Tag Archive for San Diego

Woman critical after hit-and-run in San Diego’s Rancho Peñasquitos, and guilty plea in Tracey Gross hit-and-run death

July 15, 2024 / / One comment
Just 169 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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I’m still looking for anyone interested in filling in here after my shoulder surgery next month, whether you’re willing to take over for a day or two a week, or simply submitting a guest post or two. 

Just email me at the address on the About page, above. 

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

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A hit-and-run driver left a 60-year old woman with life-threatening injuries in in San Diego’s Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood Sunday morning.

The victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was riding her mountain bike eastbound in the 13100 block of Rancho Peñasquitos Blvd around 8:40 am, when a driver traveling in the same direction swerved into her.

Police are looking for a mid-sized, silver or charcoal gray SUV of an undetermined make. There’s no description of the driver, who was reportedly driving erratically prior to the crash.

The victim suffered injuries including bleeding in the brain, as well as a broken neck.

Anyone with information is urged to call the traffic division of the San Diego Police Department 858/495-7823; or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 888/580-8477.

Hopefully, the victim will recover from her injuries, and they’ll find — and prosecute — the heartless coward who did it to her.

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A 26-year old Riverside man faces sentencing in September after pleading guilty to killing an Oceanside woman.

According to the San Diego County DA’s office, Christian Joshua Howard pled guilty on Thursday to a single felony count of hit-and-run causing death, along with a misdemeanor count of destroying or concealing evidence for the March 17th collision that killed 51-year old Oceanside postal carrier Tracey Gross.

Howard reportedly dragged Gross’ bike two miles underneath his car as he fled the scene, running her down as she rode her bike home after going into work at the post office on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, a crowdfunding campaign for Gross’ family stands just $55 short of the $20,000 goal.

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It’s now 207 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 37 full months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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

A Chicago letter writer pushes back on a bicyclist’s assertion that people drive aggressively and angrily and are actively hostile to people on bicycles, arguing that from a driver’s and pedestrian’s perspective, bike riders are no different.

Yet another Conservative British city councilmember called for license plates for bicycles to put them on a level playing field with trucks, vans and cars, as if bicyclists somehow pose the same risk to others as motor vehicles; meanwhile, another Conservative councilmember complains that no one will ride a hilly bike route — yet at the same time, warns of anti-social behavior by bike riders on their way down.

A Singapore car columnist argues for bicyclists to have to pay the same road taxes as motorists, insisting that “bicycles are not ‘bigger’ than cars, but some cyclists ride like big idiots.”

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

Authorities in Montreal have installed new speed bumps — not for drivers, but to slow down people on bicycles.

Police were called when teenagers were observed riding bikes and smoking week in the aisles of a UK supermarket, searching them and obtaining “their details.”

Police in Dubai confiscated nearly 650 bicycles and e-escooters from lawbreaking bicyclists. Which sounds like a lot, until you consider it’s a country of 3.5 million people. 

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Local 

Writing for a Santa Clarita paper, a retired LAPD motorcycle cop somehow feels the need to remind bike riders that the law applies to them, too. Funny how no one ever seems to feel the need to remind drivers about that, even though they break the law just as often, with far deadlier consequences.

Long Beach leads the way when it comes to SoCal traffic circles.

 

State

Simi Valley will get a new bike plan, after the city awarded a nearly quarter-million-dollar contract to develop a new plan, including an outreach program featuring at least three community workshops, 10 local events, and web and social media engagement. Although as we’ve learned the hard way here in Los Angeles, even the best plan is only as good as the commitment of city leaders to actually build the damn thing.

 

National

A travel website recommends ten beautiful rail trails across the US that they say you need to ride at least once. None of which are in Los Angeles. Or California, for that matter. 

The author of Seattle Bike Blog rode his ebike 30 miles to Everett, Washington to play night hockey, then rode another 30 miles back home.

A Utah man explains what he’s learned from riding the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail nearly 4,000 miles across the US to raise funds for college scholarships in the state.

A 22-year old Florida woman was killed by a Sarasota County sheriff’s deputy as she was just walking her bicycle across the street, raising the question of why the hell the cop couldn’t manage to avoid her.

 

International

Momentum offers ten ways bicycles “deliver the freedom that cars can only promise.”

A petition urging Toronto food delivery riders to obey the law has drawn less than 300 signatures in two weeks, despite being featured in the city’s main newspaper.

Lila Moss is one of us, as the model daughter of former supermodel Kate Moss went for a bikeshare ebike ride through London.

The head of English foldie-maker Brompton warns that contraction in the bike industry isn’t over, predicting that more bicycle businesses will go belly up this winter.

Velo says famed British designer Paul Smilth has the biggest, best and most extensive collection of bicycle memorabilia you’ll ever see.

Bicyclists in the UK are less satisfied with bike lane design and maintenance, feel less safe, and face more barriers to riding than bicyclists in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Germany.

A 26-year old British woman will spend a well-deserved eight years and eight months behind bars for the drunken and stoned hit-and-run that killed a 40-year old bike rider

The best bike routes for your next trip to Andalucía, Spain.

Kim Kardashian is one of us, going for a nearly naked, lightless bikini-clad ride after a nighttime swim in Puglia, Italy.

A writer for The Guardian describes how he found his bliss bicycling along the coast of Estonia. Raise your hand if you didn’t even know Estonia had a coast. 

An Aussie bicycle advocacy group looks to tax receipts from San Francisco’s Valencia Street to argue that bike lanes don’t have a negative effect on local businesses.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar won his second consecutive stage on Sunday over fellow two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard; Pogačar enters today’s rest day with a three minute, nine second lead over his chief rival.

The New York Times says forget the rest of the peloton, the Tour de France is down to a two-man race between Pogačar and Vingegaard, between them winners of the past four Tours.

Slovenia’s Primož Roglič is out of the Tour de France after crashing hard and losing time in stage 12.

Covid is taking a toll in the race, with several riders dropping out, while Geraint Thomas is continuing to race despite the illness, and members of the press face a mask mandate.

The pro cyclists union plans to take legal action against a “fan” who assaulted the race leaders — with potato chips.

An Egyptian cyclist was kicked off the country’s Olympic team following uproar over her selection, despite knocking a competitor off her bike in a sprint.

 

Finally…

Why just ride a bike when you can pedal a canoe across Scotland? Who needs tires when your bike can wear slippers?

And you can see a lot of things riding a bike — like a Patagonian rodent as big as a medium-sized dog, thousands of miles from its normal South American range.

https://www.tiktok.com/@accuweather/video/7388563615881661727?embed_source=121374463%2C121442748%2C121439635%2C121433650%2C121404359%2C121351166%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.msn.com%2Fen-us%2Flifestyle%2Fpets%2Fcolorado-resident-out-on-a-bike-ride-stumbles-across-a-rodent-native-to-south-america%2Far-BB1pXIhm&referer_video_id=7388563615881661727

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Nonprofit overseeing CA ebike voucher program under investigation, and Gordon Ramsay says “wear your helmet”

June 17, 2024 / / One comment
Just 198 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

Image by Maxfoot from Pixabay.

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And that, my friends, is when it all went to hell.

As you may know, we’ve been tracking the moribund California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which has now reached 178 days since we were promised it would open in fall of last year.

Spoiler alert — it didn’t.

It’s also a full three years since the plan was approved by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor. And counting.

And just two weeks before they’re guaranteed to miss the most recent promised launch date in the second quarter of this year, which has now been pushed back to sometime this summer.

They’re not likely to meet that one, either.

Because the program charged with operating the California ebike incentive program, San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, could end up facing charges themselves.

In fact, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Pedal Ahead is currently facing not one, not two, but three ongoing investigations. (Although the paper’s newly even more draconian paywall means you’ll have to register with your email if you want to read it.)

It’s a confusing and convoluted story. But the gist of it is that Pedal Ahead is accused of being delinquent in filing the required paperwork with various government agencies, leading to investigations by San Diego County, the California Air Resources Board, and the California Department of Justice.

Yet somehow, they’re supposed to handle the increasingly complicated statewide program, which has now been funded with a still-too-small $31 million to distribute, even though that’s up from the initial $10 million fund, which was reduced to just $7.5 million after overhead.

And even though they’ve been removed as operators of the low-income ebike loan-to-own program launched by the San Diego Association of Governments two years ago.

Yet it was that “expertise” that formed the basis of their selection to operate the statewide program.

But at least that part of the story is clear.

It gets more confusing when the paper tries to explain the numerous nonprofit and for-profit companies opened by Pedal Ahead chief executive Edward Clancy in recent years, many with nearly identical names.

And many, if not most, of which either ran into problems, or apparently never got beyond the naming stage.

Then there’s the fact that Clancy wore a wire for the FBI’s probe into illegal campaign financing involving his former boss and a Mexican businessman, while skating on any possible charges himself.

Clancy was appointed as “bike czar” by former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who resigned under a torrent of sexual misconduct accusations after less than a year in office.

According to the Union-Tribune,

Clancy was later reported to have been a confidential informant in an unrelated federal investigation into illegal campaign financing in San Diego County.

The Union-Tribune reported in 2014 that he wore a wire for the FBI, recording conversations with three people who were later charged with coordinating $500,000 in donations from Mexican businessman Jose Susumo Azano Matsura to Filner, then-District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and two Democratic political committees.

Clancy, who received qualified immunity from federal prosecutors and was never himself charged with any wrongdoing, maintained his political connections after he stopped consulting.

No problem, then.

It’s long past time that the state legislature conducted an open, public hearing into the problems with the state ebike incentive program that have led to its ongoing failure to launch, despite the clear intent of our elected leaders.

And shine a much-needed light on a program that has been utterly opaque up to this point.

Because something tells me what we’ve learned today is just the tip of an iceberg big enough to sink the Titanic all over again.

Thanks to Oceanside bike lawyer and BikinginLA sponsor Richard Duquette for the heads-up. 

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The common theme over the weekend, the one that sucked the air out of the news headlines, is Gordon’s Ramsay’s advice to wear your bike helmet.

Yes, the lovably irascible chef is one of us. Although “lovably” kind of depends on your perspective.

Ramsay revealed in a Father’s Day greeting that he had been the victim of a bad bicycling crash in Connecticut recently, lifting his traditional chef’s jacket to reveal a badly bruised torso. And crediting his shattered helmet and “those incredible trauma surgeons, doctors, nurses in the hospitals” that looked after him with saving his life.

Meanwhile, a writer for the Christian Science Monitor also says wear a helmet, and put front, and especially, rear lights on your bike, offering his own hard-won experience in Long Beach as proof.

Although he misses the mark in calling out bicyclists for riding “two, three or even four abreast.” forcing drivers to “swerve completely into the incoming traffic lane.”

Never mind that riding abreast helps prevent unsafe passing, and using the next lane to go around them is exactly what drivers are supposed to do.

Then again, even Dutch officials are calling for the country’s largely helmet averse population to change “because the brain is very vulnerable.”

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Nothing like have your bike stolen right in front of you on a Metro platform in broad daylight, as passengers look on.

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It’s not every day you actually see a positive report about new bike lanes on the local news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdK5c-i6HDs

Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.

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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 writer for an off-road racing website blames a group of Atlanta bike riders for complaining when a cop ignored the speeding BMW driver who zoomed around them on the wrong side of the road, only to lecture them for some undisclosed reason. “We’ve all encountered entitled, difficult cyclists before,” he writes. “Maybe they’re riding three or four abreast, not letting cars get by, and acting aggressive towards any driver who does try to pass.”

A UK paper complains about the mythical war on cars over plans to fine drivers who step out into London bike lanes, as if the real problem is the penalty, and not the reason for it.

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

Bavarian police observed over 11,500 bicycling infractions over a one-month period of heightened enforcement.

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Local 

Discover Los Angeles reminds us about this Sunday’s CicLAvia on Western Ave in South LA.

Here’s your chance to tell Glendale you want a permanent calmer, safer North Brand Boulevard, after the city’s successful pilot project.

Pasadena is implementing a quick build safety improvement program on Allen Ave between Colorado Blvd and Villa Street, offering enhanced crosswalks, curb extensions and new bicycle lanes.

Active SGV offers a recap on the recent Active Streets: Mission to Mission, including an appearance by the inimitable Gabe the Sasquatch.

Malibu releases details on the upcoming safety improvements on deadly PCH. All of which only offer a downpayment on what the killer highway really needs. 

 

State

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, says three speeding bills they support are moving forward in the state legislature, including bills to allow speed cams on PCH in Malibu, and increase penalties for speeding on highways.

Motor vehicle speeds aren’t the only concern for state legislators, however, as AB 1774 would prohibit the sale of any product or device that can modify the speed of an ebike.

The California Building Standards Commission wants your input to shape bike parking standards in the new state building code.

Just days after the heartbreaking death of a 17-year old San Diego boy killed by an Amtrak train while riding his bike across the tracks, comes news that California is the deadliest state for train collisions, with 38 fatal crashes last year, compared to just 21 in Florida, the next highest state.

The Orange County Power Authority is launching its own ebike voucher program, offering up to $1,500 for income-qualified buyers.

Beach cities aren’t the only ones freaking out about ebike safety, as cities in California’s Inland Empire attempt to rein in teenagers on electric bicycles. Although they often conflate ebikes and e-motorbikes.

The latest proposal to replace San Francisco’s widely loathed Valencia Street center-running bike lane would create a slalom course as the bike lane swerves around restaurant parklets.

 

National

A writer for Bike Magazine pens a Father’s Day ode to his favorite riding companion, and the man who gave him everything.

Despite the best efforts of rightwing culture warriors, the World Naked Bike Ride returned to Mad City, Wisconsin on Saturday.

There’s not a pit deep enough for the schmuck who stole an 11-year old boy’s lowrider bike he’d customized himself from a New Mexico museum display.

Hundreds of teenaged bike riders gathered in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley to call for nationwide bike safety improvements at the 10th annual national Youth Bike Summit.

In news that should surprise absolutely no one — but probably will — a new study from New Jersey’s Rutger’s University shows bike lanes calm roadways, improving safety for everyone.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever rode off after stealing a collection jar raising funds for a premature Florida baby.

 

International

The mayor of Quebec City offers a master class in how to respond to accusations that bicyclists don’t pay for the services we receive. Although you’ll need to read the subtitles if you don’t understand French. Thanks again to Megan Lynch. 

A neighborhood in Birmingham, England is now offering an e-cargo bikeshare service to help cut pollution.

The UK’s best bicycle-friendly homes, starting at just £225,000 — the equivalent of a little over $285,000. I’ll send y’all a postcard once I get settled.

 

Competitive Cycling

That’s Sir Mark Cavendish to you, now.

Twenty-year old Norwegian pro Johannes Kulset is demanding an apology from cycling’s governing body after he was banned from the Tour of Slovenia for using the ‘super tuck’ position, denying he used his chest or forearms for support.

A pair of best buds are hoping to set a new record for the fastest duo to cross the Atlantic City finish line for the Race Across America, aka RAAM.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can own your very own Van Gogh bike. Ranking the Euro 2024 soccer teams based on how bike-friendly their cities are.

And there’s actually nothing funny about using laughing gas behind the wheel.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Update: 17-year old boy killed by San Diego Amtrak train after riding around crossing gates; 2nd SoCal bike death Friday

June 15, 2024 / / Comments Off on Update: 17-year old boy killed by San Diego Amtrak train after riding around crossing gates; 2nd SoCal bike death Friday

Sadly, there was more bad news for the Southern California bicycling community on Friday.

According to multiple reports, a 17-year old boy was killed when he was struck by an Amtrak train in San Diego’s University City neighborhood early Friday afternoon.

The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was crossing the railroad tracks on Sorrento Valley Blvd, between Sorrento Valley Road and Roselle Street, when he was hit by the southbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner at 12:34 pm.

He died at the scene.

The victim was one of three boys who stopped their bikes at the railroad crossing gates to wait for a northbound train to pass. But as so often happens, he rode around the gates after that train had passed, not realizing another train was coming in the opposite direction.

Tragically, Fox5 reports that the victim’s parents arrived shortly after the crash, while officials were still removing his mangled bike from the tracks.

The other two boys were not injured. It’s not clear if they were riding with the victim, or just happened to stop together at the gates.

This is yet another tragic reminder to always wait until the gates go up to cross any rail tracks, regardless of whether it seems safe at the time.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Sheriff’s Department’s non-emergency line at 858/565-5200.

This is at least the 24th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in San Diego County.

Update: The victim has been identified 17-year old Alex Segal. He was a student at Torrey Pines High School in the Del Mar Heights neighborhood, and a member of the junior varsity soccer team.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Alex Segal and all his family and loved ones.

Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , ,

Update: Man killed riding bicycle on I-805 in Chula Vista last week; victim identified as 66-year old Victor Keith Fields

June 7, 2024 / / 3 comments

Once again, someone has been killed riding a bicycle on a Southern California freeway.

This time on the 805 in Chula Vista last week.

According to San Diego’s Fox 5, 66-year old Victor Keith Fields was riding on the shoulder of southbound I-805 around 7:40 pm on Wednesday, May 29th.

As he was approaching or exiting onto the Palm Ave offramp, the driver of a Toyota sedan swerved to the right without explanation and slammed into him — most likely striking Fields at freeway speeds.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

There’s no word on whether the driver was ticketed or charged. And as with other similar cases, there’s no information on why Fields was riding on the freeway.

This is at least the 21st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.

Update: A comment below from Ron Hidinger explains why Fields was riding on the freeway. He also points out that a bike path was supposed to be built parallel to the 805, but no work has started on it. 

I have the answer why the deceased was riding on the freeway shoulder. The section of I805 from Main St to Palm Ave is marked with signage allowing bicycles. Or at least it was, I haven’t been that way in a while. The reason is that there is no way to bike from Chula Vista to South San Diego without using the 805 without going way around. The toll road 125 is similarly marked.
I preferred the north bound side as it was relatively safer. The south bound exit at Palm is a typically chaotic, car centric CALTRANS design seemingly designed to imperil cyclists and pedestrians regardless of whether they’re on the ramp or not.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Victor Keith Fields and all his loved ones. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,

The late great Bill Walton was one of us, the predominantly puerile ebike peril, and 91-year old Whittier bike advocate dies

May 28, 2024 / / One comment
Just 217 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We’ve inched up to 1,151 signatures, so don’t stop now! I’ll forward the petition to the mayor’s office later this week, so urge anyone who hasn’t already to sign it now! 

Image by Michael Gaida from Pixabay.

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Former UCLA and NBA great Bill Walton was one of us.

Walton, who reinvented himself as a top NBA broadcaster and analyst after injuries forced him to retire, was known as much for his love of bicycling and the Grateful Dead, as for his skill on the court.

He was often seen riding his custom, oversized Dead-decorated bike around the streets of San Diego, as well as riding to boost the former Tour of California.

In fact, he was honored with a life-sized statue depicting him with his bicycle at San Diego’s Mission Bay.

He died of cancer on Monday. He was 72.

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Today’s common theme is the peril posed by people — mostly young people — on electric bicycles.

Multiple reports accused teenagers on ebikes of “terrorizing” South Bay communities, as residents call for ticketing, or even jailing, kids who raise havoc by riding aggressively. Although once again, they appear to be riding electric motorbikes rather than bicycles. And if they really want to talk about terror, they should try getting threatened by the people in the big, dangerous machines. 

New Yorkers were happy to have “essential workers” on ebikes deliver their food during the pandemic, but now some think they’ve turned the city into a nightmare.

An Australian council posted “comically large” signs calling on teenaged ebike riders to know the law regarding ebikes, and use their bells to let other know they’re passing.

An Aussie paper writes that a neighborhood is being plagued by kids on fat ebikes with oversized tires. But somehow illustrates the story with a very non-electric fat-tired mountain bike. 

But a writer for a La Jolla paper argues that teenagers on ebikes may think they don’t have to obey stop signs because many drivers don’t, either.

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Sad news from Whittier, where longtime bicyclist and advocate Samanda Guyan has died.

Known as “Sam, Sam the bicycle ma’am,” Guyan co-founded the Whittier Wheelman with her husband Bob, and wrote a bicycling column for the Whittier Daily News.

She leaves behind four children, seven grandchildren, and many cousins, nieces and nephews

She was 91.

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Bike Talk talks with the author of the new book Killed By An Engineer.

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It’s now 159 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 35 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

While California’s seemingly moribund program stuck on endless delay, a study of an ebike rebate program in Saanich, British Columbia shows that up to 76% of recipients were first time ebike buyers, depending on the amount of the rebate. And after a full year, they were using their new ebikes three to four days a week, and driving an average of 30 miles a week less than they did before.

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

An off-duty Florida fire chief faces charges for intentionally targeting a man riding a bicycle, after yelling at him to get out of the road; the victim tried riding up onto to raised median to get away as the driver followed in his truck, before repeatedly pushing him and knocking away the phone he was trying to record the assault with.

A British Member of Parliament is accused of displaying “raw prejudice” against bicyclists after sending an angry email rant to a constituent who complained about his contradictory stance calling for a crackdown on bike riders, while ignoring the threat posed by motor vehicles.

A vigilante Aussie driver is charged with murder for deliberately running down a man riding a bicycle over a property dispute stemming from the day before.

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

The LAPD chased a murder suspect who attempted to flee by bicycle, following him on a slow and on a wobbly ride on the 5 Freeway, before eventually making the arrest by bumping him with a patrol car after he exited the freeway and knocking him off his bicycle. Never mind that hitting a suspect with a patrol car should be considered deadly use of force, just as if they had attempted to shoot him to keep him from escaping.

A road-raging young bike rider was accused of breaking an Edinburgh driver’s wing mirror at a red light, after the two exchanged words — and gestures — when the driver honked at the man for using his phone while riding with no hands.

Singapore police busted 25 bicyclists for violating the county’s strict limitation to groups of no more than five if riding single file, or 10 if riding two abreast.

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Local 

A West Hollywood resident posted video of a bike thief using an angle grinder to steal his bike Thursday morning on busy Santa Monica Boulevard.

Streetsblog looks at El Monte’s new Merced Ave Linear Park, the first in a series of multimodal paths connecting to the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area and Rio Hondo.

Seventy-two-year old Michael Keaton is one of us, too, riding to dinner in Santa Monica with his longtime girlfriend. Although someone should tell the Daily Mail that Santa Monica is a separate city, not a neighborhood in Los Angeles.

 

State

A pair of Carmel Valley students took top honors at the state and regional levels of a national STEM competition with their design for a bike helmet that would communicate with an ebike, preventing it from operating unless the helmet was safely in place.

Dozens of San Diego bicyclists rode on Saturday to honor San Diego native Corporal Gregory “Shortie” Millard, who died while deployed to Iraq in 2007

 

National

A car site calls protected intersections an ingenious solution that has the potential to save the lives of bicyclists and pedestrians, while a similar site says the intersections look awful, but actually make sense.

California ranks eighth on a list of American states bike riders want to move to, topped by Washington, Rhode Island, Vermont and Oregon.

A writer for Wired argues your tires are too skinny, suggesting that replacing them with the widest soft-sided tires that will fit your bike will improve your ride, without slowing you down.

A 23-year old Ukrainian refugee pled not guilty to reckless vehicular homicide in the death of 17-year old US National Team cyclist Magnus White in Boulder, Colorado last December, after she appeared to fall asleep behind the wheel.

No bias here. The New York Post’s anti-bike crank calls Philadelphia a model of urban order, without Gotham’s bike lanes creating traffic chaos.

In a heartbreaking story, a Georgia firefighter was on the phone with his wife when she was hit and killed while using the speakerphone on her bicycle; he knew it was her when the 911 call came into the nearby station where he works.

 

International

Bike Radar talks examines the best bike helmets for roadies.

GCN considers how bicycling to work can improve your mental health.

The annual World Naked Bike Ride bares all, or nearly all, in Toronto next week, though LA bike riders aren’t scheduled to strip until June 24th.

A pair of New York artists have installed a whimsical sculpture in Toronto’s David Pecaut Square; titled “He Was on a Ride to a Safer Place,” the interactive sculpture features an anthropomorphic rabbit and dog riding a bicycle built for four, captained by a rhinoceros, with an empty seat for a passenger int he back.

He gets it. When a 69-year old Montreal man won $7 million in the lottery last month, the first thing he wanted to do was by a new bike to replace the one he had stolen a few years earlier.

The London borough of Ealing is accused of “kowtowing to drivers” and failing to keep children safe by preventing drivers from parking in bike lanes, despite investing millions of pounds into new bike lanes and safe routes to school.

British actress Minnie Driver is also one of us, riding a bikeshare bike after shopping in Notting Hill.

Demonstrating the same sense of entitlement they often accuse us of, London drivers threaten to go to court to force the city to reopen a roadway to an exclusive millionaires playground, after it was closed to cars to improve safety for people on bicycles. Although chances are the real reason has a lot more to do with keeping people out of the rich people’s neighborhood than it does with bike safety. 

A former avid London bicyclist ended up giving his away after moving to Birmingham for college, after feeling unsafe and frustrated riding on the city’s streets.

An English man whose wife was killed by a reckless bike-riding teenager insists he’s not giving up on a law that could jail bike riders who kill pedestrians for years, if not life.

A British man will spend a well-deserved 12 years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run that killed a 44-year old man and a 16-year old boy as they rode their bikes, and will be banned from driving for another 13 years; he got out of his car to look at the victims before driving off and crashing into another car, injuring a woman and her children.

A new book says the UK’s 13,000-mile National Cycling Network is at constant risk of failing into disrepair.

Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc is one of us, too, as he rode his bike to his nearby home after winning the famed Monaco Grand Prix, before partying all night with the principality’s royal family.

National Geographic provides a practical guide to riding the Green Routes of Slovenia.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar waltzed to victory in the Giro by the biggest margin in six decades, winning by 9 minutes, 56 seconds over runner-up Daniel Martinez, while Geraint Thomas finished third at 10:24 behind.

Belgian star Wout van Aert bounced back from a devastating high-speed crash in March’s Dwars door Vlaanderen with a podium finish in the Tour of Norway, positioning him to return to the Tour de France.

A 23-year old neurodivergent woman took park in a three-day British stage race, competing for her semi-professional team despite having dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism.

A Chicago woman set out on Sunday in an attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you get a great deal on a cruiser bike, and the helpful guy who lugs it up the stairs wouldn’t be caught dead on it. Your new rear-view app could rely on the same advanced tech that creates people with three hands and Black Nazi soldiers.

And you haven’t ridden a bike until you’ve ridden at the speed of light.

No, really.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

San Diego advocates call for fixing “Fatal 15” intersections, and LAist talks with the originator of the 15-minute city

May 14, 2024 / / One comment
Just 233 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We’re still stuck on 1,131 signatures, so don’t stop now! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until she meets with us! 

………

Advocates from Circulate San Diego, Families for Safe Streets San Diego and the San Diego Bicycle Coalition held a press conference yesterday calling for simple, inexpensive fixes to the city’s “Fatal 15” intersections.

Their suggestions are nothing new. They’ve been calling for the same solutions to the city’s deadliest intersections for the past year, but they were left out of the mayor’s budget for the coming year.

However, the mayor is scheduled to release an updated budget today, and they’re asking for the fixes — which would cost $100,000 per intersection, or just $1.5 million total — to be included in the revised budget.

According to Streetsblog’s Melanie Currie,

“This is a high-return, low-cost budget item,” said Will Moore, Policy Counsel for Circulate San Diego. “We understand that it is difficult to run a city. There are a lot of hard decisions – so it is even more important to get the easy ones right.”

Even though the city of San Diego “committed to” Vision Zero almost ten years ago, pedestrian deaths remain high; nearly fifty pedestrians and cyclists lose their lives in traffic crashes in San Diego every year.

Katie Gordon’s husband Jason was killed at one of the “Fatal 15″ intersections. Now a member of Families for Safe Streets San Diego, she spoke of her husband and their twin daughters at today’s gathering, and urged the city to budget for these fixes. “Small improvements make a big impact,” she said. “Please don’t let the ‘Fatal 15’ take another life.”

But if it comes down to a question of money, maybe someone could remind the mayor it would cost the city a hell of a lot more than that just to settle with the survivors of the next one.

………

LAist talks with Carlos Moreno, originator of the 15-minute city, about his simple plan to reduce traffic and improve the livability of cities by increasing density and placing everything you need for daily life within 15 minutes of your home.

…Picture living in a bustling neighborhood where all your friends, basic needs, and even your job are reachable by a quick walk or bike or bus ride. (Something many people experience, possibly for the first and last time, on college campuses.) In such a city, parking areas may have been reclaimed as urban greenways, chance encounters with neighbors might be more common, and small local businesses would proliferate and thrive.

This vision is sometimes referred to as “the 15-minute city,” a concept pioneered by Franco-Colombian scientist and mathematician Carlos Moreno. It means basically what it sounds like: Instead of expecting residents to get in their cars and drive long distances to work, run errands, and take part in social activities, cities should instead be designed to provide those kinds of opportunities in close proximity to where people live, reducing overdependence on cars and increasing local social cohesion.

Paris, Moreno’s home, was the first city to put this concept into practice — part of a larger strategy to reduce air pollution and the presence of cars in the city’s iconic downtown areas. Since 2011, the French capital has reportedly reduced car traffic by 45 percent and associated nitrogen oxide pollution by 40 percent.

Even if you’re familiar with the concept, it’s worth reading to get a full grasp of the plan, which conspiracy theorists are somehow twisting into unrecognizably bizarre abstractions.

Then again, it’s also worth contributing a few bucks to support the public news site, which is currently facing upcoming layoffs.

………

There’s still time to provide your input on the update for the LA County Bicycle Master Plan.

………

This PSA from Rovélo Creative effectively makes the point that it’s not the bicycles that make our streets dangerous.

………

It’s now 144 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 35 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

No bias here. A Michigan two-way bike lane is being blamed for a collision involving a bicyclist because drivers aren’t used to the idea, rather than blaming the drivers for not grasping such a simple concept.

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

Um, okay. “Keen” bicyclist and BBC Top Gear host James May suggested that Britain doesn’t need to impose further speed restrictions on bicyclists because most bike riders aren’t fit enough to go that fast, after a court ruled that speed limits don’t apply to bicycles.

………

Local 

Metrolink is marking Bike Week with fare-free rides through Friday, if you board with your bike; LA Metro will also provide free bus and train rides to bike riders on Thursday’s Bike to Work/Bike Anywhere Day, along with free Metro Bike rides.

The DA’s office removed the prosecutors who got a conviction against wealthy socialist Rebecca Grossman for the high-speed crash that killed two little kids just crossing the street with their family from the case, over a perceived conflict of interest that really isn’t, which could affect the case as she appeals her conviction. And understandably outraging the victim’s parents.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton examines Glendale’s new quick-build North Brand Boulevard Complete Streets Demonstration Project, complete with painted curb extensions and barrier-protected bike lanes; unfortunately, it doesn’t extend south to the street’s busy commercial corridor.

Colorado Boulevard offers a reminder about tomorrow’s Ride of Silence at the Rose Bowl.

Urbanize looks at a coming Complete Streets makeover for Eastern Ave in El Sereno, using funding that had originally been directed to the cancelled 710 Freeway extension.

Streetsblog reminds us about this Sunday’s CicLAmini in Wilmington, a more compact edition of the popular CicLAvia open streets events.

Long Beach’s popular Beach Streets open streets event will return this fall, after Sunday’s original date was canceled due to Metro funding changes.

 

State

Caltrans explains how to be a Complete Streets ambassador to help get the legislature to pass SB 960, aka the Complete Streets Bill, which will require Caltrans to add infrastructure for people who bike, walk and take transit whenever it repaves a state roadway.

The Orange County Register says Governor Newsom should balance the state budget by slashing climate spending, instead of say, reducing the state’s massive highway fund. After all, it’s not like there’s a climate emergency or anything. 

San Francisco public television station KQED offers advice on what to do if your bike gets stolen, including registering it with Bike Index before that happens.

 

National

Common Edge takes a deep dive into legendary pioneering urbanist Jane Jacobs and her love of bicycling.

A new study shows that people who regularly ride bicycles have a lower rate of knee trouble later in life.

The get it. Denver is reducing the city’s EV charger rebate to $200 to fund more ebike vouchers for income-qualified residents, after a study found nearly 80% of the city’s ebike vouchers have gone to well-off white people.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune offers Bike Week tips for beginning bike commuters, which apply down here, too.

Michigan’s carfree Mackinac Island bans throttle controlled ebikes, with one official describing them as basically an electric motorcycle, while making clear that ped-assist ebikes are still welcome.

Cincinnati is relaunching the city’s docked bikeshare program, despite shutting it down due to funding issues earlier in the year, after several organizations contributed nearly half a million dollars to fund it through the end of this year.

The New York Times has a new newsletter addressing the battle for space on the city’s streets and sidewalks. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to see this one without a subscription, so let me know so I’ll know whether to include it going forward. 

Discussions are underway to include a bike lane on a new Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which will replace the bridge that collapsed after it was struck by a massive freighter in March.

Sad news from Miami, where a trolley passenger was somehow run down and killed as he was he was attempting to remove his bicycle from the front rack.

 

International

London’s Royal Parks requested that Strava remove the Regent’s Park segment on the app to discourage high speed riding in the park, after an 81-year old woman was killed by a speeding rider on the wrong side of the road as he passed a slower driver. Although there has been no suggestion that the app had anything to do with the crash that killed her.

McDonald’s is launching a program to get the Philippines biking, while using the company’s drive-ins as refueling stations for bicyclists.

 

Competitive Cycling

A team car was caught on video running down a French rider in the U19 women’s Championnats de Cyclisme de l’Avenir. Amandine Muller and Célia Gery were leading the race when Gery dropped back to talk to the driver of her team car; the driver bumped into Muller’s wheel, causing her to go down, where she was hit by Gery, who also hit the pavement. Another reminder that motor vehicles do not belong in the peloton. 

Cyclist ranks every UCI WorldTour race.

 

Finally…

Your next bike helmet could be inspired by NASA tech, but without the boosters and stuff. And what has six wheels, e-assist pedals and can jackknife like a semi?

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

San Diego declares war on ebike-riding seniors, and US bike deaths keep rising as planners prioritize cars over people

April 9, 2024 / / Comments Off on San Diego declares war on ebike-riding seniors, and US bike deaths keep rising as planners prioritize cars over people
Just 267 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
So stop what you’re doing and sign this petition to demand Mayor Bass hold a public meeting to listen to the dangers we all face on the needlessly mean streets of LA.

Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.

We’re now up to 1,046 signatures, so keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us! 

Photo by Max J on Pexels. 

………

Author Richard Fox writes that San Diego has declared war on ebike-riding seniors.

On April 7, four 78-years olds with ebikes stopped for lunch at a picnic table along the series of bike paths that surround picturesque Mission Bay in San Diego. The circuit around the bay is the main easy scenic bike ride in San Diego, enjoyed by walkers and cyclists of all ages. Suddenly, a park ranger appeared and demanded that they leave the park with their ebikes through the nearest parking lot and do the remainder of the ride on nearby busy roadways in traffic. 

While a small percentage of ebikers, usually youngsters and the occasional obnoxious adult, may terrorize multi-use trails by weaving around others at high speeds, most ebikers, especially seniors, are sensible and courteous, obeying posted speed limits.  But rather than targeting the miscreants, the City and Port of San Diego have banned all ebikes on their most scenic trails that line bodies of water such as San Diego Bay in San Diego Harbor, Mission Bay, and the Mission/Pacific Beach Boardwalk. 

Since many seniors, and those with physical disabilities, rely on the extra boost provided by ebikes, the city has effectively taken away their ability to ride on San Diego’s most scenic bike paths. And that includes this senior, author of enCYCLEpedia Southern California – The Best Easy Scenic Bike Rides.  In the book I sang the praises of San Diego and its world class biking opportunities, but now that is all in the past for those who ride ebikes. Not only is the Mission Bay ride off limits, but that ride is the hub for area rides to La Jolla, Ocean Beach and Old Town San Diego. The harbor ride is the connector between Liberty Station, Shelter and Harbor Islands, new protected bike lanes across downtown to Little Italy and Balboa Park, and the ferry to Coronado. Now ebiking seniors must dodge traffic and avoid the most scenic stretches that have e-bike bans, and sidewalks are no longer a safe option for them since San Diego has banned ebikes on those as well.

A better regulatory system needs to be implemented.  Seniors don’t deserve to be thrown under the bus because of the bad behavior of others, which is literally what may happen if they are forced to ride in traffic instead of the safety of bike paths in the most scenic areas of San Diego.

It’s now 110 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 34 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

No bias here. The director of the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment says bike lanes are a good idea, except where they endanger bike riders, like along a truck route in beautiful Petaluma. Which suggests she may be less concerned with climate and the environment than the name of her center might suggest — especially since the piece also appears on the The Heritage Foundation website, which Wikipedia describes as an “activist conservative think tank.” 

An English woman was seriously injured when a driver pulled up next to her, and the car’s passenger pushed her off her bike and into a ditch last July; a suspect has been in jail since shortly after the attack. It takes a long time for British crime reports to percolate to the surface, due to the country’s strict privacy laws. 

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

A road-raging Singaporean bike rider was facing criticism online for not being cautious enough after dropping his bike in the roadway to confront a driver who failed to slow down and stop at a crosswalk. Because evidently, he should have somehow known the driver wasn’t going to see him right the hell in front of him, and placidly accepted the unanticipated threat to his life. 

………

Local 

No news is good news, right?

 

State

You’ve got to be kidding. Police in Salinas busted three kids who fled after the cops broke up a dangerous rideout of about 25 to 30 kids accused of riding recklessly and blocking major intersections — and charged them with multiple crimes, including felony evading, and one kid with conspiracy for organizing the rideout. Nothing like overcharging for a nonviolent crime. Thanks to PeddleEd for the link. 

City council candidates weighed in on San Francisco’s controversial Valencia Street centerline bike lane, with responses ranging from “needs work” to an outright disaster.

 

National

Good idea. The National Bicycle Dealers Association, aka NBDA, is establishing a database of all certified and insured ebikes available in the US to enable consumers, retailers, local governments and ebike incentive programs to differentiate between safe and unsafe makes and models. And no, I don’t know what “insured” means in this context, either. 

Meanwhile, Electrek recommends the best ebikes you can buy right now.

A Portland advocate says women need to talk about taking back the streets of the city, and most other cities, as well.

The high school in my adventure cycling brother’s new Colorado hometown is now hosting a class creating the next generation of bike mechanics by teaching them how to break down and rebuild bikes from scratch. Thanks to my old friend Tim Rutt for the heads-up. 

Bozeman, Montana is the latest city to consider banning parking in bike lanes, which shouldn’t be legal anywhere.

Houston’s Rice University has their own version of Indiana’s iconic Little 500, complete with pre-race water balloon fights, water chugging, vehicle decorating, and face painting. So maybe they don’t take it quite as seriously as IU does.

Collisions involving bike riders surged in Houston last year, jumping a whopping 21%.

The “world-renowned” TD Five Boro Bike Tour is back on in New York next month; Forbes calls it the world’s most inclusive bike ride. Which would seem to be impossible to quantify. 

New York says ebike batteries are becoming the most dangerous objects in the city, and offers a photo essay of the fire scars caused by dangerous lithium-ion batteries.

Ghost bikes are belatedly coming to Knoxville, Tennessee.

While Los Angeles remains too afraid of angry drivers to implement most road diets, Charlotte NC is moving ahead with a $12.9 million makeover of major street, reducing a little over half a mile from “four lanes to two to slow down vehicular traffic and improve pedestrian and cyclist access.”

Sean “Diddy” Combs is one of us, asking fans to “pray for your brother” while taking a casual bike ride across Miami, following recent FBI raids of two of his homes looking for evidence of alleged sex trafficking. Okay, so maybe not.

 

International

For the second day in a row, a Canadian driver faces a murder investigation for the death of a bike rider, as an Edmonton driver is accused of the hit-and-run death of a bike-riding man he allegedly knew.

A group of London bobbies — aka cops — commandeered ebikes from passing bike riders to chase a man escaping by bicycle after allegedly stealing a bottle of Hennessy; the man was also wanted to be sent back to prison.

A reporter for the BBC corrects online critics and trolls, clarifying that her bakfiets cargo bike did in fact replace her car, saving her the equivalent of over $1,260 in fuel costs — and she paid for it herself. Meanwhile, Momentum recommends five bucket bikes that could do the same for you right now.

Talk about not getting it. Auto-centric British Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson calls bike cam-wielding CyclingMikey “the most dreadful man in Britain today,” while calling him a sneak for openly recording texting drivers — and says texting while stopped in traffic is “as dangerous as knitting.”

Switzerland is asking companies across the entire country to form teams to encourage employees to bike to work as often as possible in May and June.

 

Competitive Cycling

Women’s world champ Lotte Kopecky served as her own bike wrench, grabbing an allen wrench from the team car to tighten her stem while riding to victory in Paris-Roubaix.

Primoz Roglic shows off his bandaged butt, among other parts, following the 12-rider crash that left defending Tour de France champ Jonas Vingegaard with a broken collarbone and a collapsed lung.

 

Finally…

The same tech that draws five-limbed people and insisted there were Black soldiers in Nazi Germany now wants to keep you safe from approaching cars.

……... 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Las Vegas teens face life in Probst murder, bicycling up 37% in US, and SAMOCAN talks with Streets For All founder

September 22, 2023 / / Comments Off on Las Vegas teens face life in Probst murder, bicycling up 37% in US, and SAMOCAN talks with Streets For All founder

Yesterday I found out the hard way what happens when you accidentally inject long-acting insulin directly into a vein, rather than the fat surrounding it. 

The result was a rapid fire, 300 point blood sugar swing that knocked me on my ass for the rest of the day. 

Good times. 

So if I had any sense, I’d be in bed already. 

Instead, I’m going to try to get through this, then pull a pillow over my head and sleep for the rest of the weekend. Or maybe the rest of the month. 

Which is the best way I know to face another birthday, anyway. 

So Gamar hatimah tovah to everyone observing Yom Kippur on Monday. 

Stay safe, and we’ll see you back here next week.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels.

………

Two teenagers charged with the video-recorded, hit-and-run murder of former Bell, California police chief Andreas Proust as he rode a bike in Las Vegas made very brief initial appearances in adult court on Tuesday.

The two teens were held without bail on several charges, including murder and attempted murder. However, due to their ages, they won’t face the death penalty, since Nevada law imposes a maximum sentence of 20 years to life in state prison for murder committed before the age of 18.

The driver, Jesus Ayala, was 17 at the time of the crime, while Jzamir Keys, the passenger who recorded the attack, is just 16.

Their two-hour crime spree included three cars thefts, a burglary and an attempt to murder a second bicyclist, who apparently escaped without serious injuries.

Ayala’s mother was quoted as saying “I don’t know why he did this. I don’t know if God can forgive this.”

Her son, who just turned 18, told police he expected to get a slap on the wrist, and “I’ll be out in 30 days, I’ll bet you.”

I’d take that bet.

Ayala now matches his age with 18 criminal counts, including murder, and already has a lengthy record as a juvenile. So if he’s lucky, he might be out in 30 years.

But I wouldn’t count it.

Meanwhile, The Guardian observes the “firehose of hatred” unleashed on the staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, after rightwing pundits linked to a photo of an outdated headline that didn’t mention the intentional attack, but was later changed to reflect the murder charge.

The Washington Post blames Elon Musk’s “itchy Twitter finger” for riling up the online mob.

………

A new report from Streetlight Data indicates bicycling rates grew a whopping 37% in the US since 2019, with the top ten states showing at least a 25% increase over that time frame.

Not surprisingly, New York showed the highest growth, followed by San Diego, Bakersfield(!) and Las Vegas.

The first two have made significant investments in bicycling infrastructure; the last two, not so much, to the best of my knowledge.

………

Climate Action Santa Monica offers a recording of yesterday’s SAMOCAN talk with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider.

Meanwhile, Streets For All is hosting a fundraiser tomorrow featuring guest speakers including Councilmember Katy Yuroslavsky, Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur and State Senator and Congressional candidate Anthony Portantino.

The group says pay what you can if you can’t afford the full $100 ticket price.

………

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

A writer for City Journal cries “E-nough,” arguing that ebike and gas-powered mopeds are “reversing more than a decade’s progress in making New York’s dense streets safer for pedestrians and traditional cyclists.” Or maybe they’re just encouraging more people to get out of cars, which pose the real risk, and onto two wheels, which don’t. Although I’d distinguish between ped-assist ebikes and any kind of throttle-controlled or gas-guzzling bikes. 

………

Local 

An anonymously penned Streetsblog op-ed says Metro should treat walking and biking projects with the respect they deserve. Amen, brother. Or sister.

West Hollywood is installing a pair of bike repair stations.

The Elysian Valley Arts Collective invites you to illuminate the night on the Taylor Yard Bicycle & Pedestrian Bridge over the LA River in Cypress Park tomorrow night.

Streetsblog also provides a schedule of public meetings to discuss extending the popular Ballona Creek Bike Trail east into LA’s Mid-City neighborhood, beginning this Sunday in Culver City, with additional meetings Monday and Wednesday, and via Zoom on October 7th.

 

State

Good question. A Streetsblog op-ed asks why fare evasion is punished more severely in California than speeding, as the recently passed AB 819 gives the governor an opportunity to change that.

The Orange County Register examines Huntington Beach’s plan to begin impounding ebikes that are misused by riders. Although it’s not clear if they have that authority under state law. 

Encinitas has received a $3 million grant to make the North San Diego County city safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and bus riders

 

National

Shimano recalled over 3/4 of a million Dura-Ace and Ultegra cranks after thousands of failures that pose a crash risk to users; the recalled products include the Shimano Ultegra FC-6800, Dura-Ace FC-9000, Ultegra FC-R8000, Dura-Ace FC-R9100 and FC-R9100P 11-Speed Bonded Hollowtech II g Rts. Thanks to Al Williams for the tip. 

Electrek offers tips on how to choose the right ebike for your teenager. My take, avoid throttle-controlled ebikes, and anything with a top speed over 20 mph.

Momentum recommends idyllic settings for a bicycle-themed Thanksgiving getaway.

CNN says yes, Seattle-based Rad Power’s RadWagon 4 longtail e-cargo bike can replace a car for most trips.

Houston could soon have two docked bikeshare systems, as the Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority considers opening its own bikeshare to compete with Houston’s struggling BCycle system

Tragic news from Brooklyn, where a 44-year old man was killed when he was right-hooked by the driver of a school bus as he rode his bike at what residents describe as a dangerous intersection; the bus was carrying around 24 students, who will likely need counseling after witnessing the crash.

There’s not a pit deep enough for the man who man pulled a knife on a 13-year old Staten Island boy to steal his bicycle.

There’s a special place in hell for whoever left a Mennonite man to die alone on the side of the road next to his crumpled bicycle, in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. Thanks to Mike Bike for the heads-up.

Bicyclists could soon become second-class citizens on the popular Blue Ridge Parkway, which stretches 469 miles from Shenandoah to the Smoky Mountains, as a new draft plan focuses exclusively on the Parkway being “actively managed as a traditional, self-contained, scenic recreational driving experience.”

This is who we share the road with. A Georgia man faces charges after plowing his truck into a group of motorcyclists, killing one man and injuring four others, then fleeing the scene with a motorcycle still embedded in the truck’s grill.

 

International

An East London neighborhood council has gone against public opinion and scrapped the majority of the area’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods, or LTNs, despite overwhelming public support.

A new study shows over half of Swiss bicyclists wear a bike helmet, although that ranges from nearly three-quarters in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino to just 43% in German-speaking areas.

Romania is now the European Union’s second-largest producer of bicycles, behind Portugal and ahead of Italy.

Apparently, it ain’t easy being a bicyclist in India’s Goa state, either.

Australia saw its highest August traffic death toll in five years, with bicycling deaths jumping 37% over last year, while pedestrian deaths climbed 27%.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling calls out pro cycling’s concussion protocol, or maybe the lack thereof, after Swiss cyclist Stefan Küng finished the European championship road cycling time trial with a busted helmet and bloodied face; Los Angeles-based former pro Phil Gaimon posted that cyclists need to respect their brains, and that there was “nothing inspiring or bad ass” about Küng’s photo. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you. 

 

Finally…

Call it a Pashley parade through Shakespeare’s hometown. Tough love doesn’t mean shattering your spouse’s mountain bike dreams.

And you can see a lot of things riding a bike. Like the King of England, for instance.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bicyclist killed by San Diego Coaster train Sunday afternoon; no details available

September 4, 2023 / / Comments Off on Bicyclist killed by San Diego Coaster train Sunday afternoon; no details available

Someone riding a bike was killed by a train in San Diego over the holiday weekend, but very little information is available yet.

Which what usually what happens on holiday weekends.

San Diego’s CBS8 reports a bike rider died when they were struck by a northbound Coaster train on Washington Street around 3:25 Sunday afternoon.

The tracks were closed between the Old Town Station and Santa Fe Depot.

Unfortunately, that’s all we know right now.

There’s no word on the identity of the victim or how the crash occurred. However, a street view shows a full crossing gate, which suggests the victim may have ridden around it — if it was working.

This is at least the 33rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and just the fourth that I’m aware of in San Diego County, which compares to nine this time last year.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and their loved ones.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

Encinitas declares bicycling emergency, support for Pacific Beach Slow Street, and car death cult piece misses mark

June 29, 2023 / / Comments Off on Encinitas declares bicycling emergency, support for Pacific Beach Slow Street, and car death cult piece misses mark

About damn time.

Encinitas has joined its North San Diego County neighbor Carlsbad in declaring a state of emergency for “bicycle, e-bicycle and motorized mobility device safety” in the wake of the death of 15-year old Brodee Champlain-Kingman

Champlain-Kingman’s family announced his death on Saturday, after he was struck by the driver of a work truck on Thursday.

However, the planned state of emergency action items reported by San Diego’s NBC-7 seem a little lacking.

The local emergency allows the city quicker access to resources necessary for education and enforcement, if needed. Some actions that the city council hopes to accomplish include the rental of 10 messages boards that will be placed in high-visibility areas reminding both riders and drivers to share the road, 300 yard signs urging safety, additional work with schools to educate students on-campus and a bike safety video made in unison with the San Diego Sheriff’s Department that can be played at assemblies and meetings.

The declaration places the most of the onus for safety on the potential victims riding on two wheels, rather than the people in the big, dangerous machines.

Because yard signs and message boards aren’t likely to slow drivers down, and won’t do a damn thing for the distracted drivers who don’t even see them.

Yes, it’s a start.

But if Encinitas really wants to save lives, they’ll need to lower speed limits and redesign roads to prevent speeding, as well as crack down on any form of distraction behind the wheel.

And it wouldn’t hurt to work with other North County cities to improve safety along the entire coast highway corridor.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people turned out for a candlelight vigil to honor Champlain-Kingman.

Thanks to Phillip Young and Marcello Calicchio for the heads-up.

………

These days, every street project that might possibly inconvenience someone is contentious.

Usually, needlessly so.

That’s certainly the case with the Slow Street project on Diamond Street in San Diego’s Pacific Beach neighborhood, where all of four — yes, four — people rose up at a recent Town Council meeting to complain about it.

Yet the local paper still headlined it as “Pacific Beach residents express displeasure over city’s traffic plans for Diamond Street.”

Did I mention that it was just four people who complained?

Fortunately, the local representative for the City Council Mobility Board, who was also the researcher who evaluated the project, wrote to the San Diego Union-Tribune to support the project.

…The benefits are staggering. The project led to an increase in walking and biking mode share, and children and older adults using the street. Driving mode share decreased by nearly 60 percent with a smaller impact on traffic on adjacent streets.

People reported a greater sense of community and well-being. Most were using the street for transportation and half planned to visit a business during their trip. Most importantly, there was overwhelming support for making the project permanent.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but “overwhelming support” is probably more than four.

A lot more.

She goes on to say that making Diamond a permanent slow street shouldn’t even be up for debate, since it gets San Diego that much closer to meeting its Climate Action Plan and Vision Zero goals.

Let’s hope the city council is listening.

………

Progressive magazine The American Prospect missed the mark.

A writer for the magazine makes the case against the “death cult of the American car,” noting the divergence between dropping traffic death rates in Europe, and rising rates in the US.

But he goes off track at the end in blaming neoliberalism of the 1980s and ’90s for the American failure, which he argues resulted in less government oversight, drawing a straight line leading to today’s massively oversized vehicles, overly wide roads and high traffic death rates.

The problem with that is traffic deaths prior to the ’80s were significantly higher than even the nearly 43,000 deaths in both 2021 and 2022, while today’s per capita deaths are just a fraction of the 1960s and 1970s.

There’s no arguing that traffic deaths are too high, and getting higher, and that poor road design and the ever-increasing size of motor vehicles are at least partly to blame, along with a dramatic increase in distracted driving.

But fondly remembering the good old days when traffic death rates were even worse doesn’t help.

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I have somehow miraculously recovered the ability to embed tweets.

Which comes in handy, with this must-read thread from People Powered Media regarding the poor conditions on the new bus and bike upgrades on Venice Blvd.

And yes, I’m including the links above in case the tweets below somehow disappear.

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I’m not sure if we shared this short film from Nimesh in Los Angeles when it came out last December.

So we’ll correct that possible oversight today.

In it, he argues that LA’s flat terrain and year-round Mediterranean climate should make it the bicycle capital of the world. But it isn’t, because Los Angeles makes biking in paradise a nightmare.

Thanks to Steven Hallett for the heads-up.

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Robert Leone forwards news that the Marines will apparently be blowing things up on Camp Pendleton again.

Which means that the popular bike path through the base will be closed from July 31st to August 4th.

So if you’re planning to ride south from Orange County, or north from San Diego County, you’ll have to use the shoulder of the freeway from the Las Pulgas Gate north to the tunnel under I-5.

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Some things don’t need translating.

Ralph Durham forwards a video for the proposed Complete Streets transformation of a Munich, Germany arterial.

Like he says, Google Translate is your friend. But I don’t make friends easily, so I’ll let him give you the shorthand.

I got a newsletter from the German Cycling Federation ADFC, and in this issue it shows a proposal to do a street makeover for a major arterial into the center of town. Next step is through the city council.

The numbers for users from 2011 to 2022 are amazing. The north end of the project runs into a nasty intersection that has been undergoing total renovation for the last 4 years. The existing situation shows 9,300 users on bikes daily. There are a couple of pictures of the existing bike lane. Unreal usage, but it is a main route direct into the city center.

It would be great if it gets through the city council.

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

This is who we share the world with. Even the bike-riding mayor of Emeryville has to deal with wannabe killer drivers. Unfortunately, though, this doesn’t cross the legal threshold for a threat, since it lacks a statement of intent — “I would” vs “I will.”

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

Police in Hermosa Beach are looking for a young man who rode off on a gas-powered beach cruiser after allegedly throwing fireworks into a crowd of people.

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Local 

This is who we share the road with. The LAPD is looking for a serial hit-and-run driver in a $90,000 electric Porsche Taycan who smashed into three cars in three separate crashes while driving on Main Street in DTLA at 3 am, before disappearing into the night.

West Hollywood will keep e-scooters on the streets for now, but calls on city officials to renegotiate provider contracts while imposing a 10 mph speed limit in the city.

 

State

After a Garden Grove councilmember said he doubts there’s much demand for bike lanes in the city, a bike-riding writer responds by suggesting he try riding some of the really scary ones that separate bike riders from speeding drivers with just a thin strip of paint.

Carpenteria’s new Santa Claus Lane Bikeway will have a temporary opening this weekend in time for the 4th of July holiday; it will close again this fall for final installation of a permanent barrier rail.

Santa Barbara will keep a nine-block stretch of State Street closed to cars for at least the next three and a half years, while continuing to allow bicycles.

Streetsblog’s Roger Ruddick says don’t ride on San Francisco’s new Valencia Street protected bike lane because it’s unsafe.

 

National

US Magazine rounds up the summer’s best deals on ebikes. Although with emphasis on deals rather than the actual quality of the ebikes.

Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus says we’re having the wrong conversation about ebikes, as people predictably point fingers at kids on bikes while calling for mandatory licensing after the death of a teenage bike rider.

A 45-year old Las Vegas man died nearly a month after he was struck by a speeding motorcyclist while riding his bicycle.

Any city can do Bike to Work Day. But my bike-friendly Colorado hometown hosts an annual Bike Prom.

Life is cheap in North Dakota, where an 88-year old driver faces a single misdemeanor hit-and-run charge for running down a pair of bike riders participating in an annual fundraising ride from Texas to Alaska, then fleeing the scene. Once again raising the question of how old is too old to drive. And suggesting that he may be on the wrong side of that line. 

The family of a 14-year-old boy pinned to the ground by an off-duty Chicago cop who mistakenly accused him of stealing a bike is suing the city and the police officer; Michael A. Vitellaro was acquitted of official misconduct and aggravated battery in the incident earlier this month.

New Orleans bicyclists demand change as deaths spike in the city with the highest per capita rate of bicycling deaths in the US.

Vermont relaunched what was the nation’s first statewide bike rebate program, but with just $150,000 available for ebike vouchers.

Over 1,200 people applied for ebike vouchers in just the first few hours of Connecticut’s ebike rebate program. Which offers a warning for California, which has only $7.5 million left for rebate vouchers when its program finally launches. 

An 84-year old Pennsylvania man faces charges for the hit-and-run death of a 64-year old bike rider, after his own dashcam turned on him. Again raising the question of how old is too old to drive. And once agains suggesting he may be on the wrong side of it. 

 

International

Momentum Magazine offers advice on how to stay cool and fresh while bike commuting in summer weather.

Off.Road.cc suggest eight tips to help motivate you to get back on your bike.

Yanko Design recommends the top ten accessories to upgrade your bike this summer, including zip-on knobby tire treads, and a face air filter that will make you look like Batman supervillain Bane.

Hundreds of Calgary residents called for keeping a popup cycle track after the city threatened to tear it out.

Here’s another one for your bike bucket list, as Cycling Weekly rides the 100-mile off-road Trans Cambrian Way through the least populated district of Wales.

A Scottish bike messenger founded Gay’s Okay six years ago to make “simply adorable apparel” while building more inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ bike riders.

An Indian man has traveled through 180 countries on a globe-trotting, 120,000-mile bike ride to call attention to HIV/Aids, with just 11 more countries to go.

The hit-and-run epidemic has spread to Thailand, after a 47-year old man was found lying dead on the side of the road near his mangled bicycle, shortly after separating from his riding companion.

 

Competitive Cycling

Three-time world champ Peter Sagan escaped a DUI charge with a three-month suspended sentence, after he was stopped in Monaco last month riding a scooter while under the influence; the sentence will allow him to compete in what will be his final Tour de France.

British cyclist Tom Pidcock says he loves descending, but is having second thoughts after he was hit hard by the death of Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder during a steep descent on the Tour de Suisse.

We Love Cycling predicts Jonas Vingegaard will win the Tour de France – unless Tadej Pogačar does.

American cyclist Kristen Faulkner’s hopes of returning to this year’s women’s Tour de France and the Giro Donne are in jeopardy, after she suffered a “small” knee fracture when she was struck by a driver while training in California. Read the first link on AOL if Bicycling blocks you. 

 

Finally…

At last, mountain bike shorts for expectant mothers. Forget trendy dance moves, now you can watch Le Tour on Le TikTok.

And answering the burning question of whether accused killer Kaitlin Armstrong is related to Lance.

Um, no.

………

Eid Mubarak to all those celebrating today. 

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin.

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