March 22, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New Flax bike book out now, Hollywood Complete Street plan announced, and Senate bill promises local bike/ped funding
Just 284 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Men’s Journal offers an excerpt from the book, describing it as a celebration of “just how far and wide those two wheels can transport us.”
Here’s a brief excerpt from their excerpt:
Of course, a road bike can at times feel like an imperfect instrument for immersing yourself in nature. A beautiful and quiet paved road can disappear beneath your tires, leaving you open to embrace all the gifts that surround you, but too often there is traffic or development or angry drivers. Most cyclists diligently try to find the prettiest and safest routes in their area, but for a growing number of riders, it has gotten tougher to roll a bike out the front door or out of the garage and find peace.
This discouraging trend informs a number of seismic shifts within bike culture—the popularity of gravel riding, bikepacking, cyclocross, adventure riding, mixed-surface touring, electric mountain biking, and indoor riding. Other than that last trend—the Zwift and SoulCycle phenomena—the rest are all activities and equipment that help people have meaningful outdoor experiences without the chaos of cars or the elbows-out personality of road racing. The purity of the experience can be distilled in a beautiful way.
Many of these emerging subcultures highly value self-sufficiency and community. These are styles of riding where your smartphone is not your most important tool. These are communities where sharing an experience with people carries more weight than beating them. Activities in which you still need strength and fitness but are likely more focused on exploration or tenacity than on traditional endurance. You are out in a wild place, in tune with your surroundings, looking to test yourself against natural conditions.
It’s more than worth spending a few enjoyable minutes to read the piece. Or however long it will take you to buy and read the whole thing.
Then follow his lead, and get out and ride your bike for the sheet joy of it, wherever, however and whatever you ride.
The overall project consists of two abutting Hollywood Boulevard stretches being improved collaboratively by two different city departments.
LADOT’s Hollywood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project will extend 2.3 miles from Fountain Avenue to Gower Street
The city Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering (BOE) “Access to Hollywood” project will include quick-build upgrades on 1.1 miles from Gower Street to Orange Drive – the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. BOE is the lead agency for this stretch, where it is collaborating with LADOT, Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA), and Metro.
But it’s a long-needed project, which will provide the first protected bike lanes in Soto-Martinez’ district, as well as the first east-west bike lane through Hollywood.
Although it stands little or no chance of passing the dysfunctional Republican-controlled House and becoming law this year, even if it does get approved by the Senate.
A Gold Country cycling columnist says don’t let bad behavior define bicyclists, and it’s never appropriate to flip off a driver. No matter how much they might deserve it.
A 24-year old Colorado woman was arrested for a fatal hit-and-run, two months after she knocked a 43-year old man off his bicycle and left him to die on an embankment on the side of the road; the victim wasn’t found for more than two days after the crash. Drivers like that should face a murder charge for making the conscious decision to let their victims die rather than stop and call for help.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
As of this writing, we’re stuck at 1,005 signatures, so keep it going, and urge your friends, family and coworkers to keep signing the petition until the mayor agrees to meet with us!
And we can use some video endorsements, if anyone wants to post a video to the petition page explaining why you signed.
I’ll be taking Monday off, because my adventure cycling, formerly Iditarod mushing, brother will be town this weekend, before setting out on the first leg of a planned ride across the US.
As usual, I’ll see you on Tuesday to catch up on anything we missed.
So stay safe out there, because I don’t have to write about you. Unless maybe you jumped off your bike to beat back a brush fire, or something.
Levy flagged down an oncoming train to request the engineer’s fire extinguisher, then used it to knock down the flames until firefighters arrived, preventing the fire from spreading.
The city estimated that if the measure passes, Los Angeles would be on the hook for $200 million a year for ten years to fix its crumbling, buckling and non-ADA compliant sidewalks.
Except the city is committed to spending that anyway, regardless of whether HLA passes.
According to Linton,
So, right now L.A. City street resurfacing is apparently triggering ADA work – whether HLA passes or not.
If HLA passes, street resurfacing will trigger that very same ADA work, plus bus lanes and bike lanes.
The CAO is saying $200 million worth of annual ADA work is “included in the cost” of Measure HLA. But if right now the city is already on the hook for all that ADA work anyway, none of it should be included as HLA costs.
It appears that city leaders are making HLA into a scapegoat. The CAO is exaggerating estimates, pitting bus/bike against walk/wheelchair, all of which the city has neglected for decades. If HLA passes, city leaders can blame HLA (instead of decades of city neglect) for increased budgets for ADA compliance.
Nothing like our city leaders putting their thumb on the scale.
In fact, improving systems of non-automobile transportation would take more cars off the street as drivers switch to carless transportation, decreasing traffic in high-congestion areas. More efficient and safer streets benefit people without cars and drivers alike.
Additionally, gridlock delays affect emergency vehicles: If there’s bumper-to-bumper traffic, ambulances and firetrucks can’t move through. But, on roads with bus lanes, emergency vehicles are allowed to use these lanes to respond in an emergency. Separate lanes that can only be used by buses and emergency vehicles would improve response times, not delay them.
Improving safety requires slowing LA”s speeding drivers by designing roadways to discourage, if not prevent, excess speeds.
The station also quotes the president of the firefighters union as saying “If we pass HLA, we’re going to see chaos all over this city.”
Um, no.
Chaos is what we already have, as traffic congestion builds and drivers slam into one another — and bike riders and pedestrians — with ever increasing, and ever deadlier, frequency.
The whole point of the Mobility Plan 2035 — and Measure HLA, which would force the city to implement it — is to bring order to that chaos by improving traffic safety and providing safe and efficient alternatives to driving.
And highlights the absurdity of their argument that HLA will slow response times for the crashes it’s designed to prevent.
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LADOT says it’s finished work on the new Parthenia Place bikeway.
Although the first thing I notice is that half of the curb side runs through the gutter, which will force people to ride close to the center divider, and needlessly increase the risk of head-on bike-on-bike collisions.
@LADOTofficial e-newsletter says the new Parthenia Place bikeway has been completed. The new two-way parking-protected bikeway is along Parthenia Place between Sepulveda Blvd and Burnet Ave in North Hills. pic.twitter.com/6dwZqqPdDm
We shared this one last year, but it’s worth repeating, as an interventional radiologist at Loma Linda University Heath shares how the hospital saved his life twice — figuratively and literally — following a horrible bicycling collision.
A Conservative Member of Parliament says pedicabs have turned parts of London into the Wild West. Because we all remember those classic westerns where the outlaws lay in wait to rob the pedicab as it rode through a blind gulch.
Tragic news from Spain, where yet another a young cyclist has been killed in a training ride. Although there’s no word yet whether 18-year old Spanish cyclist Juan Pujalte, a member of the Valverde U-23 cycling team, was killed in a fall or a collision.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. We’re over 900 signatures, so let’s try to get it up over 1,000!
I was deliberately struck by a vehicle when riding in the bike lane on Zoo Drive in Griffith Park Sunday afternoon about 12:30. At least that’s what the park ranger told me today based on testimony from several witnesses. Unfortunately the plate # reported turned out to be wrong or impartial. I have no memory of being hit…I regained consciousness as I was being put on a stretcher to go to County ER. I fortunately suffered cuts, bruises, and contusions but no broken bones or serious injuries. I had no contact with any vehicle, verbally or in any other way…I have no idea why this driver deliberately tried to take out a 72-year-old man riding his bike in the park.
If anyone has any information, let me know any I’ll forward it to Paukert.
And let’s hope he reported this to the LAPD, because this appears to be a crime, and should be treated no differently than if he was the victim of any other assault with a deadly weapon.
If it can be shown that the act was intentional, the driver could also be subject to treble the actual damages under LA’s cyclist anti-harassment law, as well as lawyers fees and possible punitive damages.
Which could add up, given the high price of emergency care these days.
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Los Angeles is finally getting around to closing the thousand-foot bike lane gap on Imperial Highway next to LAX.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports construction is underway on new ADA compliant sidewalks and what passes for a protected bike lane in Los Angeles, with a slim row of car-tickler plastic bendie posts, which are somehow supposed to magically keep drivers out.
This is how Linton describes the previous state of affairs.
For many years there have been basic unprotected bike lanes on Imperial Highway east of the Aviation Boulevard C Line Station. In this area, Imperial has a posted speed limit of 50mph, which many drivers exceed. It’s effectively an extension of the 105 Freeway. That freeway ends a mile east of the city’s project, dumping drivers onto Imperial. It’s not a pleasant place to bike, but it is one of very few roadways that connect to the coast through the somewhat impermeable airport-industrial area.
The existing Imperial lanes got within a half-mile of the beach, then dropped just east of Pershing Drive, leaving a ~1,000 foot gap before the bike lane resumed west of Pershing. Some signage directed cyclists to ride on the sidewalk.
Linton’s description of it as “not a pleasant place to bike” is a significant understatement; I rode there once myself, and vowed to never do it again.
Somehow, I can’t see those white plastic posts keeping any cars out. Or even surviving very long, since they’re likely to get plowed down by drivers speeding along the road after exiting the freeway.
The Waymo vehicle was at a complete stop at a four-way intersection. An oncoming large truck progressed through the intersection in our direction and then at our turn to proceed, we moved into the intersection.
The cyclist was occluded by the truck and quickly followed behind it, turning left and crossing into the Waymo vehicle’s path. When they became fully visible, our vehicle applied heavy braking but was not able to avoid the collision. Waymo called police to the scene and the cyclist left on their own, to our knowledge reporting only minor scratches. We are making contact with relevant authorities surrounding this event.
Thanks to Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, founder Damian Kevitt for forwarding the statement.
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Thanks to Robert Leone for forwarding news that the San Diego Association of Governments is still looking for input on their regional transportation plan.
As a reminder, in 2023, we gathered input from people across the region about their priorities for improving our transportation system. To help the public understand how we used your feedback, we made a report about how this input is guiding the projects, programs and policies being considered in our Draft 2025 Regional Plan.
Thank you to everyone who viewed that report and sent in comments so far—your feedback has been passed along to our Board and staff.
Our SANDAG Board will continue reviewing the initial concept of our Draft 2025 Regional Plan this Friday, February 9 at 10 a.m. and providing feedback to our staff. If you would like to send in your feedback for that discussion too, you can:
Send an email to clerkoftheboard@sandag.org by 4 p.m. on Thursday, February 8 (with “Regional Plan” in your subject) and/or
Make a comment at the Board meeting virtually or in person. Note, comments may be limited to one minute per person.
Thank you for staying in contact with us,
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Here’s your chance to support CicLAvia while quaffing a quality craft West Coast IPA in Culver City tomorrow.
CicLAvia Kicks Off 2024 Season with Beer Collaboration and Fundraiser
LA Ale Works Releasing “seek-la-VEE-ah” West Coast IPA on Friday evening, February 16 at Ivy Station in Culver City
Who / What: CicLAvia has partnered with Los Angeles Ale Works to kick off the 2024 season and launch a beer collaboration with a West Coast IPA affectionately named seek-la-VEE-ah. This venture is all about the “miles of smiles” that Los Angeles’ extremely popular open streets events create.
When: Friday, February 16, Culver City Arts District Night Market is open 5-10 pm, LA Ale Works open 12 pm– 2 am
Why: To kick off CicLAvia’s 2024 events schedule and debut a West Coast IPA affectionately named
seek-la-VEE-ah. A portion of the proceeds from the event, and all future sales of seek-la-VEE-ah will be donated to CicLAvia, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
Outside of LA Ale Works’ tasting rooms in Culver City and Hawthorne, the beer will be available in cans and on draft throughout Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. From neighborhood craft beer bottle shops up to larger retailers like Whole Foods, Sprouts and Total Wine. Partners who are interested in carrying the beer, please contact LA Ale Works.
“Near and dear to our hearts, our team has participated in CicLAvia events since the early days of the organization,” says Los Angeles Ale Works Managing Partner Andrew Fowler. “We are inspired by how CicLAvia safely brings Angelenos together, the positive environmental impacts it makes, the connections we feel to our communities during the events and the promotion of public transportation. We believe so strongly in public transportation that our new Culver City location is literally built into the Metro E Line station.”
How: Free. No RSVP required. The event will be in conjunction with the where there will be several food trucks, music, games, local vendors, and kid-friendly activities including The Ballusionist balloon artist. CicLAvia will be on site selling merchandise and sharing information about the 2024 schedule. All ages welcome.
Beer Style: West Coast India Pale Ale, ABV: 6.5%, Hops: Wakatu, Azacca, El Dorado, and Idaho 7
Description: Catalyze your senses with vibrant notes of stone fruit and California citrus as we celebrate active transportation, public spaces and car-free streets. Available on draft and in 4-packs of 16 oz cans.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Um, no. The mayor of a small Irish town called for removing a protected bike lane from one side of a roadway, arguing that the current bollards and armadillos create a health and safety hazard for motorists. Because apparently, drivers can’t manage to drive safely and stay where they belong, and bollards evidently cause cancer, or Covid, or the common cold or something.
Students, staff and faculty at University of California campuses, including UCLA, can get discounts ranging from 15% to 60% off ebikes from Dirwin Bike, Lectric Bike, Ride1Up and Velotric. Which is yet another reminder that we’re all still waiting on California’s moribund ebike incentive program.
A columnist for the conservative Los Angeles Daily Newscalls for rejecting the Healthy Streets LA ballot measure, calling the city’s mobility plan a con, and saying “this is no way to plan transportation in Los Angeles.” And in the process, somehow managing to get most of it exactly wrong.
Megan Lynch forwards news of the passing of outrageous San Diego musician and former Ocean Beach bike mechanic Mojo Nixon, who died of a heart attack after performing with his band The Toad Toadliquors during the week-long Outlaw Country Cruise; Nixon was best known for MTV hits Elvis is Everywhere and Don Henley Must Die.
Tomorrow is Winter Bike to Work Day in Colorado, and other cities and states where the winter riding conditions are nowhere as good as California, which doesn’t observe it.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. We’re up to 871 signatures, so let’s try to get it up over 1,000 this week!
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We could be looking at major changes on Hollywood Blvd.
Fingers crossed.
Thursday’s public meeting unveiled plans for one of the city’s first major lane reductions in the past several years for the east end of the boulevard, along with new protected bike lanes, providing a major safety improvement in addition to traffic calming.
Let’s just hope this moves beyond just talk and vaporware, for a change.
Click through on the links if the tweets disappear, which seems to be happening a lot lately.
The plan features over 2 miles of parking-protected bike lanes between Gower and Fountain, the first installation of protected bike lanes anywhere in CD13. At least one section accomplishes this by removing a travel lane, an immediate and very welcome traffic-calming measure. pic.twitter.com/TK9nsM8diU
— Los Angeles Dept. of Transformation (@LA_DOTr) February 3, 2024
The plan also includes new speed humps, left turn calming, and upgraded pedestrian crossings, with at least 3 new pedestrian crosswalk signals. Measures like these make neighborhoods calmer, healthier, and more welcoming to customers of local businesses. pic.twitter.com/iKNRzSsEeI
— Los Angeles Dept. of Transformation (@LA_DOTr) February 3, 2024
Big respect and appreciation to @CD13LosAngeles and @cd4losangeles for their leadership on this plan. Show your support for it––it's essential that we let our representatives know how important and valuable these improvements are for our communities! pic.twitter.com/vcSJIUUnQX
— Los Angeles Dept. of Transformation (@LA_DOTr) February 3, 2024
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It’s not just the mayor.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has gotten a lot of the credit — or blame, depending on your perspective — for the recent changes making the city more climate friendly and livable, from new bike lanes to planning for a 15-minute city.
And not by a small margin. Nearly 55% of voters agree to triple the cost to park an SUV on city streets, raising the cost for a private vehicle weighing over 1.6 tons — 3,200 pounds — to $20 an hour, in an effort to discourage their use in the city.
After all, few people will buy — let alone drive — oversized SUVs if they can’t afford to park them.
Your move, Los Angeles.
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Apparently, Metro’s cancellation of plans to widen the 710 Freeway really wasn’t a cancellation at all.
According to Streetsblog’s Joe Linton, a new proposal from the agency still includes plans to widen the freeway, and may require demolishing homes along the route, which led to the original cancellation.
And the much-promised improvements for transit, walking and biking along the corridor apparently don’t amount to much.
All of which goes to show just how little the agency has changed its stripes.
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GCN examines the all-important question of how much speed can you actually buy, as we’ve all heard — or yes, said — that you can buy speed, but you can’t buy skill.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
With friends like these, who needs enemies? An op-ed from a Boulder, Colorado bicyclist asserts that bicyclists needs to take responsibility for their behavior, because “Most bicycle accidents are caused by improper, sometimes illegal, cyclist behavior,” and adding “There is almost no excuse for a single-operator (bicycle) crash.” As if drivers and poor road conditions have nothing to do with it.
Colorado will host its Winter Bike to Work Day this Friday, including in my bike-friendly hometown. Which is our annual reminder that Los Angeles still doesn’t have a Winter Bike to Work Day, despite having a much more inviting climate — this week excepted. Then again, we didn’t have much of a summer one last year, either.
Sad news from Bengaluru, India, where the man known as the Century Cyclist or the Cycle Yogi for his unbroken streak of 42 months of daily metric century rides — 62 miles — died of a heart attack just days after finishing the streak; he was just 45.
Estonia’s Madis Mihkels and Belgian pro Gerben Thijssen made a donation to their Intermarché–Wanty cycling team’s junior team, and were asked to make a presentation to the junior team members on the values of cycling after they were yanked from last year’s Chinese Tour of Guangxi for making a common anti-Asian racist gesture.
Thanks to Erik B, Lisa G, Samer S, Erik G and Gold Leaf Films for their generous support to help keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
Yesterday we shared a photo depicting the aftermath of a Friday bike crash in Marina del Rey, which I later learned was taken by Ian Dutton.
Then last night I came across a story from an Australian news site reporting that a beloved college teacher had been killed riding along an unidentified California beach.
And later still, I saw a comment from Libby Starling, who identified herself as the victim’s sister-in-law, reporting that the victim in the Marina crash, Manhattan Beach resident Leland Dutcher, didn’t make it.
Somehow, posting that photo makes it feel personal to me, perhaps because I inherited my dad’s extra empathy gene.
I keep telling myself that it’s not about me.
What I do is about serving the victims of these crashes, and their families, and the greater bicycling community.
But it hurts, damn it.
It hurts.
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We’ve linked to a number of stories about the bikelash in Cambridge, Massachusetts recently, where some drivers are up in arms over the profusion of new bike lanes on city streets.
But according to Velo, a new report from city officials shows the city’s first-in-the-nation mandate to building protected bike lanes has been an overwhelming success.
According to the report, since the policy was implemented four years ago,
80 percent more protected bike lanes from cars than in 2004.
9 percent of Cambridge residents bike to work, and 37 percent of residents walk or bike.
25 percent of people visiting the business district arrive by bicycle.
34 percent more people commute by bike since 2019, while 15 percent more people commute via sidewalks since 2019.
The number of children on bikes, in trailers, or cargo bikes has increased by 3.5 times.
Up to 80 percent fewer cyclists ride on sidewalks, resulting in fewer accidents between pedestrians and cyclists.
Bike lanes in the area have cut accidents between bikes and cars by 50 percent since 2012.
The proportion of crashes that did not result in injury is three times lower now than it was from 2004 to 2012. Incapacitating injuries are down by 84 percent in the same time frame.
All of which sounds like a pretty convincing argument to keep building them there.
Because while the state is great at setting Complete Streets and climate change policies, it continues to waste billions on traffic and emission inducing highway projects.
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LA in a Minute examines why white plastic bollards are popping up all over Los Angeles.
All over Los Angeles pylons/bollards are popping up in streets, changing lanes, blocking certain directions and slowing down traffic.
So what is the purpose – why is the City doing this?!?
Born on this day, December 12: Frank Sinatra, singer and actor (1915-1998), riding during the making of Come Blow Your Horn (1963). Happy #bicyclebirthday, Frank!#BOTDpic.twitter.com/llnxXroj5d
Megan Lynch forwards video of George Clooney and Jimmie Kimmel discussing what kids wanted from a bike back in the day.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Bay Area bike advocates were justifiably up in arms over a story from the San Francisco Standard we linked to yesterday, which trotted out the usual bike-hating bile, including “People hate bike lanes, at least in part, because people hate cyclists. And in fairness, many cyclists give non-cyclists more than a few things to hate.” Because we all know all drivers operate their vehicles perfectly, and never, ever do anything that would give bike riders or pedestrians something to hate.
New York’s bike-hating, rightwing councilwoman demonstrates how to say you have no idea what you’re talking about without saying you have no idea what you’re talking about, while somehow assuming we’re all a group of millionaire cultists.
The hobby of a group of millionaires on their way to a $50k/year elementary school in Manhattan is not a viable transportation plan for the rest of the city.
That they want you to somehow believe otherwise shows how radically out of touch the bike cultists are.
But sometimes it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Bakersfield police arrested 12 people riding bicycles, 11 of them juveniles, for an undisclosed incident that happened at the city’s Valley Plaza Mall; a police sergeant said the group, which was organized through social media, was “causing road hazards, and not following the rules of the road.” Except that sounds more like a traffic violation, rather than a crime subject to arrest. And full disclosure, I used to write advertising for that mall.
A bike-riding Massachusetts man faces an animal cruelty charge for allegedly beating a dog and knocking its 69-year old owner to the ground, after using his bike to separate his two dogs from the victim’s dog when they got into a fight. Using his bike to separate them was smart; beating the other dog afterwards, not so much. Or forgivable.
San Diego adopted a new Complete Streets policy aimed at making local streets safer and more equitable. But as we’ve seen in Los Angeles, a policy without an enforcement mechanism can be pretty useless.
Great idea. The Iowa Bicycle Coalition is visiting nearly 100 bike shops across the state to kick off their “support your local bike shop week.”Because if we don’t support them, they may not be there when you need them.
A British motorcyclist got three and a half years behind bars for crashing into a bike-riding woman while riding stoned, without a license or insurance, and with fake plates on his motorcycle; the victim ended up having her leg amputated.
Fox News continues its war on trans cyclists, quoting commentator Riley Gaines condemning a third place finisher as a “traitor to women” after she came to the defense of the trans women who finished ahead of her.
December 5, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Better bike lanes beat hi-viz for safety, commuting 46 miles — each way — by ebike, and Sunset4All gaslit by O’Farrell
Which means you have just 19 days left to support SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy.
It was a slow weekend while I was out of town for my sister’s birthday, but the fund drive is still ahead of last year at this time.
Please join me in thanking Bonnie W, Patt M, Plurabelle Books and Damian K, who says he’s only here for the corgis, for their generous donations to keep all the freshest bike news and corgi pics coming your way every day.
There is one proven way to lower the risk of cyclists being killed: adding quality bike lanes.
A quality bike lane works for cyclists of even the most novice of levels to help them feel comfortable moving around their community. Usually, they’re separated from the road, or at the very least partitioned in a way that provides freedom of movement and opportunity to get around.
Hi-viz and fluorescent gear won’t stop inattentive drivers from hitting cyclists. It won’t stop a driver angered by the mere inconvenience of having to share the road. Unfortunately, it won’t stop drivers who mean well but don’t see a cyclist either. It’s a bike lane. More specifically, it’s separated bike lanes that improve cyclist safety.
It’s worth taking a few minutes from your day to read the whole thing.
Because he’s right, even though I ride with enough lights to guide Santa’s sleigh these days.
Tell that to someone who says you can’t use a bicycle for LA’s long commutes.
That was until I bought an electric bike and just this week started using it to ride the 46-mile round trip between home and work.
On Tuesday morning, by which time L.A.’s rush-hour traffic had fully rebounded from its holiday break, getting from Alhambra to El Segundo by e-bike took 90 minutes. The electric motor flattened hills and helped with attaining traffic speed sooner.
The commute home lasted 80 minutes. That’s 46 rush-hour miles in less than three hours — typically what it takes in a car, and less than the same journey on Metro rail.
But as we’ve all learned by now, even the best bike commute isn’t all sunshine and roses.
Thornton says bicycle safety is dangerously backsliding due to a lack of safe bike infrastructure, even as cities rush to catch up.
To L.A.’s everlasting shame, traffic deaths have ballooned to crisis proportions since then-Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the goal of eliminating them completely by adopting Vision Zero in 2015. That year, according to the group Streets Are for Everyone, 203 people died in L.A. traffic; in 2022, 312 were killed.
Once again, it’s worth taking a few minutes from your busy Tuesday to read it.
Because he succinctly captures both the risks and the opportunity ebikes present, on a personal level.
Heuston says that at the time his group formed, safety problems with the Sunset corridor were already on many radars. The section of Sunset made it on the LA department of transportation’s Vision Zero High Injury Network, a list of the most dangerous roadways in Los Angeles. And safer biking on Sunset fit with Los Angeles’ Mobility Plan 2035, a blueprint launched in 2015 to transform LA’s streets into “complete streets” – roadways that can be safely used by bikers, pedestrians, cars and mass transit alike – by the year 2035. Furthermore, in 2015 the LA Metro Active Transport (Mat) program identified the Sunset corridor as high priority for safety improvements because it would make a significant impact on resident use of active modes of transportation, as well as the Metro.
The clear solution was creating protected bike lanes along the corridor, which studies have shown can improve safety for everyone on the street.
With Heuston leading the charge, activists were buoyed by the idea that they were advocating for something so many agreed should be done. “We were hoping this could be a model project,” says Heuston. “Sunset is this iconic boulevard in the most iconic ‘car-centric’ city in North America. The idea was: if we can change it here, then we can change it anywhere.”
They had community buy-in thanks to countless events like the coffee walk gathering and long hours spent talking to various groups, lots of volunteers and the support of their city council – or so they thought.
Unfortunately, Heuston and the other volunteers were gaslighted by former CD13 Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who told them to hire expensive independent traffic engineers to create plans and renderings for the project.
So the plans and renderings crowdfunded by the group just ended up in the circular file.
Hugo Soto-Martinez, who defeated O’Farrell for District 13 in the 2022 general election, says his predecessor lied to the group. Studies conducted by third parties aren’t accepted by the city. O’Farrell was “just sitting on the project”, Soto-Martinez said.
And yes, once again, it’s worth taking the time from your busy day to read the whole thing.
If for no other reason than to fully grasp the frustrations bike and safety advocates experience dealing with our auto-addled city leaders.
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Dr. Grace Peng calls your attention to a proposal to improve bike-carrying bus service in the Bay Cities. And wants your support to put an actual ebike user on the Redondo Beach Ebike Task Force.
Preferably her.
This is RBCC 12/5/23 Item N.3. Click on eComment link on the Agenda/Calendar page https://t.co/z8akW8NTmm
In your eComments to Item N2, please nominate Dr Grace Peng to the RB e-Bike Task Force. My e-Bike is my main mode of transport around the Beach Cities. I also took graduate -evel classical mechanics https://t.co/z8akW8NTmmpic.twitter.com/083LHvAIzz
This is who we share the road with. A Bellevue, Washington driver turned a local restaurant into a drive thru, the easy way.
Thanks to Ralph Durham for the heads-up.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Claremont, California letter writer applauds himself for striking a nerve with the “bike lane fanatics,” then proceeds to say a recent survey showing overwhelming local support for bike lanes doesn’t pass the smell test. Which evidently, is the only proof he requires. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the link.
No bias here, either, as London’s Daily Mailaccuses the city’s mayor of chopping down a historic palm tree to make room for “yet another bike lane for his beloved cycling constituents,” before conceding that the tree was merely moved to another location.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Bakersfield police arrested one person and seized seven bicycles after a large group of bicyclists took over city streets on Saturday, allegedly causing traffic hazards and disturbing the peace, as well as engaging in thefts, vandalism and at least one assault with a deadly weapon.
LA Weekly takes a long-delayed look at Mobility Plan 2035, which promised a transformation of Los Angeles streets when it was passed by the city council in 2015 — but fails to mention that it was promptly shelved and forgotten, in a story with the depth of something written by AI.
Santa Monica’s mayor proudly proclaims that the city will soon be the bicycling capital of the world, warning Amsterdam to watch out as she opens the new protected intersection on 17th Street. Correction: I originally misidentified the mayor of Santa Monica as a man, rather than a woman. But with a name like Gleam, I had a 50/50 shot. Thanks to Joe Linton for setting me straight.
A Fullerton writer calls for safer bike and pedestrian detour around construction zones. Something that’s just as needed in Los Angeles, where construction work too often reminds us that people walking and biking barely enjoy second-class status.
A 30-year old Chicago woman faces charges for the drunken death of a 59-year old man riding a bicycle in October, while running three stop signs and driving in the bike lane, with a BAC two and a half times the legal limit.
Good question. The parents of a Newfoundland teenager want to know why the driver who hit him was able to get behind the wheel despite a lifetime ban on driving, after the man fled the scene after hitting the kid as he was riding his bike.
We’re now just four days from the official kickoff of the Ninth Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive — and we’ve already got our first donations before the campaign even starts!
So let’s give a special thanks to Jim L and David R for their generous donations to help keep all the best bike news coming your way every day.
Be sure to come back here on Friday when the fund drive starts for real, because this is your chance to support SoCal’s bike source for bike news and advocacy.
And help keep the corgi in new shoes.
So let’s get to it before this migraine makes my head explode all over the inside of your screen.
According to the paper, most crosswalk laws protect pedestrians, but do nothing to protect people riding bicycles, as well as wheelchairs, scooters or any other personal conveyance.
However, California is the exception, sort of.
The state amended its crosswalk law a few years ago to make it clear that bicyclists are allowed to ride along crosswalks — but neglected to clarify whether “along” means in or next to.
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Despite being under indictment for embezzlement, CD9 Councilmember Curren Price, Jr. continues to work towards a bike and pedestrian friendly makeover of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, with a public meeting next Tuesday.
We value your opinion and want to ensure that the project reflects the needs of our neighborhoods. Don't miss this opportunity to let your voice be heard. 3/3
Speaking of windshield bias, police in Louisville, Kentucky report a man riding a bicycle was killed in an apparent SWSS — Single Witness Suicide Swerve — after allegedly swerving in front of an oncoming driver for no apparent reason. Yes, it’s possible the victim really did swerve in front of the car. But it’s more likely the driver drifted to the right and was startled to suddenly see a bike rider directly in front of them, and assumed the rider swerved, with no witnesses to contradict it.
November 16, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on LA’s non-emergency traffic emergency, Lancet report offers hope for climate crisis, and Fetterman aims to loosen MUTCD
He’s got a point.
Maybe the emergency posed by the fire that closed a mile-long section of the Santa Monica Freeway isn’t that much of an emergency after all.
If it was, they might be doing more to get people out of their cars and onto transit than just talking about it. Or maybe onto bikes, for that matter.
Like reducing or eliminating fares for Metro buses, trains and bikeshare.
After a decade of complaints, and official denials that it was even a possibility, traffic signals were altered to speed up trains that have long been absurdly forced to stop at traffic signals.
And often blocked by drivers who didn’t clear the intersection, leading to long — and apparently needless — delays in service.
Wait, we could have done this the whole time in like 5 minutes and just chose not to? https://t.co/QyXLiOz2Fw
Along with a surprising degree of hope in low-carbon future, suggesting “there are transformative opportunities for a healthy, prosperous future for all.”
Health-centred climate action could still save millions of lives every year. A just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy and energy efficiency can reduce the health harms of energy poverty, power high-quality health-supportive services, and prevent the millions of deaths occurring annually from exposure to fuel-derived air pollution. Greener, people-centered cities, and balanced, low-carbon diets can support transformative improvements in physical and mental health.
Bicycling can, and should, be part of that equation, providing virtually carbon-free transportation that offers exceptional public health benefits.
Besides, it’s fun.
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Apparently, there’s more to Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman’s proposed Building Safer Streets Act than we realized.
There’s a lot packed into the slim bill’s seven pages, including changes to the Safe Streets and Roads for All program which would guarantee that 10 percent of funds are set aside for communities under 250,000 residents. It would also finally close the loophole that allows roughly one-third of states to keep their federal safety funding if they set roadway fatality “targets” higher than the number of deaths they recorded in previous years, and prevent the Federal Highway Administration from giving states points on grant applications for projects that raise speed limits on non-freeway roads.
The bulk of the legislation, though, gets deep into the weeds of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, a once-obscure 800+ page manual whose revision prompted a flood of 25,000 comments from safe streets advocates concerned that its upcoming revision wouldn’t adequately center the needs of people outside cars. And with pedestrian deaths already setting records, Fetterman says those changes are long overdue…
Many of those standards are pretty benign, like the rule that a green light should mean “go” everywhere in America, or that a stop sign should be shaped like an octagon rather than a square. Others, though, have far more dire implications, up to and including who lives and dies on U.S. streets. The Manual’s infamous “85th-percentile rule,” for instance, recommends that the number that appears on speed limits signs be set within five miles of per hour of the speeds that 85 percent of drivers naturally travel when no one else is on the road — even if those velocities are lethal for pedestrians, and despite the fact that the standard was created for two-lane rural highways and is widely considered unsafe in urban contexts.
The MUTCD acts as a bible for traffic planners and engineers, protecting transportation agencies from liability, while limiting innovative or even merely decorative approaches.
Like the pink crosswalks that were originally planned for the intersection in front of Pink’s Hot Dogs to mark their 80th anniversary in 2019.
But which were nixed for being out of compliance with the MUTCD.
One version advised against safe bike lane intersection treatments that are common across U.S. cities, a move that the National Association of City Transportation Officials warned would amount to a “poison pill” for the thousands of cities whose infrastructure would instantly become non-compliant. Other provisions discouraged the use of colorful crosswalks, despite the fact that studies show they can actually slash vulnerable road user crashes by 50 percent compared to the all-white designs the Manual recommends.
And when cities want to use those life-saving design elements anyway, they’re often scared off of doing it, lest they fall out of compliance with the all-powerful Manual — even though, technically, not all of its recommendations are legally binding, much like its companion document, the AASHTO Green Book. In part because remaining in compliance with the MUTCD may shield transportation agencies against lawsuits, many traffic engineers tend to treat it more like a Bible with strict commandments than a “recipe book” that encourages chefs to sub out the nuts if they’ll send the person who’ll actually eat the dish into anaphylactic shock.
And the FHWA and other government agencies, in turn, often require engineers to conduct costly studies to prove that deploying safe road designs is worth granting an exception to those restrictive federal standards — even if piles of research have verified that those designs save lives, and that the standards in the Manual don’t.
It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole article, because this is clearly a bill worth following.
And one that might actually have a chance in a divided Congress.
Steven Shinn makes the case that his wife would still be alive if the city had built the long-promised protected bike lanes on Pershing Drive, which might have saved her from the man now serving 13 years for the needless meth-fueled morning crash.
My grief is worsened every time I hear an uninformed comment about road safety in our community.
“We do not want protected bike lanes in our neighborhood reducing traffic lanes and parking spaces.” My wife’s life would have been saved if those bike lanes had been protected. Studies from cities around the country have demonstrated the effectiveness of protected bike lanes to save lives without inconveniencing drivers.
Adding protected bike lanes and removing some parking benefits more than just cyclists. Local businesses see as much as a 49 percent increase in retail sales from new protected bike lanes. People who cycle to local shops spend up to 24 percentmore than those who drive and they shop more frequently. Adding protected bike lanes to streets reduces injury crashes for all road users by 58 percent and does not increase traffic congestion over time. If Pershing Drive had a protected bike lane, Laura would be riding with me today.
It’s a brave and powerful piece, which calls on San Diego to make life-saving changes for Sunday’s World Day of Remembrance for the victims of traffic violence.
Maybe California’s moribund ebike rebate program will finally launch in time to take advantage of the Black Friday deals. And maybe pigs will fly out of my butt.
It’s been known to happen.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. The Detroit News somehow manages to publish a 115-word article about the tragic death of a 54-year old woman killed in a collision with a semi-truck while she was riding a three-wheeled bike, without ever mentioning that the truck had a driver.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A bike-riding man has been arrested for a series of a dozen arson fires in LA”s Boyle Heights and Chinatown in just a one hour span; another person was busted for setting apparently unrelated fires. It would have been impossible to set that many fires over such a distance on foot, and difficult using a car in rush hour traffic. So, yay bikes?
The LA County Sheriff’s Department is promising a zero-tolerance approach to speeding on deadly PCH through Malibu, in the wake of four Pepperdine students killed by a driver allegedly doing 104 mph in a 45-mile zone. Good luck with that, since they don’t have a fraction of the deputies assigned to that area that would be required to effectively police the highway.
This is who we share the road with. A 47-year old San Diego man has been convicted of murder, as well as other charges, for the drunken hit-and-run that killed a toddler last year; Margarito Angeles Vargas was driving at over two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit when he ran down 19-month-old Annaleeh Rodarte as she crossed the street with members of her family.
National
Bicycling recommends the best rain gear to keep you riding. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.
Toronto’s Biking Lawyer calls on the city to ban right turns on red lights, arguing that someone’s life could be at stake, a year after a young woman was killed while riding her bike in a crosswalk by a driver making an illegal right turn. Although the fact that it was already illegal didn’t seem to stop that driver.
November 8, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on WeHo council unanimously commits to protected bike lanes, and Emeryville mayor talks bikes with The War on Cars
It’s a slow new day, which is a good thing since I spent most of the night sleeping off the effects of riding the blood sugar roller coaster all day yesterday.
So let’s get right to it.
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West Hollywood has committed to building only protected bike lanes from here on.
New episode up! We rode the bike lanes of Emeryville, California, with the city's mayor, John Bauters. He told us what elected officials really need to build an active transportation network: "I think political will is probably the biggest barrier." https://t.co/NzHsMtx0oXpic.twitter.com/Ndmo6BStDu
The San Jose Mercury News’ Mr. Roadshow recommends wearing light clothing and reflective bands at night so drivers can see you more easily, and reminds bike riders to use the bike lane, while telling drivers it’s a no-no to use one to pass someone. Then again, some drivers wouldn’t see you if you had a rotating lighthouse attached to your bike.
Tragic news from Virginia, where an 80-year old man riding a bicycle was killed when he was rear-ended by a driver, who got a lousy ticket for reckless driving. Anyone still riding a bike at that age deserves a hell of a lot better.
An Irish man is asking for the public’s help after a pair of bicycles worth nearly $10,000 were “allegedly” stolen from a shed at his home. Which would appear to be a classic misuse of the term “allegedly,” since they were either stolen or they weren’t.
Heartbreaking news from South Africa, where members of a bike club are considering giving up riding entirely after a member of the club was brutally attacked by thieves who stole his bike as he lagged behind the group, and left him for dead; fortunately, he survived after being stabbed in the back, with the blade missing his aorta by a mere 2 mm.
Former Portuguese sports director Nuno Ribeiro received a 25-year ban for “trafficking, possession, and supply” of illegal substances including testosterone, cortisone and steroids; he’s a two-time loser, after he was stripped of one of his two Volta a Portugal wins for testing positive for EPO in 2009. But cycling’s doping era is over, right? Right?
And tell me again how you can’t take your groceries home on a bike.
Boasting an enormous cargo area, the Megaliner can carry more goods than ever before. Ideal for last-mile delivery, groceries, parcels, and more. pic.twitter.com/9dlUNHObOt
Meanwhile, I’m told Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is working with the widow of fallen Hollywood producer Bob George to arrange a ghost bike ceremony, after he was fatally doored in a Fountain Blvd bike lane, and will invite everyone to show up to demand safer infrastructure when details are in place.
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The South Bay Cities are punting on safer streets and installing a 243-mile network of sharrows, which have been shown to actually increase the risk for people on bicycles.
In fact, recent studies have demonstrated that sharrows are worse than nothing in terms of bicycle safety, while their arrow motif appears to exist solely to help drivers improve their aim in an effort to thin the herd.
Better yet, the proposal would be implemented without removing any proposed bike lanes from the city’s General Plan, and could include upgrading existing facilities.
Like the bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd, which currently provide convenient space for double-parking while waiting for a curbside space to open up in Boys Town.
Because as we all know, the convenience of drivers matters more than human lives in the City of Angels.
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For those keeping score at home, The Washington Post offers all the facts you need to know regarding the trial of Kaitlin Armstrong for the murder of gravel cyclist Moriah “Mo” Wilson on Austin, Texas last year.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Bay Area bicyclists have filed suit against US Bank, after it allegedly installed a gate blocking a longstanding bike path easement used as a shortcut to access Mt. Diablo, forcing bike riders — including a high school and middle school mountain biking team — to ride a busy, steep and narrow highway instead.
Bicycling suggests the best forms of cross training to help reach your bicycling goals. Although I originally read that last word as “goats,” which would have made for a much more intriguing article. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.
Cincinnati Bengals safety Nick Scott is one of us, riding his ebike to work at the city’s stadium. Even if he thought the terrain in Los Angeles wasn’t conducive to riding in his four years with the Rams.
The Orlando, Florida man accused of murdering a couple riding their bicycles home from last year’s Bike Week festivities — the motorized kind — is back for another mental competency hearing, after he was diagnosed schizophrenia and hospitalized earlier this year.
Carson’s Velo Sports Center will host next years US Elite & Para-cycling Track National Championships, as well as the 2024 Pan American Track Championships.
