Let’s start with some good news for a change.
A former Olympic racewalker can credit a retired nurse and a PVE cop for the fact that he’s still alive and pedaling.
Former nurse Rachel Ebright and Officer John Zabukovec were honored by the Palos Verdes Estates city council Tuesday for saving the life of 61-year old Allen James after finding him lying in the street, bleeding and badly injured, following a crash on his bicycle.
Allen was riding near near Paseo Del Mar and Palos Verdes Drive West when he went over his handlebars and through the windshield of a parked car, leaving him with a severely gashed neck, along with a broken rib and scrapes on his arms and left knee, disoriented and near death.
There’s no time or date given for the crash, only that it happened at night, roughly four months ago.
KTLA-5 describes what happened next.
Rachel Ebright, a retired nurse, was driving nearby when she spotted James lying on the road. She quickly pulled over and ran over to help.
“I told him to stay with me,” she recalled. “Whenever he flexed his neck, there was massive arterial spray, so I had to restrain a 6-foot-3 elite athlete and try to keep him down.”
John Zabukovec, an officer with the Palos Verdes Estates Police Department, arrived at the scene soon after and also stepped in to help.
“There was an overwhelming sense of chaos,” he said when he first arrived. “I knew immediately that I needed to apply life-saving measures.”
Allen was rushed to a nearby hospital, and recovered after emergency surgery. He’s back on his bike and riding again — and still alive — thanks the efforts of two kindhearted strangers.
Thanks to Chris for the heads-up.
Image by FuzzyRescue from Pixabay.
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About damn time.
A new bill has been introduced in the California Assembly to rein in the worst speeding offenders.
AB 2276 would require drivers convicted of particularly egregious or excessive speeding and/or reckless driving violations to install active intelligent speed assistance devices that use GPS and digital maps to determine posted speed limits in real time, and limit drivers ability to exceed them.
Drivers would be required to install the devices for a specific period, based on judicial discretion and offense history. The bill would use income-based fees for device costs and installation to protect low-income drivers from excessive fees.
Similar ISA programs are already in place in Virginia, Washington State and the District of Columbia.
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If you haven’t participated in LA Critical Mass lately — or ever — tonight might be time to start.
The monthly ride will roll in honor of two victims of needless traffic violence, 36-year old mother Regan Cole-Graham and her unborn daughter Ophelia, who were killed by an 87-year old driver while Cole-Graham was riding ebikes with her husband and two young sons last month.
They were run down from behind on Pershing Drive in Playa del Rey. That’s where a road diet and bike lanes were installed in 2017 to improve safety, then removed a few months later after loud complaints from motorists used to using the street to bypass traffic on the 405.
Here’s a press release from Streets Are For Everyone about the memorial ride.
1500 Cyclists Ride to Remember Regan Cole-Graham and Ophelia Graham
Advocates Call on Mayor Bass to Prioritize Safer Streets in Wake of Multiple Mass Traffic Fatality Events.
LOS ANGELES, CA — 1500 cyclists, street safety advocates, and family members will gather for a public ride to remember Regan Cole-Graham and her daughter Ophelia Katherine Graham, who were both killed after a driver hit them while they were riding a bicycle along Pershing Dr on 31 January 2026.
This is being done as part of the monthly LA Critical Mass ride held on the last Friday of each month. LA Critical Mass has modified the route so all cyclists will end up at the location where Regan, Ophelia, and her other daughter were hit for a memorial vigil.
The vigil will include:
- Gathering of cyclists led by LA Critical Mass organizers
- Remarks from Jeff Cole, father of Regan and grandfather of Ophelia.
- A live amplified song
- Remarks from advocates and LA Critical Mass
- A banner calling on the city and Mayor Bass to make roads safer
WHEN: Friday, February 27
Ride departs 7:15 PM from Wilshire & Western
Vigil approximately 9:15 PM – 9:30 PM at Hacienda Playa
8415 Pershing Dr, Playa Del Rey, CA 90293
EXPECTED ATTENDANCE: Approximately 1,500 cyclists
WHO:
- Lisa Lundie — President, LA Critical Mass
- Jeff Cole — Father of Regan and grandfather of Ophelia
- Kat Primeau (vocals) and Ryan Ross (keyboard) singing Ophelia from the Lumineers. Regan and Matt named their daughter after the song, Ophelia.
- Damian Kevitt — Executive Director, Streets Are for Everyone
- Many of Matt and Regan’s family will be joining the ride when it arrives at Del Rey Lagoon between 8:45 and 9:00 PM.
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Streets For All and the Housing Action Coalition are hosting the first of what promises to be many debates in this year’s race for mayor next month, with three of the whopping 40 or so candidates already confirmed.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Reading, England is “scaling back” an “underused” bike lane to relieve pressure on the city’s road system, and make “best possible use of road space we have.” Because evidently, providing a safe alternative to driving isn’t the “best possible use.”
Now the people on dirt bikes are out to get us, too. A New Zealand man suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and dislocated kneecap when a motocross biker made a U-turn and deliberately crashed into him as he rode past on his bicycle, for no apparent reason.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Once again, a driver has been violently attacked by a group of teenagers on a bicycle ride out, this time in San Francisco; the assault apparently began when one of the kids groped a woman in the car and she threw her drink on the boy, who responded by punching the driver in the face, as the kids kicked the car and slammed it with their bikes.
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Local
Los Angeles broke ground on the new $152 million Avalon Pedestrian Bridge and Promenade Gateway project, providing bike and pedestrian access to the Wilmington Waterfront Promenade.
Burbank is fighting the recent trend of cities cracking down on ebikes, adopting an ordinance that aligns local laws with state ebike regulations, as well as defining other electric mobility devices including scooters and motorized boards.
Learn to ride a bicycle for free in El Monte this Sunday, courtesy of ActiveSGV and the El Monte Mobility Nexus Program.
Carson is planning to build 20 miles of new bike lanes before the ’28 LA Olympics, creating an actual bike network in the city.
State
Calbike has opened registration for the biennial California Bicycle Summit, to be held in Sacramento in April.
The nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst’s Office is urging legislators to reject Governor Newsom’s proposed $200 million EV rebate program, as the state faces a looming $18 billion shortfall. Which means the $18 million in ebike voucher funding that was shifted to pay for electric cars represents a lousy 0.1% of the deficit.
Encinitas will move forward with a redesign of the redesigned Santa Fe Drive, which will spend around $3.5 million to widen traffic lanes and remove back-in parking, while exploring “alternatives” to the existing bike lanes; that comes after already spending $4 million on the previous redesign that was completed less than a year ago.
Police in San Diego are investigating a pair of ebike crashes that left the riders seriously injured, in the East Village area on Thursday night and Wednesday in University City, though only the latter appeared to involve a driver.
San Diego is considering rule changes that will bar anyone under 12 from operating an ebike, and allow a passenger only if the bike has a permanent second seat. Which will presumably prevent parents from riding their kids to school in a bucket bike, without permanent child seats. Or even carrying their kids in a nonpermanent child’s seat.
Despite President Trump’s claims in the State of the Union that his tariffs have made the economy stronger and more affordable for Americans, an El Cajon bike shop owner says they’re hurting his business.
A section of Goleta’s Maria Ygnacio Bike Path will be closed through summer after the recent rains undermined a roadway.
Marin County bicyclists are calling for the reopening of nearly half-mile abandoned rail tunnel built by Chinese laborers in the 1880s, even though engineers say it would cost $48.6 million to make it safe for bikes and pedestrians.
A Sacramento public radio station examines the proposed California bill that would require licenses and registration for ebikes capable of going faster than 20 mph, although a researcher at San Jose State’s Mineta Transportation Institute correctly observes that all those shocking ebike injury stats lump legal ped-assist ebikes together with illegal dirt bikes and e-motos.
Two Redding bicyclists are suing the city, claiming they were injured as a result of poorly maintained sidewalks.
National
Seattle is building a new bike lane to close a critical gap in the city’s bicycle network. Which is what happens when a city actually has a bike network, and cares enough to do the hard things required to finish it.
A Washington State couple fighting for more accessible streets, after spending the last ten years riding all over the country and across Europe on an accessible tandem bike built to accommodate her double leg amputations.
Ebikes get the blame when teens riding electric motorbikes tore up the greens on a Henderson, Nevada golf course, as the media once again conflates ped-assist ebikes with e-motos and dirt bikes.
Seriously, there’s not a pit in hell deep enough for the 18-year old Arizona man accused of stealing a nine-year old boy’s bike at gunpoint; a 14-year old kid busted with him could also face charges.
Unbelievable. A Tyler, Texas woman faces charges for hitting and killing a 19-year old man riding a bicycle, after saying she should have gone back to see what she hit, but she was ready to go home. Apparently, it was just too much bother to see who or what she killed.
More sad news from Texas, where a 67-year old man riding a bicycle was killed in Arlington when he was apparently right-hooked by a school bus driver.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is supporting the controversial 15 mph Central Park speed limit imposed by previous Mayor Eric Adams, even though a judge blocked implementation of the law after the city’s oldest bike club sued, calling it a perversion of a new law meant to crack down on reckless drivers.
The Florida Senate passed an ebike bill that would impose a 10 mph speed limit around pedestrians, and create a state task force to recommend changes in state law to improve safety and reduce injuries and fatalities involving ebikes and electric scooters.
International
Road.cc lists the best reflective bikewear and accessories, for anyone who wants to give off a healthy glow when they ride.
Sad news from British Columbia, where professional snowboarder Stratton Matteson was killed in an avalanche; the 28-year old Bend, Oregon splitboarder — a snowboard that separates into two halves, allowing the user to climb uphill like cross-country skis, then reconnect them and snowboard down — was a pioneer of the “bike to board” movement, riding his bicycle hundreds of miles with his gear in tow instead of relying on motor-driven transportation.
A London borough councilor is using his GoPro on his bicycle to hold scofflaw drivers to account, and says he doesn’t care what the anti-bike Daily Mail says.
Four in ten London bicyclists say they still don’t feel safe riding in the city, despite the recent improvements.
A British man recreated his father’s 1984 bike ride to Australia, following the same route and recreating the same photos 40 year later — even meeting and photographing the same Belgium man his father met when they both were 40 years younger.
Fifteen years after an Irish advocacy group identified the ten worst intersection in Dublin, none have been fixed, and only two have seen any improvements.
Luxembourg — the city, not the country — is removing parking spaces to close gaps in their existing bicycle network.
That’s more like it. Drivers in New Zealand could face fines up to $3,000 for passing bicyclists too closely, though advocates are calling for the distance to be increased to roughly 4.5 feet, rather than the current 3 feet below 37 mph, and 4.5 feet above that.
Speaking of New Zealand, Kiwi researchers followed Māori and Pacific adults for a year to study the health benefits of riding an ebike, concluding it’s an “achievable and enjoyable way of moving,” well-suited to the older and bigger riders, as well as people with chronic conditions like joint pain. Although the site may make you prove you’re human before they let you read it.
Competitive Cycling
Twenty-nine-year old French cyclist Damien Touzé may have to call it a career after hitting a raised reflective pavement marker at high speed during the Tour of Oman, suffering a ruptured spleen, broken leg and busted knee, as well as an intestinal perforation that wasn’t diagnosed until he was discharged from the hospital and returned home.
Danish pro Mads Pedersen is already back on his bike, despite breaking his wrist and collarbone at the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana just three weeks ago.
Four-time Tour de France champ Chris Froome may have effectively retired from professional cycling, after he was unable sign on with a new team when his contract with Israel-Premier Tech expired.
Cyclist offers a preview of tomorrow’s Omloop Nieuwsblad, the first true Classic of the new racing season, as the pro peloton takes to the historic cobbles.
American Neilson Powless will miss the entire Classics season after having successful knee surgery to remove inflamed tissue.
Forget doping, now cycling teams are turning to AI to get a jump on the competition, as doping cases involving pro cyclists dropped for the first time in three years.
Finally…
Your next bike could be a big red multi-directional ball with handlebars. Or maybe $14,500 titanium e-gravel bike.
And when you’re operating a crime den out of your apartment, complete with illegal drugs, guns and a roommate with an outstanding warrant, maybe don’t advertise a hot bike for sale online.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
