Tag Archive for SAFE

Demand a Traffic Violence State of Emergency, stop LA’s nonexistent “war on cars,” and lefties want to kill your palm trees

September 15, 2026 / / No comments

If today’s post seems a little jazzier than usual, it was written under the influence of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, which is way better than any drug.

Today’s photo of LA City Hall looking like a big dick to represent all the little ones, male and female, inside. 

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More on today’s call for the City of Los Angeles to declare a Traffic Violence State of Emergency, as I’ve mashed an email notification and press release together.

And yes, there’s still time to get to City Hall if you can make it this morning.

DEMAND A STATE OF EMERGENCY ON TRAFFIC VIOLENCE!

More than 1,300 people and 40 coalition partners have signed SAFE’s open letter calling on the Mayor and City Council to declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence and take immediate action.

Now, we’re bringing that demand to City Hall. We need you to show up, give public comment, and make your voice heard.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026
9:30 a.m. Meet at City Hall
10:00 a.m. City Council meeting begins
Press conference following public comment
200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Entrance on Main St.

Our goal is to have at least 50 people give public comment. If you can speak during public comment or at our press conference, please confirm with me and review the instructions and talking points for public comment.

We hope to see you at City Hall Tuesday.

WHAT: Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE), People’s Vision Zero, and community members will present an open letter to Los Angeles City Council signed by more than 1,300 Angelenos and 43 Coalition Partners to Los Angeles City Hall, calling on Mayor Karen Bass and the Los Angeles City Council to immediately declare a State of Emergency on traffic violence and implement 5 broad strategies to immediately address and reduce serious injuries and fatalities due to traffic violence.

The stats speak for themselves:

  • The City of Los Angeles has had more traffic fatalities than homicides for the past 3 years.
  • In 2025, Los Angeles had 324 traffic fatalities and 16,160 people injured; that’s 3.5% higher than in 2024 (313). (Source: TIMS)
  • So far this year, traffic fatalities are already well over 200 and are currently running 8% higher than the same time last year. (Source: LAPD as of 22 Aug 2026)

In 2015, Los Angeles started Vision Zero, LA’s plan to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2025. That plan failed, and traffic fatalities are now 34% higher than they were in 2015 (241 compared to 324). (Source: TIMS) Since then, LA has failed to produce a comprehensive plan to reduce traffic violence.

In April 2025, an independent analysis of Vision Zero found 13 key points of failure. All of these boil down to poor coordination and prioritization within and across city departments as well as a lack of political will. None of this has been fixed.

On 11 May 2026, in an email, Ms Tina Backstrom from the LA Mayor’s office stated that Mayor Karen Bass had an Executive Directive on her desk to re-launch Vision Zero and that it would be reviewed and signed within three weeks. This was never done.

Los Angeles has spent more than a decade promising to eliminate traffic deaths. Not only did Vision Zero fail, but things have gotten worse, and now, instead of fixing what continues to fail, the city has chosen to ignore the problem.

I admit, I was unaware of that email stating that Bass would re-launch Vision Zero, which just seems to add to her failings when it comes to traffic safety.

And makes her recent stepped-up support of safety projects — other than Forest Lawn Drive, of course — seem more like the flailing actions of someone desperately running for re-election, than any real change of heart.

But maybe that’s just me.

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No bias here.

A former Los Angeles city planner writes that Los Angeles needs to stop the mythical “war on cars,” spewing a lengthy word salad to say that Los Angeles isn’t Amsterdam, which should come as no surprise to anyone.

For one thing, the people in Amsterdam live in one of the world’s happiest countries, which can hardly be said about Angelenos.

Thomas Glick implicitly criticizes CD 4 Councilmember and LA mayoral challenger Nithya Raman for saying people should drive less, while also driving herself.

Oh, the shame!

That will surely make her hang her head and slink away.

Glick also says that bicycling, and bike lanes, are good things. But, you know, bike lanes can get cluttered with palm fronds and other debris after it rains, making them virtually unusable.

Which seems like a far better argument for bike lane-sized street sweepers, than it is for whatever point Glick is trying to make.

Then there’s this.

That is the larger problem. Los Angeles transportation policy increasingly seems designed to satisfy the demands of progressive transportation organizations and advocacy groups such as Streets for All rather than starting with the more basic question: What will actually move the greatest number of Angelenos safely and efficiently?

Mayor Karen Bass, to her credit, has shown that there can be a middle ground. Bass is hardly opposed to public transportation, bike lanes or reducing automobile dependence. But she has also demonstrated a willingness to recognize that transportation policy has to work for the people who actually live here. When faced with significant community opposition to the proposed redesign of Forest Lawn Drive, which would have removed a traffic lane in each direction to create a protected bike lane, Bass ordered the project redesigned rather than simply pushing ahead. Her revised approach calls for protected bike infrastructure while maintaining the existing traffic lanes.

That is the kind of balance Los Angeles needs. The choice shouldn’t be between doing nothing and declaring war on the automobile. We can make streets safer, expand transit and provide better options for bicyclists without pretending that every traffic lane is an obstacle to be eliminated. Bass’s decision on Forest Lawn Drive suggests that even a mayor committed to expanding alternative transportation can recognize that there are limits to how much roadway Los Angeles can take away from the automobile before the cure becomes worse than the disease.

Never mind that the point of the Forest Lawn Drive project wasn’t about building bike lanes, but slowing traffic and saving lives on one of the city’s deadliest corridors.

Which you’d think a former city planner would understand, but apparently not.

And never mind that the project has undergone years of public meetings and revisions to accommodate various competing visions. Or that Bass halted the Forest Lawn project in response to a $300,000 lobbying campaign on behalf of a pair of very wealthy private cemeteries, who are apparently trying to drum up more business at their front step.

So yeah, let’s stop that mythical “war on cars,” and let the people in them keep killing themselves, and others, to the content of their lil ol’ hearts.

And yeah, stop taking away traffic lanes to build those darn bus lanes, too, even though buses move more people far more efficiently than cars can.

So sure, let’s keep Los Angeles deadly. And car and smog choked. And inefficient. And unaccommodating. And progressively less livable.

But whatever you do, don’t do anything to restrict Angelenos God-given right to drive their cars.

Or even suggest that maybe they should do it just a teeny bit less.

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No bias here, either.

In bicycle-adjacent news, the conservative New York Post writes that “A lefty public transport nonprofit that supports socialist Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Nithya Raman is coming for the city’s iconic palm trees.”

Maybe someone should tell them that their own New York mayor is a loud and proud Democratic socialist. And I didn’t know Streets For All was a “lefty” group, unless traffic safety and urban livability are “lefty” issues.

Besides, they’re right. The only good thing about LA’s palm trees, which are actually a form of very big grass, is they look kinda cool and give the city an iconic image.

But they take a lot of water, provide virtually no shade, and do nothing to cool our over-baked city. And they go up like a torch in any kind of fire, as we see every 4th of July and most Christmases.

Apparently, pointing that out — which many others have done before — is enough to get you labeled a “lefty.” And God forbid, a supporter of a (gasp) Nithya Raman.

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That’s tonight!

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A multi-agency Orange County police task force cracked down on traffic violations, writing 102 citations with an emphasis on motorcycle noise violation and illegal electric motorbikes.

According to New Santa Ana, the violations included:

  • 18 citations for loud exhaust violations Loudest reading: 111 dBA, well above California’s 95 dBA limit for passenger vehicles and 80 dBA limit for motorcycles.
  • 2 citations for emissions violations Referred to the State Referee, where drivers must complete compliance testing and repairs.
  • 33 speeding citations Highest recorded speed: 95 MPH in a 50 zone on SR‑1 near El Morro School.
  • 6 drivers cited for unlicensed or suspended license operation
  • 1 vehicle impounded
  • 1 arrest Charges included open container, DUI, and possession of a concealed firearm.

Which leaves 41 violations for…something.

………

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly acting like total dicks. 

A 51-year old Eugene, Oregon man faces charges for intentionally riding his bike into a 73-year old homeless woman — twice — after she told him to “watch out” when he rode close to her and her dog, leaving her with minor injuries.

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Local 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass manages to get herself photographed center stage at the groundbreaking for the Spring/Alameda Safety and Mobility Project, making the sort of public appearance she could have, and should have, been making for the past three-and-a-half years.

Good news from Culver City, where the Ballona Creek bike path was reopened on Friday after storm damage from the recent hurricane was repaired.

 

State

Apparently, riding a motorcycle on the sidewalk with your unsecured, un-helmeted two-year old kid on your lap is no big deal in Santa Ana.

Nearly 1,000 ebikes, e-motos and electric scooters were turned in during the Orange County DA’s buyback program on Saturday. Although judging by the video clips I saw, many were of the normal, and legal, ped-assist type, which wouldn’t do anything to reduce the number of dangerous and illegal electric vehicles the program was intended to remove from the roadway. 

San Diego is considering suing bikemakers for deceptive ebike ads.

Here’s why — okay, one reason — paywalls don’t make any sense. The San Diego Union-Tribune hid a story about the identity of the 14-year old kid killed riding an ebike in Pacific Beach over the weekend behind their draconian paywall, even though the kid’s name and other details were readily available from at least a half dozen other sources.

 

National

A website lists five Android apps that are “perfect” for bicyclists, even if you do your riding indoors.

Dominos is relaunching the bicycle with a built-in pizza oven, which they seem to do every few years, but this time as an ebike, presumably for even faster and hotter deliveries. Or maybe just a reliable PR stunt. 

A travel lane is being removed from a Eugene, Oregon street to make room for bike lanes and a combination bus/parking lane, in a city where removing a traffic lane doesn’t seem to be the end of the world.

Evidently, the New York Post thinks Seattle is in California, writing that the driver spotted speeding along a Seattle bike lane was driving next to a “major California freeway.” 

Denver Broncos all-pro safety Talanoa Hufanga’s NFL dreams began with a little red bicycle, riding to high school football games with his dad when he was just five or six years old.

More than 200 Loyola of Chicago students, faculty and staff took part in the university’s annual midnight bike ride, a tradition since 1989.

A 41-year old Louisville, Kentucky man was released on his own recognizance and allowed to drive to medical appointments for his Stage IV cancer, despite being charged with the hit-and-run death of a man riding a bicycle. It’s not that he shouldn’t be allowed to get to his medical treatments, it’s that the man he killed didn’t get any say in any of it. 

An Indiana University researcher uses bikes to develop a heat map.

A Maryland bike shop owner explains why he decided “decades ago” not to sell ebikes to minors, or to parents for their minor kids. Because apparently ebikes were a major problem in his shop decades before they became a problem anywhere else. 

Heartbreaking story from Durham, North Carolina, where a nine-year old boy was killed by a driver on Sunday while riding the bicycle he got for his birthday; his mom said “Just hug your babies. Love your babies. And people need to slow down. If you’re in a neighborhood full of kids, slow down.”

 

International

Travel + Leisure lists ten countries that are made for a two-wheeled vacay, only two of which — Slovenia and Vietnam — are even kinda surprising.

A story from British Columbia seems to miss the most important part, after a 47-year old man pled guilty to second-degree murder in the hit-and-run death of a 54-year old man riding a bicycle, after pleading down from first-degree murder — yet somehow, fails to mention why he was charged with murder in the first place.

In shocking news, the BBC reveals that reckless ebike users pose a danger to people on bicycles. Kinda like reckless people in or on anything, including feet. 

European cities show how to pay people to bike to work — and make it work.

Protests took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, after a 51-year old suspected bike thief died in police custody.

A man riding 500 miles to raise funds for his seriously ill partner was beaten by his fellow Poles for wearing a yellow and blue hat, accusing him of being a Ukrainian nationalist, even though the hat was clearly labeled to represent a Polish region.

 

Competitive Cycling

Five Americans to watch at this year’s Worlds.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your donut ride across Los Angeles is just a slightly veiled ad for an energy drink. This is who we share the boardwalk with.

And the latest reason for cops to oppose a new bike lane is because it could become “a highway for illegal ebikes on drug runs.”

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Ebike rider killed in Arleta crash, and demand a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence at LA council tomorrow

September 14, 2026 / / No comments

Okay, where were we?

I should have known I was tempting fate by going on a rant over traffic deaths. But why the hell did fate take it out on a young kid?

And you can find the t-shirt in today’s photo, and a few other ghost bike tees, by clicking on the Swag button on the upper right. I’d really like to stop posting them if drivers would just stop killing us. 

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Speaking of ebike deaths, which I was really trying not to do, someone was killed riding an ebike in Arleta early Sunday.

According to KTLA-5, the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was stuck by the driver of a white SUV in the 13000 block of Osborne Street, as if the color of the vehicle had some sort of magical effect on the outcome.

Actually, KTLA says the victim was killed after being struck by the SUV, as if a) the victim was beaten or strangled after being stuck by the vehicle, and b) the driver of the SUV somehow had nothing to do with it.

You can do better, KTLA.

As usual, there’s no word on what kind of ebike it was, whether the victim was riding a legal ped-assist bike or an illegal e-moto or dirt bike, since neither the cops nor the press can seem to distinguish between them.

At least Hoodline managed to add that section of Osborne Street is on Los Angeles’s Vision Zero High Injury Network — suggesting that the city still cares about such things — with 20 total vehicle fatalities and 16 pedestrian or bicyclist collisions from 2010 to 2020.

And why does it take The Korea Daily to report on LA traffic deaths and injuries? The Los Angeles-based paper reports that,

According to traffic collision statistics released by the Los Angeles Police Department on Aug. 27, a total of 187 people were killed in traffic crashes in Los Angeles between Jan. 1 and Aug. 15 this year. That represents a 5% increase from 178 deaths during the same period last year.

Injury crashes also increased by about 7%, from 971 to 1,043, while bicycle-related injury crashes surged 37% to 144.

The only real surprise that bicycle-related injury crashes surged more than a third is that anyone is still tracking the number, since no one bothers to tell us anymore.

……….

A reminder that Streets Are For Everyone is urging you to show up for tomorrow’s LA City Council Meeting, where they will demand that the city declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence.

The time has come to demand a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence from our local leaders.

SAFE will join our coalition partners at Los Angeles City Council on September 15th to drop our open letterdemanding that the Mayor and the Los Angeles City Council immediately declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence and address this public health crisis.

Thank you for signing on and joining this movement. Your signature helped us reach more than 1,250 signatures on this campaign, showing our local leaders that Angelenos want streets that are safe to use.

The next step is here, and we need you with us as we deliver that message directly to City Hall.

Please join SAFE on September 15th at 9:30 am in City Hall to help us deliver our open letter and make our voices heard. We are asking everyone who has signed this letter to attend the City Council meeting and give public comment.

Our goal is to have at least 50 people give public comment, making it clear to our local leaders that traffic violence is an urgent public safety crisis that deserves their attention.

Event Details

  • Date: Tuesday, September 15th, 2026
  • Time: Meet at 9:30 a.m.
  • Council Meeting Begins at 10:00 a.m.
  • Press Conference following Public Comment
  • Location: 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 (Entrance on Main St.)

Instructions and Talking Points for Public Comment.

After public comment concludes, advocates will leave the Council Chamber and regroup outside on the steps of City Hall for a Press Conference.

Thank you again for adding your name to this campaign and standing with us. We have built the movement. Now it is time to bring it directly to our local leaders.

If you have any questions, please reach out to me via email (aaron@streetsareforeveryone.org) or by calling my cell (818.697.2621)

We hope to see you at City Hall on September 15th.

Unfortunately, I won’t be there, as much as I’d like to be.

The meds I take to keep from acting out my dreams, and possibly inadvertently killing my wife in my sleep, means I will likely be unconscious at that hour. And even if I tried to shake off the effects of the drug and show up, I’d be too sick from it to even make it there.

So please, if you can, go in my stead and be my witness before the council to demand they take urgent action to stop people from killing us.

God knows, we’ve got enough ghost bikes in this damn city.

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LA mayoral challenger Nithya Raman announced her plan to make LA cooler and more livable before the ’28 Olympics.

Twitter post

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He gets it.

A writer for The Guardian, who confesses the “humiliating” fact that he can’t ride a bike because his parents were too busy arguing or falling asleep to teach him, has this to say about the Trump administration’s attack on “DEI” bike lanes.

Rhetorically, the administration’s charge of bike lanes being some form of diversity, equity, and inclusion makes no sense. If riding a bike is so easy, then how can we classify it as unique enough to be diverse? Children ride bikes. It’s far less exotic than, say, operating a motorcycle, which takes a special license in every state. Maybe if we had a dedicated lane for a penny-farthing, I’d buy this explanation. If I were tooling around on one of those, I’d never get where I was going, because scores of beautiful women would be stopping me every few feet.

Conservative disapproval for bike lanes stems from a blinkered, irrational view of culture, and more accurately, masculinity. Trumpists have teased Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg for riding bikes. But I’ve been teased for not being able to ride a bike. Shouldn’t I be lauded for my commitment to machismo? My belief in the petrol-powered conveyance deserves commendation. My parents’ inattention to my development actually made me cooler, right?

If anything, I’m the diversity in this scenario. I can’t use a bike lane. I’ve been excluded from significant parts of the road. I can’t even walk in the bike lane. I should be furious, writing pointed, profane letters to my city councilperson, begging them to release me from my shackles. Or better yet, I should demand the city taxpayers pay for me to take bike lessons, so I can be accommodated. I’m the weirdo here. The one who has to explain my predicament, to feel excluded from the general population. Except, I’m not going to complain.

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American cars are getting fatter, along with our citizenry.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

No bias here. A 30-year San Diego bike rider says the sharrows on Mira Mesa may be a death trap, but the solution can’t be to make Mira Mesa more congested, suggesting bike riders should be directed to quieter streets. As I recall from nearly 40 years ago, nothing could make Mira Mesa more congested. Although the San Diego Union-Tribune evidently doesn’t want you to know about it, since it’s hidden behind its draconian paywall. 

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Local 

Good on them. LA street safety vigilante Jonathan Hale led People’s Vision Zero in painting a new crosswalk at Sycamore and Lexington, after the city refused to so anything.

Los Angeles Mayor Bass took credit for breaking ground on the long-planned Spring-Alameda Safety and Mobility Project, which far-predated her administration.

 

State

A 12-year old Laguna Nigel boy has been appearing before Orange County city councils to call for stricter ebike rules for kids his age, arguing that too many ride too fast, ignore rules and take risks.

Speaking of the San Diego U-T’s draconian paywall, an engineering study has found the Coast Highway bridge in Encinitas is in poor condition. But they apparently don’t want you to learn about it until the bridge collapses under you. 

The deaths of Kellie Standish and William Colby Tucker on PCH in Ventura earlier this year have renewed calls for improving safety on the deadly highway.

Two major safety projects are underway to bridge coastal gaps and improve bicycle and pedestrian safety between Montecito and Summerland.

Sad news from Santa Cruz County, where a driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI after killing a bike rider near Soquel.

 

National

This is the cost of traffic violence. An associate vice president of Brigham Young University, and the director of BYU’s nationally recognized David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies was killed while riding his bike last week; Vincent Stanley Benfell III was 63.

In a bizarre case, an Ohio mom was found dead on top of a train car, 130 miles from where she disappeared while riding her bicycle.

Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, New York are accelerating investments in bike lanes and safer streets, building out the networks necessary to making bicycling a practical means of transportation.

Around 30 riders in Birmingham, Alabama honored two forgotten victims of the fight for civil rights, 53 years after 13-year old Virgil Ware was shot and killed by white teens while riding on the handlebars of his brother’s bike, and 16-year old Johnny Robinson fatally shot by a cop, the same morning as the infamous bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church killed four young girls. Do I really need to mention that both young men were Black? I didn’t think so. 

A 76-year old disabled US Air Force vet started a five-day ride across Florida’s 28th Congressional District, leading a group to support the campaign of retired Navy Commander and Democratic candidate Phil Ehr.

 

International

Momentum asks the burning question why do cities insist on using sharrows when they don’t make bicyclists any safer, and often leave us less safer? That’s easy — they can be installed for pennies on the dollar without removing parking or a traffic lane, so they don’t inconvenience anyone by risking our lives. 

A Canadian writer goes riding with the last remaining bicycle couriers in Vancouver, as digital copies replace the death-defying thrill of zooming papers across the city on two wheels.

Dozens of Toronto bike advocates took to the streets to protest Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s move to rip out popular bike lanes and move them to quieter, less direct streets. Although “dozens” of protesters aren’t likely to get his, or anyone else’s, attention.

A British bike nonprofit has found that ebike bikeshares encourage people to try bicycling who might not otherwise.

 

Competitive Cycling

To the surprise of no one who’s been paying attention for the past two weeks, Spain’s Enric Mas won the Vuelta for the first time, after three previous second place finishes; Mas finished two minutes and 15 seconds ahead of Primož Roglič, and another half minute over Austrian Felix Gall. 

Congratulations to American Sepp Kuss on his fifth place finish, 8:45 back and one place behind Richard Carapaz.

Bummer. Irishman Eddie Dunbar crashed out on the penultimate state of the Vuelta, breaking his collarbone one day after an emotional comeback win on Peñas Blancas.

Mexico’s Isaac del Toro overcame Frenchman Paul Seixas to win a dramatic uphill sprint to the finish of the GP de Montreal, announcing themselves heirs apparent to Tadej Pogačar for the world championships.

Slovenian Urška Žigart broke her jaw for the second time in three months, prematurely ending her season with a crash on stage 3 of the Faun Tour Femmes.

 

Finally…

No, bike lanes are not just extra pavement that can be used by drivers whenever it’s convenient — and that includes protected bike lanes along Seattle freeways.

And that feeling when you get brake checked by a delivery robot, so you throw it into the bushes.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

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

Demand a Traffic Violence State of Emergency in Los Angeles, and a Capital Infrastructure Plan for the City Charter

March 12, 2026 / / One comment

Let’s depart with our usual format today, because there are a couple of urgent matters we need to attend to right now. 

We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we missed today.

Pinky swear.

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First off, I’ve signed onto a letter demanding that Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council declare a Traffic Violence State of Emergency, after the abject failure of Vision Zero in Los Angeles.

Now I’m asking you to sign on to that letter as well.

Below you’ll find the full text of that letter. If you support it, please click this link or scan the QR code in the graphic below to sign on, too.

Dear Mayor Bass and Honorable Members of the City Council:

The City of Los Angeles has not been taking traffic violence and the public health crisis that is, seriously. The facts speak for themselves:

In 2015, the city committed to Vision Zero – its plan to end traffic violence by 2025. In 2025, traffic fatalities were reported by LAPD to be 290, 56% higher than in 2015.

For the past three years there have been more traffic fatalities than homicides.

An audit directed by the Los Angeles City Council found that Vision Zero failed – and thousands of people died – because of a lack of political will and poor coordination between city departments.

Traffic violence is the leading cause of death for children ages 4-14 in LA County.

Between 31 January and 5 February 2026, there were two mass traffic fatality events, resulting in 5 people killed and 7 others seriously injured.

The City of Los Angeles was about to return 100 million dollars in road safety funding to the State of California because it didn’t have the manpower to use the money.

We, the undersigned, demand that the issue of traffic violence be treated with the urgency and importance that it deserves. We request that the City of Los Angeles formally declare a State of Emergency due to traffic violence, thus redirecting resources and prioritizing actions to address this city-wide problem. This includes but is not limited to:

  1. Recommitting to Vision Zero in its entirety – all five pillars, not just one or two.
  2. Take serious and meaningful actions to fully address the failures of Vision Zero found in the city’s own audit.
  3. Properly staff the LADOT, RIGHT NOW,  with the personnel needed to use the grants and funding it already has.
  4. Immediately empower the community to make their own roads safer through a community-led traffic safety program.
  5. Fast-track road safety programs and improvements that are already in the works.

Vision Zero cannot succeed if it is treated as a slogan rather than a mandate. Preventable deaths are not unfortunate accidents; they are the predictable outcome of design choices and policy decisions.

Our city’s leaders have the tools, data, and authority to act. Now we are asking them to decide that a commitment to protecting human life should not be negotiable.

Jonathan Hale, Founder
People’s Vision Zero

Damian Kevitt, Executive Director
Streets Are For Everyone

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Second, Streets For All is asking for your help to support critical Los Angeles City Charter reforms at today’s meeting of the Charter Commission.

TODAY: TELL THE CHARTER COMMISSION TO PASS A CAPITAL INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

This is it! Today the Charter Commission will be deciding whether to submit language for 1) a Capital Infrastructure Plan and 2) a Director of Public Works.

These reforms are absolutely critical. They will create transparency, accountability, and reform the City’s existing antiquated system for infrastructure delivery. This touches everything we care about, from crosswalks to trees to bike lanes to park space.

We are expecting significant push back defending the status quo. It is important that advocates make their voice heard.

EXAMPLE PUBLIC COMMENT LANGUAGE

3 WAYS YOU CAN HELP
Thursday, March 12, 4pm (AGENDA)

1) Show up in person and give public comment
City Hall, 200 Spring Street, Room 350, Board of Public Works Session Room

2) Call in and give public comment
Please call early, they are limiting public comment to 30 minutes only
Use this Zoom link, or call 1-669-254-5252 (Meeting ID: 161 156 7882)

3) Submit written Public comment via email
Add your name and zip code to the bottom, feel free to customize the suggested language. 

EMAIL THE CHARTER COMMISSION

Want to learn more about the Charter Reform process? Read about our research and suggestions here: charter.streetsforall.org

We’ll be back to our regular programming tomorrow.

Category: General / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday memorial for pregnant Playa crash victim and baby, comment on LA speed cam pilot, and bikes boost testosterone

February 20, 2026 / / Comments Off on Sunday memorial for pregnant Playa crash victim and baby, comment on LA speed cam pilot, and bikes boost testosterone

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.

Instagram post

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.

………

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.

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According to LADOT,

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.

………

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.

………

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.

………

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?

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

 

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

SAFE takes Long Beach and Los Angeles to task for failing on speed cams, and how to request improvement on county roads

December 9, 2025 / / Comments Off on SAFE takes Long Beach and Los Angeles to task for failing on speed cams, and how to request improvement on county roads
Day 343 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

It’s Day 12 of the 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Brian, Kathleen, Steven and Lisa for their generous support for SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy!

So what are you waiting for? It only takes a few clicks to donate via PayPal, Zelle or Venmo, and guarantee our spokescorgi will find a little kibble in her stocking this year.

And yes, that’s the same photo of our official spokescorgi that we used yesterday, because it’s after 4 in the damn morning and I want to go to sleep, already. 

………

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is also conducting a year-end fund drive, and more than deserving of a few bucks.

Or maybe more than a few.

………

Speaking of SAFE, the organization takes Glendale, Los Angeles and Long Beach to task, along with Oakland and San Jose, for failing to implement the state’s speed cam pilot program, over two years after it was signed into law.

Only San Francisco has actually placed speed cams on the streets, getting a 100% A+ grade in SAFE’s scoring system, while seeing a dramatic decrease in speeding where the cameras have been installed.

Los Angeles, on the other hand, gets a D grade, with Long Beach only slightly better at D+.

Although, while I can’t speak to Long Beach, that’s probably being undeservedly kind towards LA.

Malibu, which was added to the plan a year later as residents clamored for speed cams on deadly PCH, has done much better at implementing the program, already achieving a B+ in SAFE’s scoring.

………

Thanks to Luc for forwarding a response from LA County on how to request safety signage or other improvements on country roads.

Report a Problem: Bike Path:
Hi – Not a problem but a proactive measure to enforce safety for all. Now that the Rockstore section on Mulholland is finally open to all traffic:
Who do I ask for a sign to be placed showing to “share the road with cyclists”?
Thank you!

Answer:
Thank you for contacting the website for Los Angeles County Public Works. We provide services to the unincorporated areas of L.A. County. Your concerns have been forwarded to the Traffic Investigator for the subject location, who should be contacting you shortly. You may also contact them at 626-300-4848.

………

LADOT wants your feedback on the South Broadway Mobility Project, as well as input to help shape their upcoming Mobility Action Plan.

And no, “more protected bike lanes everywhere” is probably not quite what they’re looking for.

But still.

………

Gravel Bike California discovers some some hidden trails and camps in the Verdugo Mountains in the inaugural Tour de Dugo.

………

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Once again, business owners try to shoot themselves in the foot, protesting new curb-protected bike lanes in Chicago while alleging they were losing business after just 45 days, even though studies show protected bike lanes usually result in increased sales if they just give it a little time.

New York Streetsblog examines everything that’s wrong with a judge’s order to rip out a Queens bike lane, accusing her of overstepping her jurisdiction.

………

Local 

LAist offers more details on the $10.5 million Complete Streets makeover of Huntington Drive, which adds bus lanes, curb-protected bike lane, wide sidewalks and a narrow median, while removing a traffic lane in each direction.

Bikeshare is booming at UCLA, where students and staff took roughly 15,000 Metro Bike trips last year, including nearly 6,500 trips on campus.

Burbank Bike Angels will hold their annual celebration tomorrow at Burbank City Hall to display hundreds of new and restored bicycles that will be donated to local children.

 

State

Carlsbad became the second city in San Diego’s North County area to crack down on ebikes, including restrictions on where they can be ridden.

A Fresno driver was on the wrong side of the roadway when he struck and killed a 51-year old anthropology professor three years ago as she was riding with three other bicyclists, according to a woman riding with her; the 50-year old driver faces a vehicular manslaughter charge, as well as a couple misdemeanors for her death.

This is the cost of traffic violence. Yesterday we mentioned that someone riding a bicycle was killed by a driver on the famed Pebble Beach 17 Mile Drive; today we learned the victim was a 66-year old former professor from CSU Monterey Bay, who founded the school’s Service Learning Institute and led it for 25 years.

A 24-year old man pled not guilty to DUI and hit-and-run charges in San Mateo County, after he allegedly hit a 15-year old boy riding an ebike in a bike lane, and dragged the kid several blocks before crashing into a couple parked cars; police found half gram of meth and 14 empty beer cans in his car after the crash. No word on how the boy is doing, but he can’t be good after that.

 

National

Momentum recommends the best rail trails in the US for “cycling bliss.” None of which are anywhere near Los Angeles, of course. 

San Antonio, Texas is proposing a $67 million plan to remove a lane in each direction from a seven-lane roadway, while adding wider sidewalks and a bike path.

An Illinois bill would create a 15 mph speed limit on all bike paths in the state for all bicycles, as well as low-speed ebikes, low-speed gas bicycles, motor-driven cycles and mopeds.

The New Jersey legislature advanced a bill that would reclassify all ebikes, including ped-assist bikes, as motorized bicycles, and require a drivers license for anyone over 17 to operate one, or a motorized bicycle license for anyone 15 to 16. A perfect example of how lumping all forms of electric bikes, including motorbikes and dirt bike, together as ebikes can result in a crackdown that harms everyone.

High school students in Tampa, Florida worked with a local legislator to file a bill requiring bike helmets for all ebike riders under the age of 18. Although bike helmets aren’t designed to protect against the speeds many e-motorbikes and dirt bikes are capable of achieving. 

 

International

Speaking of Momentum, the magazine updates their list of the world’s worst bike lanes. Oddly, Los Angeles doesn’t make the list, but San Diego does. Twice. 

‘Tis the season. Volunteers in Winnipeg, Manitoba reclaimed and refurbished 350 bicycles headed for the landfill to donate to local children in need.

No surprise here, as officials say a new $26 million bike path connecting a Northamptonshire, England railway station to the town center will offer “enormous benefits,” as well as “a safer and greener environment for everyone.”

They know us so well. The UK’s CyclingElectric offers their list of the best Christmas gifts for ebike riders and bicyclists, including a local craft beer. Sign me up, Santa. 

Amsterdam considers a ban on fat-tired ebikes, hoping that restrictions on tire widths will substitute for a ban based on engine power or potential speeds.

A South African appeals court called for a new inquest into the 2016 death of a woman who fell off a cliff while mountain biking with her husband, after a magistrate had ruled that her husband was implicated in her death “on the face of it,” without hearing any testimony; she supposedly fell when he turned his back after stopping to take a photo.

Chinese authorities took nearly $1.6 million worth of fake Specialized bike parts off the market, while tracing the counterfeits back to the factories that made them.

An “everyday athlete” from Australia rode his bike over 2,600 miles across the continent. Or rather, two bikes, after his original bike was stolen as he slept in his one-man tent.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly examines the disturbing trend of young cyclists giving up on the sport.

 

Finally…

Now even the gods are out to get us. It may not be such a long way to Tipperary soon.

And apparently, you’re not the only one who tosses your valve caps.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

No Week Without Driving in car-centric LA, fight for safe & simple red light cams, and 16-year old kid killed in e-motorbike crash

September 30, 2025 / / One comment
Day 273 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

This is day two of a Week Without Driving.

Or as it’s known here in Los Angeles, just another week.

Because officials in this city would never want to suggest to drivers that they might want to leave their car at home for even a week, no matter how good the cause.

And this is a very good cause.

According to the website,

If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it’s like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a third of people living in the United States – people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can’t afford cars or gas – this is our every day.

We created the Week Without Driving experience so that those who have the option to drive can learn firsthand about the barriers and challenges that nondrivers face and work with nondrivers to create more accessible communities for all.

And one of those barriers, as I learned last week, is just how difficult it is to replace a lost ID here in California if you don’t drive a car.

Unlike drivers, who can request a new license online with just a few clicks and get it days later, non-drivers have to fill out a form, and schedule an appointment to appear in person at the DMV.

Since evidently, anyone who doesn’t drive is such a strange thing they have to ensure we actually exist.

Never mind that the next available appointment here in Los Angeles is mid-November.

Yes, November.

Then, and only then, according to the DMV’s website, you can expect a replacement ID to arrive in your hot little hands “just” three to four weeks later.

Which means it will be just a couple weeks before Christmas before I’ll once again have a little piece of plastic to tell anyone who the hell I am if I should get hit by a bus.

All because my wallet fell out of my pocket while riding one.

Yet when my wife realized she’d somehow become separated from her driver’s license when the paramedics took her to the hospital recently, she received a replacement little more than a week later.

So not only should drivers use this week without driving to walk in our shoes, officials in this state should try giving up their licenses to see how the DMV treats anyone crazy enough to live without a car in car-centric California.

Go on. I double-dog dare ’em.

……….

Streets Are For Everyone is urging, well, everyone to email or call California Governor Gavin Newsom to demand — okay, politely ask in a very firm manner — that he sign SB 720, the Safer Streets Program.

The bill is intended to modernize and simplify the regulations for red light cameras in California, to overcome the problems that have prevented their installation and, in too many cases, led to their removal.

And yes, I’m looking at you, Los Angeles.

This is how SAFE describes the problem, taken from a summary of their report.

California’s roads tell a grim story. SAFE reviewed the data. Since 2013, severe injuries and fatalities tied to intersection violations have surged 96.1%. In 2023 alone, red-light violations were linked to 195 deaths and more than 1,200 severe injuries. And these aren’t just drivers—the victims include cyclists and pedestrians, who made up nearly one in five of those killed or seriously injured.

Even seasoned drivers admit they hesitate after a light turns green, waiting to see if someone will barrel through the intersection. That hesitation isn’t paranoia—it’s survival.

Never mind the economic costs.

The human toll is incalculable, but the economic cost is staggering. Using the CDC’s WISQARS Cost of Injury calculator, SAFE estimated the financial burden of intersection crashes between 2021 and 2023:

  • $985 million in costs from severe injuries, nearly a third of it from medical expenses.
  • $6.96 billion in costs from fatalities.

Altogether, more than $7.9 billion was drained from California in just three years. That’s money that could have gone into schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and community programs—but instead was lost to preventable crashes.

SB 720 is designed to address the problem by improving red light enforcement.

There is a better way. Senate Bill 720—the Safer Streets Program—offers a critical chance to modernize California’s red-light enforcement. Modeled after the state’s successful speed safety camera bill (AB 645), SB 720 would:

  • Eliminate facial photography, capturing only license plates.
  • Treat violations like parking tickets, keeping enforcement simple and privacy intact.
  • Require revenue from citations to be reinvested into safety improvements—not city general funds.
  • Reduce the cost of citations to a flat $100 for the first citation and increase fines for those who repeatedly run red lights in proportion to the number of violations.

This approach has already proven effective in other states. Red light camera programs across major U.S. cities have reduced fatal crashes by 21% and saved an estimated 1,300 lives in a single year. When programs are dismantled, crashes and fatalities climb again.

It’s already passed both houses of the legislature, and is just waiting for Newsom’s signature, which is anything but a sure thing.

And that’s where you come in.

Once again, here’s how SAFE sums it up.

The data is clear. The solutions exist. And yet, lives continue to be lost every day California delays reform. SB 720 is now in the Governor’s hands, representing a chance to save lives and reclaim billions of dollars for our communities.

The question is not whether red-light running is preventable—it is. The question is whether California will finally choose to act.

Because every number in these statistics is more than a data point, it’s a life, a family, and a future stolen. And the cost of inaction is simply too high.

You’ll find a sample letter here, along with links to email, tweet or call.

I’m also told that anyone who gets at least ten people to sign will get a super cute photo of this super cute corgi.

And if that doesn’t seal the deal, I don’t know what will.

………

A 16-year old boy died in an Orange County hospital on Friday, three days after he was injured in a Newport Beach ebike crash last Tuesday.

Although he was reportedly riding an electric motorcycle, rather than a ped-assist bicycle.

Which does not make it any less tragic.

The crash occurred about 5:55 pm September 23rd, near Superior Ave and Nice Lane. There’s no word on whether this was a solo crash, or if there was a driver involved.

Anyone with any information is urged to call the Newport Beach Police Department at 949/644-3747 or email alaverty@nbpd.org.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.

A London law firm has claims pending from a dozen clients who say they were injured by faulty Lime Bikes; meanwhile, a London columnist says “Good,” because maybe it will reduce the number of dangerous bicyclists. Yeah, that’s worked really well to get dangerous drivers off the road, hasn’t it.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Secaucus, New York Uber Eats deliverista faces charges for fleeing from police following a dispute with a customer, then whacking a cop over the head with a bike lock and vase trying to get away.

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

Calbike calls for codifying language for self-driving cars to include a high standard for safety around bicycles and other vulnerable road users.

Berkeley has reimagined three interconnecting streets in the neighborhood below the UC campus to improve safety for bike riders, walkers and transit users through the use of bus boarding islands, concrete curbs and parking protected bike lanes.

San Francisco Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick says let’s all thank Oakland for building a bike cut-through they previously said was impossible.

It was a bad weekend in Northern California, where a 63-year old man was killed when he was struck by two drivers while riding a bike in Oakland after reportedly failing to stop for a stop sign, a bike rider was struck by a driver, and possibly killed, in Stanislaus County, and someone apparently stole a Carmichael hit-and-run victim’s ebike while leaving him to die in the street rather than calling 911.

 

National

A surprising new study shows that road bicycling is actually more dangerous than mountain biking, especially for older riders. So, go out and shred to your heart’s content. But be careful biking to the corner market, let alone riding your next century.

A French pastry chef opened a popup patisserie in a Seattle bicycle store, in other words, a bake shop in a bike shop.

Indianapolis has set a new record for bicyclists hit and killed on the streets this year, just three-quarters into the year.

Bike counters showed an average of 486 cyclists per hour on New York’s Vanderbilt Ave when it was closed to car traffic, demonstrating a high demand for safe infrastructure, despite dithering from the city’s lame duck mayor.

The New York Times visits Brooklyn’s massive and still-growing Bike Flea Market; meanwhile, the New York borough is getting a “game-changing” Dutch-style bike hub.

Tragic news from New Jersey, where two kids were killed when a driver broadsided the ebike they were riding.

Dozens of people rode their bikes through Opelousas, Louisiana to raise awareness and support for families living with the devastating effects of sickle cell disease.

Forty-five-year old Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen is one of us, going for a casual Miami bike ride with her jiu-jitsu trainer boyfriend.

 

International

A British woman says once she hit 60, she rented out her apartment and set out on her bike with just a tent; seven years and 24,000 miles later, she has no plans to stop.

Spanish motorcyclist Aleix Espargaro is one of us, even if it means he’s out of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix after crashing his bicycle.

A man rode his bike 1,250 miles from London to Prishtina, Kosovo to raise funds in honor of his father, after the older man died of pancreatic cancer. Which is the same damn disease that killed my mother 25 year ago.

A New Zealand woman known as the Helmet Lady has died, 31 years after her successful campaign to make bike helmets compulsory for all bicyclists in the country, following the bicycling crash that left her 12-year old son paralyzed from the neck down.

 

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-year old British cyclist Max Hereward is trying to raise the equivalent of  over $15,000 to join a European development team, saying he’s gone as far as he can in his home country. Which is a pretty good indictment of what’s wrong with the sport these days. 

 

Finally…

Nothing goes together like bespoke bikes and craft beer. Your next e-cargo bike could be solar powered.

And nothing like making ICE an internet laughing stock when they can’t catch a single taunting guy on a bike.

Twitter post

……… 

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Celebrating 10 years of SAFE & why I do what I do, Metro joins HLA lawsuit, and MAAP LaB LA lands on Abbot Kinney

September 15, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 258 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

I got a little dose of inspiration yesterday.

My wife, the corgi and I attended the first part of SAFE’s 10th anniversary celebration yesterday evening, before we had to leave for a family commitment.

The nonprofit group known as Streets Are For Everyone was born from Damian Kevitt’s first Finish the Ride, after more than 600 people turned out to ride with him to finish what started out as a pleasant bike ride with his wife, before it was interrupted by a heartless hit-and-run driver.

I covered that horrific 2013 crash from the very beginning as best I could, based on the cryptic reports available at the time.

But in time, it became clear that Kevitt had been struck by the driver of a van while riding on Zoo Drive, and dragged hundreds of feet onto the northbound 5 Freeway by the fleeing driver.

He freed himself from under the van by sheer force of will. And likely survived only because the trailing drivers saw what was happening and stopped to protect him, and because some of those cars has people with medical training, who began treating him at the scene before paramedics arrived.

The odds that he would survive his multiple life-threatening injuries were somewhere between slim and none. But his mother refused to give up and fought for him at every turn. And Damian’s sheer will to live was evident when he told her and his wife that he would one day finish that ride, whatever it took.

In those ten years, Damian has gone from a victim to founder of a successful organization that has spawned other traffic safety groups and shepherded a number of important bills through the state legislature, as well as memorializing victims and calling attention to our most dangerous streets.

He has become someone I truly admire and consider a good friend. And along with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider and Streetsblog’s Joe Linton, he’s one of the first people I reach out to with any bike or pedestrian safety problem that demands a solution.

We are lucky to have people and groups like that fighting for us every day.

Listening to the inspiring stories from other victims of traffic violence, along with SAFE staffers and volunteers, it coalesced in my own mind just why I do what I do, and what keeps me fighting when our mean streets and uncaring officials continue to drag me down and break my heart.

For the first time in a long time, or maybe ever, I can now sum it up in two simple sentences.

I want everyone who wants to ride a bicycle to be able to ride one, regardless of who they are or where they live.

And I want everyone who leaves home today on a bicycle to get home safely.

That’s it.

I’ll keep fighting for that as long as I have any fight in me. Sometimes I think that day was yesterday. And sometimes I think I’m just getting started.

One other note before we move on.

One of the speakers yesterday described how he was struck by a driver and badly injured just five months after moving to Los Angeles. And yesterday’s CicLAvia was the first time he had ridden a bike in this city since.

It was a reminder just how important CicLAvia and other open streets events like Beach Streets in Long Beach, and Active Streets in the San Gabriel Valley, are to all of us.

Because without them, many people in the this car-choked megalopolis wouldn’t ride bikes again.

Or at all.

Top photo: Damian Kevitt speaking at SAFE 10th Anniversary event.

………

Speaking of Joe Linton, his HLA lawsuit over the city’s failure to include bike lanes in the Vermont Ave bus lane project was in court on Friday, as Metro fought to be included in the case.

And it’s important to note that Linton’s lawsuit is a personal matter, unrelated to his work for Streetsblog.

In a very narrow ruling, the judge concluded that Metro could join the suit, but could only focus on the Vermont case, and not any other possible cases.

As Linton describes it on his personal website B.I.K.A.S, which stands for Bicycle Infrastructure Knowledge Activism and Safety,

In the discussion in court, the judge engaged Metro’s lawyers regarding how expansive this case would be. Metro’s earlier filing noted that my lawsuit “attacked” Metro’s authority to build “the Vermont Project and other Metro projects.” The judge asked Metro’s lawyer if it was ok to strike references to other projects, and just focus on Vermont. Metro’s lawyer agreed. Towards the end of the discussion, the judge summarized that this trial would focus on one project on Vermont, and that another day could focus on another project on, for example, Western or Alameda

That’s it for now.

Going forward, Metro will undoubtedly argue that HLA is a city ordinance that does not apply to them as a county agency, while Linton’s attorneys will argue that Metro is working for the city on a city project, on a city street included in the city mobility plan.

It will be interesting to see how this develops from here.

………

Conservative media was up in arms over a former member of the USA Cycling National team, after the transgender BMX rider appeared to celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Although I’m not sure if they were more appalled because of the Instagram posts or the gender identity of the person behind them.

I haven’t commented about the shooting here because it falls outside of the scope of this site.

But as someone who lived through the killings of both Kennedys and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the attempted assassinations of Presidents Ford and Reagan, and the near-fatal shooting of Alabama Governor George Wallace, I can attest that no good ever comes from political violence.

And you can’t kill an idea, good or bad, with a bullet.

………

Aussie bikewear brand MAAP has opened their first North American store right here in Los Angeles.

Known for high-performance gear and a culture-first approach, the company’s MAAP LaB Los Angeles landed on iconic Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice, their eighth location outside of Australia.

According to StupidDope, it’s designed to be a creative hub for bicyclists and creatives.

At its heart lies a social coffee bar, an anchor point meant to bring riders together before and after their rides. It’s more than a retail space; it’s a venue where cyclists and Venice locals alike can gather, share stories, and connect over a shared passion for performance and design. This approach reflects MAAP’s “Life Around Bikes” philosophy — a reminder that cycling culture is about more than the ride itself.

They’re not the first to try that approach.

And Abbot Kinney is littered with the gravesites of other high-end bike brands who thought they had a “can’t miss” concept in the ideal location.

But let’s hope it succeeds this time.

………

Don’t forget the two important meetings today

First the Encino Neighborhood Council’s Traffic and Transportation Committee considers the threatened Amestoy Ave pedestrian bridge over the 101 Freeway in a virtual meeting starting at 4:45 pm.

Then starting at 6 pm, the West Hollywood City Council takes up the Fountain Ave safe streets makeover. WeHo residents can watch on Spectrum Cable channel 10 and YouTube; I’m hoping the latter works for those of us in LA, too. And comments can submitted online prior to the meeting.

………

Local 

Well, no shit. LAist says Los Angeles is lagging behind on installing the speed cams approved over a year ago by the state legislature. If “lagging behind” means not installing any yet, that is. 

A Long Beach man was hospitalized with non-life-threatening upper and lower body injuries, after allegedly swerving his bicycle in front of a driver while on PCH in Long Beach. Although we often find that drivers swear a bike rider swerved in front of them or came out of nowhere, when in actuality they just weren’t paying attention. 

 

State

Costa Mesa will offer free ebike safety lessons for school kids on September 27th.

Carlsbad is looking for input on whether to ban ebike use for kids under 12. I’m down with that, but maybe make 14, instead.

A kindhearted Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy arranged the donation of a new bike to a nine-year old kid after his was stolen.

The CEO of The San Francisco Standard news site describes what it’s like to get sideswiped by a pickup driver while nearing the end of a 100-mile training ride. But be careful if you don’t want to see it, because security cam video at the top offers a disturbing view of the crash.

A Streetsblog op-ed from a San Francisco environmentalist and transportation rider says the city can’t afford to build safe streets so slowly, as peer cities like Austin, Texas show it can be done swiftly and cheaply. Maybe Los Angeles could take notes, too. 

 

National

Bike riders in Santa Fe, New Mexico are calling for safety changes and greater accountability after a man was killed riding his bike in June, and the driver who killed him walked with a deferred sentence.

The mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming is about to become a former bike shop owner, after he announced the store will be closing after 35 years — leaving just one other bike shop in the state’s largest city.

A 21-year old autistic man from Billings, Montana got his stolen adaptive tricycle back after community outrage encouraged someone to drop it off at city hall.

Bike riders in Houston bared all for the World Naked Bike Ride, while accusing the city of backsliding on safety; some people did the same in Los Angeles, too.

A five-day bike ride is traveling 700 miles across Wisconsin to support military families and first responders, while focusing on children of fallen service members and disabled veterans.

The US Department of Transportation pulled a $675,000 grant to finish an Illinois bike trail, although grants for similar projects in red states Wyoming and Idaho appear to be moving forward.

Bicycling collisions reached an eight-year high in Michigan last year, with a 42% jump over 2021.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 78-year old New Hampshire man is circumnavigating the state on his bike; he expects to finish in nine days, riding 70 miles a day. Must be a small state.

A DC food delivery worker traded her moped for an ebike in an attempt to appear less obtrusive to ICE agents.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A North Carolina police officer was killed in a traffic collision while ride a bike with his wife, less than a year after joining the force.

That’s more like it. A 30-year old Florida man with a long history of reckless driving and hit-and-runs was sentenced to 30 years behind bars for the high-speed hit-and-run crash that killed a 15-year old boy riding a bicycle; the car’s onboard computer shows he hit the kid at 75 mph without braking.

 

International

Road.cc takes a look at the very first Brompton foldie, on the company’s 50th anniversary.

London bicycle crashes spiked 44% last week as more than 2 million people took their bikes as a result of a strike by subway workers — although that jump amounted to just eight more crashes than usual.

After a British man restored a 1936 French bicycle, he’s riding it back to the home of the original owner to surprise them, while raising money to fight pancreatic cancer.

There’s a special place in hell for any driver who would leave someone in their 80s to die alone in the street, like this bike-riding 80-something Irishman killed by a hit-and-run driver.

A new survey shows 83% of Netherlanders support requiring bike helmets for young ebike riders, though it doesn’t say how young.

Officials in Seoul, South Korea are cracking down on brakeless fixies after the recent death of a teenage bike rider, well over a decade after the brakeless fixie panic in the US.

 

Competitive Cycling

As expected, Jonas Vingegaard won the Vuelta on Sunday, his first Vuelta win after two Tour de France titles; Portugal’s Joao Almeida was second, with Britain’s Tom Pidcock third; Pidcock called his first podium the biggest performance of his career.

However, the final Vuelta stage never completed, as organizers abandoned the stage with nearly 40 miles to go when up to 100,000 pro-Palestinian protesters flooded the streets — and that was after the stage was already shortened by 3.1 miles before the race in anticipation of the protests.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez praised the protesters, calling it a just cause.

The Pro-Palestinian protests extended to Canada’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal, where 200 protesters gathered to protest the Israel-Premier Tech team, but didn’t interfere with the race itself.

Americans took three of the first four spots in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal, with Brandon McNulty edging teammate Tadej Pogačar as they crossed the finish line together; Quinn Simmons was third and Neilson Powless fourth.

South African Alan Hatherly won the men’s world mountain bike championship on Sunday, despite a switch to road cycling for most of the year, and Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds won the women’s championship, in a return to the sport after she fell into severe depression and an eating disorder following her gold in the Rio Olympics.

 

Finally…

If you can’t find a sexy tandem, just learn to build your own. Who needs a little metallic trill when you could have your very own digital bike bell with eight distinct sounds?

And nope, nothing will ever get people to ride bikes.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

Paris offers a guide to transform LA streets in time for ’28 Olympics, and video of Ackerman ghost bike vigil in WeHo

July 28, 2025 / / Comments Off on Paris offers a guide to transform LA streets in time for ’28 Olympics, and video of Ackerman ghost bike vigil in WeHo
Day 209 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

Maybe there’s still hope for Los Angeles.

Momentum takes a look at the transformation Paris made to the city’s streets prior to the 2024 Olympics, and looks for lessons for Los Angeles, as well as other cities.

The magazine spells out five key changes Paris made, from expanding bicycle infrastructure and pedestrianized streets to offering financial incentives to leave your car at home, that offers steps other cities could take to emulate the City of Lights.

Take financial incentives, for instance.

The Parisian government has introduced financial incentives to encourage cycling. Subsidies for purchasing bikes, especially electric ones, and grants for bike repairs make cycling more affordable. These measures aim to lower the entry barriers and promote a culture of cycling .

The “Coup de Pouce Vélo” program, launched in 2020, provided up to 50 euros for bike repairs and up to 200 euros for the purchase of a new electric bike. This program has been extended due to its success, with over one million Parisians benefiting from these subsidies . The country of France has also offered as much as 4,000 euros as an incentive to switch from a car to an e-bike or bicycle…

Governments can support cycling by offering financial incentives for purchasing and maintaining bikes. Subsidies and grants can make cycling more accessible to a broader population, fostering a more inclusive cycling culture .

Research: A study by the European Cyclists’ Federation found that financial incentives are one of the most effective ways to increase cycling adoption, with countries like Belgium and the Netherlands leading the way in offering substantial subsidies.

Then they take it a step further — or five steps, actually — to consider how to make tough choices and navigate political will, which is where Los Angeles has repeatedly failed.

It’s worth reading.

Because right now, the talk of making major changes to LA’s streets in time for the 2028 Olympics looks like just that.

Talk.

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The West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition shares video of the vigil and ghost bike for Blake Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding home from work earlier this month.

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is holding a meeting this afternoon for volunteers to help encourage the use of public transportation throughout LA County.

Twitter post

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

A competitive cyclist in St. Louis, Missouri will be out of commission for the next several months because a hit-and-run driver brake-checked him after rolling down his window and yelling at the victim; that comes just two weeks after another rider was verbally and physically assaulted in the city, though police won’t say if the two incidents are related.

Someone appears to be sabotaging the bikeway on New York’s Marine Parkway Bridge by leaving string across the path at neck and head level, resulting in a number of injuries, although the NYPD continues to say “no criminality is suspected.”

………

Local 

KCAL News takes an aerial view of the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Path.

Someone described only as a minor was airlifted to a Valencia hospital after being involved in an ebike crash. Although what kind of ebike they were riding or whether anyone else was involved hasn’t been explained at this time.

Streetsblog says the landscaped walkway along Valinda Ave in unincorporated Los Angeles County between La Puente and West Covina is a community treasure.

 

State

Santa Ana says they’re halfway through a lane reduction project on Standard and McFadden avenues, and have begun installing “improved” bike lanes.

A four-year old boy was lucky to escape with abrasions after he was struck by a driver while riding his bike in San Diego’s Mission Bay Park Sunday evening.

The San Francisco Standard says if there’s a war on cars, the cars are winning as the city slowly surrenders to the automobile, despite efforts to encourage alternative transportation.

 

National

Go ahead and ride your bike just on Saturday and Sunday, or whenever your weekend occurs, because a new study shows “weekend warrior” workouts alone are enough to significantly reduce the risk of death from all causes for people with diabetes. And as we all know, diabetes sucks. 

A lawyer with the Bike League offers an update on multiple lawsuits filed by cities, states and advocacy groups over active transportation funding frozen by the Trump administration over unrelated issues like noncompliance with immigration or DEI orders.

A group of nine women have set off on a seven-week ride down the West Coast from Seattle to San Diego to awareness and funds for victims of sex trafficking.

Denver bike riders say they were left out of plans for a nearly $1 billion transportation bond measure that includes hundreds of millions for bridges, roads and underpasses, but virtually nothing for bikeways.

A Florida man was killed by a sheriff’s deputy while taking his usual morning ride to the beach as the deputy was responding to a crash with lights and siren; investigators suspected that he might not have been able to hear the siren, or could have thought emergency vehicles had all passed before riding his bike out into the intersection.

 

International

Momentum rates the best North American rail trails to ride this summer. Not that the summer isn’t half over by now, but still. 

A Mexican man has gone from cutting sugar cane in Belize to being recognized as the “bike guru” of the city of Orange Walk.

After a ten-year bike boom, Calgary, Alberta has gone bust, with roughly just a quarter of the bike lanes called for by 2020 actually built, and no one in charge of bike lanes at City Hall.

The New York Times examines the battle over bike lanes in Toronto as local bicyclists fight back against plans to rip out the city’s bike lanes.

Bicyclists in London are accusing a local council of trying to sweep the unsolved hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle by removing and destroying his ghost bike.

An English woman says instead of being the best time to ride, summer is actually the worst time to ride a bike in London due to “fair-weather cyclists, drunken riders and tourists,” causing gridlocked bike lanes, unpredictable behavior and a more chaotic commute.

Yet another tragic reminder to always carry ID with you when you ride, as detectives in the UK thanked the public for their help in identifying a man in his 70s who collapsed and died while walking his bike. Put a copy of your driver’s license in a secure pocket, wear a RoadID, write your name and phone number on your bike, or use some other form of identification that won’t get stolen if you’re somehow incapacitated in a fall or crash. 

An Irish man finished a year-long, 7,400-mile ride to Vietnam to raise funds for cancer patient support services.

Sad news from South Africa, where an incoming junior on Princeton’s Ivy League champion rowing team was killed while she was riding a bike back home in Johannesburg.

A consultant is encouraging Malaysia to enact a national code spelling out the rights and responsibilities of bicyclists, in a country where most people don’t know where bikes are legally allowed, or how to drive safely around them.

 

Competitive Cycling

To the surprise of no one, Tadej Pogačar won the Tour de France for the fourth time after taking control of the race midway, saying the victory left him speechless and he didn’t want to discuss speculation he’s chasing Eddy Merckx as the greatest cyclist of all time. Never mind that guy who claims he won the race seven times, but isn’t found anywhere in the record book.

Pogačar didn’t win the final stage, however, after Wout Van Aert dropped him on the climb to Montmartre, after the Tour dropped the traditional ceremonial, champaign-swilling final stage in favor of a more competitive finish.

Twenty-four-year old German cyclist Florian Lipowitz not only finished his first Tour de France wearing the white jersey for best young rider, but made the podium with a third-place finish in the general classification. 

Britain’s Geraint Thomas said goodbye to the Tour de France with his five-year old son on his handlebars, seven years after he won the race for the only time.

Fifty-four-year old Ofer Calderon didn’t compete in the Tour de France, but still rode along the Champs-Élysées in full Israel Premier Tech cycling team gear, invited by the team’s owners after surviving 484 days as a hostage in Hamas captivity.

The Washington Post examines the spreading rumors of motor doping in pro cycling, and whether officials are up to the challenge of keeping up with constantly changing techniques and technology.

Dutch great Marianne Vos won the opening day of the nine-stage Tour de France Femmes.

Spain’s Mavi Garcia’s became the oldest stage winner of the Tour de France Femmes by taking Sunday’s stage with an aggressive attack, breaking Annemiek van Vleuten’s record by more than two years.

Velo says 29-year old Mauritian cyclist Kim Le Court’s best pro season got even better when she donned the yellow jersey after Sunday’s stage of the Tour.

Velo examines the 10-rider strong North American contingent competing in the women’s Tour.

 

Finally…

The case for stealing Pee-wee Herman’s bike, again. And using your bike to smash a car windshield in a dispute over removing a political sign is not actually one of its many accepted uses.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

When Streets Are For Everyone says everyone, they mean everyone; and join Bike LA for South LA CicLAvia feeder ride

June 13, 2025 / / Comments Off on When Streets Are For Everyone says everyone, they mean everyone; and join Bike LA for South LA CicLAvia feeder ride
Day 164 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It was a light news day in the world of bikes yesterday, so let’s get right to it. 

I mean, it’s not like anything else happened Thursday, right?

Ice photo by Dragon77 from Pixabay. 

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, responds to the recent ICE raids and the protests that followed by stressing that when they say everyone, they mean everyone. 

At Streets Are For Everyone, our mission is simple: improve the quality of life for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers alike by reducing traffic fatalities to zero. This mission does not exclude any Angeleno from our work. We strive to make streets safer for everyone, regardless of their mode of transportation, income, housing status, or immigration status. That means pushing for equitable design, advocating for justice, and demanding infrastructure that protects our most vulnerable neighbors.

The ongoing immigrant raids across Los Angeles, including the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops (and now Marines), did not make the streets safer. In fact, they worked to sow fear and discord across our communities.

Long after this current moment of ICE raids is over, our most vulnerable neighbors will continue to live in fear of moving around the city, of taking the bus, or simply walking down the street.

………

Bike LA, nee Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, is hosting a CicLAvia feeder ride along the new Rail-to-Rail trail through South LA next Sunday.

https://twitter.com/heybikela/status/1933156710337966273

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. Washington DC unraveled two years of community work by unceremoniously removing barriers protecting a two-way bike lane, apparently because some people thought it was ugly and didn’t even bother to tell anyone before they did it, safety be damned. DC bike riders weren’t too thrilled by it, either.

A road-raging Florida woman says she drove down a multi-use path chasing a 14-year old boy riding an ebike, just so she could tell his parents he was riding too fast, apparently confused what “multi-use” means. So why is it always Florida?

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

The news director for a Wisconsin radio station complains about having to jam on the brakes to avoid a couple of stop sign-running bike riders. On the other hand, reckless drivers don’t seem to bother him at all. And why do people always feel the need to remind us that getting run over by a car or truck “doesn’t end well for the bicyclist,” as if that will somehow come as a surprise to anyone?

………

Local 

A UCLA student was knocked cold by an attacker while riding his bike on campus and woke up to find his cellphone missing; the suspect was described as male, 5’6″ tall and wearing a black hoodie and black pants.

Santa Monica received $875,000 from SCAG — the Southern California Association of Governments — to improve and expand their neighborhood greenways.

 

State

GT Bicycles has cut ties with extreme mountain biking pioneer Hans ‘No Way’ Rey after a remarkable 38 years, as the Aliso Viejo-based bikemaker continues to shed sponsorships.

Santa Cruz County is encouraging residents to get out of their cars by launching their own ebike incentive program, with vouchers ranging from $300 to $1,200. That compares favorably to LA County’s program offering absolutely nothing. 

San Francisco moved the center-running Valencia Street protected bike lane back to the curb, but evidently forget to protect all of it.

A Chico bike park will now serve alcohol, for anyone who needs a few drinks to give it a try. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

 

National

Say what? Hawaii’s governor targets a bill prohibiting “high-speed electric devices” from the state’s roadways, arguing that it could ban electric cars and probably violates the US Constitution clauses regulating interstate commerce and banning discrimination against groups and individuals.

Denver removed plastic bollards from some protected bike lanes because drivers kept knocking them over, and concrete barriers last longer with less maintenance, anyway.

That’s more like it. A Colorado woman was sentenced to five years behind bars for fleeing the scene after killing a man riding a bicycle, until her lawyer called hours later to turn her in.

A Boston letter writer corrects a recent editorial, pointing out that it wasn’t the bike lane’s fault when a speeding driver jumped the sidewalk and hit a man riding a bicycle head-on.

Writing for Streetsblog, a New York man channels the spirt of 1970’s bicycle philosopher Ivan Illich, arguing that he would probably agree with the mayor’s 15 mph speed limit for ebikes, and wouldn’t be a fan of bicycle delivery riders, either.

Speaking of Gotham’s ebike-riding delivery riders, the city’s Department of Transportation is distributing four hundred fire-safe, certified ebike batteries to cut down on the risk of fires.

A Pennsylvania woman says she settled for riding just 10,000 miles in the year leading up to her 50th birthday, because it was too cold to ride 12,000.

A Virginia man blames a new bulb-out for making him fall off his bike, insisting that he didn’t see it on a road he rides regularly until it was too late.

 

International

No one else was around when a well-known Canadian paracyclist came to, after he was run down from behind while training in Whitehorse, forcing him to flag down a motorist with one good arm because the other one is now paralyzed — yet somehow, police aren’t even treating it as a hit-and-run.

A Guardian op-ed says cars already made pedestrians second-class citizens, and we can’t let driverless cars push us off the street entirely. If pedestrians are second-class citizens, imagine what that makes us. 

They get it. The New Zealand government is installing a dozen ebike charging stations along trails in Hawke’s Bay and Wellington to boost bicycle tourism, at a cost of nearly a half-million dollars.

 

Competitive Cycling

America’s other ex-Tour de France winner talks with Cyclist about the dark years following his fraudulent doping denials, and the redemption that was years coming.

 

Finally…

That feeling when electric bike pumps are great, but you’d rather do it the old-fashioned way. Call it the Wonka Chocolate Factory of cargo bikes, but without all the golden tickets.

And your next $3,500 electric scooter could look like a Cyber Truck.

Which ain’t necessarily a good thing.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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

SAFE introduces 2025 legislative agenda, call to action on deadly Crystal Springs Drive, and how tariffs will effect bike biz

April 9, 2025 / / Comments Off on SAFE introduces 2025 legislative agenda, call to action on deadly Crystal Springs Drive, and how tariffs will effect bike biz
Day 99 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Please join me in welcoming back — and thanking — Los Angeles Bicycle Attorney Josh Cohen of Cohen Law Partners, who renewed their sponsorship of this site for another year. 

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, unveiled their legislative agenda for the current session yesterday.

The group is currently co-sponsoring four bills, hoping to add to their impressive record of success in getting bills passed and signed into law:

AB 891
Quick-Build Project Pilot Program.
Stance: Co-Sponsor (Priority)

AB 891 establishes the Quick-Build Project Pilot Program within the department’s maintenance program to accelerate low-cost projects on the state highway system and fund at least six projects by December 31, 2028.

SB 455
Electric motorcycles and electric bicycles.
Stance: Co-Sponsor (Priority)

SB 455 improves labeling requirements for electric bicycles, e-mopeds, etc. It prohibits labeling 2-wheeled electric vehicles as electric bicycles if they can reach a speed exceeding 28 miles per hour. It also mandates customer notifications for products that no longer meet the electric bicycle definition, with violations subject to criminal penalties.

SB 720
Automated traffic enforcement system programs.
Stance: Co-Sponsor (Priority)

SB 720 would establish a new opt-in red light camera program with $100 civil fines (not moving violations) to the owners of vehicles that run red lights. There are stricter privacy equity provisions, solving many reasons why most cities don’t use the current red light camera law.

AB 954
State transportation improvement program: bicycle highway pilot program.
Stance: Co-Sponsor (Priority)

This bill would create a bicycle highway pilot program to test its feasibility in two yet-to-be-named major metropolitan areas. Bicycle highways are networks restricted to bicyclists intended for trips primarily at least 5 miles in length at travel speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.

The traffic safety advocacy group is also supporting 27 bills, while requesting amendments to six bills.

SAFE also opposes three others, including a ban on towing or impounding vehicles for unpaid tickets, and removing high-speed rail funding from the state’s cap-and-trade program.

………

Speaking of SAFE, the group says fully funded and shovel-ready improvements to deadly Crystal Springs Drive in LA’s Griffith Park are being needlessly delayed by red tape, three years after Andrew Jelmert was killed on the street while training for the AIDS/LifeCycle fundraising ride.

This Griffith Park active transportation plan, the funding, and the contracts to begin the most significant safety improvement upgrade to Griffith Park in decades, possibly ever, have been ready to start since mid-2024. We have recently found out they are currently held up in bureaucratic red tape by LA Recs and Parks.

As we come up on the eve of the third anniversary of Andrew Jelmert’s fatality, there is still no target date to start construction on the expected safety improvements on Crystal Springs Drive. Despite the initial push and commitment from the city to transform parts of the park and safeguard the lives of those who use it, the bureaucracy has caused safety improvements to grind to a screeching halt.

The group urges you to email Recs and Parks General Manager Jimmy Kim to demand that that Crystal Spring Drive be made safe for the pedestrians, bicyclists, families and kids who need it the most.

Just click on the link above to email Kim and other city officials. You can click here to find a customizable sample letter (scroll all the way down).

………

Today’s common theme is Trump’s tariffs and their effect on the bike industry.

And your next bike.

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It looks like the first leg of Metro’s Rail-to-Rail Trail is open along Slauson Ave.

Reddit post

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps going on.   

Seriously? Boston’s mayor admits that she made a mistake in ripping out the barriers protecting a number of bike lanes, and pledges that not only would they be replaced, but some car-tickler bendy-post bollards would also be replaced with more permanent and durable materials. I’m sure her dramatic change of heart had nothing to do with the outrage of bike-riding voters as she prepares to face re-election. 

No bias here. Former Top Gear presenter James May says he’s a “big fan” of urban bicycling, but bike lanes are overdone and “pedantic.”

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.   

This one could go under either category, as a 21-year old man in the Netherlands was hospitalized, and a 22-year old woman knocked off her bicycle, after they were shot with gel guns — similar to paintball guns — as they were riding their bikes, following an argument with kids on e-fatbikes.

………

Local 

A state grant is funding bike and pedestrian safety improvements near affordable housing developments in South LA, including a traffic circle and two miles of protected bike lanes. And yes, it also includes five mile sharrows, which have been shown to be worthless at best, if not downright dangerous.

Police are looking for a hit-and-run driver who killed a woman riding an e-scooter on South Figueroa, in the Vermont Vista neighborhood of South LA.

 

State

The Orange County Cycling Business Coalition, which could use a snappier name, is hosting a Community Bike Tour exploring Irvine, offering either a five-mile ride loop or a 25-mile ride examining some of the city’s 113 miles of off-street bike trails and 286 lane miles of on-street bikeways. Which translates to 143 miles of streets with bike lanes, because lane miles counts each side of the street separately.

The beachside city of Del Mar preliminarily approved a new ebike ordinance; the new ordinance would include “obeying traffic laws, yielding to pedestrians and wearing a helmet,” as well as requiring ebike users to use bike lanes on any street that has them. Although it doesn’t say who would be required to wear a helmet; they lack legal authority to require them for anyone over 18. 

A Santa Barbara professor shares the facts, and the heartbreak, of bike theft.

San Luis Obispo is the latest California city to adopt a Vision Zero Plan. Let’s just hope they take it more seriously than Los Angeles has. 

Sad news from Clovis, where a boy was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle; and yes, the woman who hit him stayed at the scene and didn’t appear to be under the influence.

Los Altos has removed parking and installed semi-green bike lanes on iconic El Camino Real.

 

National

A Utah man took his 70-something parents on a 400-mile bike ride across the Canadian border, even though they were bicycling beginners.

Reports of blocked bike lanes are “exploding” in Denver, forcing people to ride out into traffic, which kind of defeats the whole purpose. And kind of like pretty much every other American city. 

About time. Colorado legislators have introduced a bill to increase penalties for killing someone on a bicycle by reclassifying the crime of careless driving – causing death as a felony, rather than a misdemeanor.

Interesting idea from DC, where officials launched a new traffic safety campaign by having people walk near busy intersections wearing old-school sandwich signs, with messages like “Follow the rules of the road. Slow down. Don’t nip corners. Don’t jump the gun.”

Atlanta could be preparing for a second round of ebike vouchers, after funding 579 new bikes the first time around. Which would make it one more round than California’s seemingly moribund program has managed so far.

 

International

London bike riders seem largely unimpressed with the new bus service shuttling them across a busy bridge, saying it’s a far cry from the tunnel under the Thames they had been promised.

Even a British reality star, and distant relative of King Charles, had his bicycle stolen while locked up in London, despite using three separate bike locks worth a combined 250 bucks.

This is why people keep dying on the streets. An 11-year old boy in the UK was killed when a bus driver honked at him while passing, startling the kid into swerving towards and under the bus — yet an inquest ruled the driver didn’t do anything wrong.

 

Competitive Cycling

Reggie Miller urged UAE Team Emirates to make him an honorary member of the cycling team, with the 59-year old former NBA star promising to trade much needed lessons in how to shoot baskets. Which could offer a whole new dimension to bike racing by painting a three-point line on the course and giving the peloton a ball or two. Or maybe each team gets a ball, and has to sink a three-pointer before proceeding. It could work. 

 

Finally….

A bike helmet maker says you need more padding on your butt. A 12-year old cat has probably ridden more cross-country miles than you have.

And sometimes you don’t need GPS to know where you’re riding.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

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