Apparently, we jumped the gun yesterday.
Yesterday’s post featured a Twitter/X post announcing a Thursday night ghost bike memorial for 36-year old Google executive, mom, wife and expectant mother Regan Cole-Graham, who was killed by a 87-year old driver while riding with her husband and two young sons in Playa del Rey earlier this month.
So my apologies to anyone who showed up last night expecting to honor her.
Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, will host a memorial and ghost bike installation for Cole-Graham and her unborn daughter, who the couple named Ophelia, at 10 am this Sunday.
It will be held at the site of the crash, at 8415 Pershing Drive.
I’ve written about a lot of sad things over the nearly two decades I’ve been doing this. But I can’t recall any that have hit me any harder.
Meanwhile, an op-ed by Jonathan Hale, described as a community activist and founder of People’s Vision Zero, says the deaths of Regan and Ophelia Cole-Graham suggests it’s time to rethink the Westside’s knee-jerk opposition to traffic safety.
Cole-Graham family photo from the GoFundMe page for Regan Cole-Graham, which has raised over $287,000 of the now $300,000 goal.
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Speaking of SAFE, you can’t blame the organization for taking a small victory lap following LADOT’s announcement that they are finally ready for public comment on the city’s speed cam pilot program, after months of inaction.
Let’s hope they have at least one planned for Deadly del Mar.
On February 11, LADOT officially began a 30-day public review and comment period of the upcoming Speed Safety Systems Program Pilot.
Angelenos will have the opportunity to review the program’s policies and proposed locations of 125 speed safety systems, which are set to be placed in every council district. This is your time to ask the department questions and offer feedback on the pilot program’s policies, meaningfully contributing to the process of making our city safer, together.
Click here to provide an official public comment on LADOT’s Report to Council
To confront rising traffic deaths and injuries, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) is launching a Speed Safety Systems Program pilot across the city. The pilot program seeks to curb speeding and dangerous driving activity to make our city safer. But they can’t do it alone.
Speeding is one of the leading causes of serious injuries and deaths on our streets. In Los Angeles, around one in five fatal crashes in the city were directly attributed to speeding in 2024.
How to Submit Public Comment
You know your neighborhoods best. Your voices are essential to ensuring this program reflects community needs and advances our shared goal of safer streets for everyone.
The full program policies and recommendations are available on LADOT’s website.
To submit comments on the program, please do so through the council file. You can also send questions regarding the program to LADOT staff by replying to this email at ladot.speedsafety@lacity.org.
Thank you for your time and consideration during the process of this critical pilot program launch. Together, we can make our streets safer and reduce traffic deaths.
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The not always bike-friendly London Times reports a small study has found that bicycling boosts testosterone levels in middle-aged men.
That’s in addition to other well known benefits such as burning fat, lowing cholesterol and boosting your immune system.
However, as with any limited study, the question is whether researchers will get the same result testing 2,800 men as they did with these 28.
Or 28,000.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Nearly two-thirds of Chicago’s aldermen voted against a proposed ordinance that would have allowed private citizens to report commercial vehicles blocking bus lanes, bus stops and bikeways.
Ireland’s bus drivers union gets its Irish up calling for mandatory hi-viz for bike riders, insisting it would make the roads safer by making us easier to see. Even though people still manage to crash into such hi-viz items as road signs, bridges and emergency vehicles.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A British website places its metaphorical tongue deep inside its metaphorical cheek to criticize lycra-clad bicyclists who insist on riding in the streets instead of using bike lanes, which apparently takes all the fun and jeopardy out of it. But maybe the just do it because the bike lane is closed at one end and blocked by a parked van on the other.
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Local
A Los Angeles jury rejected a lawsuit alleging that an LAPD officer was intentionally killed by another cop during a 2022 bicycle training exercise at the police academy.
Santa Monica’s “Bicycle Nomad” is on a mission to honor Black history by riding historical trails across the country, such as tracing the route of the famed Buffalo soldiers, and the Underground Railroad.
The Loyola Marymount University student newspaper reports campus theft has returned to pre-pandemic levels, with thieves snatching everything from laptops to Labubus — including almost as many bicycles and skateboards as motor vehicles.
State
Redland’s new 3.8-mile segment of the Santa Ana River Trail is just a small part of what will eventually be a 110-mile pathway.
National
Road.cc reports US-based private equity giant KKR has lost its shirt, if not its ass, placing a $2.2 billion bet on bicycling by buying the Accell Group, parent company of Raleigh, Babboe, Lapierre and several other bike brands, losing all their initial equity plus another $1.36 billion since the 2022 takeover.
A Medford, Oregon man who designs riding routes for his bike club makes the case for why the city needs to do more to improve the safety of its streets.
That’s more like it. New Mexico’s state legislature passed a bill requiring student drivers to take a course on bicycle and pedestrian safety before they can get a license.
If you build it, they will come. Manhattan’s bike lanes and congestion pricing seem to be having the intended effect, as bicycle ridership over New York’s East River bridges has reached an all-time high for the fifth consecutive year.
A Philadelphia paper has honored the “tattooed, middle-aged hairstylist” who revived the Philadelphia Cycling Classic as their Citizen of the Week. Which sounds a tad 1984-ish, but still.
Sure, let’s go with that. A South Carolina woman was arrested for a hit-and-run that left a bike rider with a broken leg, as well as cuts and abrasions, insisting she had no idea she had crashed into someone because she was busy looking down at her phone and thought she just hit a sign; she was not charged with DUI, despite appearing “grossly intoxicated” when police arrested her two hours later. Never mind that distracted driving is illegal in South Carolina. Or that most rational people would have at least stopped to check for damage if they thought they’d hit something.
International
Cycling Weekly reports that a new, admittedly complicated tire level could solve the problem of mounting stiff tires once and for all. Unless you’re left-handed, in which case you’re screwed.
A picture of a flooded UK street looks like it could have been taken in LA yesterday.
If you build it, they will come, part two. In an annoyingly paywalled story, a Scottish paper reports that for the first time, there were more bicycles than cars on a Glasgow street during both the morning and evening peak rush hours. But at least the first two paragraphs are worth reading.
Competitive Cycling
Former pro Phil Gaimon says he’s got leaked information detailing the full route of the road cycling race for the 2028 Olympics, and says he couldn’t have designed a better course himself.
But will he be on the side of the road handing out fresh cookies to the competitors? Only time will tell.
Finally…
That feeling when you’re planning to ride every stage of the Tour de France at 60 years old — despite a hip replacement and cancer diagnosis. Or when you take part in an unsanctioned, underground anti-Super Bowl bike race.
And lots of people ride with their dogs, but how many ride the entire Left Coast towing a 350-pound, life-size fiberglass rhinoceros?
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
