Our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad November is showing no sign of letting up.
Now another bicyclist has been killed on the mean streets of Southern California, the sixth so far this month — an average of just over one every three days.
Both drivers remained at the scene, and neither showed signs of impairment, according to police investigators. There’s no word at this time on the cause of the collision, or who may have been at fault.
Anyone who with information is urged to call the Santa Monica Police Department at 310/458-8427.
However, this is more evidence that Lincoln remains one of Santa Monica’s deadliest corridors, despite a decades-long effort to fix it.
This is at least the 51st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 16th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Bradley Allen Proudfoot and his loved ones.
So take a moment to remember those who have been sacrificed to the almighty motor vehicle gods, and those who drive them — including the 48 SoCal bike riders who have needlessly lost their lives this year.
Meanwhile, San Francisco’s ebike rebate pilot program boosted the net earnings of delivery workers compared to using a car, while generating virtually no greenhouse gas emissions. 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.
Once again, someone has boobytrapped a UK mountain bike trail, stringing electric wire fencing at neck level across the trail, which could shock or strangle, if not decapitate, an unsuspecting victim. And which should be prosecuted appropriately once they find the asshole.
A road raging Norwegian driver went on a rampage against a bike-riding man, first blocking the bike lane with his van, then drop kicking him off his bicycle before assaulting both bike and rider.
Bike Magazine highlights the country’s six best winter mountain biking destinations; the list includes Southern California from Santa Barbara to Santa Monica. Although word has it that Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties ain’t bad, either.
Life is cheap in Connecticut, where a 72-year old woman walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 47-year old woman riding a bicycle while “fiddling” with her steering wheel, and the two “just seemed to merge together.” Yeah, that’s one way to describe it.
Just 48 days until LA fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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We have a time-sensitive matter to discuss.
The Santa Monica City Council is going to address a motion to accept a $300,000 grant from the Office of Traffic Safety as part of their pro forma consent calendar at today’s meeting.
The purpose of the grant is to fund more Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Enforcement Operations by the Santa Monica Police Department, in which officers ticket anyone who commits a violation on the road that could endanger vulnerable road users.
But as you’ll see below, that isn’t always enforced equally, fairly or equitably.
Longtime Santa Monica bike advocate and former LACBC Board Member Dr. Michael Cahn wrote the following open letter to the council, calling attention to the windshield bias and other problems inherent in these operations.
So I’m going to step aside, and let Dr. Cahn do the talking today.
You can do some talking of your own by contacting the Santa Monica City Councilmembers prior to today’s 5:30 pm meeting, to call for fairer police enforcement in bike/ped safety operations before approving Item 5D — particularly if you live, work or ride in Santa Monica.
And if you’re one of those unfortunate bike riders who was ticketed in one of the previous operations, they especially need to hear from you.
We’ll be back tomorrow, as usual, to catch up on anything we missed today.
They used to be awarded for Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety, and they were always conducted “through the windshield”. The motto was: Drivers are driving, now let’s keep the pedestrians and cyclists out of harm’s way. To do that we must ticket them when they ride their bikes on the sidewalk, we must educate them to cross at the intersection.
There is a big monster in town, it is called vehicle traffic, and it will snap a pedestrian, a cyclist here and there. The main job of SMPD Traffic Division is to keep the monster rolling through town, and keep those who use the streets without a license plate out of the path of this dangerous beast. Not exactly the best way to address the source of the danger, methinks.
It does not look good when an SMPD Sergeant is parked at the intersection and ignores how this Prius endangers the pedestrian in the crosswalk (Montana):
All photos by Dr. Michael Cahn
But the cyclist on the sidewalk is quickly found and stopped and “enforced”:
Sometimes crossing the intersection without a green light is safer for the cyclist, but the officer only cares about the rules:
SMPD knows that riding bicycles on Lincoln Blvd is hairy, so they do it on the sidewalk:
But the black kid is being hassled for doing the same — riding his bicycle on the sidewalk on Lincoln:
We all sometimes think cars can not be avoided. Our police force, too, is fully subscribed to this attitude. We once had a transportation management division in this city, but how do you manage the king of the American road? The car is in charge, but CicLAvias and other open streets events come and go.
And yet, we must manage and challenge all this driving. We must do less of it, and we must do it less often. And the SMPD, too, must project this goal of less driving. One way to do this is to contradict the idea that driving is always necessary (it is not), that we all drive (we do not). Imagine the citywide moment of education and insight that would happen if our own police department challenged the poison of motonormativity. Encourage the SMPD to challenge the notion that driving is the default. Let’s see these officers on their bicycles enforcing the law on Wilshire, for a change.
Yes, they do ride their bicycles on the beach path, but are they big and strong enough to do it in town? In town the bicycles are transported on the back of a car.
Chicken anybody?
SMPD avoiding ride bicycles on city streets (“we are not crazy”):
Every time the SMPD is not riding a bicycle in traffic, it gives us cyclists the sense that we are just a crazy suicidal minority. And it gives all the drivers out there the same message: Crazy cyclists. What we need from them is to share the road with us on a bicycle, and to bring their authority and their uniforms and their tickets to the bike lane, and to deal with the drivers parking on the bike lane, turning without indicating, overtaking dangerously, ignoring crosswalks, opening doors without looking. This should be part of the 300K grant from OTS!
You want safer streets in Santa Monica? Put your officers on bicycles and let them ride up and down Wilshire, up and down Lincoln. That is where the education and the enforcement needs to happen. Enforcement of our drivers, the single most dangerous road participants
You know you want to do it, just see how you imagined the SMPD as an all terrain mountain cyclists force. No road chickens here.
Please make approval of item 5D contingent on consideration of the following items
Highly visible bicycle patrols on heavily trafficked streets: Film it, Share it: Show us and show the community that cars are not always necessary.
Conduct Crosswalk Sting Operations on Montana, Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvd etc. Film it, Share it.
Enforcement of drivers who stop or park on bike lanes.
Enforcement of illegal parking and waiting around schools: Lincoln Middle School has crossing guards. Their good work is made impossible by parents defiantly waiting in their cars on bike lanes and in alleys in the vicinity. Saint Monica School proudly displays long lines of illegal parking and waiting on California Ave over multiple blocks.
Just 54 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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I hope you’ll forgive yesterday’s unexcused absence.
After writing about the man killed riding his bicycle in Victorville, I just wasn’t in a good space, mentally or emotionally.
And I’m still not.
To be honest, this week’s election feels like a repudiation of everything I have believed and work for my entire life. While I understand you may think differently, that’s just where I am right now, until I get a chance to work through it.
One reason for my disappointment is that the election of Donald Trump and a GOP majority in the Senate does not bode well for active transportation, which has frequently been targeted for cuts by Republicans.
Locally, @streetsforall candidates swept in Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and Culver City. Our candidates also won in CD10 and CD14. Incredible mandate for change and progress.
Nationally, I don’t have words. Many of our major regional…
I’m also pleased to report that former Assembly Transportation Chair Laura Friedman will be my new representative in Congress, replacing newly elected California Senator Adam Schiff.
I am so grateful for the support of my community. Although we will inevitably disagree on some things, I will serve LA, CA & the US to the very best of my ability. I will listen to all voices & try to do the most good for the greatest number of people. This is my promise to you.
November 2024 LA Metro update on LA River Path project. Draft EIR release in 2025 (previous plan was 2022). Estimated cost now $1b, built in phases. Complicated project with many government stakeholders and property owners. 46% of path will be elevated.https://t.co/mQDh6UQ54qhttps://t.co/ZlIhCtBu9Ppic.twitter.com/vahXJtEbhN
The Partnership For Active Travel and Health released an open letter calling on governments around the world to include walking and biking in their next round of climate commitments.
The Partnership for Active Travel and Health (PATH) calls on national governments to commit to walking and cycling in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reach climate goals and improve people’s health and lives.
Enabling more people to walk and cycle safely and to access public transport by foot and by bicycle can help cut transport emissions in half by 2030 and is a fast-track way to achieve progress on urgent climate goals and the Paris Agreement. Yet PATH’s groundbreaking research shows that walking and cycling are significantly undervalued in countries’ NDCs. Despite two-thirds of nations having active travel policies in place, there remains a pressing need for increased ambition, action, and investment in their climate commitments to fully unlock the benefits of walking and cycling.
PATH has launched a new set of knowledge tools and guidance to support national policymakers to compare and benchmark existing policies, build capacity, and adopt walking and cycling as part of their country’s climate commitments.
The PATH’s Active Travel NDC Template offers a step-by-step guide with 20 actions to create effective policies, including interventions to create safe and accessible places to walk and cycle, public campaigns to shift mobility habits and embed walking and cycling into policy processes.
The PATH Dashboard visualises data from PATH’s 2023 report National Policies for Walking and Cycling in all 197 UNFCCC countries. It offers an overview of the progress made by countries in integrating walking and cycling strategies into their policy frameworks and NDCs. It also facilitates direct comparisons between countries and pinpoints areas requiring additional investment and ambition.
The PATH Walking and Cycling Regional Fact Sheets feature a comprehensive set of infographics analysing NDCs and walking and cycling policies across the six WHO- defined regions, detailing their objectives, actions, investments, and evaluations.
We urge countries to take full advantage of these tools to build walking and cycling into their climate commitments through the next round of NDCs submissions between November 2024 to February 2025, ahead of COP30 in Brazil.
PATH and its over 400 supporters stand ready to support national governments in this process.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
An English writer says he set a personal best on a recent gravel ride — despite getting punched by a motorbike rider — but says the real lesson is why aggression shouldn’t be countered.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Santa Barbara reached an agreement to build a 4,000-foot bike lane to complete a missing link in the city’s bike network; the plan will trade land for an easement, while sparing over half the trees originally planned for removal.
An editor for Cycling Weekly says banning bicycles from city centers, like Birmingham, England is doing, won’t stop illegal ebike use, but it will make it harder for everyone else.
Just 186 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
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My apologies for the late appearance of yesterday’s post. My site went down just as I was about to publish it, so I wasn’t able to get it online until my web host got it working again in the morning.
Talking about California Governor Newsom’s head-scratching decisions to approve projects that can only exacerbate climate change despite his forward-leaning public posture in fighting the onrushing climate emergency — including approval of a half-billion-dollar freeway widening project on I-80 between Sacramento and Davis — Sammy Roth writes this,
But the common thread is this: Instead of putting carbon at the center of his decision-making — which is what one of the world’s most powerful politicians should be doing just about every time — Newsom is treating climate like most other political issues.
Some days he and his team are taking groundbreaking steps to phase out gasoline cars; other days they’re expanding freeways, and failing to fully protect people from extreme heat because they’re worried it would be too expensive, and making it harder to install batteries. They’re letting politics play far too large a role in the risk-reward calculation, to all of our detriment.
He goes on to conclude this way (although it should be noted that electrification will do nothing to reduce induced demand or traffic congestion),
Hopefully over time, as we get more electric cars on the road, “induced demand” from highway expansions will become less of a problem, because more of the cars sitting in traffic will be powered by solar and wind. But for now, state officials have made very clear — in theory, not in practice — that electrification isn’t enough. We also need to start driving less. California’s formal climate plan sets targets of reducing “vehicle miles traveled” by 25% per person by 2030, and 30% by 2045.
That means we’ll need to spend more time walking, biking and taking trains and other public transit — and more money building infrastructure to support those modes of transit. So why is Newsom wasting nearly half a billion dollars widening a freeway when the result will be more smog-spewing traffic, more climate pollution and less money for the stuff we actually need?
It’s worth a read.
Because while Newsom presents himself as a leader in fighting the effects and causes of climate change, his actions often paint a far different picture.
And it’s up to us to make sure he lives up to his word.
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The Santa Monica Mirror reports that nearly five months after an atmospheric river washed out the beachfront Marvin Braude bike path between Chautauqua Blvd and Entrada Drive, nothing has been done to repair it.
Which means the estimated 10,000 people who use the path every day have faced a truncated trail that ends far short of the former terminus at Will Rogers State Beach. And bike riders have been forced onto a particularly dangerous section of PCH through Pacific Palisades if they want to continue north towards Malibu.
The paper says LA County, which is responsible for that portion of the trail, hopes to have a schedule for repairs next month.
LA County Public Works hopes to have a concrete schedule for repairs by mid-July; the cost of which is estimated at $800,000, according to a spokesperson with the department.
“LA County Public Works engineers continue to finalize the repair design for the Marvin Braude Bike Trail at Will Rogers State Beach.” read a statement from the department. “The California Coastal Commission is currently reviewing the project.”
Note that they’re only promising a schedule for repair work, rather than actually beginning — let alone completing — the long overdue repairs.
And we’ll excuse their unintended pun of promising a “concrete schedule” for fixing the concrete pathway.
The company will select 175 people to participate in the “One Less Car” challenge; it’s open to residents of Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Miami, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver.
I’d toss my hat in the ring, but something tells me they’re not looking for people like me who are already carless.
The seemingly uninformed editor of a Palo Alto paper says putting bike lanes on the city’s Camino Real will hurt small businesses, arguing that car traffic is essential to their success. Which ignores repeated studies that show bike lanes are good for business, and the increased retail sales that result from them tend to more than make up for the loss of any parking.
Cycling Westreposts a recent US university study showing ebike incentive programs are a costly way to cut emissions, but also promote health, equity and cleaner air.
Baltimore baseball fans are forming a group to ride to Oriole games together. Which is what happens when a team actually encourages bicycling to their games, unlike a certain Dodger team we could name.
Twenty-two-year old English soccer player Anthony Gordon is one of us, becoming the butt of jokes in training camp when he fell off his bicycle two days after making his international debut with the team. Because apparently, grown men aren’t supposed to ride bikes, or crash them. Or maybe just not English footballers.
I want to be like him when I grow up. An 86-year old British man is Everesting on a trainer in his back yard in memory of his late wife — 60 years after he crashed on a rain-slicked road near the finish line, and lost out on making the podium with the legendary Eddy Merckx in the 64 Tokyo Olympics.
Munich correspondent Ralph Durham sends news that the rich are getting richer, as the city nears completion of a spoke-and-hub bikeway network leading to the city center, with the red pathways on the map approved, and the blue already completed — although you may have to read German, or at least rely on a translation app to read the story.
They also clarified that the law applies to both human-powered and ped-assist ebikes — but evidently, not throttle-controlled ebikes.
According to Santa Monica City Attorney Doug Sloan,
“Defining activities would prohibit physically assaulting or attempting to physically assault bicyclists because of their status of a bicyclist, threatening to physically injure a cyclist, threatening to physically injure, including by road, cyclists because of being a cyclist. intentionally distracting or attempting to distract a cyclist, intentionally forcing or attempting to enforce a bicyclist off the street or bike lane,” Sloan said.
“It’s important to note that these are purely civil remedies,” he said before clarifying that this does not require city resources to enforce this — it is not criminal. So an aggrieved individual can bring a civil action against the perpetrator. It can include if they’re liable for damages for three times heir actual damage for each violation or $1,000, whichever is greater. Moreover, they can recover attorney fees and potentially punitive damages.
“It expressly says it does not constitute a misdemeanor or infraction. And that’s essentially it,” he said.
That last part is important, because it means a cop doesn’t need to witness the violation, or ticket the driver or file charges.
However, the same problems that have limited the Los Angeles ordinance would likely limit this one, as well.
Unless you record the violation on a bike cam or cellphone, it’s difficult to gather witnesses or other evidence to offer proof of what happened.
And even with the provision for legal fees, it’s hard to find a lawyer who will take a case without the possibility of substantial damages, because the amount of work required doesn’t usually make it worth their time.
Still, it’s a move towards holding dangerous, aggressive and road-raging drivers accountable.
Let’s just hope it spreads to the other 86 cities in LA County.
Don’t miss Sunday’s CicLAmini open streets event in Wilmington this Sunday. The weather should be cool, dry and partly cloudy, so it should be comfortable whether you’re riding, skating or walking.
He gets it. A writer for the Thousand Oaks Acorn says “Bicycling instead of driving is a great way to reduce traffic, cut pollution, and save energy while contributing to California’s climate goals.”
No bias here, either. A pair of writers for El Tecolote complain about the San Francisco MTA’s approval a $1.5 million contract with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition to provide bicycle education for the next five years — which works out to just $300,000 a year — saying it “frees the Bicycle Coalition to hire a phalanx of lobbyists to influence city policy with Supervisors, commissioners, and city staff in all departments.”
Tragic news from the UK, where a “fit and active” 80-year old man died after falling from his bike following an “incident” with a van, after he was forced to ride close to the roadway when debris in the bike path narrowed it to just two feet wide; an inspector looked at the path just weeks before his death, and said it looked just hunky dory.
What was supposed to be the quick and easy removal of a small skin cancer on my ear turned into an excruciating five hours on the surgical table, scraping every half hour before they got the whole thing.
All because every doctor I asked about it told me it was nothing to worry about, allowing it to spread unchecked for over a decade before anyone actually bothered to do a biopsy.
But at least I left with my ear still attached, albeit lacking most of the skin inside, and with a bandage the size of a golf ball shoved in.
LA Progressivecalls for the defeat of incumbent CD14 Councilmember Kevin de Leon, in part for cutting off communication with community leaders over the $16.3 million in funding raised by local residents for street improvements on Eagle Rock Blvd, allowing the project to go dormant for two years.
Santa Monica will conduct yet another bike & pedestrian safety enforcement operation on Friday, ticketing anyone who commits a violation that could endanger either group, regardless of who commits it. As usual, ride to the letter of the law until you cross the city limits to ensure you’re not the one who gets ticketed.
Craig Medred takes a deep dive into the death of a 48-year old Alaska man who was reportedly among the area’s “safest and most responsible cyclists,” yet who was blamed by investigators for his own death, despite doing everything right before he was run down by a driver — because police couldn’t find the missing bike light they may not have looked for.
A Kentucky TV station answers the eternal question of why bicyclists don’t have to pay a road usage fee — and gets it mostly right. Although they left out a) local roads are funded primarily through the same state and local taxes we all pay, and b) most people who ride bikes also drive, and pay gas taxes and registration like anyone else.
And now you, too can have your very own Bob Marley One Love bike, a collaboration between State Bicycle Company and the reggae master who’s been dead for the last 43 years.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
April 18, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Live to Ride book signing in SaMo this Sunday, Balboa Park bike lane cleanup, and a Bill Nighy thanks for stopping
Just 258 days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Then share it — and keep sharing it — with everyone you know, on every platform you can.
We’re now up to 1,117 signatures, so let’s keep it going! Urge everyone you know to sign the petition, until the mayor agrees to meet with us!
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My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.
Suddenly becoming a full-time caregiver for my unexpectedly incapacitated wife and her broken shoulder, while simultaneously attempting to maintain this site and care for my own torn rotator cuff, is totally kicking my diabetic ass.
I honestly don’t know how I’m going to make it through the next few months before we both get back on our feet. But we’ll get there somehow.
Or better yet, make that the first stop of the day for coffee and a social ride with the author, the former editor-in-chief of Bicycling Magazine, and one of the most talented, insightful and beautiful voices in the bicycling community.
And if you haven’t bought your copy yet, what the hell are you waiting for?
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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is marking Earth Day with a much-needed cleanup of the bike lane in Balboa Park.
A Singapore lawyer suggests a road-raging bicyclist may not have been responsible for her actions because she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, shortly after she stopped her bicycle in front of a driver’s car to confront him, opened the door to his car and clung to his hood.
Montebello’s City Council unanimously approved the Citywide Bicycle Master Plan, as well as the 2040 Citywide General Plan and the city’s Downtown Specific Plan. Although as we’ve learned the hard way, it’s one thing to pass a bike plan, and another to actually implement it.
Santa Clarita is preparing for its 20th annual Bike to Work Challenge as part of next month’s Bike Week, with a city pit stop on May 16. Although no one seems to give a damn about it down here in Los Angeles anymore.
The rich get richer, as Toronto is set to get a veritable shipload of new bike lanes in the coming months. I learned very early in my advertising career that “shipload” doesn’t work in a radio ad, because everyone will inevitably hear it as something similar, but more offensive.
Double Tour de France champ Jonas Vingegaard has been released from hospital, 12 days after he suffered a broken collarbone, multiple broken ribs, a pulmonary contusion and pneumothorax in a mass crash during the Tour de Suisse.
Please join us with an email to Council TODAY voicing your support for more protected bike lanes (support the Bike Action Plan Amendment) and to support our city’s commitment to Vision Zero — to protect vulnerable road users, like people walking and biking, with streets designed to be safer for everyone.
Re: Item 3B City Manager Report – Bike Action Plan and Vision Zero Update.
Dear Santa Monica Mayor, City Council and City Manager:
I support the City’s commitment to safer streets and more protected bike lanes. Please prioritize improving bike and pedestrian infrastructure and Vision Zero. The City must continue the overwhelming community supported commitment to prioritize and protect vulnerable road users, like people walking and biking, with more protected bike lanes and streets designed to be safer for everyone.
Please support and prioritize safer streets!
Then if you’re not doing anything tonight, show up at the meeting to show your support.
But a letter writer in the Times insists that if you build it, they won’t come, because she somehow doesn’t see any bike riders or buses on the newly expanded Venice Blvd bus and bikeways.
Used bike retailer The Pro’s Closet talks with soon-to-be 80-year old Wendy Skean, who raced wheel-to-wheel against much younger riders at the “outrageously cold and muddy” Old Man Winter Rally, where she finished 50th out of 237 women in the 50K event. And in her first-ever race, no less.
Cycling Weeklytalks with 76-year old Brit Geoff Nelder, who still averages riding 100 miles a week in winter and 200 in summer, helping him overcome three coronary stents ten years ago.
A New York thief took advantage of the added mobility of the city’s Citi Bike bikeshare to rob four people in Central Park in just under an hour, telling one victim “I rob people for a living.” I mean, you’d hate to see an amateur who doesn’t know what he’s doing attempting a feat like that.
This is who we share the road with. Wealthy socialite and Grossman Burn Center co-founder Rebecca Grossman faces 34 to life after she was convicted of murder in the high-speed hit-and-run deaths of two young brothers crossing a Westlake Village street with their family in 2020.
In other case of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late, an unlicensed driver in Ghent, Belgium faces charges for the alleged drunken crash that killed two people riding their bikes and injured three others, when he plowed into a group riding together; the driver had the equivalent of 14 cocktails in his blood, despite two previous drunk driving bans.
The magazine also celebrates Butch Martin, who became the first Black American Olympic cyclist in both road cycling and track at the Tokyo and Mexico City Olympic Games.
In a Velo trifecta, the magazine relates the “most insane bike change in pro cycling history” when Aussie Michael Rogers swapped his bike for a fan’s nearly identical bike after his derailleur broke off midrace in the Tour Down Under.
December 18, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 26 to life for Riverside vehicular killer, SaMo bike network cuts crashes by 52%, and Ghost Tire placed for 15-year old boy
Thirty-three-year old Sergio Reynaldo Gutierrez was driving his pickup when he saw 46-year old Benedicto Solanga walking his bike with a friend on the other side of the road, and flipped the men off.
Then he made a U-turn, came back and intentionally drove into Solanga, running him down from behind.
Riverside police arrested Gutierrez three weeks later, after he had run a red light to shake witnesses who attempted to follow him after the crash.
He was convicted in September of first-degree murder with a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.
No motive was ever given for the attack.
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Bike riders in Santa Monica were ruled at fault in 26 of the city’s 72 crashes resulting in death or serious injury since 2010, while drivers were at fault in 31; the remaining 15 investigators were unable to assess blame.
And let’s not forget that blame is usually assigned by cops suffering from a windshield bias and a lack of training in bike law and investigating bicycle crashes.
However, the good news is that crashes involving bike riders has dropped by more than half — 52% — since the city began building a safe bike network over a decade ago.
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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, placed another ghost tire memorial yesterday, this time for a 15-year old boy killed by a driver while walking home from school in October.
This is from the press release for the event, which arrived too late for advance notice.
On 27 October 2023, 15-year-old Felipe Manuel Infante-Avalos (affectionately known as Pipé) was crossing the road at 110th and Main St in the crosswalk, on his way home from school, when he was hit by 34-year-old Arturo Mercado Garcia. Pipé was hospitalized and died from his injuries on 8 November 2023. Arturo, who fled from the scene of the collision, was later caught and arrested and is awaiting trial. Per the judge for the case, evidence was found that Arturo was watching TikTok videos while driving.
Pipé, who was autistic, was sweet and gentle and his family loved him dearly. He loved school and was part of the ROTC. He loved playing with his siblings and going on their many family outings.
Pipé’s death is part of a worsening public health crisis on the roads of Los Angeles that has been skyrocketing since 2020. Per LAPD reports (as of 9 December 2023) the total number of traffic fatalities is higher than this time last year by 7% at 307 lives lost. Keeping in mind that the 312 fatalities in 2022 were the highest in well over 20 years. What’s worse is the number of pedestrian fatalities is up by 11% (162 lives lost) compared to this time last year, the number of hit-and-run fatalities is up by 26%, and the number of DUI-related fatalities is up by 32%.
A Ghost Tire Memorial will be placed to remember Pipé by the non-profit Streets Are For Everyone. Pipé’s parents, friends, and family along with other community members affected by traffic violence will be present.
Over 30 family members and friends, many of whom have flown in from out of town, are expected to attend. Adriana, Pipe’s mother, will be demanding that Arturo Mercado Garcia be given the maximum penalties allowable by law for killing her son. She’ll also be calling for the Mayor of Los Angeles to do more to protect the lives of our communities.
The Ghost Tire Memorial was inspired by the Ghost Bike: a bicycle roadside memorial placed where a cyclist has been killed or severely injured by the driver of a motor vehicle. Ghost Tires are tires painted white and placed on the side of a road with the name and date of the person killed. Ghost Tires were created by the road safety advocacy organization Streets Are For Everyone, sometimes called by its acronym, SAFE.
You can do your part by signing the petition to demand a public forum with the mayor to hear our complaints about the dangers Pipé and the rest of us face just walking and biking in Los Angeles.
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Unbelievable.
Life is cheap in Hilo, Hawaii, where a 70-year old man faces a maximum of a 15 years behind bars for negligent homicide and hit-and-run — even though prosecutors say he intentionally killed a woman riding a recumbent bike because she was “going too slow all the time.”
The judge ordered him to undergo a mental health exam, which is probably a good idea under the circumstances.
They should also give one to the prosecutors who undercharged what should have been a murder case.
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Fallen standup comic Kenny DeForest continued to make an impact after his death riding an ebike near Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, donating seven of his organs to five people, to give them a second chance at life.
DeForest died a week after he reportedly rode his ebike into a parked car, suffering serious head injuries.
That could have happened for a number of reasons, from distraction to excess speed resulting from the ebike, or being crowded out by a driver’s too-close pass.
A Maui bicycling group teamed with a “grassroots movement dedicated to bringing joy to children and families impacted by the Maui wildfires” to bring holiday gifts and entertainment to local families, and distribute 80 bicycles to kids who had requested one.
Someone has been deliberately sabotaging a London bike lane for over a year, repeatedly spreading drawing pins in an apparent attempt to puncture riders’ tires. While it may sound like a harmless prank, a sudden flat could lead to serious injury, as well as needless expense and inconvenience.
Police in Golden, Colorado are looking for two people who ran away from their abandoned car after running down three people riding bicycles, and injuring two of the victims — one seriously. No word on whether the crash may have been intentional.
A Florida man shot a neighbor in the leg with a shotgun after the victim strayed onto his property looking for his stolen bicycle; the man said he shot him because he tried to break into his RV — even though police found the shotgun shell 150 yards away.
Interesting idea. Singapore hopes to promote bicycling by creating a “bike village” under a viaduct next to a transit station, in an area already popular with bicyclists, where they can shop for bicycle gear, grab a bite or meetup for rides.
Well, that was fun. 
Tuesday Feb 27th Santa Monica City Council will hear the 
