February 15, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on New bike lane appears on North Figueroa, 16-year old critical after SaMo hit-and-run, and upper Ballona Creek bike path closure
Cedillo has gone so far as to ask the council to remove all proposed bike lanes in CD1 from the city’s mobility plan, arguing that the people in his district don’t ride bikes. And evidently forgetting that many people in the immigrant-rich district rely on bikes as their primary, if not only, form of transportation.
It’s not clear why the councilmember, whose opposition to safety projects earned him the moniker Roadkill Gill, had an apparent change of heart.
One clue comes from LADOT spokesperson Colin Sweeney, who notes that the new bike lanes wouldn’t inconvenience the people in cars.
L.A. City Transportation Department (LADOT) spokesperson Colin Sweeney wrote that “StreetsLA recently completed resurfacing on Figueroa after which LADOT restriped the street to bring it up to current standards. In this instance, restriping created space to add a bike lane to the existing configuration without impacting other road users (no impact on parking or number of travel lanes).” North Figueroa was repaved between Pasadena Avenue and the 110 Freeway.
Although neighborhood advocate Felicia G. has another, equally plausible explanation.
The victim was injured around 2 a.m. Sunday, when Maximiliano Ramos Santiago allegedly slammed into her bike at Chelsea Ave and Santa Monica Blvd in Santa Monica.
Santiago was arrested at his home yesterday, and booked on charges of felony hit-and-run and driving without a license.
Which would have given him plenty of time to sober up, assuming he had been drinking, which is highly likely given the time of the crash.
Let’s hope she makes a full and fast recovery.
And that the driver who did this is held fully accountable for leaving a young woman bleeding in the street.
It looks like the upper section of the Ballona Creek bike path will be out of commission for the next four and a half months.
Twitter post
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Local
A letter writer takes the LA Times’ Robin Abcarian to task for questioning the value of Vision Zero when, she said, eliminating traffic deaths is doomed to fail. Although that name of that letter writer seems sort of familiar.
A letter from Streets For All founder Michael Schneider argues that Rancho Mirage can, and should, make convert Highway 111 into a real street that meets the needs of all users, rather than just the ones in cars. Exactly the same arguments apply to PCH in Malibu, as well, which should be the city’s Main Street, instead of a sewer for pass-through drivers and their cars.
Residents of a San Mateo neighborhood overwhelming oppose plans for a bike lane network, preferring preserving street parking over the safety of people on bicycles; however, people in the rest of the city support the project.
Streetsblog invites you to vote on the worst kind of bicycle infrastructure; among the choices are Orange County favorite painted bike lanes next to high speed roadways, and sharrows, which only exist to help drivers improve their aim and thin the herd.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A Pennsylvania man is still riding at 90 years old, although the area’s hills mean he does most of his riding inside. Which makes him an ideal candidate for a ped-assist ebike to get back on the road.
September 3, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Ride to letter of the law in SaMo today, police look for hit-and-run bike rider, and Beverly Hills cops accused of racial bias
They were among the targets of a task force set up in the wake of last year’s George Floyd protests to address fraud in the high-end shopping district arrested 106 people — 105 of whom were Black.
The other man was identified as Latino.
Just a coincidence, I’m sure.
Other Black people were arrested for walking outside of the crosswalk or roller skating, although the police noted that the task force did recover 13 loaded guns and seized $250,000 in cash and ill-gotten debit cards.
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Great idea. A new clamp-on attachment promises to convert a wheelchair to an e-tricycle.
Twitter post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here, either. A writer for Yo! Venice says now that the city has cleaned up the homeless encampments, it’s time to deal with the “scourge” of e-scooters, complaining they’re “out-of-control and everywhere.”
They get it. The American Prospect says it’s time to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the pandemic by building back, not just better, but bike friendly, while noting that not many US cities have done that.
A bike rider in Salt Lake City was lucky to escape with minor head injuries after he rear-ended a stopped van when his brakes apparently failed. A reminder to always check your brakes before you ride, and clean your rims to remove oil or other residue if you have rim brakes.
A longtime Chicago community activist and bike and pedestrian advocate was critically injured when he as struck by an SUV driver, after he somehow “appeared in the street” as the driver was turning right. Yet another reminder that no one ever just appears out of nowhere; it’s just another way of drivers admitting that they weren’t paying attention behind the wheel.
Life is cheap in New York, where the operator of a limo company walked without a single day in jail for a “catastrophic brake failure” that killed 20 people; he’ll serve just five years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service despite copping a plea to 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide.
After being feted by Forbes as one of their Under 30 honorees, the founder of Philadelphia-based folding bike helmer maker Kova by AnneeLondon shuttered the business for the sake of her mental health after struggling to keep it going during the pandemic.
Berlin is making their popup bike lanes permanent, after the city saw a 25% jump in bicycling rates during the pandemic. On the other hand, Los Angeles can’t make any popup bike lanes permanent, because they didn’t install any. And no one really knows if bike riding rates went up during the pandemic, because no one was counting.
Swiss road champ Marlen Reusser broke away from a six-woman breakaway to win the first day of the Challenge by La Vuelta, with SoCal sprinter Coryn Rivera finishing second; the four stage race serves as the severely truncated women’s counterpart to the 21 stage Vuelta.
Thanks once again to Matthew R for his generous monthly donation to help support this site. Donations of any size or frequency are always welcome and appreciated. You can also help by telling your favorite local bike shop to advertise here.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Roberta Walker, a longtime bike and pedestrian advocate, and former professional snowboarder, suffered multiple catastrophic injuries that left her survival in doubt for some time after she was placed in a medically induced coma.
Although something tells me she’d gladly give up every penny to avoid those injuries and have her old life back.
Her lawyer argued that the sharrows were a dangerous condition of public property and a direct cause of the crash, in which she was run down from behind by a pickup driver.
Which, sadly, is about as good a description as any for far too many sharrows.
Thankfully, that won’t be a problem much longer.
The long-awaited project began preliminary construction activities last month and features traffic calming measures, buffered bike lanes, raised medians, roundabouts and enhanced crosswalks.
“One profound irony of this accident is that Ms. Walker herself had advocated for a dedicated bike lane in multiple City Council meetings,” (plaintiffs’ attorney Ed) Susolik said.
There’s no word on whether the driver ever faced charges.
Or even got a ticket for nearly killing someone riding legally, exactly where she was supposed to be.
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Santa Monica saw a 50% drop in traffic collisions over the last year as more people stayed home during the pandemic, and a 70% reduction in drunk driving due to the closure of restaurants and bars.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Tragic news from the UK, where a bike rider is on trial for allegedly jumping a red light and slamming into a 73-year old man walking home from work; the victim died days later as a result of severe brain injuries suffered in the crash; bicyclist turned himself in after initially fleeing the scene. Yet another reminder that pedestrians are the only people on the street who are more vulnerable than we are. So ride carefully around them, dammit. And stick around after a crash.
The family of British motorcyclist Harry Dunn say they’re offended by an offer from American spy Anne Sacoolas to do community service for the wrong way hit-and-run that took his life, after she claimed diplomatic immunity to flee the country. Although you have to wonder about American intelligence services if they can’t figure out that Brits drive on the other side of the road.
January 19, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Vandals attack Slow Street in Valley Village, GoFundMe raises $25k for Black Lives bicyclist, and blocking bike lanes in SaMo
It’s a blustery day in LA, and much of Southern California.
With makes it a great day to get that KOM, as long as you can keep the wind at your back. Otherwise, it could feel like riding with an anchor.
And as someone who used to deal with Colorado’s notorious Chinook winds, bear in mind that an ill-timed gust can literally blow you off your bike, or all the way across the roadway.
Or both.
So maybe you’re better off just staying home with a good book.
I tried fighting that same battle on San Vicente nearly a decade ago.
It wasn’t hard to get FedEx and UPS to agree that parking in a bike lane violated their internal policies, and pinky swear promise they wouldn’t do it anymore.
And while the Santa Monica police couldn’t grasp the concept that a bike lane is a legal lane of traffic reserved for bicycle, or that blocking one is a clear violation of state law, the chief agreed that double parking is illegal, at least.
But that was several SaMo PD chiefs ago. And nothing ever changed.
Delivery drivers kept parking there. Cops kept ignoring it.
And bike riders continued risking their lives mixing with impatient drivers who couldn’t comprehend that blocked bike lanes mean bike riders have to merge into the traffic lane.
Clearly, adding Amazon delivery vans to the mix hasn’t helped, either.
The only solution is to make it a protected bike lane, which it should be anyway.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes keeps going on.
Good news from behind the Orange Curtain, as Caltrans agrees to remove the ill-conceived rumble strips on PCH through Bolsa Chica that posed a needless risk along the popular riding route. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.
December 9, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Murder charge in stoned death of autistic bike rider, call for expanded Metro funding, and keep cars out of SaMo bike lanes
The murder charge results from a Watson Advisement following a 2013 conviction for driving under the influence in San Diego County, stating Lavalle could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving under the influence in the future. Otherwise, he would have faced a manslaughter charge.
His passenger, Lee Anna Murphy, has yet to be charged despite being found in possession of illegal drugs and paraphernalia.
You’ve got to be kidding. Life really is cheap in the UK, where a drunk driver walked with a suspended sentence, despite dragging a bike rider who heroically tried to stop his car, while driving at three times the legal limit.
September 29, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Lyft e-bikeshare coming to Santa Monica, Arroyo Seco bike path finally patched, and new survey on bike helmet laws
E-bikeshare is back in Santa Monica, following the demise of Jump Bikes after their sale to Lime earlier this year.
The bikes will be docked at the existing Breeze bikeshare docks, after Santa Monica’s municipal bikeshare bites the dust this November, eventually expanding to 500 bikes.
Here’s what the company has to say.
The new ebikes allow riders to travel around Santa Monica and West Los Angeles with less effort. When the rider pedals, the ebikes use a small electric motor to boost the rider’s pedal power, making longer trips easier and more accessible. Users will be able to rent ebikes in the Lyft app for $1 to unlock and $0.34 per minute – just scan the QR code and go. Riders can lock the bikes to any one of 80 Breeze stations with the attached cable, or to any public bike rack within the service area for an extra $1. For more about pricing and service area, visit the Lyft website…
Lyft also offers a Community Pass for bikes and scooters in Santa Monica. The Lyft Community Pass is a reduced-fare membership program for qualifying residents of Santa Monica and LA. Membership costs $5/month and includes discounted ebike rides at $0.05/min. The Community Pass program is available to residents ages 18 and older who qualify for the Big Blue Bus Low Income Fare is Easy (LIFE) program, Calfresh, Medicaid, SNAP, or the SCE Energy Savings Assistance Program and to qualifying Santa Monica Community College students.
Correction: I originally wrote that Jump had been acquired by Lyft, but they were actually purchased by Lime. My apologies for the error.
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Speaking of Santa Monica, David Drexler confirms that the 5 mph speed limit signs have been removed from the newly widened beachfront Marvin Braude bike path through the city.
As we noted last week, the signs with the ridiculously low speed limit were installed temporarily as part of a construction project.
The lengthy delay in getting it fixed could stem from the mishmash of public agencies involved in the repair work, including, but possibly not limited to,
LADOT
Bureau of Engineering
Board of Public Works
LA County
Regional Water Quality Control Board
StreetsLA (nee Bureau of Street Services)
Maybe someone should form a single umbrella agency to manage the city and county river channel bikeways so it doesn’t take the local equivalent of a UN Security Council negotiation every time something goes wrong.
I’m told credit goes to LA Bicycle Advisory Committee member John Laue for getting this done.
You may remember Christopher Kidd from his days running the LADOT Bike Blog, which is about the last time the agency communicated effectively to the general public.
Since then, he’s been building a successful career as a Complete Streets planner in the Bay Area.
Washington bike riders will now be able to treat stop signs as yields, as the state becomes just the latest to adopt a modified form of the Idaho Stop Law. California should join Oregon and Washington in adopting the law, making it uniform throughout the West Coast.
A Nebraska bike nonprofit is looking for a new home after losing their current location; the organization rescues and restores bicycles, and allows at-risk kids to work on them to earn their first bikes.
Cycling Weekly offers advice on how to keep your bike safe at home. My best advice is to keep your bike inside your home if at all possible; if you have to use a garage, make sure it’s locked to something that’s secretly anchored.
Stardom has changed life for the better for the 15-year old Indian girl who rode a bike over 700 miles to carry her injured father home earlier this year; she now has a new home, eight bikes, two possible movie deals and an offer to train with the national cycling team when the pandemic loses its grip.
September 24, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Strava data shows LA bike rate double last year’s; and gun charges yes, but nothing for driving through Pasadena protesters
According to Strava data, bicycle use in bike-unfriendly Los Angeles nearly doubled in May, jumping 93% over this time last year.
Among the six U.S. cities for which Strava provided data, Houston and Los Angeles, two sprawling metropolises where just .5% and 1% of the respective populations biked to work in pre-pandemic times, stand out. In Houston, the total volume of cycling trips in Houston was 138% higher in May 2020 than in May 2019. In Los Angeles, the jump was 93%. Unlike their peers, these two places also saw cycling increases in April, the first full month of widespread stay-at-home order and economic shutdowns.
Never mind that Strava is still used by a subset of bike riders, meaning the actual numbers could be even higher, as the LACBC’s Eli Akira Kaufman points out.
Eli Akira Kaufman, the executive director of the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition, said the data also likely leaves out many of the essential workers he’s observed hopping on bikes instead of the bus, which could mean that the numbers are even higher than what the Strava data shows. Now his thoughts are towards the future. Cities like Houston and L.A., with their thousands of miles of car-oriented streets, have their work cut out building protected bike lanes and other infrastructure to encourage cycling even after the pandemic ends
“How do we keep the riding coming?” he said. “That’s the question now.”
The obvious answer to that is to provide a safe, convenient and connected network of bikeways that allows riders to traverse the city, and their own neighborhoods.
This is who we share the roads with, protest edition.
A San Marino man who drove through a group of peaceful Pasadena protestors last month has been charged with conspiracy to transport firearms across state lines, as well as making a false statement to police.
During a search of Hung’s truck, police found a loaded semiautomatic handgun, multiple high-capacity magazines loaded with ammunition, an 18-inch machete, $3,200 in cash, a long metal pipe and a megaphone, according to the affidavit.
Evidently, endangering innocent people with a motor vehicle is just dandy, though.
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This is who we share the roads with, hit-and-run edition.
An Aussie man faces charges for pushing a friend in a shopping cart into a group of bicyclists traveling at over 25 mph, taking out a number of riders. The man, who had been drinking for a dozen hours, claims his actions weren’t deliberate and he just lost control of the cart, despite how it looks on security cam video.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
In a tragic story from Milwaukee, a 54-year old man was fatally gunned down by a bike rider in a dispute over a traffic “mishap.” There is no excuse for violence, especially at the risk of someone’s life. Just suck it up and ride away, already.
They get it, too. Miami is planning to permanently ban cars from the city’s beachfront Ocean Drive, while prioritizing pedestrians first in the city’s entertainment district, followed by bicyclists and transit, with personal vehicles last.
Talk about not getting it. A Philippine city is considering a proposal to mandate helmets and reflectorized vests for bike riders, as well as limiting riders to carrying minimal loads, since “bicycles are not designed to carry much cargo.” Which would come as a hell of a surprise to many bike commuters and cargo bike owners.
David Drexler writes that Santa Monica has finally installed a curb separating bike riders and pedestrians on the newly widened Marvin Braude bike path through the city’s beaches.
But at the same time, they’ve installed a ridiculous 5 mph speed limit on the pathway, which is a fast walking pace, and slower than most people run. And almost half the 8 mph speed limit in Hermosa Beach.
Never mind that, as he points out, it’s hard to ride a bike that slowly without falling over, even on a cruiser bike.
Just more evidence of biking rules being set by people who’ve never ridden one.
Photos by David Drexler.
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Los Angeles County protestors aren’t backing down in the ongoing street confrontations with the Sheriff’s Department.
Meanwhile, bike riders in many parts of the county continue to express a fear of being harassed or arrested by sheriff’s deputies for Biking while Black or Brown.
Which is something no one should ever have to fear.
Compounding the tragedy, the formerly two lane street where the crash occurred has suffered from speeding drivers since being widened to four lanes earlier this year.
We’ll never know if he and his daughter might have both made it home to their family if it hadn’t been.
And someone should ask Sacramento’s ABC10 why it took until the next-to-last of 17 paragraphs in their story to mention that the damn car even had a driver.
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A frequent bike rider, who asked not to be named, forwarded this dashcam video taken during a recent drive through Santa Monica, demonstrating why stopping for red lights matters.
San Francisco authorities are struggling to identify a hospitalized man who was seriously injured when he was hit by a driver while riding his bike. This is why you should always have some form of ID that’s not likely to get lost or stolen when you ride your bike. I always wear my RoadID, but you can also carry a card with your name and emergency contact information.
New York bike riders will be on their own, as city officials plan to close part of the Hudson River Greenway for reconstruction work with no safety provisions for riders forced to detour onto the streets; the pathway is the busiest bike path in North America. Which is saying something for anyone who’s ever tried to ride the Venice bike path on a holiday weekend.
Let’s start today with a warning from Caltrans for Camp Pendleton bike riders.
This message is a reminder to all cyclists traveling through Camp Pendleton to stay on the bike path at all times. Camp Pendleton is an active training base and it operates 24/7 conducting training. Venturing off the bike path could expose civilians to unsafe conditions.
The Camp Pendleton Community Plan Liaison informed Caltrans that cyclists were observed on the landing zone just off of the bike path (see map attached). A military helicopter that had been approaching the landing zone had to abort its landing to avoid injuring the cyclists that had trespassed military grounds. To ensure the safety of civilian cyclists and military members of Camp Pendleton, please stay on the bike path. The bike path is the only area where cyclists are allowed on Camp Pendleton. Cyclist and Caltrans are allowed on Camp Pendleton through permits approved by the military, to ensure cyclist access continues, please follow the rules set by the Camp Pendleton staff.
For everyone’s safety, please pass this message along to fellow cyclists, and if you see anyone diverging into military property, please let them know to stay on the bike path.
Seriously, that could have been a disaster.
And failure to stick to the rules could result in everyone getting banned from the base, which would also be a disaster.
Thanks to Robert Leone for forwarding the message.
Today’s photo come from David Drexler, showing a newly reopened, extra wide Marvin Bruade bike path in Santa Monica.
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Drexler also forwarded photos from last week’s unrest in Santa Monica, showing what he calls the world’s safest bikeways on Ocean and Colorado, with the streets guarded by California National Guard troops.
Although that’s not exactly what I’d call inviting.
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Let’s take another quick shredding break this morning, with mountain biking videos from Argentina…
Switzerland…
And New Zealand.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bike just keeps on going.
British singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor explains her recent bicycling injuries came when she swerved to avoid someone on a Thames River pathway and fell off her bike, without a helmet, smacking her head on the concrete down below. Which serves as a reminder that slow speed falls are exactly what bike helmets are designed for, not collisions with motor vehicles.
A special thanks to Los Angeles Bicycle Attorneys Josh and Paul Cohen of Cohen Law Partners for renewing their sponsorship for the coming year.
They join title sponsors Pocrass & De Los Reyes in renewing their support, despite these troubling economic times.
It’s their sponsorship that allows me to do what I do, and bring you the latest and best bike news on a daily basis.
Without their support — and yes, yours — this site would not be possible, at least in its present form.
Now saddle up, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
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Let’s start in Santa Monica, where good things are happening.
And not so good.
On the plus side, David Drexler sends word that the city has taken advantage of the slow traffic during the coronavirus shutdown to install parking protected bike lanes on a short section of Broadway.
Look at this, a gift to cyclists from Santa Monica. They took advantage of the low corona traffic to redo Broadway thus far from 20th Street west a few blocks. They moved the parking away from the curb and replaced it with a very protected bike lane on both sides. These photos were a taken at 19th and Broadway. Not sure how far they will extend it. It goes from 20th to the Santa Monica food coop right now, then the old green lane picks up there.
The picture of the G on the ground is probably where they will pain green.
It makes cycling much safer in those lanes than the ones next to traffic, I feel. Hope they do more.
Advocacy group Santa Monica Spoke joins with other organizations to warn that excessive cuts to the transportation department could imperil the safety of vulnerable road users, as well as any post-pandemic economic recovery.
Santa Monica’s economy depends on a functioning transportation network that safely moves people, goods and services. Current proposed budget cuts will be destructive to transportation work, will disable basic functions, and slow our safe recovery from this pandemic. Transportation staff, infrastructure and services are classified as essential government functions* and perform vital functions that literally keep our community running safely. These cuts will damage safety and the very fabric of services and programs that we depend on living in Santa Monica…
These essential life saving functions are under threat with extreme plans to cut over half of the City Transportation and Mobility Division compared to 20-40% across other departments. While we can only imagine the stress and burden of decisions weighing on City Council, this level of cuts would severely impact basic public safety and infrastructure operation functions, wounding our city’s ability to rebound fiscally from the COVID-19 crisis. It is imperative to be strategic. We must consider the holistic dynamic relationships, dependencies and functions that contribute to safety, economic stability and regrowth. While the City suffers catastrophic shortfalls, we should not use a sledgehammer where a scalpel is needed to balance new budgets. Council needs to take time to cut costs strategically, while maintaining essential staff that would facilitate a safe and secure path to economic recovery and resilience.
As part of the cutbacks, Santa Monica plans to cut all bike, pedestrian and Vision Zero funding for the next year.
Which means those Broadway protected bike lanes may be the last we’ll see for awhile.
And about damn time, since the existing bike lane is largely unrideable much of the time, and usually serves as nothing more than free parking in front of the Bloc shopping mall.
And the only rule governing traffic on 7th seems to be to aim for the soft, squishy people instead of the cold, hard cars.
Anyone who’s ridden for awhile can tell you it’s not always the bike rider’s fault in a situation like that; people are unpredictable, and can step out into the street without looking for someone on a bicycle.
But it’s always our obligation to ride carefully around pedestrians, because they’re the only ones more vulnerable than we are. And be prepared to stop or swerve to avoid crashing into someone.
Especially if you’re riding on a sidewalk.
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This working from home thing might just catch on after all.
Yes, May is Bike Month, even if everything has been cancelled and too many cities won’t give an inch on the streets during the coronavirus pandemic. Including Los Angeles.
When a Nova Scotia nursing home worker went to pick up her bike after having it repaired, the shop surprised her with a new bicycle to thank her for her work on the frontlines of the Covid-19 battle.
Tragic news from India, where a couple were killed in a collision along with two other people, after a kindhearted truck driver offered them a lift after riding 250 miles because they couldn’t find any other form of transportation.
