Massachusetts becomes the first state to completely reject the 85th Percentile Law — and base new speed limits on what’s safe for the most vulnerable road users.
California has been nibbling at the edges of the deadly law, which requires cities to set speed limits at the 85% percentile of driver speeds. And allows drivers to boost speed limits on any given street merely by stepping on the gas.
Instead of repealing the rule, a new law sponsored by Burbank Assemblywoman Laura Friedman allows cities and counties to lower speed limits by 5 mph on high injury streets, as well as streets with a high number of bike riders and pedestrians.
It doesn’t begin to compare with what Massachusetts is doing.
But it’s a start.
Did you hear? @MassDOT is kicking the dangerous & ridiculous #85thPercentileRule to the curb in favor of setting speeds to match what is safe for vulnerable users. They are also funding investments in safety improvements for all users. Good work people! #VisionZeropic.twitter.com/Ng4qD7CKra
— Councilor Alicia Bowman (@aliciafornewton) January 5, 2022
………
Ted Faber discovers new-to-him protected bike lanes on Airport Blvd near LAX.
Correction: I initially misplaced this bike lane as being on Airport Ave in Santa Monica, but it’s actually the new protected bike lanes on LA’s Airport Blvd, which were installed last year. Thanks to LADOT’s Tim Fremaux for the correction.
………
Evidently, Elon’s Musk’s vision for the future of urban transportation includes underground traffic jams.
It turns out the congestion-busting “future of transport” is already experiencing congestion. pic.twitter.com/yJY9b0Nwjj
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
The Orange County Registeronce again raises a panic over a “dramatic” rise in ebike injuries, suggesting that ebikes are somehow more dangerous than other kinds of bikes, without noting what should be an obvious corresponding increase in ebike use. (Hint: Stop the page from loading before the subscription popup loads.)
Life really is cheap in the UK, where a road raging driver walked with a suspended sentence for intentionally running down a bike rider who’d slapped his car following a dangerously close pass. And kept his drivers license because the judge didn’t want him to lose his job.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The recent heavy rains in Northern California have had an unexpected benefit for bike riders by delaying plans for an emergency water pipeline that would have blocked bike access to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
Thanks to Dongyi L, Alan C, Gregory S and Todd T for their generous donations to keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.
So take a moment to give now via PayPal, or with Zelle to ted @ bikinginla.com.
Any amount, no matter how large or small, is truly and deeply appreciated.
Seriously, go ahead and do it right now. We’ll wait.
………
San Diego is about to show California how its done.
San Diego Forward, a new 30-year plan presented by the San Diego Association of Governments, better known as SANDAG, offers a transformational vision of what the city can, and should, be.
It is unlike any previous regional plan in San Diego, or in California. That’s in part because SANDAG got into a bit of trouble over its last, very inadequate draft plan, which pretended to be forward-looking but, like many regional transportation plans, was mostly a warmed-over rehash of previous plans that prioritize freeways. The previous SANDAG plan included some transit and bike improvements, but those investments were all put on the back burner, and highway expansions came first.
Not this time. The new draft plan – written under new SANDAG leadership – presents a utopian vision of what a connected, equitable, easy-to-navigate transportation system could be, focusing on new technologies for managing vehicle traffic, improving transit, and building streetscapes that work for people on foot and on bike.
Although the 3o-year timeline is about 20 years too late for the planet, which needs to see drastic shifts in how we get around in the next ten years to avoid catastrophic climate changes.
The other challenge is the cost, with an unfunded $160 billion price tag — yes, with a b — to build out.
And as we’ve learned the hard way here in Los Angeles, the key to its success is actually building it, rather than letting it turn into dust sitting on the shelf, like LA’s mobility plan.
Which so far hasn’t been worth the silicon it’s printed on.
However, San Diego leaders have actually shown a willingness to live up to their commitments, such as the city’s climate action plan.
So maybe there’s hope of real change down there, even if it may take too long.
Now if they could just show the rest of us how it’s done.
We were walking towards the intersection where I took pictures of the detour at the intersection. This time we tried to cross the bridge. The bridge is undergoing major construction and is down to two lanes from four. No sidewalk use either. However, on both sides there are temporary bike ped bridges. Four in total because there is a small island in the river.
Here is a picture of one of the temporary bridges. Yes that is snow.
Interesting that the male voice in your video says that what they’re doing is “completely illegal” – hopefully you can point us in the direction of where that piece of legislation is…
Also, the MAXIMUM speed for that road would be 60. It’s wet and narrow, so would expect less.
— Roads Policing – Surrey Police – UK (@SurreyRoadCops) December 1, 2021
Although the police use a painful analogy to correct him on another one.
No they shouldn’t Nick. Drivers should drive their one tonne vehicle more carefully and stop killing 5 people every day.
To use your opinion in a different analogy, should kids in American schools wear bullet proof jackets in case of a mass shooting?
— Roads Policing – Surrey Police – UK (@SurreyRoadCops) December 1, 2021
Unfortunately, we can only imagine what it would be like to have police back us up like that in this country.
………
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Tragic news from Arkansas, where a bike-riding paramedic was killed during the Little Rock Marathon when he grabbed onto a utility vehicle to respond to an injured runner and was pulled under the vehicle’s wheels; the state governor ordered flags flown at half-staff for two days in his honor.
A Michigan man faces up to 30 years behind bars after admitting to using meth and weed, and using Facebook Messenger while driving at highway speeds when he fatally ran down a woman riding her bike earlier this year.
If you’re not doing anything tonight, here’s your chance to dip a toe into track cycling.
We’ve got another Friday Night Scrimmage scheduled for tomorrow (12/3), 7:30-9pm @ the @velosportsctr. This is a chance to work on racing skills and nuance designed to make freshman riders comfortable in a competition setting. No pre-reg necessary…walk-ups welcome & encouraged! pic.twitter.com/UA65aJeBwZ
November 30, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Killer Oceanside hit-and-run driver gets 2 years, low curb hazard on new Culver bike lanes, and scam Bonin anti-recall site
Before we get started, just a quick reminder that today is Giving Tuesday, the one day each year set aside to support worthy nonprofit organizations that need your help.
We could name a very long list, from Streets For All and the LACBC, to Calbike and Streetsblog LA and California.
Along with your own local advocacy groups, wherever you live.
One group that recently came to my attention is the Los Angeles Bicycle Academy, a youth cycling and bicycle education program created to “empower, educate and develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills in youth between the ages of 8-18.”
Our focus is to work with youth from underserved communities where opportunity, access, equity, and exposure within the sport of cycling is extremely limited. We want to help more young people learn the positive impact a bicycle can have on their own lives, and the lives of those around them.
They have big plans for the coming year, including opening a community bike shop, launching a build-a-bike program, and developing a women’s cycling team.
She could have gotten up to four years in the state pen, with another year in county.
Instead, she got a relative slap on the wrist for leaving an innocent man to die alone in the street. Then hid her car for a full week until it was spotted by a homeless man.
………
You can’t please everyone.
Culver City officially unveiled their new Move Culver City initiative, installing quick build bus and bike lanes on three major streets in the downtown area — in a fraction of the time and cost required for similar projects across the city limit line in Los Angeles.
But while most people came out to celebrate completion of the project, I’m told a group of drivers turned out to protest, apparently under the misconception that 100% of the streets belong to cars.
And unwilling to give up a single inch, let alone a lane or two.
On the other hand, the response from the two-wheeled group seems mostly positive.
However, Mitchell Guzik pointed out an unexpected hazard posed by low concrete curbs intended to protect people using the bike lanes, but which could present a risk to any bike rider who runs into them.
Photo by Mitchell Guzik
Even in daylight, it’s a struggle to spot them in the photo. Which means it would be nearly impossible after dark.
The obvious solution, as Guzik suggests, is to paint the curbs a more visible color. Or go crazy, and let some of Culver City’s many artists decorate them.
Obviously, we don’t want to fall into the common SoCal trap of letting perfect be the enemy of good when it comes to bike lanes.
But just a minor improvement could make them safer for everyone.
Correction: I originally misspelled the name of Mitchell Guzik. My apologies for the error.
………
They’re back.
A few very unpleasant years ago, I had the misfortune of tangling with the fraudulent Westside Walkers Twitter account, which was created in response to the 2017 lane reductions on Venice Blvd and in Playa del Rey.
As Peter Flax made clear in outing the person behind the account, the Westside Walkers pretended to be “LA’s #1 walking & biking advocacy group.”
But it was actually just one man’s political dirty trick, posing as a nonexistent group to muddy the advocacy waters and make his opposition to traffic safety measures seem more reasonable.
Now he’s back, pretending to be the “Official Democrat Anti Recall” group supporting CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin, which undoubtedly came as a surprise to the actual group opposing the recall.
As before, this is just another political dirty trick by a recall supporter and longtime Bonin hater, in an attempt to muddy the water.
And not hesitating to use outright lies to do it.
So don’t fall for it.
Whether or not you support Bonin — and I do — there’s no place for stunts like this, from someone with a long history of playing dirty.
Politics in Los Angeles are dirty enough.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A London political columnist takes issue with bike lanes and the unlicensed people who use them, saying bikes were fine for Victorian times, but should only be used on private property these days (scroll down — no, keep scrolling). Just wait until someone tells him who the roads were really built for.
A truck driver who fatally right-hooked a bike-riding San Luis Obispo man faces a maximum of one lousy year behind bars or a $1,000 fine after being charged with misdemeanor vehicular homicide, because he didn’t do it on purpose. On the other hand, the victim is still dead, whether or not it was intentional.
A Streetsblog op-ed accuses Oakland’s Vision Zero program of being an empty promise, and says the city needs to take it seriously if they want to eliminate traffic deaths. A sentiment most Los Angeles bike riders and pedestrians could probably relate to.
Streetsblog makes the case that the NYPD is lying about the risks posed by ebikes, conflating crashes involving ebikes, which are legal in New York, with mopeds, which aren’t. And placing all the blame on the bike riders, while ignoring who was actually at fault in those crashes.
So let’s thank Bernard B, Stephen M and Tom C for their generous donations to help keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy keeps coming your way every day.
So don’t wait. Give now via PayPal, or with Zelle to ted @ bikinginla.com.
Any amount, no matter how large or small, is truly and deeply appreciated.
………
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
November 19, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Study shows bicycling got safer last year, new Beverly Hills protected bike lane, and cops bust Mar Vista bike chop shop
Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until statistics for 2020 come out next year to know what really happened in the last one; right now, 2019 is the most recent year available.
And it remains to be seen whether things have reverted to previous levels as more traditional traffic patterns have resumed as businesses reopened this year.
But I’d put my money on things being worse, not better.
Graphic by tomexploresla.
………
For any of us who remember the bad old days of the Biking Black Hole of Beverly Hills before it unexpectedly got bike friendly, hell has officially frozen over.
After entirely justified criticism for failing to investigate a bike chop shop being openly operated on a Mar Vista Street, the LAPD discovers it can, in fact, do something about it.
Today, our officers conducted an investigation at the homeless encampment @ Inglewood/90 fwy. They identified: 1 stolen moped, 1 stolen motorcycle and 1 stolen bicycle. A person was arrested for Receiving Stolen Property.
The U.S. Departments of the Interior and Transportation announced a plan to draw on funds in the new infrastructure bill to refocus transportation in National Parks on greener options, including expanded bike trails and shared micromobility programs.
Seriously? Virginia considers a wrong-headed plan to ban bikes from in front of the state capitol, forcing crosstown riders to dismount and walk for several blocks, all because a state official has “occasionally seen near-collisions” between people walking and riding bikes in the area. It’s like every collision or near miss inevitably gets blamed on the people on bicycles, as if pedestrians never step out without looking.
London’s mayor warns of major transportation cuts, including cutting back on bike lanes and pausing the city’s Vision Zero program, as the city’s transportation department faces a budget hole equivalent to $1.7 billion.
While the world is literally burning, Los Angeles opens a massive new parking garage to encourage more people to drive to LAX.
Yes, Los Angeles will open a people mover to finally connect the airport to the city’s rail system in another two years.
Something that should have happened nearly two decades ago when the Green Line, now called the C Line, inexplicably bypassed the airport. Note: I originally misidentified this as the Blue Line; thanks to John for the correction.
But as this massive car storage facility makes clear, the city is planning for driving to remain the primary way to access the airport for the foreseeable future — if not actively encouraging it through induced demand.
Frightening video from the Bay Area earlier this month, when a small group of bicyclists were nearly run down by a driver who fell asleep and crossed over onto the wrong side of the road.
Although it’s hard to imagine that most protected bike lanes would prevent something like this, either.
Rudick notes that only a curb-protected bike lane or a parking protected lane would have kept this driver out.
And even those are questionable, since there’s a good chance the snoozing driver could have jumped a curb, while parking protected lanes depend on whether anyone is actually parked there at the time.
Never mind any of the more common bollard protected lanes, whether the fat plastic bollards or the car-tickler plastic bendie posts that are euphemistically termed protection.
The gold standard for protection remains heavy, albeit ugly, k-rails, or planters that are anchored to the pavement.
But plastic is less expensive. And paint is even cheaper.
Which should tell you what officials think our lives are worth.
………
Southern California Families for Safe Streets is hosting their monthly brunch to fight traffic violence this Saturday.
Tired of accepting car crashes, high speed, & death on our roads as a part of LA life? Are you or a loved one a victim of traffic violence? Help build community, transform infrastructure, and change laws to make LA streets safer. RSVP here: https://t.co/kaTAaKekccpic.twitter.com/cLiznKTZ5C
This is what could happen here if we had safer streets.
Something special is happening in Barcelona. It started last month when some parents organized a bike ride to school for just five kids. Now entire neighborhoods are joining. They call it Bicibús – or Bike Bus. pic.twitter.com/qIxsQEervG
The Prada store in Aspen sells $1000 bike shorts and I tried to try some on for my video and compare to the $40 ones from The Black Bibs, but they kicked me out.
A 60-year old Portland woman has been frightened off her bike after she was left-crossed by a driver while riding in a crosswalk. Fortunately, she wasn’t seriously injured, but says the fear has deprived her of an important mobility tool. Simply put, we will never make a serious dent in car usage until average people of all ages feel safe on our streets without one.
Brian Laundrie may be one of us, after the reputed prime suspect in the killing of killing of Gabby Petito was reportedly seen riding a bicycle a few hours north of his Florida home. Then again, he’s also reportedly been seen all over the state, and as far north as the Appalachian Trail.
But what they failed to mention is that original plans called for a protected bike lane.
Santa Fe Ave in West LB was to get protected bike/ped facilities (it's the #8 worst corridor for bike/ped injuries). Yet those facilities have been downgraded to lowest class in $3.7M project in an area continually dismissed. Public meeting TOMORROW: https://t.co/kRVi2s17ym
West Long Beach is no exception as this type of lack of safety, particularly along bicycle corridors, has been addressed by urban planners and traffic engineers nationwide through the use of the “8-80 rule.”
It basically goes as such: Would you feel comfortable letting an eight-year-old ride down the street with an 80-year-old as their guide? If your answer is even a remote hesitation, planners feel that road requires “8-80 facilities,” or fully protected bike lanes with bollards and parking as buffers before aligning directly with traffic.
Santa Fe Avenue, according to our own city’s Master Bicycle Plan (Appendix E), is such a facility. These bike lanes are typically Class I bike paths: They do not share, in any capacity, their space with cars.
And yet, for reasons known only to city planners, this ostensibly bike and pedestrian friendly city is going out of their way to maintain the automotive hegemony on this corridor.
Not to mention keeping it dangerous, if not deadly, for anyone who isn’t in a motor vehicle.
It’s up to you to tell Long Beach that’s not good enough.
If you walk or ride in the area, or would like to if it was safer, you owe it to yourself to attend tonight’s virtual meeting.
The virtual meeting—set to be presented in English with interpreters for Khmer, Spanish, and Tagalog speakers on hand—begins at 6PM on Thursday, Oct. 7. To register for the Zoom meeting, click here. For those using phones, you may also call 213-338-8477 and enter the meeting using the following ID: 998 6180 2751. Anyone wanting more information can contact the Public Works Department at contactlbpw@longeach.gov or 562-570-6383.
Thanks to Brian Addison for the heads-up.
……..
CD14 Councilmember and 2022 mayoral candidate Kevin de León has fired a shot across the bow for next year’s campaign, staking out a transit, bike and pedestrian friendly position with a series of motions introduced in the LA city council on Wednesday.
LA City Councilmember Kevin de León has introduced 5 transportation motions: • Develop bus stop improvement policy. • Plan uphill bike lanes and downhill sharrows. • Reports on bike lanes, adding crosswalk beacons. • Study closing some downtown roads.https://t.co/D1nuuq7sU0pic.twitter.com/22UMT0IhL9
The fifth motion not mentioned above calls for studying the purchase of more electric mini-street sweepers to keep protected bike lanes clean, as well as the possibility of buying hybrid electric street sweepers.
Although a street sweeper that could keep cars out would help a lot more.
The most interesting motion calls for closing one block segments of some Downtown Streets to car traffic, including
Grand Ave between 1st and 2nd
Broadway between 3rd and 4th
Traction Ave between 3rd and Hewitt
However, a far better option would be to pedestrianize the full length of Broadway, from City Hall south to at least 8th Street.
And while placing bike lanes on the uphill side of some streets and sharrows on the downhill side has some promise, the question becomes whether it would work in practice, since drivers tend to pick up speed going downhill, often far in excess of the speed limit.
Which wouldn’t exactly be comfortable, or safe.
The bigger problem is the motions don’t call for actually doing anything other than conducting yet another a study. Or rather five studies.
Which is what the city does best.
Los Angeles has a long and unproductive history of studying problems to death, without ever taking any real action.
So we’ll have to see if anything actually comes of de León’s motions.
Or if he’s just staking out a position for what promises to be a bruising mayoral campaign.
Then again, there is something he could do to show he really is serious.
Evidently, the problem isn’t just biking where Black or Brown, but biking where Black or Brown.
A new study from a UC Davis researcher shows that eight times more traffic tickets were issued to bike riders in majority Black neighborhoods, compared to majority white areas. And three times more in majority Latinx neighborhoods.
The study also shows that most traffic tickets are written on major streets, but 85% fewer bicyclists are ticketed on streets with bike lanes. Except few communities populated primarily by people of color have bike lanes.
The study also shows there’s no apparent correlation between higher rates of ticketing people on bicycles and improvements in safety.
The obvious solution is to build more bike lanes in Black and Latinx neighborhoods, in consultation with the community to address fears that bike lanes contribute to gentrification.
Less obvious is the author’s suggestion to remove traffic enforcement from strategies for safer streets, since it doesn’t have any apparent benefit and unfairly target people of color.
………
If you ride an Elliptigo bike, you could be looking at a recall to avoid the risk of your frame breaking while you ride.
Billings, Montana is building a network of neighborhood bikeways. Unfortunately, Los Angeles isn’t, even though the Mobility Plan calls for it as one of the three bike networks included in the plan.
The CBC talks with the ER doctor who was in exactly the right place at the right time, riding a Minnesota bike trail when he came upon an unconscious mountain biker on the side of the trail, and saved his life with an emergency on-site cricothyrotomy.
Heartbreaking news from Minnesota, where a ten-year old girl lost her leg and suffered life-threatening injuries when she was run over on her bicycle and dragged for over a block, after a 73-year old semi driver jumped the curb she was on while making a right turn; needless to say, no charges have been filed yet.
Please help us find BG1! Some rotter has stolen Rachel's #brighton#gin#bike (stolen from Dyke Road), essential for our zero-carbon deliveries. Pls help us find it & if you hear of someone selling a bike with #BrightonGin branding please shout! (Gin-based reward for recovery) pic.twitter.com/eVt5Zfp9fk
September 10, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Motorists behaving badly, possible parking protected bike lane on San Vicente, and dealing a blow to 85th Percentile rule
A couple more notes from our anonymous correspondent.
In this week’s edition of Motorists Behaving Badly, accounting for the first thirty minutes after midnight Tuesday morning:
A driver rear-ended a CHP officer who’d made a traffic stop on the 105, injuring the officer and totaling a patrol vehicle.
On Normandie Ave, a hit-and-runner hospitalized a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk literally in front of Woon’s (fallen bicyclist Frederick “Woon” Frazier) mama’s home.
A driver smashed the guardrail at Carmelita Ave & Zaring St (house and occupants remained safe, because a guardrail was installed, probably in hindsight.)
………
Random tangent: My Favorite Lawyer™ Christien Francis Petersen (who got stabby with a reporter at a freedumb rally in HB last year, and then got arrested again for bringing a bunch of unregistered assault weapons to another freedumb rally last April) was arrested recently for hit-and-run (property damage) & DUI. Thrilled to know I’m sharing the road with him!
………
In personal news, my Surly was stolen Sunday morning. Probably not by someone late for church.
Also, while nothing major was lost in the Great MacBook Air Inferno of 2021, little scraps of lost info randomly irk me, like the names of the accomplices in the Chillandra Bell (hit-and-run vs ped) case, and the specifics of the altercation in the Victor Manuel Romero case. Aurgh. Also, I cannot find Andrea Dorothy Chan Reyes on the CA Department of Corrections site. I lost my inmate number file, but you don’t actually need one to locate an inmate, and she wasn’t (isn’t?) up for parole until next month.
This could be the first, long overdue, nail in the coffin of the deadly 85th percentile rule.
We did it! Today, AB 43 passed #CALeg with strong bipartisan support in favor of giving our communities control over speed limits and road safety. After years of work on this effort, I couldn’t be more grateful to my colleagues & our advocates up and down the state. pic.twitter.com/CKjWR3AmYI
No bias here, either. A professional driver and self-professed amateur cyclist says many London bike riders have to be protected against their own stupidly, claiming there’d be far more riders killed if it wasn’t for drivers like him. Just wait until someone tells him about the stupid things some drivers do.
LAistexamines the recently passed AB 1238, the so-called Freedom to Walk Act, which would eliminate most fines for jaywalking, as well as walking on the wrong side of the street when there’s no sidewalk, noting that the current prohibition disproportionately cracks down on people of color; the bill is sitting on Newsom’s desk waiting for his signature.
San Francisco Streetsblog argues that highways wrecked American cities, leveling some of the country’s greatest neighborhoods. And too often, flattening thriving neighborhoods devoted to people of color.
This is the cost of traffic violence. Skins and A Dog’s Prayer actress Kathryn Prescott is in a New York ICU after she was struck by a cement truck while crossing the street on Wednesday, narrowly avoiding paralysis after breaking her pelvis in two places, both her legs, her foot and her left hand, according to her twin sister.
Bike and scooter riders get blamed for the City of Light’s mediocre walkability score, as a Parisian website argues “a Paris stroll has now become a hazardous balancing act for pedestrians trying to dodge screeching wheels and aggressive bicycle bells.”
Hats off to England’s William Bjergfelt, who at 42 became the second-oldest cyclist to compete in the Tour of Britain — and the first paracyclist, after he was told he would never ride a bike again when his shattered leg was reconstructed with three titanium plates following a head-on by a driver in 2015.
In a truly awful piece, a writer in San Diego’s Ocean Beach neighborhood complains that bike advocates are lying about this years rash of bicycling deaths to foist an anti-car agenda on the car-driving public.
He has the shameless audacity to go through each death one by one, pointing out how the victims were, or could have been, at fault, but from his windshield-biased perspective.
Never mind that he’s relying on newspaper accounts for his information, which as we’ve seen, too often don’t contain the salient facts and leave far too many blanks to fill.
And all too often, are based on police reports, which can, and usually do, reflect the officer’s windshield bias, and a basic lack of training when it comes to bike laws.
I had intended to open today’s post with a lengthy rant dissecting his arguments. But soon discovered that Peter Flax had beaten me to the punch.
The central premise of Page’s story is that bike advocates and city leader in San Diego have dishonestly tried to leverage the spate of riders being killed there to get more bike lanes built — “to further the cycling agenda” as he puts it. In his argument, the connection between people dying and the need for better riding infrastructure is mostly fictious and totally overblown. And then to prove his hypothesis, Page does some light googling and sets out to demonstrate that nearly all the cycling deaths that have occurred in San Diego were likely the riders’ own fault. It’s an eye-opening exercise in victim blaming.
Above all, the story is inhumane and recklessly presumptive. Imagine thinking that you could spend an hour on Google, read a handful of day-one news stories, and then feel equipped to pronounce that strangers in your community have been killed because of their own errors or bad judgment. Imagine being an editor or publisher and thinking you want to publish that kind of a hot take on your site.
Then Flax did something remarkable.
He reached out to the man who penned that awful piece, and held a non-judgmental online discussion — nonjudgmental on his side, anyway — on why he wrote it.
In your story, you state quite firmly that five of these deaths were the fault of the cyclists, and that several made “poor choices” and several more died in circumstances where blame cannot be assigned. This adds up to nearly all the deaths in San Diego. Can you see how many people felt like you were engaged in victim blaming?
I did not blame any victims. I recounted that the news stories on five of these clearly showed the cyclist was at fault, that was not me making a decision based on the facts. The facts in five more do not say who was at fault, not a conclusion I came to. I have responded to several comments asking for a specific instance of victim blaming in my article. Nothing.
It’s not victim blaming these folks are upset about. They are upset because I had the temerity to challenge the cycling narrative to the public by debunking their claim about what these 12 deaths meant. My target was dishonesty.
Unfortunately, the conversation accomplished exactly what you’d expect, with the author unbudging in his unbridled victim blaming, and accusations of some subversive cyclist agenda.
But you have to give Flax credit.
That could not have been an easy conversation to have. And he went out of his way to understand the other man, and to be fair.
But this kind of attitude is, sadly, all too common.
One where we are seen, not as ordinary people simply trying to stay safe on the streets, but as wild-eyed activists pushing a radical anti-car agenda to force the unwilling car-driving public onto bicycles.
When the truth is, we’re just trying to get from here to there in one piece.
And too often, failing.
Photo from the bike path in Santa Monica, which will have to stand in for Ocean Beach.
………
Malibu’s continually rescheduled discussion of a plan to widen the shoulder on a two-mile section of PCH, instead of building bike lanes, which will presumably put bike riders in the door zone — unless maybe they won’t — is back on the agenda for tomorrow night.
Ask the City of Malibu to add safe, protected bike lanes to PCH
There is a special Planning Commission Meeting (RESCHEDULED) in Malibu this Wednesday at 630pm where they are going to discuss approving a plan to widen the shoulder on 2 miles of Pacific Coast Highway between Webb Way and Puerto Canyon Road to add MORE parking.
Their proposal really only benefits cars and puts people on bikes in the “door zone.” We need them to do better – it’s time for Caltrans and Malibu to add protected bike lanes to PCH.
To be honest, it’s hard for me to get too worked up about this simply because it’s been going on for so long.
Whether’s it’s RVs, illegally parked semis and construction trucks, or some other obstacle, the Venice bike lanes are frequently blocked in one place or another from one end to another, and have been for years.
Enforcement doesn’t seem to do any good. Ticketing or towing drivers for parking illegally only seems to work in the moment, until they come back a day or two later.
If not the same day.
The only solution I can see is to install protected bike lanes from Downtown to the coast. And preferably designed so drivers won’t just park in it anyway, like the LAPD and delivery drivers already do in DTLA.
Which should have been done already.
………
Sunset4All held a successful celebration of LA’s first public/private partnership to transform one of the city’s most dangerous streets.
Big community turnout to celebrate @SunsetForAll reaching their fundraising goal thanks to your donations, our partners @lacbc, & a generous gift from @LINK_Scooters that got us over the top! pic.twitter.com/A8U6rbz4Vh
This is who we share the road with. A 22-year old Los Angeles man is dead following a road rage confrontation after a minor fender bender. He chased the other driver when she left the scene, then was thrown to the street after somehow ending up on her hood during a second confrontation.
Streets For All is hosting another virtual happy hour a week from tomorrow, with special guest LADOT General Manager Seleta Reynolds. Which makes it the perfect opportunity to ask why the bike plan is still just “aspirational,” and why Vision Zero and the city’s Green New Deal seem to have been pushed so far onto the back burner they’re in danger of falling off entirely.
Reno bike advocates are up in arms after the city calls for a $100,000 study to reroute a planned bike lane, because the casinos complained that they don’t want one in front of their businesses. Apparently failing to grasp that bike riders are used to gambling, since we have to do it on a daily basis.
Kansas police insist they’ve got the right man now, after arresting a motorist for shooting and killing a man, apparently to steal his bicycle, after they’d both visited the same business; another man was cleared of the crime after being arrested earlier, but was still being held on outstanding warrants.
Speaking of Singapore, a woman had a far too close call when she fell off her bike and nearly landed in the path of a large truck. Although all the commenters seemed to care about is that the group of bicyclists she was with wasn’t supposed to be on that highway to begin with.
Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez apologized for giving up and quitting in the middle of the penultimate Vuelta stage, after falling off a possible podium finish when he was dropped in an attack, slipping from third to sixth before abandoning.
As you may recall, we sounded the alarm about this proposal last month, which is described as a plan to improve safety for people on bicycles by providing more space to ride on the shoulder, while also providing additional curbside parking.
Put another way, the proposal appears to put bikes in the door zone, instead of providing protected bike lanes.
And that it would be a big safety improvement for the deadly highway, especially for people on bicycles.
Although what PCH really needs is narrower traffic lanes and far slower speeds.
Admittedly, while I used to be involved with the PCH Task Force, I haven’t been able to keep up with it since the one-two punch of diabetes and neuropathy knocked me on my ass half decade ago.
So I can’t speak to just what this plan does or doesn’t do, other than what was in the description.
But if you ride PCH, you owe it to yourself to voice your concerns and tune into the meeting to see whether it would help tame LA County’s killer highway and keep you — and everyone else — safer as you ride through the ‘Bu.
Or if this one needs to go back to the drawing board.
Okay, so it’s not PCH. But this photo of a bike-riding surfer resting on his board is the only decent shot I’ve got of Malibu.
………
Nothing like cops doing the right thing, but getting the law wrong.
They’re right that drivers are required to stop for pedestrians in painted crosswalks.
But drivers are also required to yield to pedestrians at any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, per CVC 21950. And every intersection is presumed to have a crosswalk, whether marked or not, unless signage prohibits crossing.
So bottom line, drivers have to yield to pedestrians at any crosswalk, painted or otherwise.
But like I said, at least they’re doing the right thing.
We've had numerous, recent reports of hit and run incidents in #BoyleHeights, including some on Whittier Blvd. not far from this crosswalk. https://t.co/6SYr2skGbS
Or rather, the website is real. But the deals and companies offering them aren’t.
With bikes currently being in such strong demand globally, it has become increasingly difficult to get the bike you want when you want it, with lead times often running into several months – and in response, we’re hearing more reports of fake websites trying to part people from their cash for bicycles that don’t exist, apparently offering deals that seem to good to be true, because they are.
While that alone may set alarm bells ringing among many prospective purchasers who will quickly realise that they risk being scammed, what the operators of such sites are banking on is that human nature being what it is, others will place an order and never see the bike, or their money, again.
If an advertisement is telling you that the bike you want is now 70%-90% off, they are lying to you. Do not click on the ad. Do not give them your money or any personal information.
The contact information is suspicious
Trek and our retailers hold ourselves to a very high standard of customer service. If you cannot reach the person you are buying from, do not buy from them.
The site is relatively new
You can check to see how long a website has existed by entering it into archive.org. If the site is brand new and offering steep discounts, do not purchase anything from them.
The site does not ask you to pick a preferred retailer
All current model Trek bikes ordered online must be delivered to an authorised Trek retailer for assembly. If you are not asked to select a retailer to dispatch a bike to, do not buy from the site. Previous model year Trek bikes can be delivered directly to consumers, but only through an authorised retailer’s website or BikeExchange.com.
In other words, stick with sites you know. Or better yet, check with your local bike shop before you buy anything online.
And caveat emptor.
………
Let’s consider a few more stories to restore your faith in humanity.
A generous Texas business owner bought a young boy a new bike after his was stolen while he was playing near a church parking lot; that bicycle had replaced another one that was stolen just weeks earlier. Let’s hope they also bought him a decent lock this time.
A bighearted Pennsylvania man gave a young girl a new bicycle after the bike she’d just received from a youth program was stolen days after she got it; police found the stolen bike heavily damaged in a local creek. However, you may have trouble getting past the paper’s paywall.
Popular Mechanics offers their picks for the best hitch-mounted bike racks. Just remember, any rack that obscures the license plate is illegal, although it’s one of those things where you’ll probably get away with it, until you don’t.
CyclingTips considers that $28,000 Louis Vuitton bike with the bizarre backward suicide handbrakes. Which is a lot of money for something that will probably get you killed the first time you have to make a panic stop. Then again, if you can afford the bike, you can probably afford to pay someone to ride it for you.
Glasgow, Scotland has adopted a Vision Zero plan, with the goal of ending traffic fatalities and serious injuries on the roads by 2030. Although as we’ve learned the hard way here in Los Angeles, it’s meaningless without the political will to make the hard choices, which we clearly lack.
A new German-made, four-wheeled, self-propelled bike trailer promises you won’t have to work any harder to pull it, and it will easily follow your bike wherever you go, at speeds up to 19 mph. It might be just a bit pricy, though, available for rent for a tad under $600 a month.
July 7, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on CD4’s Raman rides through district to examine safety, and Sunset4All just $16,000 short of protected bike lane goal
“My dream for this district and for the city as a whole is that we can make it safer and easier for people to be able to move around outside of their cars: have it be not just possible, but a pleasant and beautiful experience to get around this city.” “We started six months ago,” noted Raman, “but we’re at the beginning of that process now. And I am really excited to get the entire community involved in thinking about that.”
Let’s hope that she can and will finally get LADOT to actually get something done around here. And repair some of the damage cause by her less-than-bike-friendly predecessors.
This weekend our team hit the streets with @lacbc on our @himiwaybike e-bikes to gain first hand experience of the realities facing cyclists in CD4.
We just broke the $9,000 mark! Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has donated to the @SunsetForAll project campaign. We've still got a ways to go so please continue to share with family, friends and neighbors! https://t.co/s4BCw4ZM7upic.twitter.com/OnOlKq2ZxL
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A bike-riding Houston couple open up about the 4th of July incident, when the husband shot a road raging driver who shouted they didn’t belong on the street before intentionally ramming his car into the wife; police arrested the driver after concluding they shot him in self-defense.
Let’s hope you’re happy with the current direction of pro and amateur cycling, because we’re going to be stuck with it for another four years.
David Lappartient is the only candidate for UCI Presidency, meaning he'll b confirmed for a second 4 year term without it being put to a vote. https://t.co/72VyReqAnv
