Tag Archive for San Pedro

Compromise offer on WeHo streets, Caltrans promises bike lanes in San Pedro, and LA failing us on speed cams

October 18, 2024 / / One comment
Just 73 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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I am now officially a non-driver.

Yesterday morning, I went to the DMV to trade my driver’s license for a non-driving ID.

Between my medical issues and the meds I’m on, I simply don’t belong behind the wheel. And I probably never will.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make. I’ve held onto my license despite not driving for the past several years, just in case I needed it at some point. 

But it’s just not worth the risk I could pose to others. 

I only wish more people would realize that. 

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In a surprisingly reasonable op-ed, West Hollywood city council candidate Larry Block, who has opposed bike projects in the past — especially in front of his Santa Monica Blvd store — offers a compromise on his opposition to removing parking for a lane reduction and protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave in the largely residential Mid-City area.

Or as he puts it, a little argy-bargy, a term that should be familiar to fans of cycling announcer Phil Liggett.

Bike lane supporters need to recognize the daily needs of disabled residents, emergency vehicles, delivery trucks, and basic services. Bike supporters must understand that residents need access to their driveways, and services like city garbage trucks and emergency vehicles need space to do their jobs. We can’t take away that access in favor of a ‘build it, they will come’ mentality’. Residents also need to accept that many people can’t afford a car, and keeping WeHo vibrant means making room for bikes and other ways to get around. Their safety matters, too, and it’s our responsibility to do what we can.

While there’s a lot we could take issue with there — like how ebikes ca serve as mobility devices for handicapped people, and the myth of bike lanes slowing emergency vehicles — Block goes on to call for developing a master plan to improve safety and livability in WeHo’s Mid-City area.

We should focus on creating a Mid-City Master Plan while working on the Fountain Ave. Streetscape and Bike Lane project. Instead of just arguing about bike lanes, we need to shift the conversation to mid-city livability and make Fountain Ave. improvements part of the bigger plan.

There’s a livability and safety problem on Fountain Ave., and we need to look at the big picture. Let’s discuss a Mid-City Master Plan that incorporates the needs of all residents. But for now, after several accidents on Fountain Ave. in recent weeks, our top priority should be making Fountain safe today.

If this is the approach a bike lane opponent — or possibly former opponent — is willing to take, there may be hope for WeHo yet.

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As a followup to Tuesday’s piece about an apparent violation of Measure HLA along Western Avenue and 1st Street in San Pedro, Ken Shima forwards a screenshot from CD15 Councilmember Tim McOsker saying the current striping is just a temporary measure, and bike lanes really are coming.

But from Caltrans, not Los Angeles.

As Joe Linton clarified in a comment to Tuesday’s post, HLA applies to “any paving project or other modification,” other than limited work like “restriping of the road without making other improvements, routine pothole repair, utility cuts, or emergency repairs.”

Which would mean it should apply here.

However, as a state agency, I’m not sure if Caltrans is required to abide by HLA, unlike Metro or the City of LA. But it’s definitely something to keep an eye on, to make sure those promised bike lanes really do go in.

Regardless of who is responsible for them.

Meanwhile, Linton visits the new bike/walk path along San Pedro’s Front Street from the Vincent Thomas Bridge to just west of Pacific Ave.

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San Francisco has selected the vendor for the city’s speed cam pilot program, with 33 cams expected to be fully operational by early 2025.

Compare that with Los Angeles, which hasn’t.

Here’s what a press release from Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, had to say on the subject.

“While Los Angeles continues to ignore the problem, San Francisco takes speeding seriously. I commend San Francisco for taking this significant step towards making its citizens safer. Through their selection process, the city has done the hard work and set the stage for other cities to follow,” said Damian Kevitt, Executive Director of Streets Are For Everyone. “Los Angeles and the other pilot cities have no excuse for bureaucratic feet-dragging that is risking people’s lives.”

At the start of 2024, the Chief of Police and Mayor of Los Angeles announced that there were a staggering 336 traffic fatalities, the highest in almost 50 years and more traffic fatalities in 2023 than homicides. Across the state, 35% of fatalities are speeding-related, with over 1,500 speeding-related fatalities in 2021. Traffic violence in Los Angeles continues to get worse, and there is insufficient effort being put into implementing sensible solutions to save lives.

Yep.

That pretty much sums it up.

It took years of fighting in the state legislature to finally pound out a compromise allowing Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale to try a speed cam pilot program, along with three NorCal cities, including San Francisco. That was later amended to allow speed cams on PCH in Malibu, as well.

But all of that appears to be wasted on the City of Angels, which seems to be moving with all due non-haste at its usual glacial pace.

Mayor Bass has often said that she was elected to solve the city’s homelessness crisis.

Too bad that’s the only crisis she seems to think she was elected to address.

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It’s now 303 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 40 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.

No bias here. The anti-bike OB-Rag writes that San Diego officials are “quietly picking our pockets” with things like a $155,000 bike counter, which amounts to a rounding error on the city’s $104.6 million streets budget. Let alone the SANDAG’s $1.3 billion — yes, with a B — highway budget.

No bias here, either. A 76-year old Baltimore man died weeks after a driver pulled out of a sidewalk and cut him off while riding on the sidewalk, but the local press somehow blames the victim for crashing into the car. And waits until the penultimate sentence to mention the car even had a driver.

He gets it. An Ottawa, Ontario columnist says Premier Doug Ford’s plan to give the provincial legislature final say over bike lanes is all about politics, not safety or traffic flow, while the mayor of Waterloo says Ford is stepping directly into municipal jurisdiction.

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

A 22-year old Novato man faces a felony hit-and-run charge for fleeing the scene after after crashing his bicycle into an eight-year old boy; fortunately, the kid was hospitalized with minor to moderate injuries. Which raises the question of why a felony charge was filed, which under state law on only applies in cases resulting in serious injuries. 

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Local  

Pepperdine remembered the four sorority sisters killed by an alleged speeding driver on PCH a year ago, as they were walking from their car to a party; their accused killer was reportedly doing 104 mph in a 45 mph zone. But hey, about those speed cams.

 

State

Congrats to the Costa Mesa Police Department for busting a thief who made off with a family’s e-cargo bike; the department has already returned it to the owner.

 

National

CNN considers the best bike lights, settling on a pair from Cygolite.

Annapurna’s scenic bicycling adventure game Ghost Bike is getting a makeover, and will re-emerge next year as Wheel World, with a lighter design to make it more fun to play. Because ghost bikes may be a lot of things, but fun ain’t one of them. 

Parents, classmates and the Littleton, Colorado community came together to call for safer streets, a year after a seventh-grade boy was killed riding his bike to middle school. Yet another reminder that the time to fight for safer streets if before it’s too late, not after. 

A Tulsa, Oklahoma TV station responds to the state’s appalling NHTSA ranking as the nation’s 6th deadliest state for bike riders by examining safety concerns for bicyclists. Meanwhile, in 6th ranked California <crickets>.

A writer for Business Insider takes a 330-mile bikepacking trip from Pittsburgh to Maryland, and says she’d absolutely do it again, despite the challenges.

Prosecutors have added a murder charge to the long list of charges against the alleged drunken and speeding hit-and-run driver who killed a beloved young doctor out for a bike ride; he was allegedly driving over twice the speed limit with a BAC double the legal limit.

Roanoke, Virginia shows how it should be done, installing multiple temporary bike lanes to encourage people to ride their bikes to the city’s largest outdoor fest. Now they just need to make them permanent.

 

International

Momentum rates the six best foldies currently on the market.

A writer for Bike Radar takes a six-day, 400-mile bike tour along South Korea’s “stunning” Four Rivers route from Seoul to Busan.

A cop in New South Wales, Australia faces charges for dangerous driving for a crash that killed a 16-year old boy riding a bicycle.

 

Competitive Cycling

One of the brightest American cycling prospects, 21-year old Boulder, Colorado resident Jared Scott, walked away from his burgeoning European pro career to become a professional DJ.

A Welsh Continental cycling team learns the hard way the dangers of relying on a bikemaker’s promise that their frames will meet UCI standards.

 

Finally…

How to not pull an endo on your mountain bike. Making a Pashley the star of Swan Lake.

And seriously, who doesn’t need a sidecar for your ebike? Or a corgi car, in my case.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Los Angeles promises bike lanes but delivers traffic lanes in San Pedro, and an unexplained bike death explained

October 15, 2024 / / One comment
Just 76 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Western was supposed to get bike lanes, until it wasn’t, apparently.

Which could be a Measure HLA violation.

Or not.

Ken Shima forwards news that Western Avenue and 1st Street in San Pedro recently got a makeover, adding a central turn lane — while removing space for a long-promised bike lane.

LA’s Mobility Plan 2035, which subsumed the city’s 2010 bike plan, includes bike lanes on Western. That means they have been planned for at least 14 years; according to Ken, they were finally scheduled to be installed in 2027.

But the new center turn lane recently installed by the city removed curbside parking, moving the right traffic lane right up to the gutter.

And in the process, removed any possible space for the promised bike lane.

Which means that unless the city is planning a road diet, they are no longer planning on the promised bike lanes.

Yet Measure HLA, which passed with an overwhelming majority earlier this year, requires the implementation of any street safety measures contained in the mobility plan anytime an eighth-mile or more of street gets resurfaced.

And that looks like more than an eighth-mile to me.

But maybe they’re trying to get around HLA by restriping the street without resurfacing.

Ken tells me he’s reached out to Councilmember Tim McOsker’s office, which represents the district, for clarification.

It will be interesting to see how they respond.

If they do.

All photos by Ken Shima

Western Ave prior to restriping

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Over the weekend, I wrote about the unexplained death of a bike rider in Del Mar Saturday morning.

All we knew at the time was that he fall after somehow losing control of his bike on the 1900 block of Jimmy Durante Blvd.

I speculated about various possible causes, but without more information, all I could do was guess.

However, there’s no word on why he may have lost control. It’s possible he could have struck a pothole or some sort of obstacle while riding at speed, lost a tire, or been the victim of a too-close pass — which would make it hit-and-run.

There’s also no word on whether he had a cycling computer or Strava account that could shed some light on what happened. So unless investigators find a witness or video of the crash, we may never know the cause.

Now longtime San Diego bike advocate Serge Issakov visits the scene to fill in the blanks.

Issakov reports the site is at the bottom of a descent with a typical 4% grade, where road cyclists typically reach speeds of 26 to 30 mph, while a KOM could be somewhere in the 40 mph range.

The typical car-ticker plastic bollards show clear signs of being run over more than once, and would likely have been virtually invisible under the typical Del Mar marine layer — let alone if there was any coastal fog or haze in the morning hour.

But even without hitting the post, the cracks visible in the pavement could have easily destabilized the victim, which could have been enough to send him into the curb or the grate in the gutter, and onto the sidewalk.

And at those speeds, it might not have mattered whether he was wearing a helmet.

All I can say, after watching Issakov’s video, is I hope the victim’s family has a good lawyer.

If not, I can sure as hell recommend one.

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Talk about misreading the data.

The former Streets Officer for London TravelWatch says ebike crashes are pushing up bicycling death rates in the Netherlands, while the bicycling death rate is declining in the UK.

So why, he asks, is Britain still trying to emulate the Dutch?

Even though the Netherlands has a far greater rate of bicycling, a higher ebike adoption rate, and a much lower per capita rate of bike deaths.

And even though the major reason deaths are declining in the UK has been the adoption of Dutch traffic designs.

But other than that, he seems to have nailed it.

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It’s now an even 300 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 40 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.

She gets it. Dame Sarah Storey, Britain’s most successful paracyclist and the Active Travel Commissioner for Manchester, England, says don’t believe what business owners will tell you, because businesses closing after a new bike lane goes in is a “coincidence, not an unexpected consequence.”

British bicyclists were properly horrified by a recent column in the conservative Telegraph newspaper that called for driving dangerous bike riders off the road, as Tory MPs ignored bike safety in calling for a crackdown. I wanted to link to the original Telegraph piece yesterday, but it disappeared behind the paper’s paywall before I could. 

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Local  

Is anyone really surprised that Los Angeles has already exceeded its $87 million budget for liability claims by a whopping $10 million, just three months into the fiscal year?

Bike Culver City held a vigil last night to mark the city’s latest pedestrian death, after a man was killed on particularly dangerous stretch of National Blvd near Turning Point School last month.

 

State

Smart Cities Dive examines the nine bike-friendly bills signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, along with the two he didn’t.

Tragic news from Orange County, where a man was fatally shot while riding his bicycle in unincorporated Anaheim Sunday night.

This year’s MS 150 Bay to Bay Bike Tour down the coast of Orange and San Diego counties will be dedicated to the late KTLA-5 entertainment anchor and longtime bicyclist Sam Rubin.

Santa Barbara plans a crackdown on wheelie-popping teens and scofflaw ebike riders.

A 73-year old Humboldt Bay woman celebrates the jolting joys of riding an ebike, after a lifetime of riding more traditional bikes.

 

National

Red Bull offers a potentially life-changing beginner’s guide to bicycling.

A new study by Harvard researchers suggest you never forget how to ride a bike because it’s stored deep in your cerebellum.

The Bureau of Land Management wants to know whether you want to see ebikes on the world-class trails of Moab, Utah.

Kansas will invest over $31 million to enhance walkable and bikeable routes throughout the state.

No surprise here, as New York’s predominantly Latino and Black West Harlem still doesn’t have a single bike lane, ten years after the city adopted Vision Zero.

 

International

A new European study shows people who don’t wear bike helmets usually skip it for comfort and convenience, but free helmets, education and nagging might help.

The ancestral home of Pembroke Welsh corgis was forced to cut back the availability of their e-bikeshare system because too many of the ebikes needed repair work, raising fears of vandalism.

Over 8,000 bicyclists turned up with wool jerseys and vintage bicycles for this year’s Tuscan L’Eroica in Siena, Italy.

A German truck driver will spend the next four years in an Italian jail after he was sentenced for the hit-and-run death of former Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin; Rebellin, a three-time winner of Fleche Wallonne, as well as winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Amstel Gold Race, was run down while he was on a training ride.

A new Australian study released in advance of tomorrow’s National Ride to Work Day shows a whopping 40% of commuters currently bike to work, a number that could rise to 72% if they could work closer to home.

 

Competitive Cycling

Champion triathlete Kristian Blummenfelt says he’s putting his dreams of competing in the Tour de France on hold, because he’d take too big a financial hit jumping from his role as the world’s top triathlete to the WorldTour.

There’s something very fishy about this podium prize for Japan’s Tour de Kyushu.

 

Finally…

Now you, too, can bike an extended century in your bloomers. Your next cycling shoe could be a sock.

And pissing off bicyclists since, well, now.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

It wasn’t ebikes that shut down San Pedro bridge, 80 mph hit-and-run driver pleads not guilty, and more ebike junk science

September 27, 2024 / / No comments
Just 94 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It’s not our fault this time.

No, really.

After a couple years of headlines about fires and injuries caused by exploding lithium-ion ebike batteries, a lithium-ion battery fire shut down the entire Vincent Thomas Bridge over the LA Harbor in San Pedro.

But we didn’t have anything to do with it.

This time it was an overturned semi carrying six massive lithium-ion batteries that burst into flames shortly after it tipped over.

Fortunately, Li-ion batteries are usually shipped with just a partial charge, or we could have been looking at a much bigger disaster.

It just feels good that ebikes had nothing to do with it, for once.

Screen grab from KABC-7.

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Alan Reyes, the 23-year old driver accused fleeing the scene after critically injuring a 16-year old ebike rider in San Marcos, pled not guilty in his first court appearance yesterday.

He is accused of driving his pickup 80 mph in a 45 mph zone, with alcohol in his system at the time of the crash, but is not accused of being legally drunk.

Probably because he had two days to sober up before police found his truck and identified him as the driver, making it impossible to administer a valid alcohol test.

Meanwhile the victim, Jonathan Ramos, is still in the ICU suffering from severe injuries, including a damaged lung, and is unable to breathe on his own.

His mother says the kid was just one minute from home when Reyes ran him down.

Allegedly.

Reyes is being held on $100,000 bond.

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More junk science about the “staggering” rate of ebike injuries.

In a new study, researchers from Columbia University estimate that ebike and e-scooter injuries increased by a “staggering” 293% and 88% respectively between 2019-2022.

Which does sound staggering. Until you consider ebike sales were up an estimated 269% over the same period, meaning estimated ebike injuries only increased a relatively modest 24% over estimated sales.

And both figures are presented in terms of percentages, making it impossible to compare the actual number of injuries to the total number of sales.

So until someone finally gets around to conducting a rigorous study that compares injury rates to ridership, alarming statistics like this aren’t worth the silicon they’re printed on.

Meanwhile, in not so junky science, a new five-year study from Lime and the Bike League shows micromobility users — ie, bike and scooter riders — prefer using painted bike lanes, and particularly protected bike lanes, over streets with no bike infrastructure.

And yes, the bike lanes do make them feel safer — and actually makes them safer, especially the protected lanes.

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Pledge to go a week without driving next week.

Which is easier said than done if you rely on Metro buses, like I do.

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Now you might actually be able to find a restroom the next time you take a Metro bus or train.

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Zachary Rynew offers more proof that too many Los Angeles drivers are (insert offensive epithet of your choice).

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It’s now 282 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And 39 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 76-year old Florida woman faces an aggravated assault charge for chasing after a man on a bicycle and intentionally trying to run him down with her car, following an argument that began when she tried to cut him off in a roundabout.

A Canadian website says Ontario Premier Doug Ford has declared war on bicyclists, carrying on his crack-smoking former Toronto mayor brother’s hatred of all things bike.

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

Mobs of teenagers on bicycles have now descended on fourteen 7-11s across the Los Angeles area, stealing everything they can get their hands on “with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine” — except, oddly, the cash.

Police in Wales are looking for a man riding a bicycle who pushed a schoolgirl, for no apparent reason.

A British man was convicted of manslaughter for fatally punching a 78-year old widower, after the victim objected to the man riding his bicycle on the sidewalk; he tried to flee afterwards, but was detained by bystanders until police arrived.

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Local  

Streets For All urges you to contact the governor to demand he sign SB 961, which would require that all new cars emit an audible warning when drivers go more than 10 mph over the speed limit.

Calbike offers a guest post from Anne Marie Drolet, founder of LA’s biweekly Gender Expansive Ride. 

 

State

That’s more like it. A San Francisco man is finally going to trial eight years after he allegedly killed a 41-year old woman riding a bicycle, after the judge vacated a deal that would have imposed a 15-year sentence on lesser charges; Nicky Garcia was allegedly blowing through stop signs at up to 60 mph, after breaking into a car and stealing a backpack, when he ran down Heather Miller. Garcia has already spent the last eight years behind bars, apparently unable to post bail.

 

National

Popular used bike and component retailer The Pro’s Closet announced it will be shutting down next month after 18 years.

Bike Radar says famed handmade bike builder Bob Parlee’s legacy will live on through his incredible bikes, following his death from natural causes earlier this week.

A Milwaukee man was lucky to keep his head on his shoulders when a thin wire dangling from a light pole wrapped around his neck as he was riding downhill on a bike trail at 28 mph; no word yet on why the wire was there, or if was placed intentionally.

Common sense prevailed for once, as a judge ruled that a former Pittsburgh cop who was fired for repeatedly tasing a nonviolent Black man mistakenly suspected of stealing a bicycle can’t get his job back, after an arbitrator had ordered him reinstated with back pay.

A Massachusetts state representative is demanding answers from the state police on why they didn’t charge the driver who jumped the curb and killed 62-year old man riding his bike on the sidewalk in a head-on collision. And no, I can’t recall any California legislator demanding to know why a driver who killed someone on a bicycle wasn’t charged. 

The New York Times says bicycles ruled the Gulf Coast before Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday night. After it made landfall, probably not so much.

 

International

Sounding like a classic Seinfeld episode regarding something far different, Momentum says “Yes, these bicycle campers are real and they’re magnificent.”

In a bizarre story reminiscent of an infamous scene from Blazing Saddles, an apparently suicidal Vancouver man led police on an extensive chase riding an ebike while holding a pellet gun to his own head, leading to a shelter-in-place order for the surrounding community.

Canada has opened four new bike tourism routes across the country.

No, there’s nothing wrong with a driver pulling over into a bike lane to let a fire truck pass, in Britain or anywhere else. Including here.

Proving that it is possible, bicycling fatalities in the UK have dropped to the lowest level ever recorded, although that’s also accompanied by a jump in injuries and a drop in bicycling rates. But it took a significant investment in safe bike infrastructure to do it, which we’ve yet to see on this side of the Atlantic.

A British driver was “spoken to” but not charged after apparently passing out at the wheel, jumping the curb and plowing into a row of bikes, throwing a woman through the air and snapping her bike in two. Fortunately, the bike rider’s injuries were not life-threatening; no word on the condition of the driver.

Add this one to your bike bucket list. A new Turkish bike tour — excuse me, Türkiye — promises to take you back in time 3,700 years.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bad news from Zurich, Switzerland, where 18-year old Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer is in very critical condition with a serious head injury, after crashing during yesterday’s junior women’s road race at the UCI world championships.

 

Finally…

Maybe your under-the-breath comments aren’t so under-the-breath, after all. Now you, too, can do your very own aero testing.

And a bike helmet may not protect you from a massive SUV. But apparently, it can keep your head safe from nut-tossing squirrels.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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

Bike to fix LA’s crappy air, bikeway on new Gateway Bridge opens next month, and final MOVE Culver City report released

April 21, 2023 / / 2 comments

No surprise here.

Once again, Los Angeles leads the country in crappy air quality.

If only there was some sort of sustainable, non-polluting form of transportation that could improve the health of the planet, as well as those who use it.

Better yet, something that had been successfully proven to work for more than a century.

And was safe and simple enough it could even kids could use it. Or nearly anyone else, for that matter.

Oh well, everyone back in your SUVs.

Photo by Ryan Millier for Pexels.

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It’s finally happening.

The long-awaited Mark Bixby Memorial Bike-Pedestrian lane over the new International Gateway Bridge will open on May 20th, in conjunction with Long Beach’s Pride-themed Beach Streets open streets event.

The new bikeway will finally provide a seamless connection from San Pedro to Downtown Long Beach, while offering sweeping views of the harbor from both the Gateway and Vincent Thomas bridges.

Correction: While the article promises a seamless connection, commenters below clarify that there is no safe bikeway over the Vincent Thomas bridge, and not likely to be anytime soon. 

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Culver City has released the final report on the MOVE Culver City project, showing the overwhelming success of the Complete Street project, which is at risk of being ripped out by the city’s newly conservative majority.

As the tweet below notes, it will come up before the city council on Monday, as Planetizen joins calls to save the project..

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Eco-Village is talking with the Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, tonight about their plans to improve transportation and livability in the region.

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Thanks to to free registration from Bike Index, another victimized bike owner got their stolen bike back.

So what are you waiting for?

https://twitter.com/BRAT_Seattle/status/1649239276822081537

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Berm Peak calls the Penny Farthing the sketchiest bicycle ever made.

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

A New Jersey radio station calls on the state’s drivers to just take a breath and chill out, as conflicts — including physical fights — increase between bike riders and drivers unaware of the state’s four-foot passing law.

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

Orange County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for six ebike-riding suspects who stabbed a Ladera Heights teenager Wednesday night, then chased him on their bikes as he ran for his life.

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Local 

CicLAvia is looking for volunteers.

Bike Walk Glendale invites you to visit their Earth Day booth and buy a T-shirt, and take a survey for the proposed Glendale Bicycle Master Plan.

The Argonaut profiles Santa Monica’s Thömus USA, the only location outside of Switzerland to sell the ebike brand, which is built by hand on site at the Santa Monica location.

 

State

Spectrum News 1 names Southern California’s five best bike trails, including the Long Beach Shoreline Bicycle Path and the San Gabriel River Trail.

The stolen ghost bike honoring fallen Palm Springs bicyclist Nelson Esteban has been replaced, thanks to a generous donor. Let’s hope this one stays around a little longer. 

A Monterey weekly looks forward to this weekend’s Sea Otter Classic, calling it a temple of bicycling for all kinds of bicyclists.

Bay Area bike riders call for improving safety on the Peninsula below San Francisco after a relatively recent convert to bicycling was killed earlier this month.

 

National

Men’s Journal picks the year’s best mountain bikes, while CNN is a fan of REI’s Co-op Cycles Generation e1.1, calling it a near-perfect entry level e-utility bike.

Swedish e-mobility company Vässla has launched a subscription model for their entry to the US, with the “highly acclaimed” Vässla Pedal available for purchase, or a $109 monthly subscription.

A Washington town was required to include bike lanes when they overhauled a local highway, thanks to a state law requiring Complete Streets for any highway project costing over half a million dollars. Which is why the California legislature needs to codify Caltrans Complete Streets policy, which has far too many loopholes.

Phoenix held its Bike to Work Day yesterday, as hundreds of people turned out for a brief ride, followed by breakfast at city hall.

Good news from Maine, where a community organization is working to house a homeless woman living out her car, after she spent the last of her money to buy a new bike and helmet for a three-year old boy when his bike was stolen; meanwhile, community members have raised over $9,000 to pay off the loan on her car.

A Westside New York paper waves a warning flag over increased non-motorized traffic in the city’s Central Park, as ebikes and scooters prepare to join joggers, walkers, bicyclists, unicyclists, scooters, skaters, skateboarders, pedicabs, horse carriages and park maintenance vehicles.

Inspiring story from Bicycling, as a 66-year old man prepares to ride New York’s Five Boro Bike Ride next month, more than five decades and three transplants after he was told at 11-years old that he had only two years to live due to cystic fibrosis. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

New York court workers have thrown in the towel and agreed to observe parking restrictions for the new protected bike lane in front of the courthouse.

A North Carolina writer considers the role of vehicular cycling and taking the lane in the absence of safe bicycling infrastructure.

 

International

The CBC explains the differences between road and track bikes.

She gets it. A Canadian writer says we all want roads that are safe, efficient and pleasant, but no one wants to change for that to happen.

A stoned, wrong way driver will spend the next six years behind bars for the head-on crash that killed a man riding a bicycle, and will be prohibited from driving for 12 years; he had five drugs in his system at the time of the crash, including morphine and “street valium,” as well as several previous traffic convictions, including two for drugged driving. Just one more example of officials keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.

Adventure Journal remembers Walter Greaves, a one-armed, vegetarian British bicyclist who set a new world record for riding 62,657 miles in 1937 — despite spending 18 days off his bike after getting hit by a driver.

A British refugee support group has provided 175 bicycles to Ukrainian refugees.

CityLab examines how the Dutch mastered bike parking at train stations. Then again, they’ve mastered just about everything else related to bicycles, too.

A Chinese man has ridden his bike 63,000 miles across the country over the last ten years, despite having just one leg.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling journalist Caley Fretz remembers reporter Chris Baldwin, the former press officer for all-diabetic cycling team Team Type 1, followed by a stint with Astana before returning to Team Type 1 successor Novo Nordisk; Baldwin passed away in his sleep from a heart attack last week. He was just 52.

Here’s your chance to own Miguel Induráin’s Tour de France-winning Pinarello for the low, low price of around 82 grand.

Bicycling considers what comes next after the cancelation of the UK’s Women’s Tour, as organizers promise it will be back next year. Read it on AOL if the magazine blocks you.

 

Finally…

If you’re riding your bike while under the influence on your island vacation, put a damn light on it, already. Now you, too, can own your very own Taco Bell bike.

And where the hell did they get my picture?

……….

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Arrest made in San Pedro hit-and-run, memorial ride for Dr. Mammone, and CD5’s Yaroslavsky joins Metro board

March 16, 2023 / / Comments Off on Arrest made in San Pedro hit-and-run, memorial ride for Dr. Mammone, and CD5’s Yaroslavsky joins Metro board

Too often, hit-and-run drivers get away with their crimes.

But not this time, apparently.

The LAPD announced the arrest of 27-year old Anisha Marie Lockhart, accusing her of being the heartless coward driver who killed Oscar Montoya as he was riding his bike in San Pedro early in the morning on Sunday, March 5th.

A statement from the department reported that citizen tips led them Lockhart’s car two days after the crash, and additional tips helped them take Lockhart into custody two days later.

She was reportedly under the influence at the time of the crash, and on her way to another bar when she slammed into Montoya, who was just picking up an order from a food truck.

Lockhart was being held on $100,000 bond on a charge of felony hit-and-run; it’s not clear if she’s still in custody.

Meanwhile, it’s likely that multiple people will split the $50,000 reward if she’s is convicted.

………

The Big Bear Cycling Association has more information on Saturday’s memorial ride for Dr. Michael Mammone, who was murdered while riding his bike on PCH in Laguna Beach last month, by a man apparently suffering from mental illness.

The cycling community has rallied in an effort to honor the life and contribution of Dr. Michael Mammone.

With support from Providence Mission Hospital Foundation a celebration of life and ride has been organized on Saturday March 18th, 2023 at the Leonard Cancer Institute at Mission Hospital 27799 Medical Center Road Mission Viejo.

All cycling groups small and large are encouraged to ride to the event. We ask that your ride does not “start” or “end” at the hospital but instead “STOP” at the event no later than 11:00 A.M. Groups should plan their own independent rides and converge at the event.

Armbands (optional/free) to be worn on the ride may be picked up at Rock n Road Cyclery, at all 4 Orange County locations and Specialized of Costa Mesa, any time prior to the day of the event and worn on your group rides that day.

For those individuals and families wishing to attend without riding to the event, free parking will be provided on the first three levels with the rooftop level reserved for standing room only attendance.

Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up. 

………

Los Angeles CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky will take former Councilmember Mike Biden’s place on the Metro board, which should be good news for active transportation.

https://twitter.com/DavidZahniser/status/1636180907685195776

………

Costa Mesa could use someone who bikes for their new Energy/Sustainability Manager.

………

The San Diego Bike Coalition is teaming with Families for Safe Streets San Diego for a hard-hitting new poster campaign calling attention to the record number of traffic deaths in the county.

The group is looking for volunteers to help put up posters around the city this Saturday. You can learn more and RSVP here.

Sadly, they’ll need another one in Oceanside after a man riding a bike was killed by a driver high on heroin yesterday.

Thanks to Phillip Young for the tip.

………

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

He gets it. A writer for The Spectator calls on everyone to stop demonizing bike riders, and give colleagues a pass for showing up in the office in a bit of Lycra, because more people on bicycles benefits everyone.

But sometimes, its the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Scranton, Pennsylvania man walked without a day behind bars for groping four women as he rode by on his bicycle, after the judge sentenced him to four months home vacation confinement.

An assistant to a Baton Rouge, Louisiana judge was lucky to escape unscathed after she nearly hit a pair of teenaged bike riders, who responded by shooting her in the arm; the same suspects reportedly stole a running pickup minutes later, then repeatedly shot the driver when he tried to reclaim it after they crashed into a stop sign with their bikes in the truck bed.

………

Local 

The UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge will spend the next two years examining transportation issues with local stakeholders through their new TRACtion program, short for Transformative Research and Collaboration.

Chris Hemsworth is one of us, riding barefoot on an ebike made by Los Angeles-based Super73.

 

State

The UCI Health system will host the 7th Annual UCI Anti-Cancer Challenge this October, featuring bike routes of 14, 35, 60 or 100 miles, as well as a new mountain bike route, and 5K and 10K run/walks.

She gets it. A Solano Beach letter writer says that the increase in bicycling collisions isn’t because bicyclists are riding in an unsafe manner, but rather, “due to the explosion in popularity of ebikes, more people are biking on our unsafe roads.”

San Jose will use a $2 million federal grant to fund a design study on how to transform a six lane highway into a boulevard with dedicated transit lanes and protected bike lanes; nicknamed Blood Alley, Monterey Road has long been the city’s deadliest roadway, with 42 deaths and severe injuries in less than four years. Maybe Malibu could take a few notes on how to transform PCH from SoCal’s deadliest highway into the Main Street it should be.

San Francisco opened a two-way bikeway on Battery Street, which Streetsblog’s Roger Ruddick bitingly describes as “just more paint, plastic, and prayers masquerading as ‘protection.'”

 

National

Men’s Journal offers their choices for the year’s best road bikes, with prices starting at around $800 and going up — a lot.

A mountain biker discusses three things that can kill your confidence on the trail.

Surprising news from bike-friendly Portland, where bicycling rates have dropped to a 17 year low, including a 45% drop in bicycling in the central city from nine years earlier.

A Wyoming paper talks with Michael “Mac” McCoy, the father of the 2,700-mile Great Divide Trail, which follows the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico.

Chicago approved a plan to use cameras to ticket drivers who park in bus and bike lanes, employing a combination of cams mounted on poles and on buses and other city vehicles. LA Metro approved a similar program to use bus-mounted cameras to ticket drivers who park in bus lanes.

The Washington Post reports on the battle to make pandemic era Slow Streets permanent, as some drivers refuse to give up without a fight.

 

International

Undefeated UFC fighter Lerone Murphy is preparing to return to the ring, 18 months after surviving a near-fatal bicycling collision in London.

London-based luxury fashion and lifestyle magazine Salon Privé examines the physical health benefits of riding a bicycle. Although the mental health benefits are equally, uh, beneficial. 

A Dublin, Ireland man filed a multi-million euro lawsuit alleging he suffered a catastrophic brain injury slamming his head into a series of bollards, despite wearing a helmet, after losing control of his ebike hitting a low curb on a protected bike lane.

Life is cheap in Ireland, where a former bus driver walked without a single day behind bars for killing a man riding a bicycle, after playing the universal Get Out of Jail Free card by claiming the sun was in his eyes. Which may or may not be true, but the correct response to being blinded by the sun is to stop until you can see, not keep going until you run over someone.

Belgium is creating a voluntary national bicycle registry to combat bike theft.

Germany’s bicycle industry quadrupled in just a decade, rising to a combined total of seven billion euros, the equivalent of roughly $7.5 billion, while every second bicycle sold in the country is an ebike.

 

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-three-year old British cyclist Tom Pidcock is out of Saturday’s Milan-San Remo after he showed mild concussion symptoms following a crash in the final stage of last Sunday’s Tirreno-Adriatico.

Belgian cyclist Lotte Kopecky won the country’s Nokere Koerse bike race on Wednesday, just four days after the unexpected death of her brother; Belgian national champ Tim Merlier successfully defended his win in last year’s men’s race.

 

Finally…

Seriously, who wouldn’t ride a bicycle to get ice cream in the middle of a blizzard? If you’re going to steal a cargo bike worth over $2,600 in a petty crime spree, it might raise fewer red flags if you tried to sell it for more than 60 bucks.

And it’s that time of year when mountain bikers emerge from their winter hibernation.

https://www.tiktok.com/@thecaliradokid/video/7203741560847060270?embed_source=121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.bikemag.com%2Ftrending-news%2Fmountain-bikers-spring&referer_video_id=7203741560847060270

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

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

Update: Hit-and-run driver kills man on bicycle in early morning San Pedro collision, few details available

March 5, 2023 / / One comment

A nearly three-week streak without a bicycling death in Southern California ended early Saturday morning.

And once again, a hit-and-run driver was to blame.

According to My News LA, the victim was riding north on Pacific Avenue in Venice when he was run down from behind at 12:40 am.

The victim died at the scene.

The site puts the location at just south of Channel Street; however, that address doesn’t seem to exist. Those two streets actually meet in San Pedro, several miles south near Long Beach.

There is a Channel Pointe in Venice, but that doesn’t intersect with Pacific, so it’s unclear just where the crash occurred.

There was no ID or description given for the male victim.

According to police, the driver did not stop or identify themself before fleeing the scene. The only description of the suspect vehicle is a small, light-colored vehicle, which doesn’t give much to go on.

And as usual, the LAPD did not use either the city or state hit-and-run alert system to ask for the public’s help in finding and identifying the victim’s killer.

However, they did urge anyone with information to call the LAPD South Traffic Division Detectives Moreno and Flannery at 323/421-2500 between 8 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday, or 1-877/527-3247 any other time.

Which is far from the same thing.

This is at least the ninth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it also appears to be the first in the City of Los Angeles.

Four of those deaths have been hit-and-runs.

Update: The victim has been identified by the Daily Bulletin as 51-year old Oscar Montoya, no city of residence given. 

The paper also clarifies that the crash occurred on Pacific Avenue, just south of Channel Street, in San Pedro, not Venice. 

Update 2: The LAPD has provided security cam video from the scene, showing the suspect vehicle as the driver briefly paused before speeding away. The car is described only as a light colored vehicle, possibly a Toyota Scion, although it looks more like a Kia Soul to me. 

A Good Samaritan attempted to provide aid, but to no avail. 

This is how Montoya’s adult son described him. 

“He was a loving man. If you ask anybody, they’ll say he was this big teddy bear. He was, like, this big man that you could run up into and give him a big hug and he would embrace you with open arms,” Joshua told KTLA. “He was a family man, he was my father.”

Meanwhile, Twitter user Guy Paddock reports that he frequently rides that route, even though he finds the gap in the bike lane on Pacific terrifying.

Update 3: Police arrested 27-year old Anisha Marie Lockhart, accusing her of being the driver who killed Montoya. 

According to KCAL News, 

“On March 7 … citizens provided tips that led detectives to the suspect’s vehicle, a 2009 Scion XB, which was taken into custody,” police said. “On March 9 … South Traffic Division Detectives utilizing department
resources and other tips from citizens apprehended the driver, Anisha Lockhart.” 

She was reportedly under the influence at the time of the crash, and on her way to another bar when she slammed into Montoya, who was just picking up an order from a food truck. 

Lockhart was being held on $100,000 bond, on a charge of felony hit-and-run. 

Meanwhile, it’s likely that someone will receive the $50,000 reward if Lockhart is convicted. 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Oscar Montoya and all his loved ones. 

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

LA traffic deaths up while bike deaths spike, 19-year old San Pedro bike rider missing, and murder charge in AZ attack

July 30, 2021 / / Comments Off on LA traffic deaths up while bike deaths spike, 19-year old San Pedro bike rider missing, and murder charge in AZ attack

No surprise here.

LAist reports that traffic deaths are up in Los Angeles for the first six months of this year, compared to last year’s already too high death total, with someone killed on the mean streets of LA an average of every 30 hours.

And it’s not just the people in the big, dangerous machines paying the price.

According to the site, serious pedestrian injuries are up 45%, while serious bicycling injuries climbed 34%. And bicycling deaths are up a whopping 40%.

It should also come as no surprise that hit-and-run deaths are up 25%.

In other words, we’re not exactly on track to meet Indian Ambassador Eric Garcetti’s — oops, I mean Mayor Garcetti’s — goal of eliminating traffic deaths in the City of Angels in the next three years.

Never mind all those safer streets we were promised as part of the mayor’s Green New Deal, which will now be up to whoever takes his place — thanks to Garcetti’s remarkably consistent failure to follow through on those promises.

………

Authorities are searching for a 19-year old man who was last seen riding his bicycle in San Pedro Monday morning.

Jankell Hernan Aguilar is described as 5’6″ tall and 150 pounds, with “wavy black hair, a thin black beard along his jawline and brown eyes.”

Anyone with information is urged to call the LASD Missing Persons Unit at 323/890-5500.

………

As expected, prosecutors in Arizona have amended the charges against pickup driver Shawn Michael Chock to add a felony murder count.

Chock is the driver who allegedly aimed his truck at a group of bicyclists participating in a senior’s race in Show Low on June 19th, intentionally slamming his truck into ten people; 58-year old Jeremy Barrett died nearly a month later.

Chock was shot by police after standoff behind a hardware store, but has recovered from his injuries, and remains jailed on half a million dollars bail.

………

Make that $190 now.

………

There’s a newly completed 13-mile trail leading from Kenneth Hahn to the coast.

Which doesn’t do a lot of good if you can’t get there safely.

………

Sadly, it doesn’t take long for most Vision Zero programs to turn into empty promises when elected leaders lack the political will to follow through.

And Los Angeles is the poster child for those failed efforts.

So yes, it’s great that a federal Vision Zero bill has been introduced in Congress.

Let’s just hope it’s more than empty words this time.

Meanwhile, a second bill was introduced by Senators Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey to improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians.

The Vulnerable Road Users Safety Act implements National Transportation Safety Board recommendations, while directing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Highway Administration to —

  • Develop and update performance standards for visibility enhancement systems (i.e. for blindspot detection), connected vehicle technology, and vehicle headlamp systems
  • Establish standards for vehicle bumpers
  • Establish performance standards for automated pedestrian detection systems like automatic braking sensors
  • Include separated bike lanes and intersection safety treatments in the FHWA’s Every Day Counts initiatives and Proven Safety Countermeasures program
  • Improve and coordinate information collection to share, combine and publish detailed crash data allowing policy makers and governments to make data informed decisions

………

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

Toronto bike riders are “annoyed” that drivers are pushing planters into bike lanes to create illegal parking spaces, blocking the bike lanes they were intended to protect. Annoyed seems pretty mild under the circumstances; more like pissed off and endangered.

Three British bike riders were collateral damage when a suspected drunk driver made an ill-advised pass, crashing into another driver before his car was pushed into a group of bicyclists; all three victims were hospitalized, with one suffering life-threatening injuries.

You’ve got to be kidding. A driver in the UK gets annoyed at following a bike rider, and responds with a close pass and a brake check, followed by a punishment pass for good measure. And all he gets is a stern talking to from the cops.

………

Local

Streets For All is hosting another Zoom happy hour at 5 pm on August 11th, featuring Burbank Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, who has been fighting for safer streets as chair of the Transportation Committee.

NPR picks up the sordid tale of the $200,000 in out-of-network medical debt that buried LA’s Phil Gaimon when a major track cycling crash ended his efforts to make the US Olympic team, even though he had insurance coverage. And even they agree he got hosed.

Outside calls Catalina Island a hidden gem for gravel biking.

 

State

Encinitas residents are accusing the mayor and councilmembers of cronyism in approving an $11 million settlement for a local bike advocate who was severely injured when she was run down from behind riding on sharrows. Something tells me she’d be happy to give all of it back if it meant not having to deal with the pain and lasting injuries.

Squatters took over a historic Baptist church in El Cajon during the pandemic lockdown, using it for a chop shop for stolen bikes.

 

National

Trek finally figures out that helping more people ride means more sales for them, starting a nonprofit foundation to help build bicycling infrastructure and mountain bike trails. And outlines the steps they’re taking to improve sustainability.

Conde Nast Traveler talks with author Jennifer Weiner about how she got hooked on solo bikepacking on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail.

This is what it looks like when a Seattle cop right hooks a man on a bicycle.

Great idea. A Colorado bike shop is offering a 10% discount to anyone who picks up at least ten pieces of trash off a bike trail.

North Dakota bike riders can celebrate this Sunday by legally rolling stop signs, when a new Idaho Stop Law goes into effect allowing riders to treat stops as yields.

I want to be like him when I grow up. A 95-year old man is taking part in the nearly 500-mile RAGBRAI, the eighth time he’s taken part in the popular ride across Iowa.

An Iowa town remembers a 2008 EF-5 that devastated the region with a sculpture of a tornado made entirely of bicycles.

Houston bike riders call on the city to get more aggressive in implementing Vision Zero to meet the 2030 deadline.

After suffering the embarrassment of a group of white cops filmed arresting a Black bike rider for not having a bicycle license, Perth Amboy, New Jersey is eliminating their bicycle registration requirement. But it’s still illegal to “practice any trick or fancy riding.” Because we all know how damaging “fancy riding” is to the fragile fabric of society.

Seriously? An Orlando urologist says men should maybe cut back on their time in the saddle if they’re trying to have a baby — and not spend more that two hours on a bike regardless. If I’d thought riding my bike would have provided birth control in my single days, I would ridden a lot more than I did. And I rode a hell of a lot.

 

International

An Ontario woman says you don’t have to be skinny to ride a bike.

Toronto is installing centerline speed bumps extending into intersections to keep drivers from dangerously cutting corners.

A London man will spend the next two years behind bars for jumping a red light and slamming into a 72-year old man crossing in a crosswalk, who later died; the Albanian bike rider turned himself in after initially fleeing because he was in the UK illegally.

About damn time. Great Britain is revising the country’s Highway Code to give pedestrians and people on bicycles priority over motor vehicles on the streets, although it still has to be approved by Parliament. Now do it on this side of the ocean.

UK Prime Minister’s Boris Johnson tells local governments to leave bike lanes in place for at least a year, or face a cut in funding.

An Irish bike advocacy group demands immediate action in response to a 13% jump in traffic deaths so far this year. Let’s hope their government listens better that ours does.

Organizers have called off a planned 124-mile Aussie charity ride, after concluding that the “appalling standard” of Tasmanian drivers, combined with “poor road infrastructure” and drivers’ “hatred towards cyclists” made it too dangerous for people on two wheels.

In a brutal irony, an Australian bike rider was killed in a collision moments after he ignored a police attempt to stop him for riding without lights or a helmet, which is required in the country.

A writer for Cycling Tips truly captures the beauty of bicycling with a moving piece recalling a ride through Australian woods to heal from the pandemic year and the death of his father from cancer — but not until his father got to meet his new grandson for the first time.

 

Competitive Cycling

Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic upgraded his 2017 world time trial silver medal with gold in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics.

A German official was sent packing after using a racial slur in urging Nikias Arndt to catch up to cyclists from Algeria and Eritrea in the men’s time trial; German cycling federation sports director Patrick Moster’s comment was picked up on camera and broadcast across the nation.

Dutch cycling great Annemiek van Vleuten finally got her Olympic gold in the time trial, days after mistakenly celebrating what she thought was a win in the road race.

Forget the Olympics. The race to watch this Saturday is the eight-year old Telluride 100 mountain bike race, sanctioned by UCI for the first time.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you’re falsely labeled a “brutal bike thief” on social media for picking up the bike your neighbor was donating for underprivileged children. Do home runs count for more if they nearly hit a bike rider outside the park?

And maybe they could have worded this headline just a little better.

Unless the bicyclists were charged with murder, too.

………

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

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

Bike rider killed in midnight collision on Vincent Thomas bridge

November 20, 2015 / / 8 comments

Sad news from San Pedro, as a bike rider has been killed in a collision after falling on the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

Multiple, virtually identical reports indicate 31-year old Long Beach resident Sergio Tapia was riding north in the right lane of the east-west bridge when he reportedly fell and was hit by a commercial truck, then knocked into the next lane where he was hit by a car.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

No word on what might have caused him to fall, or if there were independent witnesses who saw it happen.

Unlike the replacement Gerald Desmond Bridge, which will have both bike and pedestrian paths when it opens, the Vincent Thomas Bridge has neither, forcing bicyclists to ride in heavy industrial traffic coming to and from the ports in Long Beach and San Pedro. And for some riders, especially those who work at the ports, there is no other viable route.

This is the 69th bicycling fatality in Southern California, and the 28th in Los Angeles County.

My deepest sympathy and prayers Sergio Tapia and his family. 

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

Near head-on collision with scofflaw tricyclist, OC hit-and-run, good news in San Pedro and NELA

June 13, 2013 / / 7 comments

Talk about close.

A late start meant I didn’t have a lot of time to ride yesterday, so I took a quick spin along the beachfront bike path through Santa Monica and Venice — despite my long-held preference to avoid it as much as possible this time of year.

And I nearly paid for it with a head-on collision with a scofflaw salmon cyclist.

Make that a four-year old scofflaw.

On a tricycle.

She didn’t seem too pleased when I suggested she should ride on the other side, either.

……..

Yet another coward has fled the scene following a serious collision, leaving a bike rider to bleed in the street. This time in Orange County.

According to KABC-7, a teenage cyclist suffered critical head injuries when he was hit by an unidentified vehicle around midnight Wednesday on North Harbor Boulevard near La Palma Avenue in Orange.

A passing motorist saw the victim lying in the street and called for help.

Anyone with information is urged to call Anaheim police at (714) 765-1900.

……..

Tuesday’s twin meetings called to oppose bike lanes in NELA and San Pedro may not have turned out the way opponents might have planned.

The special meeting of the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council’s Sycamore Grove Local Issues Committee — maybe they could work on shortening that just a tad — gave every indication of being a set-up for opponents of bike lanes on Figueroa Street in Northeast L.A. Even going so far as to allow a bike lane hater to present an uncontested 15 minute video in opposition to the lanes.

A presentation he reportedly botched — eventually leading to his ejection from the room for disrupting a public meeting.

The Fig4All website calls the meeting a farce in every sense. Yet one that resulted in an overwhelming 41 to 16 in favor of the bike lanes.

Meanwhile, the highly contested road diets and bike lanes recently installed in San Pedro received unexpectedly strong support from city officials, in a special meeting with area Councilmember Joe Buscaino.

The lanes were installed as part of the 2010 L.A. bike plan, as well as in an attempted to calm traffic on streets with excess capacity — including in front of a school, where parents inexplicably complained about the difficulty of dropping their children off, rather than praising the attempt to increase safety for their own kids.

Fortunately, cooler heads seemed to have prevailed, as Buscaino suggested drivers get used to the changes and find ways to avoid the brief periods of congestion.

I’m starting to like this guy.

Now let’s see if he, and the other members of the council, show as much backbone dealing with Hollywood’s irrational demands to remove the Spring Street green bike lanes at Friday’s council meeting.

………

A couple bike-related items from Metro made it into my inbox yesterday.

First up is how to cope with the new locking turnstiles being activated in Metro train stations this summer.

Metro Rail turnstiles will be activated this summer and open only with a valid TAP card. If you bring your bike on board, please plan ahead for how this change can affect your station access.

Some important tips to remember for bringing your bike through turnstiles:

  • Follow ADA-accessible routes to find elevators and wider turnstile gates to safely walk your bike in and out of stations.
  • If lifting your bike over turnstiles, please be careful. Avoid lifting your bike over turnstiles in a crowded station.
  • Using the emergency exit gate for non-emergency purposes is not allowed and punishable by fine.

Whatever type of fare you’re using – single ride, pass or transfer from another system – it must be loaded on a reusable TAP card to ride any Metro Rail line. Please be sure your TAP is loaded with cash or valid fare before approaching turnstiles at Metro Rail stations. If you don’t already have a TAP card, you canpurchase one along with your fare from the TAP vending machine for a $1.

I can’t say I’m fond of the idea that one-time train users will be forced to buy a tap card, increasing the cost of a single ride to $2.50.

And Metro will be working with bike advocacy organizations to co-sponsor a series of bike education and safety classes throughout the county.

All cyclists can benefit from a working knowledge of the rules of the road.

Continuing efforts to educate all road users, Metro presents a new series of free bicycle traffic safety workshops, rolling out across the county over the next few months.

With funding from the Office of Traffic Safety, Metro is working with the LA County Bicycle Coalition, Bike San Gabriel Valley and Multi-Cultural Communities for Mobility to lead the workshops. A 3-hour beginner’s road rules class will be offered in English and Spanish, and an 8-hour workshop for intermediate cyclists will focus on building traffic skills.

The series kicks off with the following classes. As more classes are scheduled, information will be available able at metro.net/bikes andfacebook.com/bikemetro.

Street Cycling Skills Class 
Saturday, June 22 
8am-5pm
Alexander Hughes Community Center
1700 Danbury Rd
Claremont, CA 91711
Register with LA County Bicycle Coalition here

Street Cycling Skills Class 
Saturday, July 6 
9am-6pm
Culver City Veteran’s Memorial Building
4117 Overland Av
Culver City, CA 90230
Register with LA County Bicycle Coalition here

Street Cycling Skills Class
Friday, July 12, 6pm-9 pm 
AND Saturday, July 13, 8am-2 pm
Azusa Memorial Park Recreation Center
320 N Orange Pl
Azusa, CA 91702
Register with LA County Bicycle Coalition here

Bicycling on the Road Class
Sunday, July 14 
10am-1pm
South El Monte Community Center
1556 Central Av
South El Monte, CA 91733
Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org

Street Cycling Skills Class 
Wednesday, July 17, 5:30pm-8:30pm 
AND Saturday, July 20, 9am-1pm
California State University Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Bl
Long Beach, CA 90815
Register with LA County Bicycle Coalition here

Bicycling on the Road Class
Saturday, July 20
10am-1pm
El Monte Senior Center
3120 Tyler Av
El Monte, CA 91731
Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org

Bicycling on the Road Class 
Saturday, July 27 
10am-1pm
Palm Park Rec Center
5730 Palm Av
Whittier, CA 90601
Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org

Bicycling on the Road Class 
Thursday, August 4 
1-4pm
Culver City Veteran’s Memorial Building
4117 Overland Av
Culver City, CA 90230
Register with LA County Bicycle Coalition here

Bicycling on the Road Class 
Sunday, August 18 
10am-1pm
La Verne Community Center, Classroom 1
3680 “D” St
La Verne, CA 91750
Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org

Bicycling on the Road Class 
Saturday, August 24 
10am-1pm
Barbara J. Riley Community & Senior Center
7810 Quill Dr
Downey, CA 90242
Register with Bike San Gabriel Valley by emailing info@bikesgv.org

………

Finally, you could soon fly over potholes; no, literally. And if you’re going to steal precious artwork by a revered artist, bring a bag big enough that it doesn’t stick out of your backpack as you make your getaway by bike at 4:30 am. Let alone big enough to carry everything you meant to steal.

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bicycle Safety, Bike Cam Video, Hit-and-Run, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Save the endangered San Pedro and Spring Street bike lanes; hit-and-runs involving bicyclists up in L.A.

June 11, 2013 / / One comment

I’m a little battered and bruised tonight.

Riding home from another wildly successful River Ride, I hit an open 8-inch mini-manhole cover somewhere along the transition from Silver Lake to Beverly Blvd. I somehow managed to stay upright, although how I have no idea, finding myself momentarily riding a wobbling and fully ballistic bike veering dangerously towards both the curb and the asphalt.

Falling down there would have meant going down hard and in front of traffic. It would have also meant my second fall of the day, as I misjudged a steep hill on my way there in the morning, and couldn’t clip out from pedals in time after a bad shift.

Which would have made it just my second fall in the past several years, as well.

Even so, I ended up with cuts and bruises where my legs smacked the frame. And everything from butt up feels like I was hit by a Mack truck.

Yes, everything.

Enough said.

Just a reminder that something most drivers wouldn’t even notice can be dangerous if you’re on a bike.

Even if you don’t hit the street.

So with that, let’s catch up on the news we missed as I tried to sleep off my bumps and bruises yesterday.

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Bad news from Redondo Beach, as a 48-year old triathlete Michael Giardano collapsed and died after the swimming leg of the Redondo Beach Triathlon. My condolences to all his loved ones.

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Buscaino FlyerIf you’re anywhere near San Pedro tonight, try to make it to the 6 pm meeting with Councilmember Joe Buscaino to defend the recent road diets and bike lanes in the area.

As we’ve discussed before, the primary complaints center on the road diet installed on Westmont Drive, which reportedly results in traffic congestion just 20 minutes each morning and afternoon as parents pick their children up at the local school.

Yet the bike lanes those parents complain about exist primarily to tame traffic and improve safety around that very school. Which means that instead of demanding that they be removed, parents should be thanking city officials for taking tangible steps to protect their children.

The mantra for this meeting should be it’s not about bicyclists, it’s about the safety of your children. And if local residents somehow think the convenience of a few drivers is more important that, something is seriously wrong in San Pedro.

With school ending for the year, they’ve got all summer to find a solution that works for everyone. And returning to the previous status quo ain’t it.

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Remember that vivid green paint that lasted about a week on Spring Street, which Hollywood location scouts claimed was impossible to avoid filming or remove in post-production and was used nowhere else in the known universe?

Yeah, right.

Mark your calendar for a Battle Royale this Friday when the issue comes before the full City Council. Every bike rider who can make it should be at City Hall at 10 am Friday to refute the lies and demand that the safety of our citizens should take precedence over the convenience of filmmakers — as if there’s not enough money in their bloated budgets to cover-up a little green paint on the street.

Tell you what.

Just give me a couple of hours and a box of gaffers tape, and I guarantee they won’t see an glimpse of green in the dailies.

Fortunately, not all Hollywood types are bike-unfriendly. Or have such small hearts.

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I haven’t had a chance to dive into it yet, but the long-awaited LAPD report on hit-and-runs has finally been released, and will be presented to the Police Commission at today’s meeting.

At first glance, it suggests that the city’s rate of hit-and-run, while not acceptable, is not out of line for comparable major cities, and hit-and-runs resulting in death or serious injuries to pedestrians is on the decline.

But if you think more drivers fleeing after killing or injuring bicyclists, you’re right.

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The “new” LADOT issues their annual report, and takes credit for more than doubling the number of bike lanes in the last eight years compared to the previous 32, with 150 miles installed during the eight-year Villaraigosa administration.

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A bike rider is shot in Santa Monica in an apparent gang driveby, which had absolutely nothing to do with last week’s shooting rampage, despite the Times unfortunate spin on the story. L.A. mayor-elect Eric Garcetti promises bike lanes and walkable communities. The Source names the bikiest guy in L.A. The upcoming Wilshire Blvd CicLAvia should be better for pedestrians; CicLAvia means open streets for everyone, not just bike riders. Another neighborhood council wants your take on bike lanes on North Figueroa; take a few minutes to respond, because the bike haters certainly will. Turns out handlebars aren’t the safest place to ride, but you knew that, right?

Laguna Beach sees an increase in bicycle collisions. If you hit another cyclist or a pedestrian, stick around until you know they’re okay, hit-and-run laws — and common human decency — apply to us, too; thanks to Allan for the heads-up. A Sacramento man faces a murder charge after deliberately running down a bike rider he’d argued with, then getting out and kicking him repeatedly. An 18-year old Pleasanton driver kills a woman cyclist and injures her husband; since she rear-ended both of them, it doesn’t really matter if one might have been outside the bike lane, does it? In what was clearly a horrible weekend for NorCal cyclists, a 25-year old bike rider is killed in Elk Grove, a San Jose cyclist is killed in a collision with a train and a Modesto man is killed in a hit-and-run. Once again, a San Francisco pedestrian is injured by a cyclist.

Your next bike could be a lot smarter than your last one; on the other hand, I’m not looking forward to a bike that can say “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Especially since my name’s not Dave. IsolateCyclist looks at the people who self-identify as cyclists in order to criticize other cyclists. Bicycling is catching on with the NBA. Members of my college fraternity will be riding cross-country to raise half a million dollars for people with disabilities. Lessons learned by a first-time bike commuter from my hometown. A Kansas man is electrocuted trying to steal copper wire, but props for riding a bike to do it. Chicago’s bike-specific traffic signals increase compliance by 161%. New York’s new bike share program currently reaches just 10% of the city’s population; the NY Times asks why the fuss over bikes in a city that can tolerate anything? Why conservatives should love bike share; then again, no one ever said embracing bike share would be easy. NYC bicyclists offer their wisdom on riding in the city in 10 words or less. A struggling rider finds advice on how to ride uphill. Even when one of their own editors is doored, the NY Daily News blames the victim; however, they agree cyclists aren’t the real danger, despite what the WSJ’s wicked witch says. Boston incorrectly blames bicyclists for most collisions. Bob Mionske relates how a local Tennessee political boss got away with murder — or vehicular homicide by intoxication, in this case — something I suspect occurs far more often than we’d like to admit. The wife of North Carolina’s Bicycle Man fills in during his illness.

A British PSA might just shock a few drivers into sobering up first; thanks to Day One for the heads-up. London’s bike czar says the city needs fewer testosterone-fueled cyclists and more careful female ones; nope, not a hint of reverse sexism there. A UK cyclist suffers a broken arm in a road rage assault. As usual, the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain offers a blog roundup that puts this one to shame. Bike safety devices designed to prevent collisions with trucks could make things worse. Guess which country has gone pazzo for bicycling? A South African driver flees the scene after plowing into three cyclists. An Australian woman is killed while riding with her husband the day before an appointment to find out if she was pregnant. Proof that bike riders aren’t always the good guys, as an Aussie cyclist shoots a sleeping transient with an arrow. A special New Zealand inquest rules mandatory hi-viz clothing won’t cut bicycling deaths. Chinese authorities apologize for beating a bike salesman. Well said: “If we meet out on the road or trail, let that be the start, not the totality, of a friendship.”

Finally, it’s seldom a good idea to celebrate your birthday by riding drunk and trying to strangle the cop who stops you. This is why it’s not a good idea to use people instead of traffic cones at bike races, with entirely predictable results. And someone should tell this 10-time loser that just because the sign says Highway 101, that’s not actually the speed limit; seriously, if you lose your license 10 times in four years, you shouldn’t even be on the damn highway. Or any other street, for that matter.

Too easy to get, too hard to lose, indeed.

Category: Advocacy & Politics, Bicycle Safety, Bikes & the Law, Hit-and-Run, Law Enforcement, Streets and Infrastructure / Tags: , , , , , , ,
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