Day 315 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Maybe someone can make sense of this.
Because I sure as hell can’t.
A new report on bicycling deaths from a legal group professes to list the safest and most dangerous states for people riding bicycles.
According to the report, Florida is the most dangerous state in the US, with a whopping 234 people killed riding bicycles in 2024, up from 222 in 2023. California ranks second with 145, which would be a significant drop from 177 the year before.
Although they note that the 2024 figures are based on their own analysis, since official states aren’t yet available.
However, the report seems to misplace the Golden State, however, calling California “a close neighbor of Florida,” as if it had somehow switched places with Alabama or Cuba. It only makes sense in the context of the state’s ranking one and two, even though Florida had 89 more deaths, which doesn’t seem close at all.
The rankings are also based on sheer number of deaths, without taking population into account. On a per capita basis, California had roughly one bicycling fatality per 274,000 people, while Florida had one death per 98,000.
So which of these is not like the other?
Then there is this bizarre chart, which bears no correlation to the actual rankings, placing California 4th, and Florida 8th.
Source: Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group
It also lists Washington State “1th,” Massachusetts “2th.” and Oregon “3th.” And no, that’s not a typo.
Or at least, not mine.
Apparently, that what you get when you let AI do the work for you. Or farm it out to the lowest bidder in some non-English speaking country.
Or maybe just leave all the work to a bunch of trained monkeys.
But at least that’s better than the report on that report published by The US Sun, which offered this mind-boggling set of stats.
The report also showed that cyclist fatalities have increased significantly since 2015, starting at just over 20,000 a decade ago and now amounting to roughly 28,000 in 2024.
Which is about 25 times the estimated total of 1,109 bike deaths in the US last year, and 24 times the total for 2015.
At least that appears to stem from some staffer incapable of reading a badly drawn chart from the lawyers group report that conflates total US traffic death with bicycling fatalities.
But at least The US Sun ends their story about bicycling deaths with these helpful safety tips.
No, really.
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More details are starting to come out about the Bay Area bike rider who was stabbed by a Tesla driver near Sausalito, in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Velo reports the incident appears to be the result of a road rage dispute that began on a narrow road with poor sight-lines, and a history of being unsafe for cyclists. The stabbing itself appears to have occurred just as the roadway widens to make room for a dedicated bike lane.
Both parties were taken into custody once police arrived, with the bike rider taken to a hospital where he is reportedly in stable condition.
There’s no word on who started the dispute, or who was the aggressor. But there’s no question who was the victim.
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BikeLA, formerly known as the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, is hosting their happy hour fundraiser this Saturday, rain or otherwise.
Rain or shine — BikeFest 2025 is on!
We’re celebrating this Saturday, November 15, from 12–3 p.m. at Highland Park Brewery – just a hop, skip, and roll from the Chinatown Metro Station. A little light rain might join the fun, so come prepared with a jacket and your best bike spirit.
Join us for this Pedal-Powered Party and enjoy:
- Free bike valet
- One beer or non-alcoholic drink
- A commemorative BikeLA bandana
- ️ Our largest-ever bike-themed silent auction, featuring gear from Spurcycle, Patagonia, Yakima, Tern, Road Runner Bags, ABUS, Kryptonite, and more – the auction is live now, so you can start bidding today!
Come celebrate with us and help support BikeLA’s mission to make L.A. a safer, more connected place to ride.
Get Your Tickets Here
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Streets For All is hosting a mobility debate for Los Angeles Council District 1 next month, including incumbent Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez.
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Holiday gift guides for your favorite bike rider are starting to roll out, with new guides from Bike Rumor and Cyclist. Even if your favorite bike rider is you.
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Local
Damn good question. A San Francisco website examines how the planned completion of LA River bike path through DTLA ended up in bureaucratic hell.
State
Once again, an AirTag hidden in an ebike led to the arrest of an Orange County bike thief, after Huntington Beach cops tracked a surfer’s missing bike to Anaheim.
Sad news from Tulare County, where someone riding a bicycle was killed in a collision with the driver of a milk truck; the victim was reportedly riding on the centerline when the milk truck approached from behind, and the driver veered off the road to avoid a crash, just as the bike rider inexplicably veered right, and struck the truck. No, it doesn’t make any sense to me, either. As always, the question is whether there were any witnesses who survived the crash, other than the driver.
Over 60 people rode their bikes across the Richmond-San Rafael bridge on Sunday to celebrate the sixth anniversary of bikes being allowed on the bridge, though the mood was darkened by the recent loss of the bike lane across the bridge on weekdays.
National
Bike Magazine provides a tutorial on how Trump’s tariffs are affecting mountain biking, and what it all means for bikes, frames and parts.
The New York Times examines how the Sierra Club entered a doom spiral by embracing social justice at the expense of its core environmental mission, leaving it in a weakened position to combat changes under Trump.
Once again, bike riders were heroes, as a Seattle search and rescue team rode ped-assist ebikes to save a hiker in distress on a local peak as night fell and temperatures dropped.
Popular Seattle ebike maker Rad Power Bikes is reportedly circling the drain, as the company battles “significant financial challenges,” and could shut down operations within the next two to three months.
A sightless man rode in the 43rd-annual LoToJa bike race, completing the 200 mile race from Logan to Jackson Hole, Wyoming riding a tandem.
A 46-year old Illinois man was critically injured when a nine-year old boy darted out from between two cars, and into the path of the man’s ebike; fortunately, the kid escaped with just minor injuries.
Kindhearted Ohio cops gave a new bicycle to a ten-year old boy after the one he had worked all summer to buy was stolen.
A New Jersey judge ruled that prosecutors can use a statement from Sean Higgins, the driver accused of the drunken killing of the hockey-playing Gaudreau brothers as they rode their bicycles last year, admitting that he tossed the empty beer cans he’d been drinking from into a cornfield before investigators arrived.
A kindhearted Louisiana lawyer is planning to give away 600 bicycles and helmets to kids across the state before the holidays, in his 10th annual bicycle donation program.
They get it. Fox News reports that a 15-year old Florida boy faces felony charges after leading police on a dangerous chase while riding an electric dirt bike, weaving through traffic at speeds up to 70 mph. But at least they made clear it was not a ped-assist ebike.
International
Momentum recommends seven cities around the world where biking is the “coolest” way to explore them. None of which are Los Angeles, of course. Or even in the US.
Cleveland police vetoed plans for a new bike path through a field, arguing that it would exacerbate a problem with drug runners who cut through while riding off-road motorbikes. No, the one in England.
An Aussie writer explores the “five countries” of the British Isles by bicycle. Even though Northern Ireland isn’t technically a country.
An Irish newspaper remembers a doctor who dedicated his life to caring for the Tarauacan people of Brazil while riding a folding bicycle he brought with him from Ireland; he was 89.
A Spanish website says Malaga, Spain may seem like a bicyclist’s paradise to tourists biking along the sun-drenched coast, but a lack of safe bike lanes make riding impractical for many residents.
Competitive Cycling
A 24-year old British cyclist says it hasn’t sunk in yet that he’s a world champion, after winning the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And no, I didn’t know that was a thing, either.
Speaking of UCI, bike racing’s governing body is actively monitoring suspicious betting activity across gambling platforms in an effort to prevent corruption or race fixing, which has recently affected basketball and baseball.
Finally…
Your purloined bicycle could be stripped and turned into a makeshift shotgun. When you’re illegally packing a pistol on your ebike, don’t ride on the damn sidewalk (although you’ll have to find a way around the paper’s paywall to read it).
And don’t ride your electric motorbike through a Rancho Cucamonga mall.
Or any mall, for that matter.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
