Nearly two weeks in, I’m still struggling with Covid, and need a few more days before I get back to our usual updates. Just another of the many joys of diabetes, which can make Covid hit harder and last longer than it might otherwise.
Hopefully, we’ll be back on Monday to catch up on what we missed.
But there are a few stories this week that can’t really wait, so let’s do a quick update in the meantime.
The victim, a beloved physicist at the nearby Sandia National Laboratory, was killed when the kids “bumped” him with the car.
The 13-year old driver and the 16-year old egging them on from the back seat both face murder charges — as could the 11-year old waving a gun and laughing from the passenger seat.
Yes, I said eleven. With a rap sheep of violent crimes that makes John Gotti seem like an extra from Westside Story.
Apparently, New Mexico law allows them to be publicly named, and charged as adults.
Police became aware of the video shortly after the May 29, 2024, murder of 63-year old Scott Habermehl, but it apparently took until now to uncover the identities of his teen and preteen killers.
The older teens each face felony charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm or death, and unlawful possession of a handgun.
The younger boy is likely to join them.
Thanks to Joel Falter for the heads up.
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It’s happened again, again.
Because once again, an innocent person has been killed on Vista del Mar in Playa del Rey, eight years after then Councilmember Mike Bonin tried to fix the deadly street, only to have then Mayor Eric Garcetti rip it out after caving to angry pass-through drivers.
Now, after another woman has been killed — at least the fifth in just ten years — that blood is on Garcetti’s hands, and everyone who demanded the removal of the safety improvements just so they could continue to go “zoom! zoom!”, innocent victims be damned.
Not to mention whoever designed the damn thing.
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Metro has bizarrely come out against bus lanes and safer streets.
According to a post from Streets For All, the ostensibly safety-oriented county transportation agency is threatening to sue if they are forced to comply with Measure HLA when they make changes to the streets.
Even though the law clearly applies to any significant street projects, regardless of who is responsible for them.
Today @metrolosangeles sent a letter to the City of LA saying that they will sue if LA requires HLA compliance on Metro projects.
HLA applies to any projects done on City streets, regardless of who does them.
So, Metro will fight the city in order not to install bus lanes, bike lanes, crosswalks, curb ramps, all approved a decade ago.
Metro is blocking routine upgrades to all the ways their riders get to bus stops and rail stations, plus blocking bus lane facilities that would improve Metro bus speeds.
Really.
Really, indeed.
It’s worth noting that Metro’s board is made up of elected officials and appointees from cities throughout LA County, and led by board chair and County Supervisor Janice Hahn.
GLENDALE, Calif. (March 18, 2025) — Southern California’s newest open streets event, Let’s Go Glendale, will transform a portion of S Glendale Ave into a car-free space on Saturday, May 31 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The community is invited to explore the area on foot, bike, scooter, wheelchair or any other way that moves you.
The City of Glendale’s Open Streets Event, Let’s Go Glendale, is presented by Metro and produced by Community Arts Resources (CARS). This free day features a full schedule of carefully curated performances and activities along a meaningful vehicle-free route through the city’s south. People of all ages are invited to discover local businesses, enjoy delicious food, listen to live music and connect with the city’s vibrant cultures in the open streets. It’s an opportunity to walk, roll, shop and stroll through Glendale with a whole new perspective! A full schedule of event locations, activations and a detailed route map will be announced in April.
WHEN: Saturday, May 31 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
WHERE: City streets along S Glendale Ave will be closed to car traffic and opened to pedestrians. Full route details will be released soon.
ADMISSION: This event is free to attend and open to the public.
July 25, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Study shows road diets don’t affect EMS response times, and LAPD belatedly asks for help solving Lincoln Heights hit-and-run
Just 159 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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A new study shows exactly what we’ve been saying all along — that road diets don’t affect emergency response times.
The study involved Iowa road diets that converted formerly four lane roadways to two lanes in each direction and a center turn lane. It confirmed there was no difference in emergency response times from before the installation to after they were installed.
And despite what we’re usually told, most EMS responders didn’t think they did, either.
On the other hand, what did affect response times was drivers who didn’t know how the hell to yield to emergency vehicles, especially after a lane had been removed.
And from what we’ve seen here in Los Angeles, that’s most of them.
The driver reportedly ran a red light, causing the 49-year old motorcyclist to lay down his bike to avoid a collision. The victim then slid under a box truck and was run over, and died after being taken to a hospital.
The pickup driver continued without stopping.
And yes, it’s considered hit-and-run if you cause a crash, even if you don’t come into actual contact with the victim or their vehicle.
Never mind that, as usual, the LA cops waited until the trail got cold and people’s memory of the event faded before bothering to ask for the public’s help.
Even though both the city and state have passed hit-and-run alert programs intended to notify the public immediately after a crash, when people are most likely to recall key details that could lead to an arrest.
As always, there is a standing $50,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of this driver, or any other driver involved in a fatal hit-and-run in the City of Los Angeles.
Even though California’s program would have been the first in the nation if it had actually launched when it was originally approved by the legislature.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Four people have been arrested on murder and conspiracy charges following a West London collision that killed two men in their 20s riding bicycles. Unfortunately, given British press restrictions, there’s no information on how the crash occurred, why so many people were arrested or why police consider it a double murder.
No bias here. After yet another mass casualty crash, the BBC employs it’s most passive voice to say a “car and seven cyclists collided,” resulting in at least four serious injuries, and doesn’t even mention that the car had a driver until the next-to-last paragraph. Never mind that it’s highly unlikely the bicyclist collided with the car, rather than the driver plowing them down.
Police in San Diego are asking for the public’s help in finding the hit-and-run driver who left a 60-year old bike rider in grave condition. The victim suffered numerous injuries, including a fractured neck and bleeding in the brain; unfortunately, there’s no description of the driver or suspect vehicle. The cops actually managed to alert the public within days of the crash, rather than waiting weeks or months after a serious hit-and-run, if they even get around to it, like the LAPD.
An Alaska news site questions whether anyone is actually using a new Anchorage bike path as it nears the halfway point of the pilot project — even though it’s used by up to 150 bike riders a day, and the downtown bike corral it connects to is often full, with as many as 100 bicycles.
The post-pandemic bike bust claims another victim, as a 141-year old Cleveland bike shop that’s been run by the same family for three generations prepares to shutter its doors at the end of next month, a victim of supply chain problems and the difficulty finding trained workers.
The sister of assassinated British Member of Parliament Jo Cox celebrated the “inspirational” bike ride in her honor, with 83 people ranging from 16 to 78 completing the 288-mile ride from her hometown to London, where Cox was killed by a terrorist eight years ago.
An Irish man credits his bike helmet with saving his life when he was struck by a driver this past weekend, and thinks because they helped him, they should be required for everyone. Even though bike helmets are designed for relatively low speed falls, not violent collisions with bigass motor vehicles.
Velo examines who did and didn’t rake in the big bucks for the recently completed Tour de France, with three-time champ Tadej Pogačar hauling in nearly $875,000, while Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay brought a relatively paltry $58,000, despite winning three stages and the green jersey.
Outsideprofiles Olympic mountain biker Riley Amos, and the small southwest Colorado mountain town I can’t talk my wife into moving to that’s produced more top cyclists than almost any other American city.
Back in 2019, a four-year old girl was tragically killed by a driver as she crossed the street in Koreatown, while holding hands with her mother.
In a crosswalk. With the light.
Alessa Fajardo and her mom did everything right as they crossed Olympic at Normandie that October day, yet she died anyway. Even though Los Angeles officials knew long before about the dangers of that area and intersection.
In fact, the school they were going to was ranked the city’s 13th most dangerous campus just six years earlier, while Koreatown as a whole was rated LA’s fourth most dangerous neighborhood for bike riders and pedestrians.
That’s pedestrians, like little kids crossing the street with their mothers.
It took four-and-a-half years, and a $9.6 million dollar settlement before anything was done about it.
Starting with the problem of each city councilmember acting like little kings in their own districts, responsible for identifying and approving any improvements before they are made.
Or not.
Neither former District 10 Councilmember Herb Wesson, who represented the district when Alessa was killed, nor his successor, Mark Ridley-Thomas, secured that funding. Ridley-Thomas was indicted on federal corruption charges, suspended from the council and later convicted and removed from his seat in late March 2022. Nobody represented the district until Heather Hutt was appointed that September.
Hutt identified and allocated $530,000 for the new signals in June 2023, but the installation work did not begin until April 2024, four months after the family’s suit against the city was settled.
District 10 staff would not comment on the record about why they could not secure the funds in 2020, 2021, 2022 and early 2023.
No surprise there.
Then again, even on the rare occasions when councilmembers really do try to do something, angry motorists too often rush for their torches and pitchforks — and threats of recall elections.
Two years before little Alessa was killed in Koreatown, the city agreed to another $9.6 million settlement, this time with the family of a 16-year old girl killed crossing — wait for it — Vista Del Mar to get to her car after leaving Dockweiler Beach.
The same beach where the kids were killed on Tuesday.
Then-CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin responded by ordering long-delayed safety improvements on Vista Del Mar, and a handful of other streets in Playa del Rey. Both because too many lives had already been lost on the deadly roadway, and because the next settlement, for the next inevitable death, would be exponentially higher.
Now just three years after that, two more people have needlessly lost their lives on that same bloody stretch of road. And despite a breathless report from Fox-11, police reports said there was no indication either driver was under the influence.
Never mind that the settlement for this one will likely be exponentially higher than the last one, since Los Angeles installed, then removed, safety improvements that might have prevented it.
Yet despite at least four deaths on the same section of roadway in just nine years, some people still seem to think they should have the unfettered, God-given right to go zoom zoom whenever and wherever they want, innocent lives be damned.
making everybody sit in traffic improves safety but it destroys quality of life. There's a whole bike path that already runs parallel to Vista Del Mar and goes all the way up Culver Blvd. There was no need for the redundant bike lane which only caused headaches for 99.9% of us
Three of the kids were critically injured when the 83-year old driver hit them head-on as they rode single file, leaving the children screaming in terror and pain amid their mangled bikes.
She was arrested at the scene, then released and taken to a hospital after police concluded she wasn’t in a “fit state” for questioning.
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Speaking of deadly roadways, here’s your chance to fight for bike lanes on PCH in Long Beach.
Reminder Long Beach residents! Join @CaltransDist7 for a public meeting to learn about an upcoming bike lane project on Thursday, 6 from 6pm to 7pm at the Guidance Center. pic.twitter.com/Lir1Cnp9ZR
— Caltrans District 7 (@CaltransDist7) June 3, 2024
A bike rider in Brussels, Belgium is lucky to be alive after he was knocked off his bike by a driver who tried to pass him and his companion while driving in a clearly marked bike lane, then the enraged motorist got out and slashed the victim’s throat with a knife; the victim managed to escape with just six stitches when the driver barely missed his jugular.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Streets For All urges support for a proposed 28-mile The Hill to Sea transit corridor traversing 13 cities and unincorporated communities from Pasadena to Long Beach, which would “aggressively reduce car dependency by prioritizing high quality bus service, safe protected bike paths, and improved sidewalks for walking and businesses.”
Orange County supervisors voted to crackdown on ebikes, including restrictions on sidewalk riding, imposing speed limits and reclassifying bikes that generate more than 750 watts through their motors — even though the latter two could put them in direct conflict with existing state law.
Colorado took a step forward by creating a dedicated $7 million funding stream for “proven small infrastructure projects that improve safety for vulnerable road users,” such as bike lanes, sidewalks and other pedestrian improvements. While that’s far too little — even for a relatively small state — it’s a hell of a lot more than most are willing to commit to.
Sad news from DC, where a 34-year old White House staffer was killed while riding his bike when he crossed the center line on a sharp curve during a fundraising ride, and was struck head-on by an oncoming motorist; Jacob Thomas Brewer was the husband of Fox News contributor Mary Katharine Ham.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can. Just 60 signatures to go to reach 1,000!
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Somehow, Los Angeles firefighters don’t seem to think LA’s wide street are wide enough.
Or that their trucks can manage to roll over a thin line of paint.
According to the Los Angeles Times, United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 plans to spend at least $100,000 to fight Measure HLA, the ballot measure that would make the city build out its already approved mobility plan whenever streets within the plan get resurfaced.
Union President Freddy Escobar said his organization, which represents about 3,400 firefighters, is concerned that the measure will lead to slower emergency response times and put new pressure on a city budget already experiencing financial strain. Firetrucks are already being hindered by “road diets” — reductions in vehicle lanes caused by the creation of bike or bus lanes, Escobar said in an interview.
“Every second counts. The road diets slow down our firefighters,” Escobar said. “And it will be so much worse with HLA.”
Never mind that when firefighters complain about road diets, they neglect to mention that while road diets reduce the number of traffic lanes, most contain a continuous center left turn lane large enough for firetrucks to zoom through any backed up traffic — actually making them more efficient for emergency vehicles than LA’s congested roadways.
Other major streets in the mobility plan are marked for bus lanes, which also present a perfect lane for emergency vehicles to bypass traffic more quickly than they can now.
Assuming no one is illegally parked in them, of course.
Or that one reason we’re told LA’s “protected” bike lanes are protected by nothing more than flimsy plastic posts is so emergency vehicles can drive over them whenever necessary.
Not to mention that most of the bike lanes in the mobility plan will feature nothing more than a thin stripe of white paint, which should hardly pose a barrier for a massive, multi-ton truck with huge wheels.
So the reality is that road diets, particularly the kind the would be created under HLA, would likely speed emergency response times, not slow them.
Which makes you wonder what the firefighters real complaint is.
Then there’s the simple fact that Measure HLA, and the mobility plan it’s based on, is designed to save lives by dramatically reducing the risk of life-threatening injuries and traffic deaths.
So maybe what they’re really worried about is that improved traffic safety could reduce the need for emergency responses.
And emergency responders.
Of course, Los Angeles isn’t the first city to face this type of manufactured conflict.
Not, say, our overly wide, straight and multilane boulevards.
Which makes it seem like the union’s real objection is less about reducing response times, and more about wanting to drive unhindered to and from the fire stations and their suburban — or even out-of-state — homes.
But in the end, it’s only appropriate, in this pre-Easter season, that the firefighter’s union will spend more than a hundred grand of their member’s dues to perform a miracle.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Dublin, Ireland mother was forced to give up bicycling after she was threatened with an £11 million fine — the equivalent of nearly $14 million — and two years behind bars for installing a small bike shed in her front garden to store her family’s bikes and her mother’s wheelchair.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
It just keeps getting worse. Former Major League shortstop and current Oaks Christian School baseball coach Royce Clayton was busted for DUI early Sunday morning, just weeks after testifying about quaffing margaritas with wealthy socialite Rebecca Grossman and her then-lover, former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, before she allegedly killed two little kids while speeding through a crosswalk.
Income-qualified Pasadena residents will be able to get a rebate of up to $1,000 on the purchase of an ebike starting July 1st, while other buyers will be able to claim $500 off a regular ebike, and $750 off an e-cargo bike. And chances are, California’s moribund ebike voucher program still won’t have launched by then.
State
Seriously? The replacement project for the Mission Bridge over the Santa Ana River between Riverside and Jurupa Valley has been pushed back until 2025 — but don’t worry, officials plan to protect bike riders by installing a couple of Share the Road signs along the dangerous roadway.
The San Francisco Standardexamines the proposals to ban kids from riding ebikes, while noting that US Consumer Product Safety Commission research shows it’s people 25 to 44 years old who are the most likely to end up in the ER as a result of an ebike crash — not kids.
A Boulder, Colorado op-ed says bicycling isn’t inherently dangerous, but bad street design is. (Hint: Stop the page from loading to bypass the paper’s paywall).
A British Columbia paper says Svein Tuft, arguably Canada’s greatest road cyclist, is finally leaning to slow down after retiring at 41 when he lost his competitiveness, and began braking early to avoid injuries.
November 6, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Narrower and fewer lanes save lives, a weekend of traffic violence, and passing ghost bikes on to the next generation
Ride or walk carefully today.
The day after the time change usually sees a spike in traffic collisions, so ride defensively for the next few days.
Not to mention encouraging drivers to speed, which increases both the risk and severity of crashes, as we’ve learned from other studies.
Narrowing traffic lanes also provides more room for other road uses, like wider sidewalks and bike lanes.
The key findings from the study include —
Narrower lanes did not increase the risk of accidents. When comparing 9- and 11-foot lanes, we found no evidence of increased car crashes. Yet, increasing to 12-foot lanes did increase the risk of crashes, most likely due to drivers increasing their speed and driving more carelessly when they have room to make mistakes.
Speed limit plays a key role in travel width safety. In lanes at 20-25 mph speeds, lane width did not affect safety. However, in lanes at 30-35 mph speeds, wider lanes resulted in significantly higher number of crashes than 9-foot lanes.
Narrower lanes help address critical environmental issues. They accommodate more users in less space, use less asphalt pavement, with less land consumption and smaller impervious surface areas.
Narrowing travel lanes could positively impact the economy. This includes raising property values, boosting business operation along streets and developing new design projects.
Even on high-traffic corridors that exceed Federal Highway Administration recommendations that road diets should be applied to roadways with fewer than 20,000 average daily trips.
According to the authors —
We found that collisions, injuries, and deaths were lower by 31.2% to 100%, depending on the measure, whereas traffic speeds were lower by about 6.7% (peak) to 7.9% (off-peak). We concluded that in Los Angeles higher-traffic-volume road diets appeared to significantly increase safety with only minor effects on traffic speeds.
Let that sink in.
Road diets on high-traffic corridors — even right here in the automotive capital of the world, where driving is considered a God-given right and obligation — dropped traffic deaths and serious injuries by anywhere from a third, to complete elimination.
And all with a minimal impact on driver speeds, taking a typical 40 mph driving speed down to a more reasonable 36.
Which isn’t going to make anyone late for dinner or to pick up the kids, while helping to ensure they’ll actually get there in one piece.
Two people were killed when a minivan driver being chased by police slammed into a Metro bus in DTLA early Sunday morning, after police reportedly saw someone toss a gun out the window of the minivan. Two people in the backseat, who weren’t wearing seatbelts, were killed while the two people up front survived with non-life threatening injuries; three people on the bus suffered minor injuries, including the driver.
Several people suffered minor injuries, and a number of others were lucky to escape injury, when an alleged drunk driver doing donuts lost control of her car, and slammed into a large group of people standing outside a Valencia bar. And almost needless to say, she fled the scene before she and her passenger were arrested — after reportedly changing seats to hide who was driving.
Video of the crash is appalling.
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Sad to think we need to pass this on to a new generation.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A Fresno woman was collateral damage in an apparent political dispute between a 60-year old pickup driver and a bike rider participating in a Pro-Palestinian demonstration, after the driver, who was allegedly under the influence, tried to speed off when the bike rider began punching him through the open window; the victim was lucky to escape with just a broken ankle, while the driver faces possible hit-and-run and DUI charges, while the bike rider could be charged with assault.
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Local
LAisttalks with new LADOT General Manager Laura Rubio-Cornejo, who swears her priority is to make every Angeleno and visitor feel safe on the streets, while revisiting the city’s nearly moribund Vision Zero program — but without making a commitment to the wholesale changes to our streets required to do that.
SoCal speed cams took a step closer to becoming reality in Los Angeles on Wednesday, when City Council Transportation Committee unanimously approved a motion to create an automated Speed Camera Safety Program when a new state law approving a pilot program in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach goes into effect next year.
A Streetsblog op-ed by Jeanie Ward-Waller, former deputy director for planning and modal programs at Caltrans, relates how she was fired for doing her job, and speaking out when Caltrans officials tried to skirt the law to widen Sacramento highways. Maybe Newsom should just fire the people running Caltrans, and give her the damn job.
A Utah man gets screwed when someone stole a pair of ebikes from his garage, and his homeowner’s insurance refused to pay the claim, stating his policy doesn’t cover “motor vehicles” — even though the state classifies ebikes as bicycles.
Danish pro Jonas Vingegaard, two-time winner of the Tour de France, was awarded the prestigious Velo d’Or trophy for the year’s best cyclist, and was apparently so unimpressed he didn’t bother to show up for the ceremony; Dutch Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering won the women’s Velo d’Or.
GCNtalks with Slovenian cyclist Matej Mohorič, who popularized the now-banned super-tuck position, about his upbringing and his quest to give a ‘higher purpose’ to his racing.
Remembering the good old days of the Tour de France, when doping meant raiding the local cafe to steal a little mid-stage booze.
November 23, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on WeHo approves Fountain protected bike lanes, debate over cyclist semantics, and running over bikes in bike-friendly Davis
Just two more days to one of the biggest, most momentous days of the year!
We’ll be off tomorrow, so have a great Thanksgiving, whether you spend it with loved ones or alone on your bike. And find something to be thankful for.
Besides, you know, this site.
Then come back on Friday to witness me beg, plead, cajole and grovel for your support.
And stay safe out there. I want to see you back here again when the weekend is over.
Mayor Lauren Meister summed up her reason for voting yes, even though city staffers haven’t explained where the cars displaced from parking on the apartment-dense street are supposed to go.
“My goal is to make Fountain just safer, period — for pedestrians, making the sidewalks wider and and making it so that cars aren’t speeding through and going over the curves and actually going into people’s yards,” Meister said.
The proposal, which became a key issue in the city’s recent election campaign, would require the removal of a traffic lane in each direction, as well as reconstructing sidewalks along the street, which are not ADA compliant.
The street currently features some of the area’s most uncomfortable sharrows, which are seldom used by anyone but the most confident bicyclists in the face of frequently speeding traffic.
It’s something I try not to use, as you may have noticed, preferring bike riders, bicyclists or people on bicycles.
But only because so many people read into to it far more than the word actually conveys, which is merely someone who rides a bicycle.
To some, it means bike racers; to others, it’s anyone who wears spandex. And to others still, it refers to people on fixies, or some other bike world niche.
Then there are people don’t like the word because they feel it labels them in some way, when riding a bike is just something they do, rather than something they are.
I can see all of that, and none of it.
The simple fact is we are all cyclists when we ride a bike, and not once we get off. Just as someone is a driver when they’re behind the wheel, and a pedestrian when they get out; no one calls them drivers when they’re home or in the office.
So go ahead and use the word if you’re comfortable with it, or don’t if you aren’t.
Thanks to Tim Rutt for the link.
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Streets For All is hosting a fundraising holiday party next month.
Streets For All has had a great year and to celebrate we wanted to invite you to a holiday party fundraiser on December 9! All funds raised will help us do even more in 2023!
A Davis motorist drove through a line of picketing teaching assistants striking for higher pay and better conditions on UC campuses, driving off with a bicycle still stuck under their car.
Mercedes is adding a subscription fee to their electric vehicles that will increase horsepower and torque. It's happening. Late-stage capitalism is going to have people paying a monthly fee to improve the performance of a car they already bought. pic.twitter.com/7rHIkolC9R
About damn time. The Hollywood Reporter says it’s time to reopen the case in the 12-year old murder of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, which was bizarrely pinned on a destitute, bike-riding Black man who allegedly killed himself as police attempted to take him into custody in a Hollywood flophouse; Beverly Hills police accused Harold Smith of shooting Chasen as she drove home from a premier.
The San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, wants to give you a ped-assist ebike in exchange for a commitment to ride a minimum of 100 miles a month. Or as I used to call that back when I could still do it, Tuesday.
DC is facing a lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act, as two handicapped women allege that new protected bike lanes make it harder for them to find parking and safely exit their vehicles. Thanks to Victor Bale for the tip.
Just four years after a road diet was unceremoniously ripped out on deadly Vista Del Mar, a mother was killed by a hit-and-run driver while carrying her three-year old son.
And immediately, local residents jumped in to demand that something be done to stop the street’s speeding drivers.
A day after the tragic incident, some neighbors are saying that something needs to be done about people speeding down Vista Del Mar.
“Nobody respects the speed limit here,” said a neighbor Adolfo Navarro. “I mean, you’ll see the cops on motorcycles here during the day enforcing it, but at night, it’s…you can hardly see because the lights don’t even gloom right and then you can only see as far as you can using your headlights.”
Just like 33-year old Wendy Galdamez Palma on Saturday night.
Bonin understood that, without quick action, people would continue to die on the killer street.
And the next settlement would make that $9.5 million look like peanuts.
So he ordered LADOT to implement a long planned, and long delayed, road diet on Vista Del Mar, along with a handful of other local streets.
Unfortunately, the work was done over a weekend, without warning or public announcements, resulting in massive traffic backups and the inevitable hot tempers.
And somehow, everyone blamed bike lanes — and bike riders in general — for the road diet, even though LADOT used diagonal parking to narrow the street, rather than bike lanes, so speeding drivers wouldn’t keep killing people.
So in the face of demands from angry cut-through commuters, as well as lawsuits and threats of recalls — that was back in the day, before recalls were an everyday thing — Garcetti ordered all the road diets and bike lanes that had been installed on other streets removed.
Making Bonin look like a hapless fool.
And making more deaths inevitable.
As an added bonus, the actions of the future ambassador to India undercut virtually every road diet that had been planned anywhere in the City of Angels, as councilmembers ran scared, and quickly concluded they’d rather see more needless deaths than have those angry drivers come after them.
That’s how we ended up with bike riders and pedestrians continuing to die on our streets, six years after the city adopted Vision Zero, and just four years until traffic deaths were supposed to be a thing of the past.
Yeah, right.
Never mind an ever rising epidemic of hit-and-runs, as drivers recognized just how unlikely they are to be caught. And just how likely they are to get away with a slap on the wrist if they are.
All of which brings us to the needless death of a mother cradling her child in her arms, who reportedly turned away from the oncoming car to sacrifice her life in order to save his.
I honestly don’t know what to say anymore.
Wendy Palma did not need to die. Steps were taken to tame high speed drivers on deadly Vista Del Mar. And spineless cowards took them out.
Which means the next legal settlement won’t by $9.6 million, but significantly higher. Because the city knew there was a problem there, and not only didn’t fix it, they actually removed the fix.
And the one after that will be higher still.
And the one after that.
And people will keep dying, because the cowards in City Hall don’t have the courage to do anything about it.
Photo shows the road diet that was removed from Vista Del Mar.
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If a driver can’t see what’s on the road directly in front of them, they shouldn’t be allowed on the road.
Period.
This should not be legal. Can we legally restrict car/truck heights in CA to give our kids a fighting chance? @laurafriedman43 @Scott_Wienerpic.twitter.com/QeZHwvvYac
They get it. The Long Beach Business Journal makes the case that a $20 million reconstruction plan for Artesia Blvd through Compton, Long Beach, Cerritos and Paramount, including an upgraded bike lane, will be good for business growth along the corridor.
No surprise here. A Pottsville PA cop wasn’t charged for killing a 31-year old man who reportedly was struck when he rode his bike into an intersection; no word on who actually had the right-of-way, or whether the officer was using lights and siren. Unfortunately, police have a well-deserved reputation for blaming the victim in any crash involving a cop.
United Arab Emirates VP Sheikh Mohammed is one of us, taking to his bike to explore Dubai’s World Expo site ahead of its opening next month. Although he doesn’t look very happy about it, at least in the top photo.
January 27, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hermosa Beach shrinks streets for popup bike lanes, search for bike-riding WeHo rapist, and a bike lane trash dump
Looks like the new router is up and working, and so am I.
The suspect is described as a white or Latino male in his early 30s with short black hair and brown eyes. He is 5’7” to 5’11” with a normal build and slight gut. He has a tattoo of some sort on his right arm.
He was wearing black t-shirt and dark blue jeans when last seen.
He left on a black hybrid bike with medium sized tires.
Anyone with information is urged to call sheriff’s deputies at 310/855-8850.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes keeps on going.
No bias here. Britain’s Daily News complains about “bungling” city councils wasting the equivalent of a relatively paltry $1.4 million dollars installing bike lanes that were later ripped out to appease angry motorists. Evidently forgetting that’s exactly the purpose behind popup bike lanes, allowing cities to install relatively low-cost infrastructure that can be easily removed if it doesn’t work out. Or if entitled drivers scream loud and long enough.
If you lost a bike in Ventura County recently, you may be in luck. Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies busted a pair of men in Fillmore while serving a warrant last week, and discovered several bikes believed to be stolen.
A Minnesota woman embraces her inner Viking, and commits to riding every day this month, including in the snow. Which is seldom a problem here in sunny Southern California, even if it feels like it right now.
Boston rips out a curb-protected bike lane, replacing concrete with flimsy plastic bendy posts. Which will put the city on the hook if anyone is injured or killed there with the now-negligible protection.
A whopping 68% of New Yorkers support building more protected bike lanes in their own neighborhoods, while 56% support swapping parking spaces for protected bus lanes. Someone really needs to conduct a similar survey in Los Angeles, where decisions are usually based on who screams the loudest.
A new fat tired ebike from Sweden’s Cake is part cargo bike, part mobile utility bench. Although as far as I’m concerned, if it doesn’t have pedals, it’s not a bicycle, electric or otherwise.
Canyon Bicycles is raffling off a complete Ultimate CF SLX bike to benefit the nation’s first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) cycling team, at North Carolina’s St. Augustine’s University.
And the Dutch even use bikes to protest. Although burning them seems like a damn waste.
Anti-lockdown protest today in Dutch city of Eindhoven turns violent. This being the Netherlands the barricades consist, naturally, of bicycles.pic.twitter.com/RcNNTiYB6G
October 5, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Sheriff’s deputies shot Dijon Kizzee 16 times, blaming road diets for CA decline, and things are looking up in Santa Ana
And escalated when Kizzee allegedly dropped a stolen gun as he struggled to escape the deputies; what’s in dispute is whether he attempted to pick the gun back up. Especially since the official version of events has changed several times in the days following the shooting.
At least four of those shots could have been fatal.
BIKE RECOVERY: "Someone was offered the bike by a Craigslist seller, and contacted me after seeing it on Bike Index." @BikeIndexBOUpic.twitter.com/fM8MmBY21I
BIKE RECOVERY: "Bike Index was key to police being able to recover this bike from a pawn shop. Inputting the serial was very very important. Thank you for this tool." #yegbike@stolenbikesyegpic.twitter.com/mx5w01S3zL
it’s up to us to make sure the free, voluntary program stays that way to prevent abuses like we saw with the city’s previous mandatory licensing program, which became an excuse to stop people of color without probable cause as they rode their bikes.
Talk about not getting it. Apparently confusing the treatment with the disease, a London columnist complains that bike lanes are choking the life out of the city through fume-filled traffic jams. Someone should tell him that it’s all those cars that cause the noxious fumes — and the traffic. And safe bike lanes mean fewer of those on the roads.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A columnist for the Southern California News Groupremembers Long Beach real estate scion and bike advocate Mark Bixby, who fought to get a bike lane across the new replacement for the Gerald Desmond Bridge, and won, before dying in a 2011 plane crash along with four other people.
State
Sad news from Eureka, where a bike rider was killed in a collision when the victim allegedly swerved in front of an oncoming car, according to the driver and multiple witnesses.
Chicago business owners blame new protected bike lanes for a drop in business, with one hardware store owner insisting the loss of parking spaces has meant a 30% drop in sales. Although a far more likely explanation is the same drop in business suffered by brick and mortar retailers across the US during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sportsmanoffers a nice profile of Josh Quigley, the bicyclist who set a new record for the northern crossing of Scotland, just months after he barely survived getting run down at 70 mph driver by a Texas driver while on an around the world bike tour. He was inspired to do the ride by Britain’s Sir Chris Hoy after a failed suicide attempt.
A bike-riding Philippines columnist says it’s time the country has a mandatory bike helmet law. Never mind that experience around the world shows that helmet laws depress bicycling rates, which is exactly the wrong thing to do with the world facing a climate crisis — let along the Covid-19 pandemic.
June 11, 2019 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Morning Links: AP e-scooter panic, LA is (not) famous for road diets, and Cedillo thinks people in CD1 don’t need scooters
Andrew Hardy was crossing the street on an electric scooter in downtown Los Angeles when a car struck him at 50 miles per hour and flung him 15 feet in the air before he smacked his head on the pavement and fell unconscious.
And here’s what our anonymous commenter had to say in response.
The car was going 50 in DTLA, an area where it’s really hard and really illegal to drive 50 mph, and that is the last mention of an obviously speeding car. Instead, it gave 5 paragraphs to helmet use. It outlines the dangers of sidewalk riding (which are valid), but gives no space for discussion of weak infrastructure or vehicle speed that make people feel unsafe riding on the streets. It closes with a quote on how “companies are just dumping in scooters in cities” from Drew Howerton, a 19-year old who visited Austin last October and may not have the most informed view of municipal scooter regulation.
So, to sum it up, scooters are the problem, cars are never the problem and the reporter didn’t interview any subject matter experts. War on cars? Only in your dreams.
Since it is AP, this lazy reporting made its way into nearly every local media outlet in the country.
And one commenter opposes the road diets by insisting “This isn’t LA…”
Never mind that road diets haven’t exactly been welcomed with open arms here, either.
………
The LA City Council Transportation Committee will meet Wednesday afternoon, squeezing in discussion, amid all the micro-restrictions on truck parking and idling, of actually maybe doing something to close the Northvale Gap on the Expo Bike Path, along with banning dockless bikeshare and scooters in Gil Cedillo’s Council District 1.
Because evidently, only people in wealthier districts deserve inexpensive, convenient transportation options.
“Let them drive cars” seems to be Cedillo’s equivalent of “Let them eat cake.”
When I started writing about the war on bikes, stories like this came along maybe once or twice every few weeks; now they’re a daily occurrence. And like today, often more than one.
Kellen Winslow II has been convicted of rape, indecent exposure and lewd conduct in a series of San Diego assaults, while jurors remain deadlocked on eight other counts; the former NFL star was caught in part because Strava placed his bicycle near the site of one of the attacks
Kansas officials say that with riders from the Trans American Bike Race passing through the state, it’s a reminder for people to drive safely around bike riders, after two Trans Am competitors were killed by Kansas motorists in the past two years.
A Kiwi writer bikes Bolivia’s Death Road. Seriously, if the road had any other name, hardly anyone would bother, regardless of how scenic or challenging it might be.
Good question. A Vancouver city planner and urbanist asks if only experienced bicyclists feel safe in a painted bike lane, is it really a bike lane at all? Then again, as someone who lives in Hollywood, I’d settle for any bike lanes right now — good, bad or otherwise.
Virgin founder 
