Just 97 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.
Photo of protected bike lane in Redondo Beach by Ted Faber.
……..
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will make building bike lanes near the coast faster and easier by removing a requirement for a Coastal Commission study.
Happy to report that @CAgovernor has signed #SB689, which will cut unnecessary red tape in the development of bike lanes, dedicated transit lanes and pedestrian walkways along California’s coastline. We want to encourage projects in coastal areas that make non-driving options… pic.twitter.com/W0Tepj54In
The state also stepped in where Los Angeles tried and failed, as Newsom signed a bill banning cities from requiring automatic road widening with new building projects.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is launching a new campaign to “demand a visionary Biking and Rolling Plan from our city officials, that helps us achieve our transportation, climate, and congestion goals — and makes our streets safer and more joyful. ”
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A group of bike-riding Stockton, California teens caused a couple thousand dollars damage by throwing terracotta pots at passing cars. Although it’s questionable what their bicycles had to do with it.
Streets For All endorsed Santa Monica’s Measure K increasing the city’s Parking Facility Tax to improve traffic safety and safe routes to schools, while rejecting Measure PSK to divert half of that new revenue to the cops and other public safety departments.
State
Residents of San Diego’s Pacific Beach neighborhood are just the latest to complain about teenaged kids recklessly riding ebikes, although the ones shown are better classified as low-powered electric motorcycles.
A handful of New York bicyclists found a way to game the Citi Bike bikeshare algorithm, earning thousands of dollars a month by bike flipping — moving bikes from one station to another, then moving them back 15 minutes late. Thanks again to Megan Lynch.
A Chinese website looks back to consider how Shanghai became the country’s city of bicycles, producing China’s first bicycle in the 19th Century, before becoming home to the Phoenix and Forever brands after the communist revolution.
I’ve been out for over a month after surgery to replace two tendon and fix a number of tears in my right shoulder. I’m now looking at a long recovery, with six months of rehab before I’m back to normal, let alone get back on a bike.
Or whatever passes for normal at my age.
I’ll do my best to keep this site going on a regular basis, but may face some issues going forward depending on how well rehab goes.
Before we move on, though, let’s take a moment to consider that the new tendons holding my shoulder together came from caring people who donated their bodies after death.
We tend to think of organ donation as involving hearts and lungs, livers and kidneys. But corneas, skin, bones and yes, tendons, also stem from that same kindness.
And I couldn’t be more grateful for them.
So if you haven’t signed your organ donor card, what the hell are you waiting for?
Now let’s catch up on some of the bigger stories we missed over the past 34 days, before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.
The brothers were run down on a rural road in Oldmans Township on Thursday, August 30th, the night before they were supposed to be groomsmen in their sister’s wedding.
Needless to say, the wedding is off for now.
They were run down from behind after the driver, identified as 43-year old Sean Higgins, passed one car on the left, then attempted to pass an SUV on the right when it moved left to go around the Gaudreaus.
Higgins failed a field sobriety test, telling police he had five or six beers before the crash, and that his drinking probably contributed to “his impatience and reckless driving.”
He was arrested at the scene, and charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle.
SB 960 requires Caltrans to follow their own Complete Streets policies
SB 961 is a severely watered-down version of the bill which would have forced automakers to prevent drivers from speeding more than ten miles over the speed limit; the law now just requires an audible warning
SB 1297 extends the states speed cam pilot program to PCH in Malibu
SB 1261 limits the placement of sharrows to streets with speed limits of 30 mph or less
SB 689 eliminates the need for a separate Coastal Commission study in order to convert a traffic lane to a bike or transit lane
SB 1271 requires that only ebikes with UL or EU certification can be sold in the state
In 2021 the City began a high-level study which envisioned the Wash as a nine mile green space from its confluence with the LA River up to Crescenta Valley Park. It includes bike and pedestrian trails with access to business and entertainment venues, and connects several important city centers, services and a multitude of neighborhoods that make up a large core of Glendale.
Walk Bike Glendale urges you to attend or call into the meeting, or email the individual council members in advance.
Once again, the Los Angeles County Sheriff department demonstrated how little their deputies know about bike law, when former LA-based pro Phil Gaimon — star of the Worst Retirement Ever videos on YouTube — had to educate one on why the ticket he was about to get was against the law.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
After a 14-year old boy was seriously injured by a garbage truck driver while riding to school in La Mesa, California, the city’s NBC station demonstrated how to get the story wrong, with a headline suggesting the boy collided with the truck, rather than the other way around. Nope, no bias there.
Police in Dublin, Ireland are investigating an apparent road rage attack by a driver who pushed a bicyclist up against a barrier and repeatedly hit him with his fists as bystanders tried to stop the attack.
Caltrans is still conducting its Pacific Coast Highway Master Plan Feasibility Study to determine just what safety improvements people want — or rather, are willing to tolerate. So if you bike, walk or drive along PCH in Malibu, you owe it to yourself and everyone else to take part.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton examines the first six months since Measure HLA passed with overwhelming support, mandating the city to build out the eight-year old mobility plan whenever a street gets resurfaced. So far the news isn’t good, with work on Reseda Blvd moving forward while everything else stalled out — including the city’s workaround on Vermont Ave in South LA to avoid triggering HLA.
A man riding his bike on Highway 1 suffered several injuries — and got a couple traffic tickets — after falling over 100 feet when he ignored “road closed” signs and a warning that he would probably die by attempting to ride across a rock slide that shut down the highway. And he nearly did.
Apple TV+ premiered Ghost Bike, a short film about a mother who meets a stranger in a Greek diner, who may hold the key to solving her son’s untimely death — apparently on a bicycle.
A writer for BuzzFeed offers 22 very tongue-in-cheek reasons why wearing a helmet is “literally one of the absolute worst decisions a person can make.”
A new German report says distracted bicycling is on the rise, blaming it for a significant, but undetermined, increase in crash risk. Never mind that many of the 10 to 17% of bicyclists who use their smartphones while riding are probably just using navigation or bike apps.
