was “merely” a very dangerous driver who lost control of his car, or someone acting with murderous intent.

We may never know, unless and until the driver is caught.

But either way, it’s a prime example of what happens when a high-powered, lightly regulated machine is in the wrong hands.

By lightly regulated, I mean anyone can buy — or steal — one. And almost anyone can get a license to operate one, which is too easy to get, and too hard to lose.

And there’s nothing to stop you from continuing to drive, even if you do.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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Once again, Caltrans is ignoring their own Complete Streets policies, with an incomplete makeover of Santa Monica Blvd through Los Angeles.

The state announced a $70 million infrastructure project along two sections of Santa Monica Blvd through West LA and Hollywood to begin next year, along with another project through Echo Park on the same State Highway 2 corridor.

According to Westside Today,

The project includes pavement rehabilitation, new bus priority lanes, and accessibility improvements across three major sections:

  • West Los Angeles: Santa Monica Boulevard between Centinela Avenue and the I-405 freeway.
  • Hollywood: Santa Monica Boulevard between La Brea Avenue and the U.S. 101.
  • Echo Park: Alvarado Street and Glendale Boulevard between the U.S. 101 on- and off-ramps and the SR-2 terminus.

What’s missing is any mention of bike lanes.

And while bikes are legally allowed to use bus lanes in Los Angeles, that’s not the same as providing a separate lane for bikes, which would seem to be necessitated by state and agency rules requiring them to consider the needs of all road users in any work on state highways.

Unlike Metro’s work installing bus lanes on the Vermont Ave corridor, Measure HLA doesn’t apply because this is a state highway, rather than a city-owned street. And the work is being done by a state agency, without city involvement.

There’s no actual law requiring Caltrans to build Complete Streets, after a bill to do just that failed in the legislature.

But it’s hard to argue that any work that excludes bike lanes on any portion of the Santa Monica Blvd/SR2 corridor in the City of Los Angeles has reasonably considered the needs of everyone.

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No surprise here.

A research study published in the Injury Epidemiology Journal cites the need for safer and calmer roadways, safer cars and better legislation to protect people on bicycles.

Cyclists face severe injury and death risks in both urban and rural settings. A safe system approach recognizes human vulnerability and the inevitability of mistakes. Engineering countermeasures, such as road separation, better lighting in rural areas, traffic calming, and vehicle safety features (i.e., guard rails, advanced headlights, and cyclist detection), support CMVC prevention. Public health campaigns and legislative action, along with equitable implementation across urban and rural areas, facilitate improving cyclists’ safety.

The study also notes that of the 83 people killed riding bikes, excluding children, head trauma was the most common injury across all age groups, and 62% of the victims weren’t wearing helmets.

However, they don’t say whether the victims actually died of head injuries, and whether the injuries could have been survivable, with or without one.

Until we know that, we still won’t know the true value or necessity of bike helmets.

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Long Beach is the latest coastal city considering a crackdown on ebikes.

The un-cleverly named Long Beach “E-BIKES” law (Electric Bicycle Interventions to Keep Everyone Safe) proposal cites a non-existent gap in state and federal regulations requiring the city to step in.

Except ped-assist and other relatively low-speed ebikes are required to follow the same rules as any other bicycles, while faster ebike riders must follow rules for mo-peds or motorbikes, depending on their speeds.

And off-road dirt bikes aren’t legally allowed to ride on city streets, regardless of how they’re powered.

So if there’s a gap there, I can’t see it.

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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has placed a bet on the Dodgers to win the World Series that will require her to ride a bike if they don’t.

Bass bet Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow that the mayor of the losing city will have to ride a bicycle wearing the other team’s jersey, with the distance determined by the run differential between the winning and losing teams.

Although any baseball fan can tell you that could be a negative figure, since the losing team could have a high margin in the games they win, and a have a close score in the ones they lose.

But it’s almost enough to make you pull for the Blue Jays, just to actually see Bass on a bike.

Almost.

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Thanks to Jim for forwarding a reminder that you can now legally ride your bicycle through a red light on the leading pedestrian interval.

And yes, that includes all-way stops.

California vehicle code allows bikes to ride through an intersection when the pedestrian signal says “walk…”

SEC. 3.

Section 21456 is added to the Vehicle Code, to read:

21456.

(a) If a pedestrian control signal showing the words “WALK” or “WAIT” or “DON’T WALK” or other approved symbol is in place, the signal shall indicate as follows:

(1) A “WALK” or approved “Walking Person” symbol means a pedestrian facing the signal may proceed across the roadway in the direction of the signal, but shall yield the right-of-way to vehicles lawfully within the intersection at the time that signal is first shown. Except as otherwise directed by a bicycle control signal described in Section 21456.3, the operator of a bicycle facing a pedestrian control signal displaying a “WALK” or approved “Walking Person” symbol may proceed across the roadway in the direction of the signal, but shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicles or pedestrians lawfully within the intersection.

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Megan forwards a video from British TV with this description.

    Actor, writer, director Richard Ayoade is now so known for riding a Brompton (he rides it to the local London studio filmings he works on), that the most recent episode of The Last Leg is the SECOND time a show has “stolen” his Brompton as a bit of comedy for the show.

When they give it back to him on show, he actually unfolds it on camera, and rides off. The audience applauds the quick unfolding.

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

Motorbike-riding British bike thieves are using axes now to steal bicycles, in a country where guns are hard to get. And frankly, if I had to choose which one might be used on me, I’d take the gun.

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

No bias here. A London reporter took to the city’s streets to record edited video of bicyclists putting pedestrians at risk by jumping red lights and riding on the sidewalk. Which is bad enough, but just wait until someone tells them about cars.

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Local 

As usual, rides will be free on Metro on next Tuesday’s Election Day, including Metro Bike rides.

Pasadena’s Water & Power Department will offer ebike rebates up to $1,000 to local residents. Which compares rather favorably to LA’s $0 rebates.

Pasadena residents were expected to turn out for the three-mile the Wilson Avenue Greenway Walk, to demonstrate the city’s efforts to improve walking and biking conditions across the 210 Freeway.

 

State

The San Diego Union-Tribune continues their multi-part series on the rise of ebikes — but you have to get pretty far into it before they distinguish between ped-assist bikes and electric motorbikes.

San Diego expected 3,000 people to turn out for CicloSDias, the city’s equivalent of CicLAvia, closing down two miles of streets to motor vehicles and inviting businesses to set up in the street.

An 84-year old Simi Valley man suffered life-threatening injuries when he allegedly swerved his ebike into the side of a car, and was thrown off; police note that he wasn’t wearing a helmet, without saying whether he suffered a head injury. Because we all know the driver couldn’t possibly swerved into his bike, especially if they were the only witness. Although you’ll have to find a way around the paper’s paywall if you want to read it. 

Oakland is finally removing telephones from the sidewalk-level bike lane on Fruitvale Ave.

 

National

Portland will install whimsical artwork from a contest involving everyone from kids to adults directly onto the pavement on bike paths and greenways.

That’s how you do it. Seattle took a dilapidated roadway uncomfortably shared by truckers and bicyclists, and turned it into a three-lane road rebuilt to carry up to 80,000 pounds, and a beautiful new, fully separated bike path with a wide median in between. Although there’s still a damn freeway on the other side, so there’s that. 

Paris continues to get more bike-friendly, announcing plans for a new bike lane and pavement work downtown. No, not the one in France, the one in Texas. 

Police in New York are once again looking for a hit-and-run driver who seriously injured a bike rider while fleeing for the cops; the 36-year old bike rider and a female officer were both hospitalized in stable condition, while the driver fled on foot.

The New York Times says the city’s new ebike speed limit is “taking the wind” out of bikeshare users “exhilarating commutes.”

A Reuters photo shows a man riding what looks like a bikeshare ebike with the US Capitol in the background. Which, unlike some other government buildings, is still standing.

A North Carolina teenager was collateral damage in a crash between a drunk driver and a 19-year old driver, which left the 19-year old with multiple serious injuries and killed a 14-year old bike rider; the drunk who caused it all was a mere 16-years old, with a 1.1 BAC.

Hundreds of Georgia residents turned out Saturday for a memorial ride to remember a 51-year old father of four who was killed by an accused drunk driver while riding his bike the previous weekend. If we could get that many people to show up for any victim of traffic violence, things might actually change around here. 

A proposed Florida law would require a driver’s license or learner’s permit to operate a Class 3 ped-assist ebike capable of speeds between 21 to 28 mph. Even though the real risk comes from illegal dirt bikes and electric motorbikes incorrectly classified as ebikes.

 

International

A writer for Bike Radar says ebikes are ruining mountain biking, because they make it too easy and take away the hard work.

A group of English bicyclists want plastic bollards installed on a bikeway to create a separated bike lane, but say pretty please just fix all the potholes first. Which does not seem like an unreasonable request.

A writer for a British women’s magazine says she hadn’t ridden a bike for 20 years, until she unexpectedly took up mountain biking at 44-years old.

 

Competitive Cycling

Tragic news from Italy, where 25-year old Italian cyclist Kevin Bonaldo has died, two months after he collapsed at the end of the Piccola Sanremo race on Sept. 21 in Sovizzo, Italy.

Cycling Weekly remembers British cycling pioneer Bill Mills, whose dream of becoming the first Brit to compete in the Tour de France ended in a pair of DNFs in 1933 and ’34.

Turns out that racing around the world in 130 days isn’t as hard as it sounds. Although it still sounds pretty damn hard.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the new rules mean hanging your bikes off the balcony. Apparently, even monsters like Dutch bikes.

And why not make your bicycle a key part of your costume this year?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WeHo councilmembers explain support for Fountain Ave, and Metro approves $85.5 million for LA County bike/ped projects

September 18, 2025 / / No comments
Day 261 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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They get it.

Well, some of them, anyway.

As we mentioned on Tuesday, the Complete Streets makeover of Fountain Ave in West Hollywood will go forward, after a seemingly endless multi-year process.

One that saw far too many avoidable deaths and injuries along the way, along with countless dollars in property damage.

Sam Mulick, a reporter for the Beverly Press & Park LaBrea News, reported on Monday’s West Hollywood City Council, where the first phase of the Fountain Ave redesign was approved on a 3-2 vote.

Councilmembers John Heilman and Lauren Meister cast the no votes, while Mayor Chelsea Byers, and Councilmen John Erickson and Danny Hang voted yes.

I’ll let you read Mulick’s story if you want Heilman’s and Meister’s reasoning for opposing the project.

But at least Meister asked the right questions, even if it seemed like she could benefit from sitting down with someone who could correct a few misperceptions on traffic safety.

Heilman, however, seemed to be a lost cause.

But let’s take a moment to examine why the other three supported the project, which could have a dramatic effect on traffic safety, while significantly improving livability on the corridor.

“It’s our responsibility to create options for a diverse community,” (Byers) said. “That is something that’s really important to me especially in this extremely dense area of our community. Kids, especially, have been locked inside of their homes … it is because cars and collisions and the violence they experience interacting with them is the No. 1 contributor to kids’ deaths. And that is a horrific reality that we can transform without having to send families to suburbs.”

Then there were these heartrending comments from Erickson and Hang, both of whom seemed to fully grasp the cost of keeping the street in its current deadly, car-choked form.

“This is my backyard and the sheer fact that I walk by Blake Ackerman’s ghost bike every single day to walk my dog is truly one of the most haunting experiences I have ever had to experience,” (Erickson) said. “This process that we have been going through for five years is killing people. It’s just that simple.”

Councilman Danny Hang said that the redesign will help lower income residents who travel without cars and help the city meet climate goals by reducing emissions. Hang added that the redesign is personal to him because his partner was the victim of a vehicle collision on Fountain Avenue and was hospitalized as a result.

“Fountain Avenue has long been one of the most dangerous corridors in our city,” he said. “Just over a decade we have seen dozens of severe crashes and five lives lost. Those aren’t just numbers. Those are our neighbors and friends and family members and for me, the most important measure of success is simple – fewer people getting hurt and more people getting home safely.”

However, the war isn’t over.

The project will come back before the council again next year, when they will have to approve a construction contract for the first phase. Any change in the makeup of the council could adversely affect that vote.

But for now, at least, we’re finally on our way to a safer Fountain Ave. Even if it comes too late for Ackerman, and too many others.

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Local 

Metro approved $85.5 million in grants for 16 projects throughout Los Angeles County, primarily for first mile/last mile connections and improving mobility for the Olympics; among the projects are new protected bike lanes on Overland Ave in Culver City, and closing another gap in the LA River bike path through the San Fernando Valley.

 

State

Huntington Beach is considering extending restrictions on ebike-riding kids, requiring them to ride on city streets or bike lanes near places like schools and churches. Never mind that bike lanes are, by definition, on streets, or that once again, there appears to be no distinction between ped-assist ebikes and illegal dirt bikes and electric motorcycles.

Carlsbad continued its march to age restrictions for ebike riders, after the Traffic Safety & Mobility Commission voted Tuesday to recommend banning kids under 12 from riding ebikes, although the Coast News calls the restrictions “toothless.”

Cathedral City is installing new painted bike lanes on Whispering Palms Trail as part of the city’s Active Transportation Plan.

Ventura’s city council voted to keep six downtown blocks carfree, like they have been since the early days of the pandemic.

Parents in Menlo Park are complaining that new speed humps installed as part of a Complete Streets project are making it more dangerous for their kids to bike to school, because they extend all the way across the bike lane.

San Francisco voters recalled Supervisor Joel Engardio by a nearly two-thirds margin over his support for turning a two-mile stretch of the Great Highway into a linear park; now recall proponents will try to force its return to a smog- and traffic-choked coastal highway.

 

National

Electrek scrubbed Rivian’s behind-the-scene promo video, and pieced together leaked images of their upcoming ebike that the company had blurred, revealing what appears to be a ped-assist cargo bike.

Seattle opened new protected bike lanes on the least-steep section of the city’s Beacon Hill, creating a 6.5 mile protected corridor across the city. Thanks to fellow corgi dad Mike for the heads-up. 

Good idea. Spokane, Washington’s Bicycling Advisory Board took to their bikes to ride the city’s streets, looking for areas that need improvement. Although with 7,500 miles of streets in Los Angeles, that could take awhile here. 

I want to be like them when I grow up. Sequim, Washington’s Ancient and Honorable Cyclists held their annual meetup; 18 of the group’s 22 octogenarian members turned out, most of whom ride three times or more a week.

Utah just found the skeletal remains of a 47-year old homeless man who disappeared three years ago after setting out for a bike ride.

The editor of a Colorado newspaper says “the world feels like it’s going to h-e-double-toothpicks without the incentive of a handbasket right now,” but at least living in a small town where kids can ride their bikes makes life a little better.

New York is claiming progress on Vision Zero, as the city experienced its lowest level of traffic deaths in five years. Proof that reducing traffic deaths is possible if cities actually take it seriously, unlike a certain SoCal megalopolis I could name. 

 

International

Vancouver, British Columbia is reversing course once again on bike lanes in the city’s 1,000-acre Stanley Park, after the Park Board approved a new mobility plan containing separated bike lanes, just two years after ripping out previously installed bike lanes through the park.

A 62-year old Englishman rode his bike 105 miles from London’s Hyde Park to his home in Wiltshire to raise money for hospice care — despite two previous strokes and having a pacemaker, osteoarthritis and just one kidney.

The UK’s biggest bicycle retailer says things are finally starting to look up, following a modest 1.7% increase in sales this year.

French ultra cyclist Sofiane Sehili is being held in pre-trial detention in Russia until October 4th on unannounced, super-secret charges, after being arrested for an illegal border crossing while attempting to set a record for the fastest crossing of Eurasia by bike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling Australia examines the process that brought Africa’s first UCI Road World Championships to Rwanda.

Sports Illustrated says the stampede to join the ever-expanding Team Visma-Lease a Bike cycling team continues, as 23-year old Italian “superstar” Davide Piganzoli signed a three-year “mega deal” with the team. Although that seems like a very generous use of the term “superstar” for someone who just graduated from the U23 ranks. 

 

Finally…

Now even the trees are out to get us. Being violent ebike thieves is bad enough, but kitty-napping is just going too damn far.

And if the Jolly Green Giant ever needs a new bike, he’ll now know where to find a few.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WeHo Council approves Fountain Ave project, dismal year for CA safety bills, and road rage driver threatens NY ambulance

September 16, 2025 / / No comments
Day 259 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

There’s good news on Fountain Ave for a change.

After three-and-a-half hours of public discussion, a deeply divided West Hollywood City Council voted to move forward with a Complete Streets makeover of the deadly corridor — including curb protected bike lanes.

It’s going to take awhile to digest everything, in part because the actual vote got a little confusing when they broke the motion into three parts.

But here’s how things broke down.

First up was a vote to approve staff recommendations 1 & 3, which passed 3-2:

  • Consider approval of 30% Plans for Phase 1 of the Project;
  • Approve Amendment No. 2 to the Agreement for Services with Fehr & Peers in the amount of $131,040 to provide Construction Administration and design contingency for Phase 1 of the Project;

Second, the council voted unanimously to approve recommendations 2 & 4, amended to include an assessment of removing peak hour parking:

  • Provide direction on recommended immediate traffic calming measures that can be made in the next 1-2 months ahead of the delivery of Phase 1 of the Project;
  • Authorize Staff to initiate Phase 2 of the Project, including the release of a Request for Proposals for a Phase 2 consultant, and the expansion of the Steering Committee to guide the visioning process;

Finally, they approved recommendation 5 to exempt the project from CEQA by another 3-2 vote:

  • Find Phase 1 of the Fountain Avenue Streetscape Project statutorily and categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Public Resources Code sections §21080.25, §15301(c), and §15304(h).

By my count, public comment broke down 25 to 18 in favor of the project, though there were a handful of comments that required a secret decoder ring to figure out whether they were for or against.

And a few even that didn’t work for.

While the final outcome is great news, the close vote means it would only take a change of one vote to halt things in its tracks when the project returns to the council next year to approve a construction contract.

So it’s still fingers crossed for now. But things are looking pretty good.

………

On the other hand, things aren’t looking great in the state legislature, as Streetsblog reports only a few traffic safety-related passed both houses before the deadline.

  • AB 366 extends the operation of interlock devices indefinitely after a driver is found guilty of a DUI and repeals related reporting requirements
  • SB 71 streamlines CEQA review requirements for public transportation and bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects that reduce car dependency
  • SB 720 modernizes state regulations allowing municipalities to create and operate red light camera programs

On the other hand, a number of good bills failed to advance.

  • AB 891 would have required Caltrans to develop quick-build projects to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians
  • AB 939 would have placed a bond on next year’s statewide ballot to fund sustainable transportation throughout California
  • AB 954 failed to pass despite being significantly watered down, going from a mandate requiring that Caltrans build bike highways, to merely defining them in state planning documents
  • SB 445 would have created deadlines for permitting Complete Streets and sustainable transportation projects to prevent local governments from dragging out the process while they barter for concessions

Finally, one failure was good news, as AB 697, which would have allowed the expansion of State Route 37 through protected habitats and wetlands in Sonoma County, suffered a welcome death.

………

This is who we share the road with.

A road-raging driver in New York’s Hudson Valley faces multiple charges, after chasing an ambulance that passed him while responding to an emergency call with lights and siren — then brake-checking the ambulance after he caught up to it.

Although all the charges are misdemeanors and traffic citations at this point. But let’s hope it’s enough to keep the 47-year old man from driving again until he’s 87.

Or maybe ever.

………

Active SGV is hosting bike rides in Montebello and El Monte this Saturday.

………

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

An economist with the libertarian Hoover Institution is convinced new bike lanes on El Camino Real between Menlo Park and Sunnyvale aren’t worth the lost business during construction work and a loss of parking, because he and his wife only saw on bike rider at the exact moments they happened to go by. Never mind that bikes can be harder to see because bike lanes move riders more efficiently than traffic lanes, and that bike lanes usually result in higher retail sales.

A Florida man with a history of road rage assaults got out of his truck to threaten a 19-year old bike rider, who yelled at him about speeding, then told him to “shut the fuck up” when the driver responded by flipping him off. Thanks to Mike for the heads-up. 

Road Rage on Bayshore
byu/Ancient_Hyper_Sniper intampa

………

Local 

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers photos and an open thread from Sunday’s Historic South Central meets Watts CicLAvia.

Pasadena finally approved a sweeping update to the North Lake Ave Specific Plan after a 10-year public process, including wider sidewalks and bike parking, but no bike lanes despite providing access to a Metro train station.

Writing for Cycling West, Peter Abraham says he was excited by Caltrans’ plans to install new bike lanes on deadly PCH through the ‘Bu, until he learned about the 11 to 20-year timeline — and that’s if they can get funding of up to $268 million. So we might as well get more ghost bikes and white tires ready, because we’re likely to need them before they get this damn thing fixed.

 

State

British adventurer Matt Garman set out from San Diego to ride across the US, with a single bag containing just one set of clothes, a cellphone and a credit card, to raise funds for a children’s charity. And that ain’t gonna protect him from any early winter weather along the way.

Eureka will begin work this weekend to complete a bicycle blvd on the city’s C Street.

 

National

Olympic speed skater Jordan Stolz is one of us, making a comeback on the rink after suffering a deep gash in his leg when he went over his handlebars and into a ditch when his chain unravelled while riding near his Wisconsin home.

An 80-year old Boston man describes how he was the first bike rider to crash because of new speed bumps installed in a local state park.

She gets it. A Philadelphia lawyer says we need to start treating bicycling fatalities as “the natural outcome of a system that prioritizes cars above people,” and “commit to making sure they can walk, ride, and bus to class without fear.”

Heartless Virginia Beach thieves made off with an adaptive recumbent bike that a 69-year old woman was using to complete her recovery from a massive ischemic stroke that initially left the left side of her body totally paralyzed.

A Virginia group is working for safer streets through an online dashboard that allows bike riders and motorists to report near-miss collisions due to driver or infrastructure issues.

 

International

A split screen British advertising campaign is putting posters on firetrucks calling for giving bike riders and others more space on the road.

 

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-three-year old American cyclist Matthew Riccitello signed with the French Decathlon CMA CGM team for the next three years, after finishing fifth at the Vuelta and winning the white jersey for best young rider.

Pro cyclists say that next time it will only get worse, after pro-Palestinian protesters managed to disrupt the recent Vuelta, leading to the shortening of several stages, including the final.

UCI understandably questioned Spain’s ability to host major events going forward, while WorldTour cycling teams considered boycotting the Israel-Premier Tech team in future races; meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for Israel to be banned from international competition.

The Philadelphia Cycling Classic is making an unexpected comeback next year after a ten-year hiatus, promising a return of world-class — though not necessarily WorldTour — cyclists.

I want to be like her when I grow up. An 82-year old woman nicknamed “Granny McGnarly” is still shredding downhills in mountain bike races.

 

Finally…

Well, why wouldn’t you build a new space capsule docking prototype from spare mountain bike parts? That feeling when your impromptu DIY cycling podium is made from ice chests.

And just call it Living La Vida Vaca.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WeHo Council to hear Fountain Ave Monday (oops), HLA lawsuit in court today, and Amestoy Ave bridge zoom Monday

September 12, 2025 / / No comments
Day 255 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Today is the anniversary of 2007’s Infamous Beachfront Bee Encounter.

That was when a massive swarm of bees on the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Trail tried to kill me, sending me to intensive care and four months of medical home confinement. 

And set me on a path to 18 years of bike advocacy, and whatever the hell it is I do now. 

All without a single sting. Go figure. 

It’s worth a read if you don’t know my own origin story. 

Photo of Fountain Ave opponents protesting proposed safety changes by Joe Linton/Streetsblog.

………

Okay, I fucked up.

I wrote yesterday that the West Hollywood City Council would consider the makeover of deadly Fountain Ave at their meeting on Tuesday.

Except the meeting is actually on Monday.

I don’t know where I got the wrong date. But I take full responsibility for the massive fuckup, and for not checking the city’s website to verify the date.

So the good news is you have Tuesday night free, but you’ll have to clear your schedule for Monday. Because opponents of the makeover will undoubtedly come out in force, and we need all the support we can get.

But be prepared for a long night, because Fountain Ave is way down on the agenda at item E.1.

If you can’t attend the meeting in person, you can watch live on WeHoTV via Spectrum Channel 10 if you live in West Hollywood, or on YouTube

Public comments can submitted online through September 15th.

………

The Measure HLA lawsuit over the city’s failure to include the promised bike lanes in the bus lane makeover of the Vermont Ave corridor will be in court today, as Metro tries to shoehorn in.

The lawsuit, by longtime LA bike advocate Joe Linton, was filed against the city for failing to build the bike lanes as required by HLA, since they’re included in the mobility plan already approved by the city.

Although it’s important to note that Linton is acting on his own behalf, and not as a representative of Streetsblog, where he serves, admirably, as Los Angeles editor.

Metro is arguing that they should be included in the lawsuit, since they are funding the project, even though the work is being done on a city street. Their hope is that they can get the case thrown out if they’re named a party to the lawsuit, since Metro is a county agency, and HLA is a city ordinance.

Let’s hope the judge rules against them. But either way, there could still be a settlement that includes more bike and pedestrian elements as part of the makeover.

You can read the actual lawsuit file here.

………

Monday will be a busy day.

In addition to the WeHo Council meeting, the Encino Neighborhood Council’s Traffic and Transportation Committee will host a virtual meeting to consider the fate of the threatened Amestoy Ave pedestrian bridge over the 101 Freeway in Encino.

Caltrans already removed another pedestrian bridge at Encino Ave in 2022, forcing bike riders and pedestrians onto busy thoroughfares and highway underpasses to get from one side of the freeway to the other, which slices across the Valley like an ugly scar.

Removing the Amestoy Ave bridge would make a difficult crossing that much worse for everyone.

………

Speaking of Linton, as we were above, he’s compiling an archive of Measure HLA appeals that have been filed with the Los Angeles Board of Public Works on his personal website, B.I.K.A.S., which stands for Bicycle Infrastructure Knowledge Activism and Safety.

According to Linton, there have been 22 separate HLA appeals that he is aware of, which he has posted here, here and here. Most involve relatively minor issues like missing crosswalks and curb ramps that should have been completed when the streets were resurfaced.

However, Linton himself has filed a four-page appeal over elements that were left out when Los Angeles reconfigured a section of Victory Blvd in the east San Fernando Valley.

The city removed an existing peak-hour travel lane to restore car parking during rush hour. But they skipped the bike lanes included in the mobility plan, even though there’s enough space to add basic painted lanes.

And credit Joe with being enough of a bike-riding man about town that he’s familiar with projects like this in far-flung quadrants all over the city.

If you’re interested in filing your own HLA appeal, Linton also offers complete step-by-step instructions on his website.

……….

The Los Angeles Times The Wild newsletter recommends a pair of bike events this weekend, from Saturday’s World Naked Bike Ride to Sunday’s Historic South Central meets Watts CicLAvia.

Which should pretty much fill your weekend dance card.

1. Bike through Historic South–Central and Watts
Nonprofit CicLAvia will host a free open streets festival from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday where participants can traverse a 6.25-mile route through Historic South-Central and Watts. Visitors can walk and bike the route or choose any other people-powered means of transport. The route will include music, local food vendors and more. Learn more at ciclavia.org.

2. Bare it all on bikes in L.A.
L.A.’s World Naked Bike Ride will start at 10 a.m. Saturday downtown. Riders can choose from a more challenging ride at 10 a.m. or an easier 9-mile ride at 2 p.m. Participants can skate, scoot, jog or bike in their birthday suits along the ride. Body paint optional! Learn more at the group’s Instagram page.

………

I’m told there are still a few tickets left for Streets Are For Everyone’s 10th Anniversary celebration at The Morrison in Los Feliz, with CD4 Councilmember Nytha Raman as the closing keynote speaker.

However, the deadline to purchase tickets is midnight tonight, so get a move on. Although you’re welcome, along with everyone else, to drop in for the free pre-reception hour from 3 pm to 4 pm, no tickets necessary.

And yes, you’ll see me there along with my wife. Just look for the couple with the corgi (she’s a service dog, so she gets a pass — the corgi, that is, not my wife).

Meanwhile, you just have four days left to get early bird pricing for next month’s Santa Clarita Finish the Ride and Finish the Run, put on by the fundraising arm of SAFE.

The events commemorate founder Damian Kevitt’s inspiring return to finish the ride he had started before a hit-and-run driver nearly took his life.

And no, that driver was never caught.

………

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

No bias here. In a story that reads like it was written by AI, Newsweek says an Idaho altercation began when a bicyclist yelled “Fuck Charlie Kirk,” at a vigil for the murdered conservative activist. Except the person in question was on a scooter, rather than a bicycle, and the video starts with people surrounding and punching him, and doesn’t show the alleged shout.

A London paper lists the city’s worst intersections for bike riders jumping red lights, with the busy Oxford Circus shopping district reaching 50%. Although they don’t bother to offer any reason why, which could have at least something to do with people not feeling safe stopping at the dangerous intersection. 

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

A bike thief was busted by Huntington Beach cops when he was spotted two miles away, after police were alerted by quick-acting witness.

 

National

Bicycling examines the surprising causes of hand numbness among bike riders, and what you can do to avoid it. But evidently, they want you to keep those numb fumble fingers, because the story is only available to subscribers. Although what worked for me was moving my hands to different positions on the handlebars, holding the bars less tightly, and putting less weight from my shoulders on them. 

Trek launched new “pro-tested” 3D-printed saddles, promising to eliminate saddle sores, as well as sit bone and soft tissue pain. In other words, no more numb nuts.

A 67-year old Philadelphia man described as a “cyclist’s kind of cyclist,” who built his own bikes, rode safely and carefully, and advocated for safer streets was killed while riding his bike Tuesday when he was struck by one of two drivers traveling at high speeds, on what should have been a quiet street.

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 15 to 40 years behind bars after pleading guilty but mentally ill to the random shooting of a man riding a bicycle, who he had never met; he reportedly was turned away by both the police and a local hospital when he tried to get help for paranoia caused by issues with mental health and drug addiction, before killing the victim.

Bicyclists in Charlotte, NC are calling for a shift in mindset to make drivers more aware of bike riders on the roads. You know, kinda like people who ride bikes everywhere else.

 

International

A hit-and-run driver in Canada’s Yukon Territory was sentenced to six-and-a-half years behind bars for killing a man riding a bicycle, along with a ten-year driving ban; with credit for time served, he still has five years left on his sentence.

An 80-year old Calgary, Alberta man suffered life-threatening injuries when he tried to stop a man trying to steal his bicycle; the alleged thief pushed him backwards and he fell, striking his head. Seriously, hide a tracking device in your bike, and just let the cops deal with it. Because no bike is worth your life.

A 36-year old soccer player for Mansfield Town in the third-tier English Football League One was named to the roster for the coming year — but only after striker Lucas Atkins is released from prison for killing a 33-year old man riding a bicycle with his $271,000 Mercedes.

British surgeons say ebike injuries are placing a massive burden on the country’s health system. Although once again, they don’t seem to differentiate between ped-assist ebikes and electric motorbikes.

Bike Rumor visits the Zefal plant on the banks of France’s famous Loire River to tour one of the oldest and most affordable accessory manufacturers in the bicycling industry. Speaking of oldest, I remember when nearly everyone had a Zefal pump attached to their steel frame.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website asks why can’t bicyclists do vacation photos like normal people, and stop doing things like leaning your bike up against a landmark, lifting it in the air in front of some tourist attraction, or recording yourself unboxing it at the airport.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, a race moto sent multiple cyclists to the hospital when a cop on a motorcycle cut from one side of the road to the other with no warning, knocking riders off their bikes as they sprinted to the finish in stage 3 of the Vuelta a Venezuela, while sending at least one competitor flying over the retaining wall.

Cycling Weekly considers what data-driven road cycling can learn from rough-around-the-edges downhill mountain biking, which they call “cycling’s coolest discipline.”

Velo says a new bike racing format called Stadiobike maybe the answer to the cycling’s perennial problems, by staging bike races in front of fans in grandstands on automotive tracks.

 

Finally…

Your next handmade bespoke steel bike could come from Namibia — with “only” a 15% tariff for now. Nothing like buying your own bike back for just 700 bucks, 25 years after building it for a legendary Olympian.

And who needs a helmet when you’ve got a bird house on your head?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WeHo Council considers Fountain Ave on Monday, 19-year old man critically injured in Orange, and swrve rises from the dead

September 11, 2025 / / One comment
Day 254 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

WeHo Times offers a reminder that plans to remake Fountain Ave will come before the West Hollywood City Council at 6 pm Monday.

Correction: I originally said the meeting was on Tuesday, rather than Monday. I’m not sure where I got the wrong date, but I take full ownership of the fuckup, and not checking the meeting agenda to get it right.

The project is designed to slow traffic on the deadly corridor by removing one lane in each direction, widening sidewalks and installing curb-protected bike lanes.

Although it comes too late for Blake Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver at Fountain and Gardner while riding his bike home from work, and far too many others.

Local residents and pass-through drivers have been fighting this project, and will undoubtedly turn out in force to object to it because it will remove curbside parking on the street, and eliminate what for decades has been a faster alternative to busier boulevards nearby.

Which means we have to respond in kind to demand better safety and a more livable street for everyone.

The paper reports residents who can’t attend the meeting in person can watch live on WeHoTV via Spectrum Channel 10 or YouTube; although I’m not sure if that works for non-residents, as well.

However, public comments can submitted online from September 10th to the 15th.

………

Bad news from Orange, where a 19-year old man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding an ebike on Tuesday morning.

The crash occurred at Lewis Street and El Prado Ave; the driver remained at the scene, and police don’t suspect they were under the influence.

The story notes that the victim wasn’t wearing a helmet, which is not required for anyone over 18, and only matters if he suffered a serious head injury, which isn’t mentioned in the article.

Let’s just hope and pray he makes a full and fast recovery.

………

Just in time for Halloween, iconic Los Angeles-based bikewear brand swrve is rising from the dead, reopening under new ownership nearly a year after the company, which invented the first bicycling-specific jeans, shut down operations.

………

Santa Monica Spoke reports more curb protected bike lanes are going in on Stewart Street.

And doing it quickly, unlike a certain nearby megalopolis we could mention.

………

Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette forwards an article about the difficulty of demonstrating brain injuries, and how he worked with legal graphics firm Focus Graphcs to work up illustrations that helped result in a six-figure settlement for a triathlete on the eve of trial.

They’d sure as hell convince me. And evidently, had the same effect on the driver’s insurance company.

Illustrations by Focus Graphics

………

We’ve often mentioned that the East Side Riders are far more than just a bike club.

The nonprofit group operates a Watts bicycle co-op, host weekly bike rides, provide a safe, gang-free hangout for local kids, and works as community organizers to help strengthen the community and feed and clothe those in need.

Now they’ve made it even easier for you to throw a few bucks their way. Money that will do more good than most things you could do with it.

So what are you waiting for?

“The happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

………

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

You’ve got to be kidding. A Bend, Oregon driver is somehow considering claiming self-defense after getting out of his work truck, and walking back to assault a 16-year old kid — a boy with a cumulative 4.326 grade point average, no less — for the crime of riding two abreast with a friend, which is legal in the state, leaving the kid with $11,000 in medical bills and over $3,700 in damage to his bike; the attack ended after the driver’s young daughter yelled from the truck “Daddy, stop. Don’t do it.” LAPD officers have told me that in California, drivers are considered to have committed assault the moment they get out of their cars to confront someone. 

No bias here. A London magazine says the bicyclist may be a “kindly spirit in the countryside,” but in in the city, “this peaceable phantom has become a bloodthirsty wraith, terrorizing unsuspecting pedestrians, and refusing to follow the laws of man or motorcar.” Just wait until someone tells him about cars, and the careless and aggressively bloodthirsty people who drive them.

An Aussie hit-and-run driver denied deliberately injuring a bike rider, even though dashcam video from a trailing car showed her braking until the victim passed her, then turning her car to crash into him — something her lawyer said was somehow proof she tried to avoid him; meanwhile, she’s awaiting sentencing for intentionally injuring someone else.

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

Sad news from Massachusetts, where a 64-year old man died over a month after he was struck by a rider on a ped-assist ebike in Boston’s Copley Square.

………

Local 

Streets For All reminds you to take LADOT’s survey about the new concrete “Toronto barriers” installed on a trial basis on 3rd Street in DTLA.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department is conducting another bicycle and pedestrian safety operation from 5 am to 3 pm on Friday; a press release says they’re focusing on dangerous driver behavior, however, they are legally obligated to enforce the law equally whether you’re on foot, on a bike or in a car. So once again, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits. Thanks to David for the heads-up. 

Police in Hermosa Beach used a drone to find a bike theft suspect accused of stealing a bicycle outside a cafe. Thanks to Jim for the link.

 

State

State Senator Scot Wiener’s SB 71 passed both houses of the legislature with just one no vote and moves on to the governor’s desk for his signature; the bill extends provisions of a 2020 bill to streamline the CEQA permitting process for public transit, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects to 2040.

Calbike talks with a representative of Upway about what the California Ebike Incentive program got right, and what it got wrong. Although they could have spoken with at least a couple local bike shops participating in the program. Or even a few who didn’t, and ask them what it got wrong. Thanks to Ellectrek for the article. 

Over 200 people are riding 525 miles down the coast of California from San Francisco to Los Angeles for the 25th Arthritis Foundation’s California Coast Classic Bike Tour.

A writer for San Diego’s KPBS considers whether ebikes can make kids more mobile and still keep them safe, and whether the streets are ready for them. Although a lot depends on whether they’re using ped-assist bicycles, or non-street legal electric dirt bikes. 

For once, justice delayed is not justice denied, as a 28-year old San Francisco man was sentenced to 15 years to life for the hit-and-run death of a woman riding a bicycle, with nine years — yes, 9 years — credited for time served as he awaited trial for the 2016 crash; he reportedly brought both sides of the courtroom to tears by taking responsibility for taking the victim’s life.

San Francisco looks at what comes next after the city’s failed Vision Zero program.

 

National

Bicycling lists 12 mistakes to avoid when shopping for a used bike. But you’ll have to subscribe to read it, since it’s only available to people who pay, and it doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else. 

Good Morning America recommends the “best” bikes for every member of the family. None of which actually are, of course, even if some aren’t bad. 

For the thousandth time, no, bicycling does not affect fertility for most men.

Oops. Hawaii’s governor vetoed a bill intended to rein in high-speed electric bikes, after concluding that its prohibition against “high-speed electric devices” could apply to electric motor vehicles, as well.

As many as 2,000 people who participated in, or attended, an Utah high school bike race may have been exposed to measles, and at least four have contracted the disease. Which seems like a good time to mention that vaccination offers near full protection from the disease, which was nearly eradicated until the anti-vax movement took hold. 

A Denver TV station examines why local bike shops won’t service bicycles purchased online, with shops citing safety, parts and liability.

Chicago bike riders are making like Paul Revere to warn the public about ICE agents and inform immigrants of their legal rights.

Boston bicyclists say new speed bumps installed in a local state park are increasing danger on the roadway, rather than lessening it, as unsuspecting bike riders risk getting knocked cold. Apparently, Massachusetts has never heard of cutting channels into speed bumps to give people on bicycles a safe path to ride through, while still slowing motor vehicles.

Where to stay when you’re in need of dog, beer and bike friendly lodgings in Delaware.

A Philadelphia public radio station examines whether the city is still safe for traditional bicyclists and pedestrians, and what can be done to make it safer.

 

International

Life is cheap in London, where a distracted truck driver walked without a day behind bars for killing a woman on a bicycle, after the judge ruled that the victim had contributed to her own death by attempting to pass the truck on the inside — even though the driver forgot to check his mirror because he was distracted by his truck’s center console and was on a hands-free call.

London bikeshare use is spiking as commuters turn to rental ebikes to cope with a subway strike, although the weather isn’t exactly cooperating and some riders say it’s turning bike lanes into mosh pits on wheels.

A writer for The Spectator takes the contrary view to the common complaints against bikeshare ebikes, calling them “unquestionably, the best thing that has happened to London in my lifetime;” and adding that if you think they’re dangerous, cars are worse.

Here’s a warning from an English nurse and father of three, who thought his persistent back pain was due to bicycling, until he finally saw a doctor and discovered he was suffering from stage 4 prostate cancer.

Two 26-year old men rode their bikes over 4,500 miles from their home in Ireland to Singapore, to help one of them cope with the death of his father from a brain tumor; not only were they inexperienced, but one of the men didn’t even own a bike before they set off.

 

Competitive Cycling

Once again, Tuesday’s stage 16 of the Vuelta was shortened when pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted the race with 3 km, or 1.8 miles, to go; Spain will take “extraordinary measures” to prevent further protest disruptions on the final two stages in the Madrid region.

Wednesday’s stage 17 went off without disruptions, as Jonas Vingegaard maintained a 50-second lead over second place João Almeida.

Dutch cyclist Puck Pieterse says bike racing may be serious business, but you can still have fun, as Cycling Weekly calls her the sport’s “most exciting multi-discipline talent.”

 

Finally…

Your next non-folding e-foldie could fold anyway. The Mounties always get their man — even if he’s just riding without a helmet.

And nothing like riding the length of the UK on a homemade wooden bike as a protest “against a world made of plastic and steel.”

And yes, that includes DIY wooden wheels.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Repairs begin on Marvin Bruade Trail, share your thoughts on 3rd Street barriers, and LA’s bike “party on wheels” tomorrow

August 28, 2025 / / Comments Off on Repairs begin on Marvin Bruade Trail, share your thoughts on 3rd Street barriers, and LA’s bike “party on wheels” tomorrow
Day 240 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

About damn time.

Work is finally underway to repair a section of the beachside Marvin Braude Bike Trail near Will Rogers State Beach.

The $800,000 project will fix the pathway between Chautauqua Boulevard and Entrada Drive, near the Roosevelt Pedestrian Tunnel, that was washed out by heavy rains early last year.

The popular pathway is used by upwards of 10,000 people a day.

It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden that path, but I’m told there’s also a section further south that’s been washed out, as well.

And raise your hand if you even knew that tunnel had a name. Because I sure as hell didn’t, and I used it for years.

………

LADOT wants to know what you think about the new concrete barriers protecting the 3rd Street bike lanes in DTLA.

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LA Critical Mass invites you to join their “party on wheels,” aka the nation’s largest community bike ride, tomorrow, and the last Friday of every month.

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Bike Long Beach invites you to attend a screening of Biking While Black tonight, and join them for Bikes and Coffee on Sunday.

 

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Bike Portland editor Jonathan Maus talks with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson as they bike to work together.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass claimed she was one of us when she campaigned for office. But to the best of my knowledge, she’s has ridden a bike to work or with any member of the community ever since.

The last LA mayor I know of who actually biked to work was the late Richard Riordan, who frequently led rides with hundreds of his fellow Angelenos.

………

An English man took a tandem ride from his home in Bristol to Beijing after recovering from a rare form or cancer.

Which a reviewer for The Guardian says “makes for a good story but a rather annoying film.”

Ouch.

………

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

A Texas man faces multiple charges after allegedly using a stolen truck to jump a curb and intentionally crash into a man riding a bicycle, then returning three minutes later to run over the victim where he sat injured on the ground; the driver was arrested following a short police chase, after a witness used her own pickup to halt the second attack.

Life is cheap in London, where the father of a two-year old kid was sentenced to just 18 months behind bars for brutally attacking bike riders in two separate incidents, using his mo-ped to kick them off their bicycles while they were riding, and leaving both victims with lasting injuries.

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

A writer for the Southern California News Group explains the rules governing bicycles after an Upland writer asks what can be done to stop scofflaw bike riders from breaking the law. Just wait until they find out about all those scofflaw drivers breaking the law in their big, dangerous machines.

Commenters in Victoria, British Columbia were up in arms after someone posted a photo of a man riding a bicycle with a helmet-less baby strapped to his back. Although it’s my understanding that a baby’s neck isn’t developed enough to support the weight of a bike helmet.

A bike rider allegedly punched a driver in the coastal town of Poole, England and threw his bicycle into the car, causing the equivalent of $1,350 in damage. Nope, that’s the entire story, taking up all of one sentence. 

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Local 

The LA City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee approved a motion that could lead to ending off-street parking requirements for new developments, although Streetsblog’s Joe Linton says they’ll probably just build it anyway.

They get it. An injury law firm says LA’s streets are dangerous by design, and have a notable lack of bike lanes, protected or otherwise.

WeHo Times says a driver T-boned another car turning left from Fountain Ave onto De Longpre Ave, reigniting calls to improve safety on the deadly corridor; fortunately, no one was seriously injured this time.

Seriously? Mountain biking events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will be be held in the City of Industry, which is better known for housing warehouses than for its challenging terrain.

Police departments in multiple South Bay cities teamed up to crack down on ebike riders on Tuesday, citing riders for illegal ebikes, as well as blowing stop signs and teens not wearing bike helmets.

 

State

An 18-year old ebike rider and a younger relative both suffered non-life threatening injuries when they reportedly went through a red light and crashed their ebike into a car in San Marcos Monday evening. Although judging from the damage to the car, it looks a lot more like the driver hit them. 

Good for them. Bakersfield is formally opposing a recent grand jury report calling for a halt to building bike lanes that might kinda, sorta inconvenience some drivers; meanwhile, the founder of advocacy group Bike Bakersfield remains committed to working with the city to improve safety for everyone.

A San Jose bike co-op is teaming with the YMCA to provide third, fourth and fifth graders in East San Jose with free bicycles to help them get to schools farther away, after the closure of three local elementary schools.

 

National

Applications are now open for next year’s Cherokee Nation Remember the Removal Bike Ride, a three-week tour retracing the northern route of the infamous Trail of Tears.

Bike Mag offers a recap of Portland, Oregon’s MADE Handmade Bike Show, calling it the best bicycle show in North America.

That’s more like it. Portland backed off on plans to rip out concrete traffic diverters protecting bike lanes after a huge hue and cry from the public.

Thirty-seven-year old adventure cyclist Sarah Swallow set off on nearly 3,700 mile trip from Oregon to Missouri, becoming the first person to ride Adventure Cycling’s new, mostly dirt road Golden Gravel Trail.

A Reno, Nevada bike rider was hospitalized with minor injuries after being struck by a 14-year old riding an illegal electric motorcycle on the sidewalk; the kid who caused the crash was cited for multiple violations, while a friend on another bike was released with a warning.

The lead singer of ’90s rock stars The Offspring is one of us, going for a ride through Austin, Texas with America’s seven-time ex-Tour de France champ.

The leader of an Illinois advocacy group urges drivers to have “patience, empathy and attentiveness” in the wake of two serious bicycling collisions in the past week.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A second-generation Methodist paster in rural Tennessee was killed when he was rear-ended by the driver of a big rig truck while riding his bicycle.

Talk about not knowing your market. The owner of a Summerville, Massachusetts donut shop fears the removal of parking in front of his shop for a new bike lane will force him to move. Never mind that studies show bike lanes are good for business. And we don’t need any studies to know donuts attract bicycles like magnets.

A 49-year old New Jersey man will spend the next five years behind bars for killing a “selfless” nurse bicycling with her husband eight years ago, while driving under the influence of “a very high level of narcotics.” Although his two previous DWIs — aka DUIs — would have made him subject to a murder charge here in California. 

Speaking of DUIs, a Pennsylvania man faces a DUI charge for crashing his ebike while riding under the influence.

Seriously? A recent ex-con faces charges for attempting to sell firearms from his ebike, just five months after he was released from prison for his 12th — yes, 12th — felony conviction.

 

International

Bike Radar says carbon fiber is great, but your next bike should have an aluminum frame. Or maybe just get the new steel Pashley.

A former UFC announcer was fined the equivalent of nearly $3,400 for attempting to throttle a 14-year old boy over a Lime dockless bikeshare bike blocking the sidewalk outside his London home — even though he rode one himself to his court hearing.

The New York Times says the fatal stabbing of a 17-year old girl riding her bike home from a night out in Amsterdam has unnerved residents, in a city where riding a bike safely at any hour is taken for granted.

German ebike maker Riese & Müller has stopped shipping bikes to the US as a result of Trump’s 50% tariff on steel.

 

Competitive Cycling

Jonas Vingegaard is back in the leader’s jersey at the Vuelta, after his Visma-Lease a Bike team came in second in the team time trial.

Protesters briefly held up the Israel-Premier Tech team during their team time trial attempt to protest the war in Gaza. While the team is based in Israel, it’s mostly in name only, with only one of the team’s riders currently competing in the Vuelta from Israel. 

Velo looks forward to the third edition of America’s leading one-day bike race when the Maryland Cycling Classic kicks off next week, featuring US stars Neilson Powless, Brandon McNulty and Quinn Simmons.

A website for a tutoring company makes the case that the bikes used by cycling legends matters as much as the people on them, ranging from Fausto Coppi’s Bianchi to Lance’s Trek.

 

Finally…

Don’t mess with a cross-country rider’s Surly Trucker. Don’t let your next ebike make you SchArt yourself.

And probably not the best idea to use the local cop shop as your alibi for the hot bike you pawned.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

WeHo petition supports convenience over safety, Pasadena’s invisible bicyclists, and is anyone in LA listening to voters?

August 22, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 234 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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No surprise here.

A petition to oppose the redesign of deadly Fountain Ave in West Hollywood has over 2,300 signatures, proving once again that some people will always value their own convenience more than human lives.

Although that represents less than seven percent of the city’s population. And many of those signers are likely pass-through drivers from other cities, who are used to using the neighborhood street to bypass busier Santa Monica and Sunset Blvds.

Never mind that it has taken nearly a full year to draw those relatively few signatures.

But according to the somewhat less than unbiased WeHo Times,

Petition organizers argue Fountain is too narrow for the project and accuse city leaders of failing to adequately consult with residents, including those in adjacent Los Angeles neighborhoods. They point to other cities, including Culver City, Beverly Hills and South Pasadena, that have scaled back or removed bike lanes in response to public opposition.

Concerns listed in the petition include the diversion of an estimated 900 cars per hour to nearby Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards, the inability for cars to pull over for emergency vehicles or passenger drop-offs, and increased pollution from idling traffic. The project’s estimated cost is $35–40 million.

Not mentioned, however, are any benefits of the redesign, from slowing speeding drivers and improving safety for all road users to reducing noise pollution and revitalizing the residential corridor.

Nor is there any mention of the recent death of Blake Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike home from work on Fountain just last month. Or any of the other people who have been killed or seriously injured just walking, biking or driving on the corridor.

There’s also no mention that both the sheriff’s department and the county fire department said the redesign would not affect their ability to respond to emergencies along the corridor.

A petition in support of the street makeover has gathered 612 signatures since it was posted in October. And yes, that includes mine.

There’s no mention of that, either.

Photo of protestors opposed to Fountain safety project by Joe Linton for Streetsblog.

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No bias here.

After Pasadena’s mayor said he can’t see anyone riding bicycles on Union Street, a volunteer with the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition planted tongue firmly in cheek, and conducted his own highly scientific study.

According to Jonah Kanner’s highly entertaining piece, bicyclists may be using advanced technology, such as an alien cloaking device, to remain hidden from view.

Mayor Victor Gordo, in January, 2024, noted that he is unable to see the cyclists, saying “… we’ve gotta be careful about that, now that we’ve seen what’s happening on Union Street. We were told there would be hundreds and thousands of bicyclists going back and forth—that’s— that’s not what we’ve seen.” Also tricked by the advanced technology, Pasadena Chamber of Commerce CEO Paul Little told the Planning Commission in July, 2025, “As we see with Union Street, the installation of millions of dollars in signals, curbs and re-striping has not significantly increased bicycle usage there.”

A recent study used sophisticated measurement techniques to reveal the invisible cyclists: the author stood on the corner of Lake and Union Street for about 20 minutes holding his phone. In that time, he was able to photograph more than 30 people riding bikes, both on the Union Street bike path and on Lake Avenue. Statistical analysis suggests that over the course of a whole day, a lot of people are riding bikes on Union Street.

Let’s not forget that the city is home to Caltech and a stone’s throw from the Jet Propulsion Lab. So advanced tech is not entirely out of the question.

Although based on the reaction from drivers, I seem to have been using some form of it since I bought my bike back when Reagan was president.

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California Streetsblog editor Damien Newton says Angelenos are crying out for safe streets.

But he asks if anyone is listening, noting that eight appeals have already been filed against the city for failing to observe the requirements of Measure HLA, which mandates that the city mobility plan must be built out when streets are resurfaced or significantly re-striped.

The appeals, nearly all for missing crosswalks, come on the heels of the saga of the Stoner Park crosswalks where advocates painted crosswalks around the park, two of which were on a “Slow Street,” the city removed the crosswalks, and after bad press and intervention from the local City Councilmember re-installed the crosswalks. While it’s encouraging that in the end the crosswalks were installed, it shouldn’t be this hard.

In March of 2024, voters passed Measure HLA which required the city to implement its own mobility plan when completing repaving projects of a certain size. The popular measure received a majority of votes in all fifteen council districts while cruising to an easy victory. Since then the city dragged its feet, and nearly a year and a half after the measure was passed the city’s implementation ordinance went into effect on Monday. So did the ability of residents to appeal out-of-court if they believe the city is failing to implement the law.

It’s a good question, even though Los Angeles voters passed HLA with a two-thirds margin.

You would think that after that meany LA voters voiced a strong preference for safer and more livable streets, city leaders would be quick to respond.

But evidently, you’d be wrong.

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

Here’s a new one. Welsh residents opposed plans for a newly approved bike path because it would a) disturb a territorial dog, leading to excessive barking, and b) force the removal of a van that’s been parked in the area since 1990.

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Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

The US head of Upway says California’s clean energy push is leaving low-income residents behind, even though ebikes and e-scooters are among the cleanest and least expensive transportation modes.

Yorba Linda is just the latest Orange County city to crackdown on ebike riders.

San Diego bike riders will have their annual opportunity to ride around the bay and across the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge when Bike the Bay returns this Sunday.

Sad news from Kern County, where an 81-year old man was killed by a driver while riding his bike on Tehachapi’s Highline Road yesterday morning.

San Francisco’s experiment with a carfree Market Street will come to an end next week, when the city will allow Waymo, Uber and Lyft to pick up and drop off passengers, in a move strongly opposed by local advocates.

 

National

Streetsblog’s Talking Headways Podcast speaks with NACTO Executive Director Ryan Russo about how to design and deliver bike networks.

The semi-legendary Tour de Fat returns to my bike-friendly Colorado hometown this weekend for the annual celebration of bikes and beer.

A Denver TV station listens to the concerns of regular bike riders and advocates, after reporting on the dangers faced by vulnerable road users in the Mile High City. So when was the last time a Los Angeles TV station did anything like that? Bueller? Bueller?

Perhaps taking a cue from LA’s successful Streets For All PAC, Chicago’s new Bike PAC political action committee launched to elect pro-bike candidates to the city council.

A 14-year old Miami e-dirt bike rider will face charges for riding without a license after killing a 54-year old man riding a bicycle last Friday.

 

International

Momentum takes another look at some of the world’s worst bike lanes.

A Toronto petition is calling for local venues to allow bike riders to bring their helmets into concerts and sporting events, without charging bag check fees up to $20.

Life is cheap in the UK, where a garbage truck driver walked without a day behind bars for killing an 11-year old boy riding his bike to school, after admitting to using his phone several times while driving prior to the crash.

Twenty-five percent of bike theft victims in England and Wales gave up bicycling completely after their bikes were stolen.

Turns out that the “incremental gains” theory developed by British cycling coach David Brailsford can help ranchers squeeze out a few more bucks in profit.

Police in the Netherlands are looking for a possible bike-riding suspect in the brutal murder of a 17-year old girl as she rode her bike home from a night out.

Another one bites the dust, as the Polish parent company of gravel bike brands Rondo, Creme Cycles, NS Bikes and Octane One has filed for bankruptcy after two to three “really tough years.”

The LCR Honda racing team will be down one rider at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, after Spanish motorcycle racer Aleix Espargaro injured his back in a bicycle crash.

The Indian city of Chandigarh discovered the hard way that using paving stones on cycle tracks isn’t compatible with heavy rain storms.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks at the six Americans and two Canadians who will take part in the Vuelta, starting tomorrow.

Despite retiring last year while under investigation, French cyclist Franck Bonnamour was banned for four years, after the 30-year old former most most combative rider at the Tour de France showed signs of doping on his biological passport.

The co-founder of Formula Fixed wants to bring bike racing into the TikTok era, with stops including the District of Columbia, San Francisco and, yes, Los Angeles.

Mountain biker Ryan Standish makes a second attempt at setting the fastest known time from Fruita, Colorado to Moab, Utah along the Kokopelli and White Rim Trails after failing last year, traveling 310 miles with 26,000 feet of climbing through stunning desert landscapes.

 

Finally…

A new Ti bike could be yours for the low, low price of just 24 grand. Now you, too, can turn your expensive racing bike into a cargo bike.

And anyone can ride a century facing forward — so try doing it backwards.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Contentious WeHo meeting for Fountain Ave, can San Diego end car-dependency, and getting FDs on the side of street safety

August 21, 2025 / / Comments Off on Contentious WeHo meeting for Fountain Ave, can San Diego end car-dependency, and getting FDs on the side of street safety
Day 233 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

The next two days are predicted to be the peak of the current heat wave, so be careful out there. 

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It sounds like I missed a contentious meeting on Tuesday.

Writing for Beverly Press & Park La Brea News, Sam Mulick describes how the public meeting to discuss the proposed redesign of Fountain Ave, just weeks after the hit-and-run death of Blake Ackerman as he rode his bike home from work last month.

And before next month’s final vote on the project.

According to Mulick, the meeting was attended by every member of the WeHo City Council, and included a presentation by senior transportation planner Chris Corrao, project manager for the redesign.

Phase 1 includes reducing the street to one travel lane in each direction, while removing on-street parking on the north side of the street and building protected bike lanes. Phase 2 would widen sidewalks and upgrade curb ramps, to be considered later.

The goal, explained Corrao, is to transform Fountain back into “the residential street that it was in the 1960s.”

Community members expressed outrage at the proposed parking losses and claimed the redesign would significantly increase traffic on Fountain Avenue and on Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards. Others urgently called on the council to approve the plan, citing a desperate need to protect bicyclists and pedestrians.

Mike Greenfield, who has lived on Fountain Avenue for decades, said the project’s impact on traffic would be catastrophic and he will pursue legal action against the city if it is approved.

“This is the most maddening thing – I had no idea it was going to get to this,” he said to raucous applause throughout the room. “Do you have any idea what’s going to happen to Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood and Santa Monica Boulevard? Total lunacy.”

However, both the Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who protect the city, said they would be able to respond to any emergency calls after the redesign.

Supporters of the project were equally passionate.

Alex Silberman, a West Hollywood resident, said the potential lives saved by implementing measures to slow drivers on Fountain Avenue outweighs the potential increase in traffic.

“We have seen cars slam into buildings. We have seen them slam into each other. We have seen them kill people, and we all share responsibility for not fixing this before Blake Ackerman was killed,” Silberman said to loud applause from attendees who support the redesign.

Although one opponent demonstrated an extreme degree of not getting it, arguing that it was a “disgrace” for people to use Ackerman’s death to justify the redesign.

Because, evidently, his death has nothing to do with safety on the deadly street. Nor did the needless deaths of anyone else on Fountain, apparently.

Which makes it all the more important to mark your calendar for next month’s WeHo City Council meeting on September 15th, at 6 pm.

And yes, I’ll do my best to be there, whether virtually or in-person, if I can manage to avoid any more family emergencies.

Top photo from vigil for Blake Ackerman on Fountain Ave; bottom image from Fountain Ave Project page. 

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Ouch.

A writer for the Voice of San Diego questions whether the city can ever end its dependence on cars.

And adds this comforting thought.

Even at the best of times, in the best of places, San Diego’s car-free transportation options are not good. It makes perfect sense to me why most people drive everywhere. Transit will almost always take longer, and it’s probably not very close to your house. Unless you have no other choice or pay “walkable neighborhood” rent prices, going out of your way to reject car culture feels borderline masochistic.

Sounds a lot like a little megalopolis a couple hours to the north, too.

San Diego has a plan for a more sustainable future, one with “mobility hubs” and express bus lanes, and progressive politicians claim to support it. Yet, history suggests their allegiance to the long-term vision is less important than cutting their short-term political losses.

This plan will require most of us to drive less, but it also delivers on things that politicians and voters say they want: better transit, increased walkability, shorter commutes, safer infrastructure. These investments are largely incompatible with transportation as we know it. It’s no coincidence that the “walkable” neighborhoods where most people want to hang out also have the least parking.

The plan is not all stick and no carrot, but San Diegans seem to want all carrot and no stick.

Seriously, she knows them so well.

And us.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the full piece, written by Bella Ross. Because she has a good grasp on the problems both cities face.

And you can probably add Orange County to that list, while you’re at it.

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An upcoming UC Berkeley study considers the persistent problem of getting fire departments to sign onto street safety projects designed to save lives by preventing injuries, rather than responding to them.

According to San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick,

When cyclists and pedestrians get mashed by errant drivers, it’s fire departments and Emergency Medical Technicians who witness first-hand the horrific results of dangerous streets. So why doesn’t it follow that city fire departments are 100 percent supportive of street safety measures?

That’s the question behind “Safety vs. Safety: Understanding and Overcoming Conflicts between Street Safety and Fire and Emergency Response Description,” a soon-to-be-released study from UC Berkeley and the Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety. “How do you change department culture?” asked Zachary Lamb, Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, and one of the study authors, during a presentation Wednesday morning about the research.

The study authors looked at Austin, Baltimore, Nashville, and, of course, Berkeley, to figure out what works and what does with efforts to get fire departments on board with bike lanes and other street safety measures. An overarching goal is to get fire departments to shift to ‘street trauma prevention‘, the way they try to prevent building fires instead of just putting them out.

Again, it’s worth taking the time to read Rudick’s full story. Let alone reading the actual study when it comes out.

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

A Decatur, Illinois man riding a bicycle was repeatedly shot with BBs fired from a passing car, using a fully automatic BB gun capable of firing up to 1,000 rounds per minute.

The sister of a fallen English bicyclist wants to know why the city council insists the pathway where he died in a solo crash is a sidewalk, if there are signs posted saying it’s a shared pathway.

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

A 26-year old British bike rider walked without a day behind bars when he was given a suspended sentence for seriously injuring a woman walking her dog on a sidewalk, while riding “furiously.”

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Local 

Streetsblog editor Joe Linton discovered an actual protected bike lane in Los Angeles, for a change, after concrete barriers appeared on brief strip of 3rd Street in DTLA.

West Hollywood will lower speed limits by 5 mph on a number of key corridors, including deadly Fountain Ave, and Sunset and Santa Monica blvds.

 

State

The San Francisco Police Department is offering a whopping $200,000 reward in hopes of solving the 2008 cold case murder of a man who was shot in cold blood after he was forced to a stop by the driver of a car, then got into an altercation with the occupants, as he rode his bike home from work.

There’s something seriously wrong when city officials have to beg drivers not to kill kids on their way to and from school, like these officials in San Francisco, and virtually every other American city.

Sonoma County’s State Route 1 is about to get centerline rumble strips and bicycle pullouts. Which is not the same as pull-ups, as any toddler parent could tell you.

 

National

People For Bikes discusses the growth in bicycling, and why participation matters.

That’s more like it. A DUI hit-and-run driver who killed a noted Bend, Oregon chef as he rode his bicycle two years ago will spend the next ten years behind bars, and permanently lose her driver’s license.

This is who we share the road with. Apparently, a pair of Houston, Texas food bloggers should have been wearing helmets and hi-viz to avoid the driver who plowed into the restaurant, and them.

The Green Bay Packers continued their annual tradition of riding bicycles borrowed from fans, including kids bikes, and invited the Seattle Seahawks to join them.

A Milwaukee columnist writes in praise of essential nonessentials, like trading cutoff jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes for bike shorts with a chamois, and other assorted bicycling gear.

A Wisconsin letter writer reminds everyone that bike riders belong on the road, and their presence isn’t optional or frivolous.

Illinois has officially redefined what is considered a bicycle for insurance purposes, including any ebike or scooter with a top speed under 30 mph.

Good question. A nonprofit Minnesota newspaper celebrates the 5.5-mile Minneapolis Midtown Greenway as it turns 25, and questions why there aren’t more carfree trails in the Twin Cities.

A sharp-eyed Columbus, Ohio city worker helped return a stolen bicycle to a woman who had built it from scrap with her father, and ridden it across the country.

A Vermont city wants young scofflaw ebike riders to go through a restorative justice program, rather than appear in court.

A Boston public radio station discusses why and how the city’s bike lane debate became so divisive.

Great idea. The Boston Museum of Science will host a daylong discussion and activities to promote sustainable transportation in the city.

Actor Glenn Powell is one of us, riding his bike with his stunt double as he films a new movie with J.J. Abrams in Providence, Rhode Island.

A 49-year old Rochester, New York man will spend 20 years to life behind bars for stabbing another man in the shoulder to steal his bicycle in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot.

A New York woman says she now thinks twice every time she gets on her bicycle after getting hit by someone on an ebike.

Key Biscayne, Florida upheld a ban on ebikes of every type in a contentious meeting.

 

International

Once again, the Mounties got their man — or bike, in this case, recovering a $10,000 mountain bike hours after it was stolen from a sleeping German tourist.

This is who we share the road with, part two. A British motorcyclist was busted for riding stoned on the same stretch of roadway twice in just three weeks — yet he only lost his license for a whole 16 months. So if you want to know why people keep dying on the streets, that’s a good place to start. 

A travel website recommends 17 “epic” New Zealand bike routes.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks at the even dozen British and Irish cyclists preparing to take part in the Vuelta starting this weekend.

Ouch, part two. American Quinn Simmons says pro cycling isn’t much fun, and called on his fellow riders to be more honest and “behave like humans.”

American Brandon McNulty claimed the overall victory at the Tour of Poland earlier this month.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you get recognized by the electric motorbike-riding cellphone thieves you’re chasing. Don’t ride Cuban roads without bike lights.

And getting every bit of life out of your tires.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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