Tag Archive for recovering stolen bikes

Morning Links: Driver busted in Escondido hit-and-run, Bike Index saves ebike from Tijuana swap meet, and ET flies again

December 2, 2019 / / One comment

It’s the first full week of the 5th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

I count on your support to help close the long and challenging gap after the sponsorship funds for this site run out, and before they start to renew again in the spring. 

So give today to help keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. 

And keep me from having to work the next few months for free. 

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Good news from San Diego’s North County, where Escondido police have arrested a suspect in last month’s fatal hit-and-run that took the life of a young father and former mountain bike racer.

Forty-one-year old Escondido resident Jamison Connor was identified as the driver who allegedly ran down 36-year old Vista resident Kevin Lentz, leaving him to die in the street, and forcing his one-year old son to grow up without a father.

Connor was initially taken into custody on unrelated parole violation allegations related to “various weapons charges, drug charges, and driving under the influence allegations,” according to a police spokesman.

Which matters, because unless Escondido authorities can come up with other charges, the most Connor could get for a fatal hit-and-run in California is just four years.

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding page has raised over $101,000 for his wife and son.

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More proof of the power of bicycle registration, as Bike Index helps recover a $6,000 ebike stolen from San Diego’s Hotel Del Coronado at a Tijuana swap meet.

Seriously, if you haven’t already, stop what you’re doing and sign up for their free, international, lifetime bike registration.

Before it’s too late.

Speaking of Bike Index, Facebook will match any donations to the nonprofit organization on tomorrow’s Giving Tuesday.

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In case you missed it during Thursday’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, ET once again phoned home — and once again rode a flying bicycle with the children of now-grown Elliott, carrying on the family tradition.

But even if you saw it, you may have missed all the many hidden references to the original.

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Who needs a seat, anyway?

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No, you don’t need an SUV to carry your Christmas tree.

Or even a car.

https://twitter.com/BrooklynSpoke/status/1200457661059350528

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Keep your eyes peeled on the streets of Los Angeles for Princess Leia, the bike-riding bulldog.

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David Huntsman goes for a bike ride on the “organically evolved” bike paths of Paris.

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An Indian website asks if video of a Malaysian teen riding a 3 meter high bicycle — the equivalent of over nine feet — is the tallest bicycle ever.

Then answers the question themselves, suggesting they knew all along that the ridiculously tall, 6.15 meter — 20 feet 2.5 inch — STOOPIDTALLER™ bike from LA’s own Richie Trimble holds the record, making it more that twice as tall as the Malaysian bike.

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‘Tis the Season.

Michigan volunteers put together 240 bicycles to be given away through the local Toys for Tots program.

Apparently, Santa rides a bike in Portugal.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes is all too real.

A road raging Aussie driver turned himself in after an attack that was caught on video, running up from behind to punch a bike rider in the head, knocking him off his bike and out cold, before throwing the bike at the victim. All because the bike rider complained about the driver encroaching on a bike lane.

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Local

An op-ed from a UCLA professor says e-scooters are a growing public health challenge, and users need mandatory helmets and training. Because evidently, all other modes of transportation are so much safer, and scooter users kill so many other people. Except they aren’t, and they don’t. 

New LA advocacy group Streets for All says you need to give your input on Beverly Hills’ surprisingly complete Complete Streets plan, saying your voice is needed to keep bike riders and pedestrians from being drowned out by the city’s wealthy NIMBYs.

Redondo Beach considers what’s basically the opposite of Vision Zero, concluding that it has fewer total crashes than the regional average in the northern reaches of the city, so no improvements are necessary — despite a recent rash of traffic deaths it blames on “incorrect behavior” and other “non-systemic issues.”

Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson takes issue with Peter Flax’ recent Bicycling piece about the real reason’s bike riders keep dying on our streets. And Flax takes issue with Davidson taking issue.

 

State

Bad news from San Diego, where a 46-year old man suffered life threatening injuries when he allegedly swerved his bike in front of a pickup driver in San Ysidro. As always, the question is whether there are any independent witnesses who saw him swerve. Besides the driver, that is.

San Diego bike rider Mike Cohen has finished his journey across the US, mostly by bicycle, to meet the family of the Navy flight surgeon whose donated heart allowed Cohen to make the trip.

Temecula has opened a new bike pump track. Which actually has very little to do with bicycle pumps.

Police have released security cam video of the suspect vehicle in last month’s hit-and-run that killed a San Jose bike rider.

The San Francisco Chronicle wonders how — and whether — bicycles can become a preferred means of transportation in the city.

The Sacramento Bee explains what the area will get if a proposed transportation sales tax passes, including a new bicycle bridge and enhancements to Vision Zero. Meanwhile, a Sacramento writer says the city’s goal of surpassing Portland as America’s most livable city is just a pipe dream unless city leaders actually do something.

 

National

Bicycling considers how society’s words are failing people on bicycles.

Fast Company says your next helmet could lose the foam in favor of a new squishy material that absorbs impacts up to 48% better than traditional insulation.

A Seattle weekly disagrees with the local paper, saying no, the city shouldn’t enforce its existing bike helmet law.

A group of indoor cyclists are riding to make the world safer for outdoor ones, attempting to set a record for Longest Static Indoor Cycling Class at a Denver cycling studio to raise funds for PeopleForBikes.

A Montana man calls the police because he fears a beanie-wearing man on a purple bike is going to go into a store grocery bathroom a shoot up drugs. Because he’d seen “those types of people in California.” No, really.

When a Texas surgeon was needed for an emergency operation while out on a long bike ride, a Good Samaritan picked him up and drove him back to town. And yes, the patient is doing well.

The decidedly bike-unfriendly New York Post complains that the city’s bikeshare provider keeps posting pictures of bike riders without helmets. Because they need to set an example, so everyone will always have one with them on the off chance they might decide to actually rent a bikeshare that day.

An attorney for the victim says the NYPD botched an investigation into a bike rider’s death, and that even a cursory examination of the evidence would have shown she wasn’t at fault.

Streetsblog says ticketing an unresponsive New York bike rider following a dooring is a new low for the city’s police. Evidently the department agrees, cancelling the ticket.

A New Jersey paper visits a bike shop founded by an Italian immigrant “right off the boat,” where four generations of the same family have served bike riders for 93-years.

Three Maryland counties are helping ex-cons get back on their feet by getting them on two wheels.

Call it broom protected bike lanes in DC.

Once again, a bike rider is the hero, as a young Miami man rescues a female construction worker from a hammer-wielding assailant.

 

International

We’re winning, comrades. An electric vehicle website says more carmakers are developing ebikes and scooters because they see the writing on the wall for traditional motor vehicles.

The UN says the quickest way to reduce emissions and climate change is to stop making massive SUVs.

A writer for Forbes asks if ebikes are the new delivery vans.

A Vancouver cab driver is caught on video driving in a bike lane across a busy bridge; local riders say it happens all the time.

Once again, a bicycle turns out to be the fastest way across a major city, this time in London as a bike rider beats the city’s famed Tube.

Life is cheap in the UK, as yet another motorist walks with community service and an 18-month ban on driving after rear-ending a bike rider. Meanwhile, an Aussie barrister — aka trial lawyer — considers whether community service and a fine is fair punishment for killing someone on a bicycle. Hint: regardless of what the law says, it’s not.

The Guardian examines which political party offers the best promises for British bicyclists.

If you’re going to suffer a heart attack, you could pick a worse place than a UK bike cafe where a nurse and her partner are dining.

A British county is attempting to improve safety by installing hi-tech signs warning drivers when bike riders are present.

Mumbai will get a junior bicycle mayor within the next three months to encourage more kids to get on their bikes.

Hundreds of Pakistani bike riders turned out to show their solidarity with the people of Palestine.

An Australian paper considers what it will take to break Sydney residents’ addiction to cars. If they figure it out, let us know.

Local governments around Japan are passing ordinances requiring bike riders to carry liability insurance, but without penalties for failing to comply.

 

Competitive Cycling

Five-time Tour de France champ Miguel Indurain is coming out of retirement at age 55 to compete in the six-stage Titan Desert mountain bike race from the Maghreb region of Northern Africa to the Sahara Desert.

Belgian pro cyclist Sofie De Vuyst was suspended by her team after testing positive for steroids, one of the few women’s cyclists to be busted for cheating. But the era of doping is over, right?

A 22-year old Danish pro learns the hard way about the dangers of dancing, breaking his leg while cutting a rug with his teammates; he’ll be off his bike for the next six weeks.

A bike rider discovers what pain is by finishing dead last in the 629.4-mile North Star Bicycle Race ultracycling race.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can have your own hi-tech police bike for a mere ten grand. Even turkeys are running interference for scofflaw drivers.

And forget the limo; nothing beats riding away from your wedding with your new bride riding sidesaddle on the top tube.

 

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

Morning Links: Stolen bike recovered through Bike Index; OC rider critically injured; cyclist jailed for riding in traffic

September 6, 2016 / / Comments Off on Morning Links: Stolen bike recovered through Bike Index; OC rider critically injured; cyclist jailed for riding in traffic

LA may have seen its first stolen bike recovered through Bike Index.

According to the Beverly Press, when LAPD detectives arrested a suspect on weapons charges last month, they recovered a bicycle they believed to be stolen.

After checking the Bike Index stolen bike registry — the same one you’ll find right here on this site — they were able to identify the owner and return the bike.

The story also notes the department recommends Bike Index as “a valuable tool for reuniting owners with stolen bicycles.”

It’s good the see the LAPD is checking the listings, and recommending it. And even better that a hot bike has finally made its way back home because of it.

But don’t wait until it’s too late.

Register your bike for free with Bike Index now, so you’ll have all the information available in an instant if anything should ever happen to it.

Think of it as the cheapest anti-bike theft insurance you can get.

And as this shows, one of the most effective.

Just to be clear, this site receives no compensation for hosting or promoting the Bike Index registry, financial or otherwise. Just the satisfaction of helping stolen bikes get back to their rightful owners.

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Prayers are needed for an Orange County woman after she and her husband were hit by a car while riding in San Juan Capistrano.

Leonie Mckenna reportedly was in critical condition with major trauma, including head injuries, after a driver rear-ended the couple as they rode together on newly opened La Pata Avenue Saturday morning; her husband, Kevin B. Mckenna, was less seriously injured.

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Authorities are attempting to revoke the bond of a Pittsburgh PA area man for the crime of riding a bicycle.

The 57-year old cyclist is charged with delaying traffic by riding in the middle of a traffic lane, preventing drivers from passing, not once, not twice, but eight times since 2012.

He was released from jail after posting bond in February, after apparently spending seven months behind bars without being convicted of a crime — for a damn traffic violation, no less — on the condition that he not ride a bicycle.

Never mind that bike riders are taught to ride in the traffic lane to avoid the door zone and debris on the shoulder, while increasing visibility and preventing unsafe passes.

Whether he was riding safely and legally, or took taking the lane to a dangerous extreme remains to be determined. But there is something seriously wrong when a simple traffic violation results in a single day in jail, let alone months.

And let alone without a conviction.

Although he’s clearly no saint; he also faces charges for threatening the staff of the DA’s office with a rock and several knives last year.

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Like any good serial, some bike stories keep revealing new twists and turns as they go on. And on.

Eighty-nine-year old former New York Mayor David Dinkins insists he had no idea he hit a bike rider as he rushed his wife to the hospital, and returned to the scene as soon as someone told him about it. He swears the rider hit him, rather than the other way around. Which seems strange; if he didn’t even know it happened, how could he know how it happened?

The Toronto cyclist who was run off the road by a cab driver faces charges himself for allegedly reaching into the car to assault the driver before the attack caught on viral video.

The road raging driver who repeatedly attacked bike-riding BBC personality Jeremy Vine last week says he provoked her; police evidently disagree, arresting the woman on an assault charge.

Meanwhile, former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson says it was extremely rude of Vine to selfishly ride safely outside of the door zone, blocking the poor angry driver from whatever imaginary emergency she most likely wasn’t rushing to.

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It shouldn’t be a spoiler at this point to say Nairo Quintana may have put the Vuelta away over the weekend, as long as he can stay upright the rest of the way.

A man is caught on video pulling down a barrier in a French bike race, causing six riders to crash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=489luAvLY50

Worse, it was the father of one of the competitors who did it; Jonathan Boyer’s dad reportedly did it in anger because the peloton failed to wait for his son after he fell earlier in the race.

And an Aussie Paralympian apologizes for doping after he’s sent home for using EPO. Funny how people only seem to apologize after they get caught.

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Local

A 17-mile July bike ride explored environmental injustice along the LA River.

Santa Monica police say to prevent theft by locking your bike in a well-lit and populated area, and secure it with a U-lock. Although that didn’t help one guy, even though he was able to buy it back after it was stolen.

A new rest stop on the San Gabriel River Bike Trail in Pico Rivera features a Fixit station with tools and an air pump for minor bike repairs.

 

State

A new poll shows 83% of San Franciscans think bicycling is good for the city, and over half report riding a bike occasionally themselves.

Heartbreaking news from Oakley, where a 14-year old boy was killed in a traffic collision, just a month before he was scheduled to receive a kidney transplant from his mother after a lifetime of kidney disease.

 

National

As we all know, good beer and bicycling go together; a beer publication offers advice on where to plan your next brewery ride in the US.

Two injured vets in my hometown credit bicycling with saving them from depression and disability.

Nebraska revises the law to give cyclists the right-of-way in a crosswalk where a bike path crosses a roadway.

Columbus OH is the latest city to ditch Share the Road signs for the much clearer Bikes May Use Full Lane signs. Although drivers are often confused when the signs go up, thinking they give riders new rights, rather simply clarifying the rights we already have.

More kindhearted people, as a New Jersey paramedic went to Walmart to buy a new bicycle for a 10-year girl who had been impaled by the brake handle of her bicycle; the Walmart manager donated a bicycle after hearing the story. This sort of injury happens far too often; there’s clearly a major design defect when children are put at risk by their own bikes.

An 89-year old man now faces up to 30 years behind bars after being convicted in the hit-and-run death of a former pro football player as he rode in a Florida bike lane. Even with good behavior, he could be well over 100 years old before he gets out.

 

International

A British cyclist discusses the 16,000 mile ride around North America he took after learning he had early onset Alzheimer’s at age 39.

Bicyclists say some of the existing portions of the nearly finished 15,000 mile bike path across Canada are better on paper than in reality.

A British driver gets nine years for killing a cyclist while texting — after eight previous convictions for using his phone while driving. You’d think that after three or four convictions, someone would have taken his phone away. Or maybe his car. Or both.

Dublin is ordered to stop work on bicycle projects, after funding is pulled and resources diverted in favor of a massive traffic project. Proving once again that cyclists are second-class citizens virtually everywhere.

A 22-year old Namibian man hung himself following an argument with his brothers over who could use the family bicycle.

A New Zealand teen is building a prosthetic hand so his younger brother with cerebral palsy can ride a bike two-handed for the first time.

Maybe you could wear a disguise. Not only do magpies Down Under attack bike riders they perceive as a threat, they also remember and attack again the next time they see you. And every time after that.

A new bicycling jacket from New Zealand can automatically signal your turns. Manufacturers continue their attempts to improve bike safety by turning us all into cars, instead of expecting people in cars to operate them safely.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to use your bike as a getaway vehicle after torching your ex’s car, make sure it’s the right car first. Your next bike could be a treadmill.

And everything you need to know before letting a helicopter drop you off for your next downhill ride.

 

Category: Bikes & the Law, Law Enforcement, Morning Links, Stolen Bikes and Bike Crime / Tags: , , , , , , , ,
 
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