Let’s start with a bit of heartbreaking news, after someone stole the ghost bike recently installed for a pregnant mother in Playa del Rey.
According to Streets Are For Everyone Executive Director Damian Kevitt, the bike placed in memory of 35-year old Regan Cole-Graham, a mother of two who was seven months pregnant with her daughter Ophelia, was taken shortly after the ghost bike for Blake Ackerman in West Hollywood was stolen, then recovered a few days later.
Which raises the question of whether someone is purposely removing ghost bikes, or if this is just a strange coincidence.
Only the ghost bike installed for her unborn daughter remains where they were placed.
Cole-Graham and her daughter were killed by an elderly driver on Pershing Drive, where a road diet installed in 2017 was removed months later after backlash from angry motorists, mostly pass-through commuters from Manhattan Beach.
And yes, there’s not a pit in hell deep enough for any lowlife scumbucket who would intentionally steal a ghost bike, as if that’s somehow different than desecrating any other memorial.
A woman inside was just washing her clothes when the SUV came flying in through the door of the business around 6 pm, fatally pinning her against one of the machines.
A witness reported the driver appeared to be an elderly woman, who tried explaining her actions by telling police her foot got caught on the pedal. If true, it adds even more fuel to the burning argument over how old is too old to drive a car.
Either way, it’s more proof that motor vehicles pose a deadly risk to everyone, on or off the roadway.
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California State Senator Catherine Blakespear will host a 90-minute webinar this evening to discuss solutions to ebike safety, in conjunction with CalBike, PeopleForBikes, Streets For All and Streets Are For Everyone.
Blakespear is the sponsor of SB 1167, a much-needed bill that would clarify the definition of ebikes, and crack down on illegal electric motorbikes being misrepresented as legal ebikes.
Someone let me know how it goes, because I’ll be on a much-needed mental health break today, going to my happy place where cars don’t exist, and the deer and the antelope play.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
You’ve got to be kidding. Orange County Sheriff’s deputies were called when two teenagers decided to terrorize shoppers in a Foothill Ranch Walmart by riding their ebikes — actually electric motorbikes — up and down the aisles. One more reason why California needs to clarify the definition of ebikes to distinguish them from e-motos and dirt bikes.
A group of Singapore bicyclists were termed “too arrogant to use the lane provided for them,” despite politely riding single file and hugging the fog line — never mind that the bike lane, just the shoulder of the damn roadway — was likely littered with debris, or that there were a series of warning signs next to the bike lane just down the road. Because arrogance is the only possible explanation when people on bicycles do things that drivers don’t understand.
This is how you get change. Hundreds of Chicago bicyclists took part in a “life-affirming” bike ride and die-in in memory of a city Complete Streets planner who was killed in a dooring while riding in a painted bike lane. I’ve never seen that many LA bike riders turn out for any protest or memorial except Critical Mass.
He gets it. An editor for Cycling Weekly says he is very aware of his vulnerability when he rides a bicycle, like virtually every other bike rider, and doesn’t need to be pulled over by the cops for a reminder, when it’s the people in the big, dangerous machines who should be told how vulnerable we are.
A British father and son completed a 400-day, 18,000-mile bike trip around the world, setting Guinness World Records in the process for the fastest bicycle circumnavigation of the world by a father and son, the longest bicycle journey by a father and son, and the most countries visited in a continuous bicycle journey by a father and son.
Wednesday was a very long day, and by the time I finally had a chance to write about the bicycling death in Santa Ana, it was too damn late to start on anything else.
On the other hand, this is the first time I haven’t had a migraine all week.
So there’s that, anyway.
Apropos of nothing, today’s photo is my coffee cup and a little light reading.
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In late-breaking news — as in a 1 am press release — Streets For All and Streets Are For Everyone announced that SB 1167, which addresses the problem of illegal electric motorbikes being sold as ebikes by unscrupulous dealers, passed the state Senate and will move on to the Assembly.
Given the late hour, I’m just going to let you read the whole thing, rather than trying to rewrite it and edit it down.
This bill partially addresses the problem I’ve complained about for some time, that legal ped-assist ebikes too often get conflated and confused with illegal e-motos.
And this may be the first time I have so scrupulously used unscrupulous in any context on here.
California Senate Passes SB 1167 to Crack Down on Illegal E-Motos Fraudulently Sold as E-Bikes
SACRAMENTO — Recent news has seen a spike in reports of injuries or fatalities caused by “e-bikes,” such as 13-year-old Benson Nguyen or gangs of teenagers and young adults riding “e-bikes”. What is often missed is that most, if not all, of the vehicles being ridden are not legal e-bikes but are more correctly called e-motos (sometimes incorrectly called e-motorcycles). E-motos are high-powered two-wheeled electric devices that look similar to e-bikes or more like a cross between an e-bike and a motorcycle.
Under California law, legal e-bikes are limited to 750 watts and must fall within the state’s three-class e-bike framework.
But consumers, parents, schools, retailers, and law enforcement are increasingly encountering devices being fraudulently sold as e-bikes that can travel at much higher speeds – 30, 40, 50+ mph, and may legally require registration, licensing, insurance, or safety equipment.
SB 1167, legislation authored by Senator Catherine Blakespear of Encinitas, directly addresses the problem of e-motos and other high-powered electric devices being marketed and sold as street-legal “e-bikes” even when they do not meet California’s legal definition of an electric bicycle and are not street-legal. SB 1167 would make it clear that these devices cannot be falsely advertised or sold as e-bikes and can’t be ridden on the roads without proper registration, rider training, and safety features such as rear taillights, turn signals, and helmets.
SB 1167 strengthens consumer protections by requiring clearer labeling and disclosure when a device does not meet the legal definition of an e-bike. The bill also requires every e-bike sold in California to include a visible frame label identifying its class and maximum assisted speed, making it easier for riders, parents, retailers, schools, and law enforcement to understand what kind of device is being used.
“The e-bike panic in California has too often missed the real problem. Legal e-bikes are helping people replace car trips, save money, and get around more easily — but high-powered electric motorcycles being sold as e-bikes create confusion, real safety risks, and reasonable public backlash. SB 1167 is exactly the kind of smart, targeted legislation we need: protect consumers, crack down on misclassified devices, and keep legal e-bikes moving,” said Marc Vukcevic, Director of State Policy at Streets For All.
Under SB 1167, e-motos up to 3000 watts of power would be categorized the same as a moped, requiring the same registration, driver training, and safety features (taillights, turn signals, front lights, etc.) in order to be legally ridden on the road. E-motos above 3000 watts would be classified as either a motor-driven cycle or a motorcycle.
“We know we aren’t going to be getting rid of e-motos. That genie is already out of the bottle. The point of SB 1167 is not to outlaw e-motos but to bring them back under the law and ensure they are being used in a way that is safe for the rider and those around them,” said Damian Kevitt, Executive Director at Streets Are For Everyone.
The legislation also improves incident reporting by requiring law enforcement to include e-bike label information when documenting crashes and other incidents. That improved data collection will help California better distinguish between legal e-bikes and other electric two-wheeled vehicles, ensuring future policy is based on the actual source of safety concerns.
E-bikes are an increasingly important transportation option for Californians. They help families replace car trips, give young people and older adults more independence, support workers who rely on affordable transportation, reduce emissions, and make biking a more practical option for longer trips and hilly communities. Streets For All and SAFE support policies that protect legal e-bike riders and responsible retailers while ensuring that e-motos sold are used safely, with proper registration, training, and safety features one would expect of any high-powered vehicle used on our roads.
SB 1167 is co-sponsored by Streets Are For Everyone, Streets For All, Calbike, and PeopleForBikes. The bill now heads to the Assembly for consideration.
A photo shows the carbon-frame Factor bike snapped in half, with the scooter embedded in between.
The scooter should have never been on the streets, where New York has a 20 mph speed limit for stand-up e-scooters, which is common in many cities and states; California has a 15 mph limit for throttle-controlled scooters.
Never mind that the rider wasn’t legally allowed in the bike lane, let alone riding salmon.
Now two people have paid the price for one man’s bad choices.
According to witnesses, the driver was chasing the ebike rider when he caught up to the victim at a stop sign, then got out of his car and fired several shots as the bike rider tried to back away.
Despite taking two to three bullets to the chest, the victim got back on his ebike and rode to the next town over, where a friend called 911. He was hospitalized in critical condition.
Police arrested the driver hours later. Possible charges will likely depend on whether the victim survives his injuries.
AB 2168, authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, would strengthen California’s ATP by making it more focused, more coordinated, and more accountable. The bill requires updates to the ATP guidelines to give greater emphasis to safe routes to transit, including projects that improve biking and walking access to transit facilities, school bus stops, transit station areas, planned stops, transit corridors, transit-oriented development areas, and underserved or rural areas.
The most important change in AB 2168 is also one of the most practical: it pushes California to stop treating active transportation as a small, separate category of transportation spending. The bill calls for commitments of State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) funds to ATP-funded projects so California can scale up larger and network-level active transportation improvements. Committing STIP funds, which typically funded larger general roadway projects, to active transportation projects increases available funding for biking and walking infrastructure, increasing the reach far beyond the oversubscribed, underfunded ATP. In plain terms, that means ATP dollars should be used as a corollary, complementary piece for bigger investments, not as the only money available to build safer streets.
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Personal injury attorney Steven M. Sweat emailed with a good reminder that California’s three-foot passing law was changed three years ago to require drivers to change lanes to pass a vulnerable road user when there’s a lane available.
But drivers still can’t legally put two wheels across the magic yellow line in the center of the road to pass a bike rider safely on a two-lane road, thanks to our outgoing governor’s overactive veto pen.
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Bike Angeles rides the D.
Twitter post
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If, like me, you’re still making last-minute decisions on local offices before Tuesday’s Election Day deadline, LAist offers a detailed Voter’s guide.
Meanwhile, Streets For All endorses Nithya Raman, my fellow corgi dad Kenneth Mejia, and Marissa Roy in the upcoming election.
Twitter post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Metro approved a number of motions at Thursday’s board meeting, including a new budget that will continue to flush nearly a billion dollars down the induced demand toilet, along with a motion to move the plans for the LA river bike path forward with a lower-cost design that could possibly, maybe, kinda hopefully be finished in time for the ’28 Olympics. LA Mayor Karen Bass was also voted in as board chair for the upcoming fiscal year, though voters may have a say in that come November, if not on Tuesday.
State
Another Orange County mom could face charges for the sins of her son, after the teenager fled from cops attempting a traffic stop by riding against traffic at a high rate of speed and blowing through a red light, following several previous warning about his alleged illegal behavior.
Better news from San Diego’s Carmel Valley, where a 12-year old boy was moved from the ICU nearly a month after he was struck by a driver while riding his ebike; Mark Maldonado has shown significant improvement since he was removed from a ventilator and a medically induced coma. A crowdfunding page has raised nearly $21,000, while classmates at his elementary school raised over $1,800 with a bake sale and lemonade stand.
A British advocacy group says the government should invest in electric bicycles, because ebike incentives are twice as effective as grants for electric cars. Maybe someone should tell the California Air Resources Board, since they stole the funding for the state ebike incentive program to give it to electric car buyers, instead.
Thirty-four-year old Danish cyclist Michael Valgren fought his way to his biggest victory since a devastating crash at the 2022 Route d’Occitanie nearly ended his career, by winning Wednesday’s stage 17 of the Giro.
April 14, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Promoting the 3-foot law on a license plate, muddling the already muddled ebike waters, and Tour de Watts rolls Saturday
Before we get started, I hope you’ll join me in thanking Cohen Law Partners for renewing their ad and their support for another year.
Looking back, they’ve helped sponsor this site for 13 years now.
It’s their support, and that of our other sponsors, that allows me to keep bringing this site your way every day.
………
Now that’s more like it.
I saw this Tennessee license plate while riding in my wife’s car in West Hollywood on Sunday. And could only wish we had something like it in California.
A Bicycle Awareness license plate was in the works a few years back, but to the best of my knowledge, it ever got enough pre-orders to go into production, though I’d love to be corrected on that.
But even that wouldn’t directly address the three-foot passing law, or any other specific bike safety laws, like specifying our right to take the lane in most cases.
But we can hope, I guess.
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WTF?
Patch offers a muddled, barely comprehensible look at the rise of ebikes, focusing primarily on enforcement and injuries, while not only conflating the usual ped-assist bikes and e-motorbikes, but also tossing e-scooters into the mix while they’re at it.
In fact, they offer only one sentence addressing the difference between legal ebikes and illegal e-motos.
Law enforcement and researchers alike caution that rising injury numbers mirror the explosion in ridership. Still, confusion between legal e-bikes and higher-powered “e-motos” continues to complicate enforcement and policy. That confusion has triggered a wave of legislation.
That’s it.
Then there’s this, as they loop older, helmetless e-scooter jockeys into the mix.
Because they can, I guess.
Not all accidents or scofflaws involve children or teens. On Wednesday a 61-year-old Petaluma man traveling on the wrong side of a sidewalk on an electric scooter without a helmet collided with a pedestrian. However, accidents are more common among youth. And a study by the Mineta Institute reported that existing evidence points to a wide variety of people using electric bicycles for transportation, including children, older adults, and people with disabilities. The study’s authors also noted that electric bicycle patients 65-years and older had both the highest hospitalization rate and highest head injury rate.
They also say a part of the problem is a lack of age limits, while failing to mention that California passed a law last year allowing cities to ban ebikes for younger riders, and faster e-mopeds and e-motos require a license.
And that Class 3 ebikes are limited to riders over 16 — as are e-scooters and hoverboards, for that matter.
But the last half of the piece is devoted entirely to a debate over Lamorinda Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s AB 1942, which would require visible licenses for all ebikes, and Encintas State Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s SB 1167, which creates a clear distinction between ebikes and e-motos, while banning deceptive advertising promoting the latter.
In case anyone needs a refresher, here is how ebikes are currently classified under California law.
Streetsblog LA’s “This Week in Livable Streets” is always a must read to keep up on all the meetings and events happening each week in safer streets and livable communities, as well as our own wonderful world of bicycles.
So apparently, the people in the big, dangerous machines don’t have to obey traffic signals or pass safely if someone on a bike isn’t in a bike lane.
Never mind all the other little things like not speeding, not driving distracted as long as you minimize the distractions, or even swigging some swill before getting behind the wheel.
And bike riders are free to do all kinds of stupid and potentially dangerous things, as long as they don’t ride salmon and stop for red lights.
Got it.
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Gravel Bike California rides the Redlands Strada Rossa XII(4K).
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Police in Florida went out of their way not to blame an elderly driver for a collision that injured two triathletes, using the most passive language possible by reporting that “The driver and bicyclists ‘did not identify” each other ‘until the crash was unavoidable'” — even though the 74-year old driver right-hooked them on a lane that was supposed to be closed to traffic.
Visit California explains how to get around Los Angeles without a car, but somehow forgets to mention walking or riding a bike. Or even renting a damn scooter, for that matter.
A pair of Navy vets plan to ride from California to Shanksville, Pennsylvania and on to New York City to mark the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, while benefitting the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. California is a big place, though, so maybe they should mention where they’ll be leaving from.
Heartbreaking news from Spartanburg, South Carolina, where two kids were killed by an alleged drunken, unlicensed driver violating the open container law; the victims, just 9 and 12-years old, were riding their bikes on the sidewalk when the driver jumped the curb.
Before we get started, I hope you’ll join me in thanking Cohen Law Partners for renewing their ad and their support for another year.
Looking back, they’ve helped sponsor this site for 13 years now. Their support, and that of our other sponsors, is how I can continue to keep bringing this your way every day.
………
Now that’s more like it.
I saw this Tennessee license plate while riding in my wife’s car in West Hollywood on Sunday. And could only wish we had something like this in California.
A Bicycle Awareness license plate was in the works a few years back, but I don’t think it ever got enough pre-orders to go into production, though I’d love to be corrected on that.
But even that wouldn’t directly address the three-foot passing law, or any other specific bike safety laws, like specifying the right to take the lane.
But we can hope, I guess.
………
WTF?
Patch offers a muddled, barely comprehensible look at the rise of ebikes, while focusing primarily on enforcement and injuries, and conflating not only the usual ped-assist bikes and e-motorbikes, but tossing e-scooters into the mix while they’re at it.
In fact, they offer only one sentence addressing legal ebikes and illegal e-motos.
Law enforcement and researchers alike caution that rising injury numbers mirror the explosion in ridership. Still, confusion between legal e-bikes and higher-powered “e-motos” continues to complicate enforcement and policy. That confusion has triggered a wave of legislation.
That’s it.
Then there’s this, as they loop older, helmetless e-scooter jockeys into the mix.
Because they can, I guess.
Not all accidents or scofflaws involve children or teens. On Wednesday a 61-year-old Petaluma man traveling on the wrong side of a sidewalk on an electric scooter without a helmet collided with a pedestrian. However, accidents are more common among youth. And a study by the Mineta Institute reported that existing evidence points to a wide variety of people using electric bicycles for transportation, including children, older adults, and people with disabilities. The study’s authors also noted that electric bicycle patients 65-years and older had both the highest hospitalization rate and highest head injury rate.
They also say a part of the problem is a lack of age limits, while failing to mention that California passed a law last year allowing cities to ban ebikes for younger riders, and faster ebikes require a license.
And that Class 3 ebikes are limited to riders over 16 — as are e-scooters and hoverboards, for that matter.
But the last half of the piece is devoted entirely to a debate over Lamorinda Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s AB 1942, which would require visible licenses for all ebikes, and Encintas State Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s SB 1167, which would create a clear distinction between ebikes and e-motos, while banning deceptive advertising regarding the latter.
In case anyone needs a refresher, here is how ebikes are currently classified under California law.
Streetsblog’s “This Week in Livable Streets” is always a must read to keep up on all the meetings and events happening each week in safer streets and livable communities, as well as our own world of bicycles.
So apparently, the people in the big, dangerous machines don’t have to obey traffic signals or pass safely if someone on a bike isn’t in a bike lane.
Never mind all the other little things like not speeding, not driving distracted as long as you minimize the distractions, and go ahead and swig a few gallons of booze before you drive.
And bike riders are free to do all kinds of stupid and potentially dangerous things, as long as they don’t ride salmon and stop for red lights.
Got it.
………
Gravel Bike California rides the Redlands Strada Rossa XII(4K).
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Police in Florida go out of their way not to blame an elderly driver for a collision that injured two triathletes, by using the most passive language possible, reporting that “The driver and bicyclists ‘did not identify” each other ‘until the crash was unavoidable'” — even though the 74-year old driver right hooked them on a lane that was supposed to be closed to traffic.
Visit California explains how to get around Los Angeles without a car, but only focuses on Metro, and forgets to mention you can also walk or take a bike. Or even rent a scooter, for that matter.
A pair of Navy vets plans to ride from California to Shanksville, Pennsylvania and on to New York City to mark the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, while benefitting the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Although California is a big place, so they might want to mention where they’re leaving from.
Heartbreaking news from Spartanburg, South Carolina, where two kids were killed by an alleged drunken, unlicensed driver with an open container in his car; the victims, just 9 and 12-years old, were riding their bikes on the sidewalk when the driver jumped the curb.
A town in Norfolk, England is being criticized for spending nearly $700,000 to build a mile-long bike lane, which has supposedly made it less safe by narrowing the street, even though that’s been shown to slow drivers while improving safety for everyone — although bicyclists have a legitimate complaint because haven’t kept delivery drivers from blocking them.
The AP correctly notes we’re living in a golden age of cycling, with “weekly brilliance and once-in-a-lifetime rivalries,” thanks to Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard. And you can add Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and the incomparable Marianne Vos, as well.
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
A town in Norfolk, England is being criticized for spending nearly $700,000 to build a mile-long bike lane, which has supposedly made it less safe by narrowing the street, even though that’s been shown to slow drivers while improving safety for everyone; although bicyclists have a legitimate complaint because the city hasn’t kept delivery drivers from blocking the lane.
The AP correctly notes we’re living in a golden age of cycling, with “weekly brilliance and once-in-a-lifetime rivalries,” thanks to Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard. And you can add Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and the incomparable Marianne Vos.
In a Washington Post op-ed, a Virginia bicyclist and writer builds an effective case that new laws cracking down on ebikes are going too far, “making a basic form of transportation and a familiar element of childhood less accessible.”
In fact, he calls said laws “tyranny on wheels.”
Kevin R. Parker explains that ebikes make the bicycles that gave him a sense of freedom as a child more accessible for people who might not want, or be able, to ride.
But laws like New Jersey’s draconian new restrictions that treat every form of ebike the same destroys that newfound accessibility.
The justification for New Jersey’s legislation is safety. A 13-year-old boy was killed on an e-bike when he collided with a landscaping truck in September, and there are real safety concerns for riders and pedestrians when it comes to faster and more powerful e-bikes. E-bikes that hit high speeds can be a problem. But the law doesn’t distinguish between different kinds of e-bikes when it comes to licenses, registration and age limits. A 70-year-old on a pedal-assist bike riding to the grocery store is treated identically to a teenager on a powerful e-bike doing 40 mph. The proposed regulations are a blunt instrument that restricts transportation options and increases cost for people,
New Jersey isn’t alone. Cities across the country are debating new regulations, and not just for e-bikes. After Murphy signed the bill into law, New Hampshire introduced a bill requiring a $50 annual registration fee on all bicycles that operate on paths, roads or trails funded by state or local government, including children’s bikes. In California, progressive Bay Area communities have moved to ban or restrict e-bikes on paths and in public parks — the same communities that spent years and millions promoting alternatives to cars, now cracking down on the most effective alternative.
We’ve seen similar moves up and down the Southern California coast, as cities crack down on ebikes of every kind, repeatedly conflating electric motorcycles and non-street legal dirt bikes with far slower and less powerful ped-assist bikes.
The answer, Parker says, isn’t found in the usual progressive arguments. Instead, he offers a case that should appeal just as well to conservatives, if not better.
Freedom.
Activists fighting e-bike restrictions frame it as climate policy or transportation equity. The political language focuses on progressive political priorities. There’s a stronger argument to be made based on personal liberty: State governments are restricting personal mobility and imposing licensing and registration on bike riders across the board. There are reckless e-bike riders who break the rules of the road and put themselves and other citizens at risk. If they violate the speed limit, ignore traffic lights or blow through stop signs, local law enforcement should hold them responsible. But by pursuing aggressive blanket regulation, policymakers are making a basic form of transportation and a familiar element of childhood less accessible.
Works for me.
Hopefully, it will work for members of the California state legislature when they consider SB 1167, which would redefine electric bicycles, mopeds and motorbikes to create a clear distinction between them.
The bill would require that an electric bicycle must have fully operational pedals and an electric motor capable of no more than 750 watts; anything else could not be legally called, marketed or sold as a bicycle or ebike.
What is currently termed a motorized bicycle would be redefined as a moped, with clearer definitions of vehicle design, power output, and a top speed of 30 mph on level ground.
The term motor-driven cycles would include electric motorcycles offering less than 3,750 watts and 5 brake horsepower.
Both categories would require that manufacturers and marketers clearly specify that they are not electric bicycles.
The bill represents a rare case of successfully splitting the baby, allowing restrictions on high-power electric motos while maintaining the freedom offered by lower-speed ped-assist ebikes.
it seems dear old dad helped his son convert the bike to an electric motorcycle by replacing the pedals with motorbike pegs, removing the 20 mph speed governor, and rewiring the engine to do up to 60 mph.
That driver’s car was then rear-ended by another driver, because of course it was.
However, only person on the bike was injured.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
You’ve got to be kidding. A Pennsylvania driver is accused of intentionally hitting a boy on a bicycle in a road-rage incident that lasted multiple blocks; the man claimed he didn’t hit the kid on purpose, even though security video shows him blaring on his horn before attempting to cut the boy’s bike off, then ramming him from behind at a red light even though he had plenty of room to stop. He also claimed “he would have never struck the kid if the kid had stayed in his lane,” and bizarrely blamed the boy for purposely trying to upset him. Somehow, I’m guess that the only thing the kid did to purposely upset him was riding his bike in front of the guy’s car.
An Oakland man received a $400,000 settlement after he suffered a fractured skull, concussion, multiple spinal fractures, broken nose, ligament tears, and lacerations to his face, neck and shoulders when his bike hit a pothole that was obscured by shadows and a bend in the road.
Sometimes, I don’t even know what to say. An Ohio ebike rider was killed, and a driver injured, when the ebiker tried to turn left into a church parking lot and struck the side of the other man’s SUV — then they were both stuck by the driver of a second car when the first driver got out to check on the original victim.
That’s more like it. After bicyclists packed a Winnipeg, Manitoba city council committee meeting to demand temporary protected bike lanes, the committee voted to make them permanent, instead. Although they’d have to be pretty damn strong barriers to keep out the speeding driver who killed a bike rider in 2024, doing up to 100 mph.
February 24, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Bloodless account of CA Ebike Incentive killing, LA’s most dangerous intersections, and new CA bill redefines e-motos
Evidently, CARB’s cold-blooded murder of the California Ebike Incentive Program was just one of those things.
Take this remarkably mild-mannered introduction to the story.
To offset the cost of the e-bikes, which can run in the thousands of dollars, the state launched a generous voucher program — one that heavily subsidized, and in some cases completely offset, the purchase price. Demand soared.
That’s when the problems began.
Vouchers were quickly snatched up. A website set up to manage applications crashed amid heavy demand.
Despite wide public interest, the program quietly and abruptly ended last year — a victim, in some ways, of its own success.
Now the state is pivoting, leaving cycling advocates disappointed and those who were able to snag e-bike vouchers counting their lucky stars.
No mention there, or anywhere else in the story, of the three years it took the California Air Resources Board to even issue the first voucher.
Let alone the alleged malfeasance by, and investigations into, San Diego nonprofit Pedal Ahead, which was hired by CARB to manage the program. And failed miserably.
And then the whole damn thing collapsed, apparently because getting cleaner cars on the road mattered more than getting more cars off it.
The demand was apparent. Some cycling advocates say they were under the impression additional vouchers — that would have been funded by the subsequent $18 million in state funding — were on the horizon as soon as a new administrator of the program was secured.
But those dollars were instead diverted to CARB’s Clean Cars 4 All program, which helps lower-income Californians trade in their gas-fueled vehicles for new or used plug-in hybrid electric, zero-emission vehicles or motorcycles, she said.
“California is committed to supporting e-bikes as a clean mobility alternative to vehicles. But, ultimately, the state has a limited budget and many competing priorities,” CARB spokesperson Bradley Branan told The Times.
That’s it.
Apparently, they couldn’t find a single disgruntled applicant willing to go on the record with a single complain against how the program was (mis)managed.
And yes, that’s me over here waving my hand until it falls off.
The whole program was the very definition of a clusterfuck and a shitshow from beginning to end. Because calling it a complete and barely mitigated disaster is being far too kind.
Instead, the Times very belatedly and very politely suggests that it was just one of those unfortunate things.
You, just another California program gone bad. Nothing to see here.
And don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain.
And once again, they couldn’t seem to find a single traffic safety advocate to talk to. Evidently, no one picked up the phones at Streets For All and Streets Are For Everyone.
Or maybe the Times just lost their numbers.
The best they could do was a traffic engineering expert from USC, who evidently doesn’t consider traffic speed or road design a contributing factor when it comes to collisions.
Consider these milquetoast stanzas.
Many of the worst intersection were designed to take a lot traffic. They’ve been optimized for car movement (so pedestrians, buses cyclists come second to moving cars). This is controversial because some feel the city needs to prioritize getting solo drivers out of cars and onto mass transit and other alternatives. But most of these intersections lack protected bike and bus lanes.
As frustrating as the waits at these intersections can be, Moore argues that the city has generally done a adequate job of moving so many cars and is skeptical much more can be done short the type of “congestion pricing” system being tried in New York and European cities.
While I’m all in favor of congestion pricing, I doubt there are many people who would give LA traffic even an “adequate” grade.
That said, here’s the list in all its glory.
Highland and Sunset
Sepulveda and Lincoln
MLK and Crenshaw
3rd and Alvarado
El Segundo and Hoover
Los Feliz and Griffith Park
Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset
Santa Monica and Highland
Fountain and Hyperion
Crenshaw and 9th
La Cienega and Centinela
Vermont and 28th
Wilshire and Sepulveda
Pacific Coast Highway and Channel/Chautauqua
Two of those are walking distance from my apartment. Which probably explains why I feel like my life is in danger every time I walk the dog.
And I’ve ridden, driven of bused through most of the rest, and can attest that they do, indeed, suck.
But I don’t think you can evaluate any intersection without considering the design of the roadways leading up to it, or the speed of the drivers approaching it.
This list should be a call to action to fix each of these. But if we only address the intersections themselves, we won’t solve the problems that put them on it.
The bill would require that an electric bicycle must have fully operational pedals and an electric motor capable of no more than 750 watts; anything else could not be legally called, marketed or sold as a bicycle or ebike.
What is currently termed a motorized bicycle would be redefined as a moped, with clearer definitions of vehicle design, power output, and a top speed of 30 mph on level ground.
The term motor-driven cycles would include electric motorcycles offering less than 3,750 watts and 5 brake horsepower.
Both categories would require that manufacturers and marketers clearly specify that they are not electric bicycles.
Dirt bikes and other electric motorbikes intended for off-highway use will be treated as off-highway motor vehicles and must display identification plates or devices, and be certified by an accredited independent lab.
And perhaps most importantly, it would not require licenses, registration or insurance for ped-assist ebikes — a requirement that would be the best way to kill the growth of ebikes, and limit their ability to replace motor vehicle use.
Four people were hospitalized with major injuries.
The driver then fled the scene, crashing into the curb as he made his escape. After which, someone in the crowd got their revenge by shooting up a couple of nearby businesses, neither of which probably had anything to do with it.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
He gets it. A North Carolina letter writer patiently explains that bike riders already pay for the streets, and that anyone who wants to exclude bicycles from the state’s roadways because they don’t pay gas taxes might as well exclude EVs, too — then signs off that he’s “Not a cyclist or an EV owner.”
Los Angeles city leaders have apparently managed to get their collective heads out of their metaphorical asses long enough to request an extension on $100 million in funding from California Active Transportation Program, rather than give the money back to the state after concluding that city staff reductions meant they couldn’t meet the deadline to finish projects in Wilmington, Boyle Heights and Skid Row.
Locals are enraged when an English bike path is closed for two years because someone living in van community did some unauthorized digging in an embankment next to the path.
A travel website says Kyoto and Hokkaido, Japan have joined better known locations like Amsterdam, Tuscany and Mallorca, Spain as the world’s best bicycling destinations. But they bizarrely feel the need to illustrate it with an AI-generated photo of bicyclist riding in front of a spectacular mountain range and temples that don’t exist.
