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.
November 28, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Give a little for bikes on Giving Tuesday, windshield bias in Santa Monica, and the case of the doubly purloined Pinarellos
So if you have anything left after giving to our holiday fund drive — or maybe the other way around — send a little love to some of the groups out there working to keep you safe and informed.
Evidently, she’s not a fan of the city’s Big Blue Bus. Or the continuous rumble of Metro buses on the coastal boulevards.
She starts with the story of her ex-husband’s bicycling crash, when he was run down from behind by a driver who questioned why he failed to see him as he rode home from dinner on Pico Blvd.
Because it was dark? Because the lights there are dim? Because it was late and maybe he was tired?
Because accidents happen. No one need be at fault. And yet, the city bears some responsibility for promoting biking before it’s truly safe, for making it ever-more-maddening to drive a car, and for absolutely refusing to create any realistic public transportation options.
I’ve been horrified to since read about two more recent bike accidents, one fatal. The city council’s solutions are all about increasing safety and visibility — and adding more fines. Safety is a good thing, certainly. But better biking is not a full-scale transportation option. And the current practice of incessantly writing parking tickets is already anti-resident, punitive, and un-Santa Monican. The real problem is that it is nearly impossible to drive a car peaceably anywhere in Santa Monica and it is only getting worse. The city has not invested in public transportation. We need safe, reliable, cheap public transportation, not more rules and more fines.
Except that “accidents happen” shouldn’t be an excuse for carelessness.
Cars are big, dangerous machines, and it’s not unreasonable to expect their operators to pay attention to the road directly ahead of them, and stop before hitting people or objects directly in their path.
Is that really too much to ask?
As for promoting bicycling before it’s truly safe, she’s got a point.
But that’s how you make it safe, by making improvements to the streets and encouraging people to use them, and using that increase in ridership to justify the next round of improvements.
Which shouldn’t be necessary, but it is. Because people like her inevitably complain about the inconveniences they face from each little incremental change on the streets.
That’s followed with more talk about the dangers of riding a bicycle, and holding onto one, along with the usual litany of all the reasons why bicycling is impractical.
Except that people do it every day, under exactly the conditions she complains about.
Also, it can be hard to keep a bike in Santa Monica. I, too, had been regularly biking until my electric bike got stolen from behind my house, and then my beach cruiser. And a biking-first policy isn’t inclusive. Plenty of people can’t rely on a bike — like parents of young children, the elderly or disabled, grocery shoppers, those needing to take important meetings free of sweat and errant hair, anyone who has to get anywhere else in LA.
Never mind that bikes, especially ebikes like the one she used to own, serve as effective mobility devices for the elderly and disabled, while cargo bikes are surprisingly efficient for grocery shopping and transporting young kids.
And as a former ebike owner, she should know as well as anyone how well they work for getting you places virtually sweat-free, especially in Santa Monica’s cool coastal climate.
She’s not wrong about the need to improve public transit, in Santa Monica and throughout Southern California.
But she is wrong about the practical benefits of bicycling, and the need for a virtually carbon-free form of inexpensive transportation as we confront a looming climate crisis.
Not to mention that bikes are fun.
Maybe a little lingering resentment towards her bike-riding ex is tainting her thinking.
The theft was so successful, they staged an encore just 20 hours later, returning to snatch another seven Pinarellos worth more than $109,000.
So if you happen to see a struggling bike team riding brand new Pinarellos next year, it may be more evidence that the cycling financial model really is in trouble.
Or maybe that’s just how they haze rookie riders these days.
Bicycling also says Peter Sagan coulda been a contender. Or at least even greater than he was. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t seem to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.
We’re now just four days from the official kickoff of the Ninth Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive — and we’ve already got our first donations before the campaign even starts!
So let’s give a special thanks to Jim L and David R for their generous donations to help keep all the best bike news coming your way every day.
Be sure to come back here on Friday when the fund drive starts for real, because this is your chance to support SoCal’s bike source for bike news and advocacy.
And help keep the corgi in new shoes.
So let’s get to it before this migraine makes my head explode all over the inside of your screen.
According to the paper, most crosswalk laws protect pedestrians, but do nothing to protect people riding bicycles, as well as wheelchairs, scooters or any other personal conveyance.
However, California is the exception, sort of.
The state amended its crosswalk law a few years ago to make it clear that bicyclists are allowed to ride along crosswalks — but neglected to clarify whether “along” means in or next to.
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Despite being under indictment for embezzlement, CD9 Councilmember Curren Price, Jr. continues to work towards a bike and pedestrian friendly makeover of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, with a public meeting next Tuesday.
We value your opinion and want to ensure that the project reflects the needs of our neighborhoods. Don't miss this opportunity to let your voice be heard. 3/3
Speaking of windshield bias, police in Louisville, Kentucky report a man riding a bicycle was killed in an apparent SWSS — Single Witness Suicide Swerve — after allegedly swerving in front of an oncoming driver for no apparent reason. Yes, it’s possible the victim really did swerve in front of the car. But it’s more likely the driver drifted to the right and was startled to suddenly see a bike rider directly in front of them, and assumed the rider swerved, with no witnesses to contradict it.
My apologies for another unexcused absence on Friday.
One of the many insidious effects of diabetes is a dramatic decline in stamina; busing to a couple of medical appointments was enough to knock me out all night, and most of the next morning.
On the plus side, at least I’m starting the week well rested.
Which is something we’ve probably all asked at one time or another.
Although to be fair, it’s not just here. From what I’ve seen, most drivers walk with just a slap on the wrist, no matter where it happens.
If they get charged at all.
Here’s how he explains it.
First off, killing someone with a vehicle is simply viewed differently under the law. That difference is codified in California’s criminal law, where manslaughter — “the unlawful killing of a human being without malice” — is divided into three kinds: Voluntary, involuntary and vehicular.
The key difference between murder and manslaughter is intention. There’s also the idea of implied malice, or what’s sometimes called a depraved heart — when someone should have reasonably known that an act was potentially deadly, but they did it anyway.
But perhaps the chief limiting factor, according to former prosecutors, is what a jury made up of 12 people who drive is willing to convict on, combined with prosecutors well-founded fear of losing.
Which is why you see so many killer drivers plead out for a misdemeanor instead of a felony. Or a lousy traffic ticket, for that matter.
And that means drivers get away with things they wouldn’t if they killed someone using any other means.
Damian Kevitt, executive director of the advocacy nonprofit Streets Are For Everyone, often meets with families who have lost a loved one to traffic violence. He told me the focus on a driver’s intent in a fatal crash creates a level of protection that doesn’t exist outside their cars.
“Instead of assuming that you have a responsibility and you have an obligation to drive safely, it’s more… ‘we’re going to assume that you have the best of intentions,’” he said. “That’s not right — not when you’re [operating] a two-ton vehicle that has just as much ability to kill someone as a gun.”
It’s worth reading the whole thing.
Because public pressure, or the lack thereof, can be the deciding factor on how serious the charges are that a driver could face.
And how much time they might end up serving.
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Santa Monica will consider a motion to speed up traffic safety improvements at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
This item will direct the city manager to expedite requests for stop signs, update the city’s guidelines to upgrade unsignalized intersections, update the process through which residents can report dangerous intersections, improve communication between SMPD and the Department of Transportation, update the Take The Friendly Road campaign, develop a proposal to allocate funding towards infrastructure in daylighting zones to address dangerous illegal parking, and more.
Maybe someday, things like this won’t be necessary anymore.
Over 50 people gathered at Fountain & Edgemont in #EastHollywood for the #ghostbike installation in memory of cyclist Robert George, who was doored & then fatally struck by an oncoming vehicle while riding NB on Edgemont on 10/17, a day after his 51st bday. #bikeLA#RobertsReachpic.twitter.com/obite6N3b3
GCN considers the true cost of bicycling, including buying all the gear.
Never mind that you can get a used bike for a couple hundred bucks, and just start riding.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Writing for the Orange County Register, the western director of a conservative think tank says sorry, but bicycling isn’t going to change the world, and only bicyclists demand “the world be rebuilt to cater to (their) somewhat-dangerous hobby.” He also compares bike lanes to social engineering, and insists, without evidence, that closing streets to cars destroys cities. Just wait until someone tells him about the social engineering that forces everyone into cars.
A couple of men were busted after a man tracked his stolen bike to their car, then they drove into him when he tried to get it back; police tracked the suspects to their home, and arrested them on a raft of theft and drug charges.
Electrek explains why drivers should love seeing more people on ebikes — or any other bicycles, for that matter — from more bikes means less traffic and more parking, to better roads and more money in your pocket. Maybe someone should tell that guy from the Orange County Register.
Police in Ontario — no, the one in Canada — are searching a cornfield for a missing 34-year old man after his ebike was found in the middle of the field with a flat tire, and the wires leading to the battery dangling down.
One of the four climate activists on trial for disrupting the road Worlds by gluing their hands to the roadway claims the cycling community is complicit in the climate crisis through ignorance of the “oil and gas companies sponsoring their races.” Trust me, they know.
She was taken to a local hospital. Sadly, Phil Gaimon reports the victim, a friend of his, was taken off life support this morning. She has not been publicly identified.
The driver remained at the scene, and reportedly cooperated with investigators.
A street view shows an intersection of two residential streets without lane markings. While it’s been awhile since I’ve ridden through there, I’ve occasionally used Idaho as a quieter alternative to busy Montana a block away.
Twitter/X user Mobility For Who offers a little more information about the crash site.
This is a 2-way stop, that the victim apparently rode through, but it’s also a neighborhood residential street with schools nearby. People have been asking the city for traffic calming measures there for years, from what I hear from residents. Drivers use 19th to cut through the neighborhood to get to/from San Vicente, so I guess the street is just setup to let them do that.
If you’re riding Idaho and crossing there, you’re basically just hoping that a speeding car isn’t coming hidden behind parked cars, so rolling through that stop sign often feels safer, just to get out of there as quickly as possible.
This is at least the 47th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 13th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
Update: The Santa Monica Mirror reports the victim was apparently riding west on Idaho, when she was struck by the southbound driver, who didn’t have a stop sign.
Update 2: A Nextdoor post identified the victim as Tania Mooser. A vigil will be held in her honor this Friday.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Tania Mooser and her loved ones.
Thanks to bikematic, Mobility For Who and Diana Williams for the heads-up.
It took about two weeks after the crash for Las Vegas police to determine that the killing of retired Bell, California police chief Andreas Probst in an August hit-and-run was intentional.
The reason became evident this weekend when horrifying video of the collision surfaced and quickly went viral.
In the video, which was AirDropped to students at a local high school at the end of last month, the teenage driver and his passenger(s) can be seen cursing at passing cars, before spotting Probst riding his mountain bike in a bike lane.
The 17-year-old driver and his passenger were cruising down a street in Las Vegas on August 14, coming up behind Andreas Probst as he rode his cycle in the bike lane. Filming with his cell phone, the passenger was chuckling with the driver as they plotted to run over Probst. You can hear them say, “Ready?” and “Yeah, hit his ass.”
The vehicle is seen in the footage coming up behind a red-clad man riding a bicycle alongside the road. The motorist pulls into the bike lane behind him, honks his horn, and purposefully strikes the cyclist’s back tire, sending him flying with the encouragement of his buddies.
The passenger records Andreas lying helplessly on the side of the road behind the vehicle. “Damn that n* got knocked out!” the passenger says as the driver can be heard stepping on the gas.
The Review-Journal’s coverage of the incident was also heavily criticized by readers who posted screenshots of a news obituary that ran in the Review-Journal on Aug. 18 — more than a week before the video surfaced — with a headline describing the incident as a “bike crash” and not an intentional killing.
In fact, a source had contacted the Review-Journal about the existence of the video more than two weeks ago, and a reporter had instructed the caller on how to forward the video to Metropolitan Police Department detectives investigating the case. Nine hours later, police announced that the incident had been deemed a homicide.
The Review-Journal also reports the passenger has not been charged, which seems inexplicable unless they were captured on the video screaming in horror at the deliberate carnage.
Hint: they weren’t.
At the very least, such a heinous crime would seem to call for a felony conspiracy charge, since both the driver and the passenger appear to have been planning the fatal assault.
Never mind that his own decision to ride on the sidewalk, rather than risk riding in the street, makes the case for building the bike lanes.
Let’s be clear: While WeHo talks a big game about “uplifting” marginalized people and “amplifying” their voices, the city’s pedestrians — those blue-collar, minimum-wage earning people the city claims to care so much about — are silently struggling just to get from Point A to Point B every day, as they’ve done for decades.
But fixing sidewalks isn’t glamorous, and that’s why WeHo hasn’t given a fuck thus far.
Even now, the impetus for reconstructing Fountain Avenue wasn’t to benefit pedestrians or disabled people. They were an afterthought.
Installing bike lanes, the cause celebre of every young politician and hip urban planner, was the point of this project.
Never mind that many of the “blue-collar, minimum-wage earning people the city claims to care so much about” are forced to ride their bikes to work along busy, dangerous corridors choked with traffic.
And not many use the sidewalks, because they can’t afford to live there.
No bias here. A Singapore website accuses an ebike rider and a motorist of road rage for engaging in a heated dispute in the middle of the roadway. Never mind that the bike rider was minding his own business until the impatient driver started honking at him for no apparent reason.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Tragic news from New York, where police are looking for a hit-and-run bike rider who killed a 69-year old woman as she was crossing a “chaotic” intersection. Since the bicyclist was on a bikeshare bike, police should be able to access user and GPS data to determine who was using a bike at that time and location. Which raises the question of why they apparently haven’t yet.
An ebike-riding man is recovering from injuries and faces sexual assault charges, after a Virginia woman flagged down a passing car when the man groped her on a bike path, then smiled as he rode away; she was able to catch up with him and apparently kicked his ass, knocking him off his bike and placing him in a chokehold until police arrived.
Streetsblog says Metro has installed new plastic bollards to protect the First Street bike lanes, which could be the first step in meeting their commitment to on bike/walk connections the promised for Metro’s new subway stations. However, it’s worth noting that the new bollards are spaced too far apart to keep motorists from driving or parking in the bike lanes, and won’t actually protect anyone from anything.
Huntington Beach will consider new ebike regulations at tomorrow’s city council meeting; the proposed ordinance would create different classes of electric bikes — which the state has already done — while providing for criminal or civil citations, and adding a section for unsafe riding. However, all of that may be moot and illegal, since regulating ebikes falls under the authority of the state, along will all other traffic regulations.
A La Jolla father calls for action on traffic safety measures after his 14-year old son suffered broken bones in his hand and foot when he was struck by a driver in a left cross crash, as he rode his ebike in a marked bike lane; the driver was waved through the intersection by another motorist, and failed to see the kid on his bike.
An 80-year old New York man was murdered by a black-clad man on a bicycle who circled the area apparently waiting for the victim to return home from a party, then rode up and shot him two times point blank in front of the victim’s horrified wife, in a killing caught on video; using a bike allowed the killer to approach his victim quickly and silently, without drawing undue attention.
More proof bike riders are tough, as a man in Baton Rouge, Louisiana walked himself to the hospital, despite three stab wounds in his back, after three people stabbed him and stole his bike and wallet, then left him bleeding on the sidewalk.
After courts awarded her the equivalent of over $620,000 for the death of her husband, a British woman decried the “inhuman” response of city leaders, who blamed him 100% for his own death after he was killed by a garbage truck driver as he rode his bike.
A Belgian bicyclist shown on video kneeing a five-year old girl in a viral video from Christmas Day 2020 has now won a defamation suit against the girl’s father, after a court fined the bike rider the equivalent of a dollar, concluding he didn’t intend to hurt her.
Helmet use has tripled among Japanese bike riders in the wake of a new law requiring them, although the lack of punishment for violating the law means it’s still only up to 13.5%.
Guyana’s junior cycling team was left standing at the airport, instead of flying to the Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships, because someone apparently forgot to check the airline’s strict no baggage policy, which includes racing bikes.
Especially since that video seems awfully familiar.
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A special thanks to Steve Fujinaka for a very unexpected and generous donation to help keep all the best bike news coming your way that lifted my spirits over the weekend.
August 25, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on A call to keep drivers out of SaMo bike lanes, drop in CA traffic deaths, and today-only deal on select CicLAvia merch
When is a bike lane not a bike lane?
When it becomes a parking lot. Or a traffic lane for motor vehicles.
A coalition of bike and safety advocacy groups has written an open letter to Santa Monica leaders praising their work building safer bikeways, but complaining about daily intrusions from motorists that put bike riders at needless risk.
To: Santa Monica City Council, Santa Monica Planning Commission, City Manager David White, Mobility Manager Jason Kligier, Director of Public Works Rick Valte,
Subject: Protecting our bikeways from motor vehicle incursions
Dear Council Members and City Leaders:
Santa Monica has become an exemplar of far-sighted bikeway design and implementation in our region. Recent innovations seen on Ocean Ave. and 17th St. have raised the bar for creating protected bike facilities that provide the safety and comfort to allow many more people to bike for their everyday mobility. Additional protected bikeways planned in Santa Monica’s Bicycle Action Plan will bring us ever closer to realizing a citywide bikeway network that will be a game-changer for mobility, traffic reduction and meeting our Vision Zero and climate goals.
Unfortunately, some motorists are undermining the benefits of recently-installed protected bike lanes (and standard, striped bike lanes) by parking in them and sometimes even driving in them. This behavior is photo-documented almost daily in social media posts (see examples: https://youtu.be/yYtqlHnEVVM).
When motor vehicles block these lanes it forces cyclists to divert into traffic lanes, sabotaging the safety and utility of these facilities, spoiling their potential to provide safe, equitable mobility choices for greater numbers of people. Further, when cyclists need to divert around vehicles blocking bikeways, this induces unsafe cycling behavior that might expose the city to liability as a result of negligence in maintaining proper bikeway access.
Therefore we, the undersigned organizations strongly urge the city to take steps to address this epidemic of bikeway incursions. There appear to be several strategies that could be explored:
– Physical barriers where they are safe and appropriate to prevent or discourage drivers from entering bikeways, such as bollards at entrance points, concrete separators and modular curb elements (like seen on Broadway).
– Additional signage and pavement markings to make it blatantly clear that bikeways are off limits to cars at all times.
– Signs that stipulate substantial fines for violations.
– Enforcement by parking and traffic officers, especially where vehicles park on the sidewalk or driveway aprons. But as a general rule, officer enforcement is sporadic and therefore less effective than physical elements.
– Perhaps photo enforcement, using something like the Automotus camera technology recently deployed in the Zero Emission Delivery Zone program.
– A literature search to explore best practices being used by other municipalities.
Clearly, physical barriers that prevent motor vehicle incursions 24-7 without the need for enforcement personnel is the superior and likely most cost-effective choice. And it makes sense to implement effective solutions to this problem before new bikeways are installed, so that this problem is not perpetuated and to save from having to make costly retrofits.
Please direct staff to find effective solutions to this vexing problem so that we can fully realize the many benefits of our growing bikeway network, especially public safety, and prevent this critical investment from being compromised.
Nine states and the District of Columbia increased more than 10%, led by Rhode Island with a horrifying 164% increase.
Meanwhile, new research examines a public health approach to road safety, considering transportation engineers as part of the public health workforce, while arguing that they should emphasize strategies that reduce risk for greater proportions of the population.
Then again, if we can’t even get the country to agree that a deadly worldwide pandemic was a public health issue, I wouldn’t hold you breathe on finding any agreement on ending traffic violence.
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Well, that was fun. 
Tuesday Feb 27th Santa Monica City Council will hear the 
