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Fatal bike and ped hit-and-run rates rise, 45 years in random fatal beating of Florida bike rider, and a look at SoCal’s killer highway

July 14, 2026 / bikinginla / One comment

Happy Bastille Day to all who celebrate! Although how happy will be determined by today’s le Mondial, mais non?

We’re going to do something a little different today. Too many important stories have involved too much work on my part, leaving no time for the links that usually follow. At least not if I want to get any sleep at all tonight.

So we’ll discuss the big stuff today, and circle back to the more extraneous links tomorrow, if that works for you.

Besides, my internet connection is starting to feel like molasses, so I want to get this up before it goes down.

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It’s not your imagination. Or mine, in this case.

According to a press release from a bicycle legal group, bicyclists and pedestrians are far more likely than drivers to be the victims of a hit-and-run.

Cyclists are increasingly being struck by drivers who flee the scene, according to a 2026 analysis of federal crash data released today by Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group (BALG). In 2023, 1 in 5 U.S. cyclists injured in traffic was hit by a driver who left the scene, and more than 70% of everyone killed in a hit-and-run that year was a pedestrian or cyclist. Hit-and-runs reached an all-time high that year, and many injured cyclists have no identified at-fault driver to hold liable, according to the firm’s review of AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.

The trend is moving against cyclists even as U.S. roads overall grow safer. Fatal bicycle hit-and-runs rose 63% between 2017 and 2023, from 168 to 274 deaths, outpacing the 45% increase in overall cycling fatalities, the BALG analysis found. After 2020, total traffic deaths began to fall while bicyclist hit-and-run deaths kept climbing, a sign that safety gains reached drivers inside vehicles first.

The scale is significant. More than 919,000 hit-and-run crashes were reported in 2023, about 15% of all collisions. Cyclists are among the most exposed: nearly 1 in 4 cyclists killed in traffic that year died in a hit-and-run, up from 1 in 5 in 2017.

That corresponds with what I’ve found writing about bicycling deaths, consistently finding that somewhere between a quarter and a third of all fatal bicycling crashes each year involve a hit-and-run driver.

It’s clear that drivers are far more likely to flee in a collision after hitting something soft, like a human being, than they are after hitting something hard, like another motor vehicle. If only because their car or truck is more likely to be disabled after striking another motor vehicle.

Which could explain why there is so little urgency around the issue, and why so little is being done about it. Because if it’s not a problem affecting the great mass of people in their big, dangerous machines, then it’s not really a problem at all.

At least not for the people who could do something about it.

Then there’s this little bit of information.

Accountability remains rare even in fatal cases. A large share of hit-and-run drivers are never identified, and in New York City police solved just 324 of 6,652 nonfatal hit-and-run cases in 2020, about 1 in 20, according to NYPD figures.

That’s some damned impressive detective work, at least compared to Los Angeles, where the rate of drivers identified and convicted of nonfatal hit-and-run crimes is reportedly somewhere south of 1%.

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Talk about gut-wrenching.

A 21-year old Florida man was sentenced to a well-deserved 45-years behind bars for a random crime spree that included beating a bike rider to death with a tire iron when he was just 17-years old.

Savonne Morrison was convicted of manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder, for driving the getaway car in a 2022 crime spree that started when his nextdoor neighbor recruited his help to beat up the new boyfriend of the neighbor’s ex-girlfriend.

But she wasn’t home, so his neighbor, Jermaine Bennett, started drinking and using coke, then set off on a vandalism spree by smashing random cars with a tire iron.

That continued until they spotted an 82-year old man walking alone in front of a St. Petersburg carpet store. Bennett got out of the car on a pretext of asking the man for directions, then repeatedly hit him with the tire iron, knocking him out with the first blow. Fortunately, he survived the attack.

That can’t be said for their next victim. Forty-nine-year old Jeffrey Chapman was riding his bike when Bennett again jumped out of the car and knocked Chapman on his bike with the tire iron. They then took turns beating Chapman to death, before driving off with his wallet.

Bennett eventually pled guilty to murder, and was sentenced to life in prison.

For whatever reason, the jury didn’t convict Morrison on a 1st degree murder charge, instead convicting him of manslaughter.

However, Morrison was on probation at the time of the attack for a violent carjacking when he was just 15 years old, when he and a group of friend used a girl they were both dating to lure another boy to come meet her. But when he arrived, Morrison and the others pistol-whipped the boy, forcing him out of the car, then driving over him as they took off in his car.

As a result, the judge gave Morrison the maximum of 15 years for manslaughter, and another 30 for violating his parole on the carjacking charge, to be served consecutively.

Florida law requires serving a minimum of 85% of a prison sentence in most cases, meaning Morrison will be at least 59-years old when he gets out.

Somehow, that doesn’t seem like enough.

………

She gets it.

Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarian took a look at the Malibu section of Southern California’s killer highway on Sunday.

The stretch of Pacific Coast Highway that spans the length of Malibu is one of the most storied roads in the world and also, tragically, one of the bloodiest. As someone who frequently drives PCH between Santa Monica and Trancas, I often hold my breath for fear that some spacey tourist or distracted teenager will wander off the beach and into my path. Or that a car will back out of a driveway right into me. Or that a driver ahead of me will spot an open space on the shoulder and slam on the brakes to back into the spot. I am in awe of the brave cyclists willing to risk their lives for the sake of a beautiful ride.

Me too, sadly.

She goes on to discuss the 2023 documentary 21 Miles in Malibu made by Hollywood producer Michael Shane, whose 13-year old daughter Emily was killed in 2010 “by a reckless, suicidal motorist” as she walked to meet him after a sleepover.

Three years ago, Shane, a film producer best known for “Catch Me if You Can” and “I, Robot” made “21 Miles” to shine a light on the extraordinary dangers of having a five-lane state highway running through what is essentially a residential neighborhood. The hour-long documentary, which won several film festival awards, aired Thursday on PBS SoCal and will be available on the PBS app and website.

“Being on this roadway,” says Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Det. David Huelsen in the film, “is probably the single most dangerous thing you’re gonna do on your vacation.”

Or any other time, for that matter.

After years — okay, decades — of work by safety advocates of all stripes, Caltrans is finally making improvements to the deadly highway, retiming traffic lights and adding roundabouts to deter speeding. And ten automated speed cams will come online this fall, part of a pilot program authorizing them in Malibu, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Glendale, as well as three cities in Northern California.

But as Abcarian points out, the fines are way too low.

Shane thinks the fines are ludicrously low, and I agree.

“If you got a $1,500 ticket instead of a $200 ticket, you might think twice about going fast, because it’s going to cost you,” he said.

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As long as we’re discussing the LA Times, I saw one opinion piece that went the news equivalent of viral, as former Times opinion editor Paul Thornton’s smartly thought-out column from the Golden State newsletter was picked up by news sites across the country, including CalMatters.

Thornton argues that making ebikes safer is smart. But smothering them isn’t.

Electric bikes are powering an urban transportation revolution. They flatten hills, haul cargo and people, and offer an alternative to driving that doesn’t involve breaking much of a sweat or waiting for a bus.

I’ve experienced these wonders firsthand. For the last three years, I have used an e-bike — an electric-motor assisted bicycle — to do everything from commuting 23 miles across Los Angeles for work to meeting up with friends at places where finding a parking spot takes longer than the drive over. In a city choked by traffic and pollution, calling these machines liberating isn’t an overstatement…

Lawmakers in Sacramento have introduced at least eight bills this year targeting e-bike safety. One would have added licensing and registration requirements for most e-bikes; anotherwould have rewritten the state’s classification system, making most e-bikes already rolling on California streets illegal.

Thankfully, those bills died, and with them a level of regulation that could throttle an efficient, clean and fun transportation option in California, and hamper a technology that is already driving the majority of revenue growth in the bicycle industry.

He goes on to make the case that Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s Senate Bill 1167 hits the the right notes, with the right restrictions to improve safety without killing the golden e-goose.

Done intelligently, safety regulations do not have to curtail e-bike adoption and all the upsides these joyous devices bring to cities clogged by traffic. Policies crafted using data instead of panic might actually lure more people out of their cars and onto two wheels.

It’s more than worth taking the time to read it. Because he’s right.

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They get it.

In an extensive letter to the editor that’s really more of an op-ed, a pair of Edmonton, Alberta physicians make the case for maintaining a connected bike network, in the face of rumored provincial legislation that would restrict current and future urban bike lanes.

They argue that bike lanes make the city healthier for everyone, not just the people who choose to ride.

I won’t get into all their arguments here, though it is worth a few minutes to read the entire letter.

But they close with this.

As with public policy in any area, the devil is in the details of implementation: Any change could have negative impacts for some citizens. This reality underscores the critical importance of local involvement in decision-making that balances the pros and cons of any specific policy proposal, in order to arrive at the best possible solution for the people who are most impacted. Neighbourhood and municipal policies imposed by higher levels of government do not make sense.

As physicians, we advocate strongly for the development and maintenance of infrastructure to support and encourage active transport by bicycle, including a connected network of protected bike lanes. We support the right of Edmontonians to make the decisions that best meet our needs.

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I learned a long time ago not to trust social media. So does anyone know how accurate this video is?

Twitter post

According to the Daily Dot website, commenters go on to criticize California for having the nation’s highest tax rate, which is true. Although the overall tax burden places it lower, somewhere in the top ten states.

One even calls the pathway a death trap. But as unsightly as it is, graffiti does not a death trap make. For that, you usually need motor vehicles

Which are absent from this video, anyway.

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Calbike says a Lathrop woman made a simple request for the city to hold a free community bike and traffic safety education event at City Hall during National Bicycle Safety Month. It was her attempt to be proactive before something bad happened, after her family had too many close calls while riding their bikes.

Which then became a reality when the driver of a city vehicle cut off her seven-year old daughter as she was riding her bike in a crosswalk, forcing her to crash into the side of the vehicle.

Camryn was not seriously hurt, which is fortunate. But that does not mean the incident should be brushed aside. A child should not have to be badly injured before a city takes repeated warnings seriously. For Cortez, the crash was terrifying and enraging because it felt like the very scenario she had been trying to prevent. For months, she had been telling officials that children biking and walking in Lathrop were at risk.

What followed, Cortez says, has been its own kind of burden. She wants to know what happened. She wants records preserved. She wants clarity about whether the driver was working at the time. But more than anything, she wants the city to stop treating a preventable safety failure like an isolated incident.

“I can sue them all I want,” she told CalBike, “but then I would just be a rich person in an unsafe neighborhood.”

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Speaking of Calbike, the statewide bicycle advocacy group made a statement yesterday opposing Proposition 45 on the November ballot, even though at first blush it would seem to benefit bikes.

The measure would accelerate review for a broad category of projects, including transportation. It would impose stricter deadlines, limit the alternatives agencies must consider, and restrict judicial review. But the same reduced friction available to a bikeway or transit project would also be available to a highway expansion, and in a state that often seems more eager to widen a doomed highway than expand transit, it is not hard to imagine this will result in more sprawling freeways than verdant bikeways. That is why CalBike opposes Proposition 45…

The initiative’s central mistake is treating transportation as a single public good. A bus lane, a protected bikeway, and a freeway widening can all be described as infrastructure, but they do not produce the same future. Yet, Proposition 45 would place both in the same expedited category, blind to induced demand or driving alternatives. Reduced friction does not operate in a vacuum. California’s highway-building institutions already have money, plans, political allies, and decades of momentum. Open the gates equally and the results will not be as lopsided as they have always been.

As much as we need new bikeways, and would benefit from a faster review process, the last thing we need is more and bigger highways.

And as Calbike points out, it’s the people who build highways who have all the money and lobbyists.

………

I was halfway through a story from a Michigan public radio station about a Los Angeles actor who rode his bike 3,500 miles to his hometown of Lansing, Michigan, to deliver a letter from his daughter to his 101-year old father, before I realized I knew him.

“I was looking for a way to kind of connect my family,” Nichols said. “My two daughters, I was such a part of their upbringing, and with my dad…he was so involved with my upbringing, and I sort of wanted to connect them.”

Nichols started his journey on May 15, where he rode across the Golden Gate Bridge through a path that took him through Oregon. His weeks have been spent travelling bike trails through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

On Monday, he arrived in Michigan through the SS Badger, where he will be biking from Ludington to the finish line, East Lansing. He said he plans to be back to his dad on Monday.

The original plan was to go through the Upper Peninsula and over the Mackinac Bridge, but his trip was interrupted.

“I did have to take a short break in the middle to go home to Los Angeles to shoot a movie, and then I flew right back and got back on the bike, and kept going,” Nichols said.

I admit, I didn’t pay any attention to the guy’s name until I got further down, and read this.

Nichols settled in Los Angeles years later after starting his acting career in New York.

But outside of his acting career, Nichols cohosts BikeTalk, a radio show advocating for safer spaces for people to travel on bikes. Nichols has documented his entire journey through the show.

“Our audience is following Taylor’s journey after maybe having listened to Taylor as a co-host on Bike Talk for several years, now he’s up and moving around the country,” Nick Richert, BikeTalk co-host, said. “He’s embodying everything that we’ve been talking about on the show.”

It was only then that I realized they were talking about our own BikeTalk’s Taylor Nichols, someone I’ve traded emails with for years about various bike stories. And I’ve spoken with Taylor and Nick on BikeTalk many times over the years, until my health problems and the assorted meds I take for them made me stop doing live interviews.

Because I can control and edit what I say on here, so I don’t usually make too much of a fool out of myself. But live, I’m prone to memory losses and misspeaking, making TV and radio too much of a minefield for me.

I also confess it’s been awhile since I’ve listened to the program, even though I remain a fan, and host a free public service ad for them over there on the right.

So I wasn’t aware of Taylor’s journey. And confess to being gobsmacked when I realized who they were talking about. Which is a word I don’t use often.

Or ever, even.

But I’ll let Taylor have today’s last words.

“I decided that I would just do it as a way of showing that the bicycle is not just a toy, but is an actual tool of transportation,” he said. “And that if we can create safe places for people to bike, we can break our dependency on oil and automobiles and things like that.”

Amen to that.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: bicycling, bicycling deaths, Bike Talk, Calbike, Catherine Blakespear, ebikes, Florida, hit-and-run, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times, Malibu, murder, Paul Thornton, PCH, Robin Abcarian, SoCal's killer highway, violence against bicyclists

Update: Two dead, one injured when alleged drunk driver plowed into three bicyclists on PCH north of Ventura; driver held for DUI and murder

June 13, 2026 / bikinginla / No comments

Two people are dead, and another injured, just because some guy felt the need to get behind the wheel after drinking.

Allegedly.

According to reports from KTLA-5 and Ventura’s News Channel 12-3-11, three people were riding their bicycles north in the bike lane on PCH in Ventura County when a pickup driver plowed into them from behind at 50 to 55 mph.

A Facebook commenter said the posted speed limit in the area is 45 mph. According to AAA, the risk of death for a pedestrian at 42 mph is 50%, jumping to 75% at 50 mph, and 90% at 58 mph.

One of the victims died at the scene, while another died after being taken to Ventura County Medical Center; the third victim was transported to the hospital with minor to moderate injuries.

The CHP places the crash around 7:08 pm Thursday, on PCH near Solimar Beach Road, just outside the City of Ventura.

A paywalled story from the Ventura County Star says a 33-year old woman from Bend, Oregon died at the scene, while a 39-year old Ventura man died at the hospital. The injured victim was identified only as a woman.

It’s not clear if they were riding together, or just had the misfortune of all being in the driver’s way. Several witnesses stopped to assist the victims before paramedics arrived.

It’s not known why the driver, identified only as a 24-year old Oxnard man, veered his pickup into the bike lane. He continued north until crashing into a guardrail, coming to rest on the right shoulder.

CHP investigators arrested the driver at the scene on suspicion of felony DUI causing injury, murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. He’s being held at the Ventura County jail in lieu of $1 million bail, and scheduled for a June 15th hearing in Ventura County Superior Court.

The murder charge suggests this may not be his first DUI offense.

Anyone with information is urged to call the CHP’s Ventura Area Office at 805/662-2640, and reference CAD Log 260611VT0384.

These are the 33rd and 34th bicycling fatalities that I’m aware of in Southern California this year, and the sixth and seventh we know about in Ventura County already this year.

Update: Ventura County’s Rolling Cerros Run Club identified the victims on Instagram as Kellie Standish and Colby Tucker.

Other Instagram accounts remember two, while another video, which I can’t embed, shows the many signatures on their ghost bike, as well as their friends coming together; it sounds like their deaths are a real loss to the community.

However, they still have not been officially identified by police, the medical examiner’s office or the media five days later. And there has been no public identification of the driver.

Instagram post

Update 2: A preliminary obituary for Colby Tucker has been posted online. A memorial for the 39-year old will be held in the Boston area on Tuesday, with a live link to posted online later; a celebration of life will be held in Ventura in the coming months.

According to the obituary,

Donations in celebration of Colby’s life may be made to organizations working to conserve places he loved: The Green Mountain Club, protecting the Long Trail in Vermont (donation page here), and The Nature Conservancy, protecting Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands off the coast of Ventura (memorial donation page here). Livestream link to follow.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Kellie Standish and Colby Tucker, and all their loved ones.

Thanks to David for the heads-up.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: bicycling fatality, Colby Tucker., drunk driving, DUI, Kellie Standish, PCH, SoCal's killer highway, Ventura County

Judge dismisses bid to drop PCH murder counts; and felony hit-and-run charges in crash that injured CD5 staffer, killed dog

November 12, 2025 / bikinginla / Comments Off

Day 316 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

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I somehow neglected to wish a happy Veterans Day yesterday to all those who have served this county. So thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels:

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Let’s start with the alleged Malibu mass murderer accused of using a weapon of mass destruction.

A car, in other words.

Because the judge handling the case against 24-year old Fraser Bohm in the deaths of four Pepperdine sorority sisters on PCH two year ago denied a defense motion to have the four felony murder charges dismissed.

LA County Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson ruled that Bohm knew, or should have known, that driving more than 100 mph “had a high degree of probability of causing death.”

Partly because Bohm had told police investigators after the crash that two of his friends had died in high-speed crashes.

Data from his car’s airbags showed he was doing 104 mph when he lost control of his BMW on the bend known locally as Dead Man’s Curve, crashing into three parked cars and slamming them into the four young women as they walked on the shoulder of the road.

Just four more victims of SoCal’s killer highway.

Rubinson also rejected Bohm’s defense that he was fleeing from a road raging driver, saying there was no evidence of a second car chasing him. Something that would have logically shown up on at least one of the many security cams along the celebrity-studded street.

According to the story from the Los Angeles Times, the murder charges were “based on the concept of implied malice, suggesting a conscious disregard for human life.”

The ruling means there’s enough evidence to proceed to trial on all four counts of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

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Next up is news that two people have been charged in the hit-and-run that nearly killed Thao Tran, a staffer for CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, and took the life of her corgi, Kobe.

Twentynine-year old Koreatown resident Ana Larasalguero turned herself into police hours after the 8:30 am crash on Sunday, October 5th, as Tran and her dog were crossing were crossing Eight Street at Cloverdale Ave.

Larasalguero was charged with felony counts of hit and run driving resulting in injury to another person, and cruelty to an animal. As was the passenger in her car, Josue Santiago, her longtime boyfriend, who allegedly switched places with Larasalguero and fled the scene after the crash.

The Beverly Press also reports that Tran is already back at work, despite her injuries.

Tran, who serves as Yaroslavsky’s business development deputy, was taken to a hospital after the collision with multiple fractures. Yaroslavsky’s spokesman Leo Daube said on Nov. 5 Tran has returned to work.

“Thao is recovering well from her physical injuries and is expected to make a full recovery. But this accident has undoubtedly changed her life forever,” Daube said. “She’s focused on healing and moving forward, and our office is supporting her in every way we can.”

As I’ve said before, my wife and I both know Tran and consider her a friend, and we loved Kobe, as did virtually everyone who met him.

My heart and prayers go out to her, while recognizing that her bones will heal long before her heart does.

But hopefully these charges are just the first step towards justice for them both. As long as the LA DA’s office doesn’t bargain them away.

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I want to elevate this comment from Ohio Bike Lawyer Steve Magas, co-author with Bob Mionske of the groundbreaking book on the rights of bicyclists, Bicycling & the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist.

Magas was responding to yesterday’s criticism of a report on US bicycling deaths, which was so incoherent that a bunch of trained monkeys could probably have done a better job.

Sheesh. As a math guy who went to law school and who has studied crash/death numbers for some decades now this really drives me crazy. This looks like a law firm trolling for “bike” cases that took some random advice from a web site development firm that said “we’ll create some clever, catchy click bait for you…”

Yes, FL is the worst- I agree 100% with that assessment.

How do you assess “risk” or “danger” though?
FL is a “big” state but… if you look at the “rate” of fatal bike crashes… the number of deaths per, say 100,000 people, you get a better gauge of “safety”

NHTSA has published this data, based on FARS data, for years.
So if you open the most recent, 2023, data here https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/813739
you see that the 50 states are listed on page 10

FL had a total of almost 3,400 TOTAL traffic deaths and 234 BIKE deaths, which was 6.9% of all the traffic deaths… that’s a HIGH figure as the national average is 2.9%, which is UP from the 2.0% or so that was norm prior to 2009.

FL’s “rate” of Fatal Bicycle Crashes is also high – 1.03 deaths per 100,000 people.
That’s the WORST in the US, by far.

Because of smaller numbers of people it is “easier” for a smaller state to have a bad number in a bad year. Maine, for example, had 0 bike deaths in 2023. IF they suddenly had 2 their rate would be significant.

FL had 234 deaths with a total population of 22+M
Compare OH, which had 22 deaths with a population of 11.7M.
So Ohio has slightly more than half the population of FL but only 10% of the number of cycling deaths!
One could argue that OH is 10x “safer” or FL is 10x more “dangerous” than OH… or you are 10x more likely to be killed in FL than if you ride in OH

So yea, FL leads the league

Also, if you look at the Big 3 – FL, CA, TX – you see that 234+145+106 =485 deaths. These 3 states have 485/1166=0.416 or 42% of ALL US Cycling deaths.
BUT
When you look at RATES
FL – 1.03 per 100K
CA – 0.37 per 100K
TX – 0.35 per 100K
US Average is 0.35 people killed on bikes per 100K population so CA and TX are pretty much “average” compared other states but FL is WAY out of whack.

Ohio is, by contrast, well below the national average with a “rate” of 0.19

Steve Magas

This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve said that if you ever need a good bike lawyer in the Midwest, tell Magas I sent you.

And it probably won’t be the last.

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Your periodic reminder that CicLAvia will be doing Stranger Things on Melrose Ave next weekend.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

A British cycling coach says he was shocked at the hatred he encountered after posting video of a near-collateral damage crash, when a driver skidded out of control following a three-car crash, missing him and another rider by mere inches — yet somehow, some people still blamed them for it.

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Local

Streets For All issued their monthly newsletter for November, including a job opening for their state legislative team.

Survivors of the Eaton Fire can register for free lifetime Metro rides, including Metro Bike, from 10 am to 1 pm this Thursday at Pasadena’s Robinson Park Recreation Center. But if you have to work that day, evidently you’re screwed.

Long Beach broke ground on a new greenway along the LA River, featuring bike and pedestrian paths, as well as fitness and play equipment, and native plants.

State

Sad news from Fullerton, where 19-year old Lauren Turner, a member of the Cal State Fullerton women’s soccer team, died six weeks after she and a teammate suffered life-threatening injuries when a truck driver struck the e-scooter they were sharing. Although maybe someone could tell the OC Register that the box truck that hit them probably had a driver.

National

Seattle Bike Blog examines the state of the city’s divided bike movement. LA’s may not be divided, but our movement has turned to sludge.

Tucson, Arizona opened the world’s first aluminum-surfaced velodrome.

A Wichita, Kansas teacher is closing in on her goal of riding 5,000 miles this year to raise funds to send members of the school’s HOSA club for future health professionals to the organization’s national convention and competition; she’s also lost 50 to 60 pounds in the process.

Bike advocates in Dallas are cautiously optimistic that it can become a more bikeable city.

Cycling Weekly considers what New York’s new bikeshare-riding mayor will mean for bicycling in the city, asking whether he can be the Gotham equivalent of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

International

Momentum marks Remembrance Day, or Veterans Day as it’s known here, by recalling the military bicycle corps employed by both sides in WWI.

An Ontario appeals court ruled that a case with profound implications for cities throughout the province must get a hearing, with the potential for a ruling that counties and townships must maintain trails they know bike riders use, even if they aren’t designated for the purpose.

Officials in Edinburgh want to reclaim the city’s busiest bike path for a new tram line, despite the 600,000 trips that are made by foot, bike and wheelchair along the route each year.

A Lancashire, England school welcomed back their beloved “lollipop lady” — which is apparently what they call a crossing guard over there — after she missed more than five weeks with a broken elbow suffered when the gears on her bicycle froze up.

A British advocacy group is calling for the country to reduce the current standard width for traffic lanes, arguing that it’s too narrow to allow the required 1.5 meter passing distance — just under five feet — and that narrowing lanes would force drivers to change lanes to pass someone on a bicycle.

The Florence suburb of Scandicci becomes the first Italian city to improve security by rolling out shared neighborhood bike lockers.

A man from Nepal is currently in Qatar on a bike ride from Mount Everest to Antarctica to spread awareness and call for action on climate change.

A decade-long Japanese study shows that bicycling can play a key role in extending health and life expectancy among older adults. Which is probably why my diabetes hasn’t killed me yet.

Competitive Cycling

Cycling Weekly argues that the island roads on my ancestral home punch well above their weight when it comes to churning out pro cyclists — including the famed Manx Missile. I can proudly claim that my great-great-grandfather went to prison for his role in the biggest bank failure in the British Isles prior to the Great Depression.

Cyclist asks the burning questions on everyone’s lips leading to next year’s pro cycling season.

The Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe WorldTour cycling team is training in an underground tunnel to get faster.

Finally…

Learning the hard way that flats ain’t passé. Forget lithium-ion, your next ebike could have a semi-solid-state battery.

And it’s long past time to add the Kentucky Bourbon Trail to your bike bucket list.

Okay, mine then.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: Ana Larasalguero, bicycling, CD5, Dead Man's Curve, Fraser Bohm, hit-and-run, Josue Santiago, Kobe, Los Angeles, murder, PCH, Pepperdine University, SoCal's killer highway, speeding drivers, Steven Magas, Thao Tran, traffic violence

Malibu approves watered-down PCH plan, cougar stalks OC mountain bikers, and Calbike fights back on CA ebike incentives

November 6, 2025 / bikinginla / One comment

Day 310 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

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We won.

More or less, anyway.

Less than a week after we joined with other organizations in an urgent call for support — although this is only an organization if you count the corgi — the Malibu Planning Commission voted 4 – 1 to approve desperately needed safety improvements on PCH.

Although there were changes that watered down the project to get commissioners on board.

According to public media site LAist,

Caltrans decreased the number of new streetlights from 42 to 27.

City planning staff will inspect and ensure the lights are compliant with the city’s Dark Sky Ordinance.

Caltrans reduced the total length of new or upgraded bike lanes from 15 to 10 miles.

Caltrans must engage with first responders and Pepperdine University about a sidewalk it plans to build between John Tyler Road and Malibu Canyon Road to clear any concerns over emergency access to campus.

Notice that the bike lanes have been cut by a third. So apparently, the goal is now to only cull a few people on Malibu’s share of SoCal’s killer highway, instead of actually eliminating traffic deaths, or anything.

Approval of the project was needed this month, or Caltrans would have shifted funding for the $73 million project somewhere else, likely never to return.

Although LAist makes clear that some aggrieved person could still try to throw a wrench in the works. And there’s no shortage of aggrieved people in the ‘Bu.

Appeals timeline starts: According to the city, an “aggrieved person” has 10 days after approval to file an appeal of a Coastal Development Permit, like the one the commission extended to the Caltrans project. If the project is appealed, the matter will go before Malibu’s City Council.

Meanwhile, the Malibu City Council unanimously approved an additional $1.6 million for “enhanced safety measures” along PCH, including innovative speed detection technology and infrastructure for speed cams.

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We may have to deal with feral SoCal drivers, but at least we don’t have to worry about aggressive mountain lions.

Usually.

Two Orange County mountain bikers ran into one on Sunday, which followed them down the trail as they tried to back away.

They were riding on a trail in Whiting Ranch in Lake Forest on Sunday afternoon when they recorded the big cat walking slowly down after them. Which is not a good sign, since they usually try to avoid people.

Adding to the concern, this is the same area where 35-year old Mark Reynolds was killed by a cougar back in 2004, apparently as he was fixing his bike.

The mountain bikers tried using their bikes to shield them from the big cat and yelling to frighten it off.

You can see from the video how well that worked.

Growing up in Colorado, where cougar encounters are far more common, we were taught to make yourself look as big as possible while maintaining eye contract and yelling while you slowly move away. Holding your bike or backpack up to make yourself appear larger could help.

But whatever you do, don’t run. Because that can trigger an attack response.

Experts say the young cat was probably just curious, rather than hungry. But just be careful and keep your eyes open if you’re riding in the area.

Or better yet, maybe ride somewhere else for the next few weeks.

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It looks like Calbike is finally starting to fight back over the ill-conceived cancellation of the California Ebike Incentive Program, calling on followers to write their representatives.

Although the better time to send out this email would have been when their executive director first found out about it in mid-October, rather than weeks later.

The state’s response to a wildly popular e-bike program? Cancel it and put the money towards cars.

CARB just pulled the plug on the E-Bike Incentive Project, folding what’s left of the funding into Clean Cars 4 All, a car trade-in program. Instead of helping people replace car trips, the state is rewarding people who already own one. It’s a telling political moment that mistakes “cleaner cars” for real progress.

This isn’t what climate leadership looks like. Over one hundred thousand Californians lined up for a modest voucher that would help them drive less, save money, and move freely. Ending that opportunity now ignores that clear demand and walks back hard-won progress.

Send a message now

Our state leaders can’t afford to shrug this off. It’s time to create a permanent fund for e-bikes — a real mobility solution, not another subsidy for car dependence. Contact your reps now.

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Streets For All is calling on Metro to spend just a tiny fraction of the $600 million it spends building freeways to fully fund CicLAvia.

Tell Metro to fully fund CicLAvia

Metro’s Planning and Programming Committee is currently reviewing Open Streets applications for Cycles 6 & 7 (2026 – 2028), but their own guidelines“include funding only for open and slow streets aligned with the major events 2026 and 2028,” leaving little or no support for local community Open Streets events in between.

CicLAvia is Los Angeles County’s largest recurring Open Streets program, drawing an average of 50,000 participants per event. These events transform city streets into safe, car-free spaces that promote public health, community connection, and environmental benefits:

Nearly 50% of first-time attendees said they would have otherwise stayed home or been sedentary.

A Preventive Medicine study found CicLAvia delivers measurable public-health benefits.

Harmful air pollution (PM 2.5) drops by almost 50% along the route on event days, and by 12% in surrounding neighborhoods.

Yet while event costs continue to rise, Metro’s Open Streets funding has not kept pace. Concentrating funds only around major international events undermines proven, community-based programs that already advance Metro’s mission of improving mobility, public health, and sustainability. Metro invests more than $600 million annually in freeway projects. We urge the agency to fully fund monthly CicLAvias, modest investments with outsized returns for public health, clean air, and community well-being.

TELL METRO TO FUND CICLAVIA [CUSTOMIZE THE BOTTOM]

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Funny how bike lanes are always the problem when it’s the cars that are getting bigger.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:tr4cft75d5yyfurquqoctgug/post/3m4tlsntvj22n

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Bike lane haters keep losing at the ballot box in Massachusetts, despite misleading comments that bike lanes cause traffic congestion. Hint: It’s actually too many cars.

But sometimes, it’s people on two wheels behaving badly.

Apparently, a mass World Naked Bike Ride is okay, but riding naked by yourself along a New Zealand waterfront isn’t. Although most of the story is hidden behind a damn paywall, unfortunately.

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Local

No news is good news, right?

State

Orange County cities are playing catch-up to the massive boom in ebike popularity. Although once again, most of the problems come from people on often-illegal electric motorbikes, rather than ped-assist bicycles.

With a form of Doublespeak that would make Orwell proud, Encinitas is considering removing safety features on Santa Fe Drive to improve safety.

Sad news from Bakersfield, where a 32-year old man was killed by a driver while riding his bike

Healdsburg’s BiblioBike mobile bicycle library was honored by a national group for Excellence in Book Bike Outreach Programming.

National

A 69-year old Las Vegas man faces charges after he told police he killed a 77-year old man riding a bicycle after using marijuana and drinking an “unknown quantity of beers” before the crash; officers described him as “belligerently impaired” after the crash, and before he was taken away in an ambulance.

Voters in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown lived up to their reputation, approving plans to replace the former college football stadium with a shiny new bike park. And yes, that was the same stadium where I used to smuggle bourbon and rum inside my Sousaphone for the marching band.

Bike lanes on a busy Jacksonville, Florida street have gotten a new coat of green paint, although at least some bicyclists say it’s not enough to keep cars out and improve safety.

International

Momentum says London, New York and Paris rank at the top of the newest list of the world’s best cities — in that order — and what they have is common is they all put people first.

They get it. An English town is planning to spend the equivalent of $654,000 to upgrade the city’s main separated bike lane to keep delivery drivers from bypassing the widely spaced car-tickler plastic posts to park in it.

In the US, people have protested competitions that allow trans women to compete, but in the UK, several women turned down nominations to Cycling UK’s annual 100 Women in Cycling award because it excluded trans women and non-binary people from consideration.

You can add bikepacking along the Rhine River from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea to your bike bucket list, taking you from “Swiss mountain air to German castles, French Alsace flavors and Dutch windmills.”

Hundreds of people are expected to turn out next month with their bicycles festooned in twinkling lights and creative decorations for The Hague’s fifth annual Haagse Fietslichtjesparade.

Competitive Cycling

Good news for LA cycling fans, because multi-time former national champ Justin Williams is getting the band back together, reforming the L39ION of Los Angeles Continental-level cycling team with his brother Cory; the team dominated elite US racing until it was disbanded a few years ago.

Belgian pro Wout van Aert says it feels “pretty weird” to have a fanbase in the US, as he visits Laguna Beach. As if American cycling fans somehow don’t appreciate greatness.

Finally…

The manifold joys of drinking out of a garden hose on an ultra-endurance ride.

And a bet’s a bet.

Although it would have been nice to see Karen Bass on that bikeshare bike. Even if, as Steven put it in an email to me, Bass “would have had a prepared, pothole free, debris free, inconvenience free, (What? Stop at red lights????) route with a large security entourage.”

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: bicycling, Calbike, California Air Resources Board, California Ebike Incentive Program, Caltrans, CARB, cougar, Lake Forest, Los Angeles, Malibu, mountain biking, mountain lion, Olivia Chow, Orange County, PCH, SoCal's killer highway

Urgent Malibu PCH action alert, CA among weakest US DUI states, and more on CARB’s murder of ebike incentives

October 31, 2025 / bikinginla / 2 comments

Day 304 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

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Happy Halloween!

If you’re still looking for a costume that will truly terrify your neighbors, consider going as a bike lane.

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If you live, work, commute or bike on or anywhere near PCH in western Malibu, take urgent action now to keep a vital safety project moving forward, which is currently in jeopardy before the Malibu Planning Commission.

Consider this alert from Streets Are For Everyone that went out yesterday; you’ll find a ready-made email response form on that link.

Choose Life Over Delay — tell the Planning Commission to Approve the Plan

On Monday, November 3, the Malibu Planning Commission will hold its final hearing to decide whether to approve the Caltrans PCH Safety Project — a $55 million once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild and make PCH safer for everyone. Based on the last meeting, they are not likely to approve the plans unless people express strong support for the plans.

You can view that meeting here. The presentation, public comment, and debate start at 38:10 and continue for a couple of hours.

This plan would repave and reconstruct the western end of PCH from Cross Creek Rd to the Ventura County line while adding long-overdue safety improvements like:

15 miles of new or upgraded bike lanes

6,956 linear feet of new sidewalks in high pedestrian zones, including in front of Pepperdine University

42 new dark-sky compliant light poles

The installation of 19 new guardrails

22 new or upgraded curb ramps

Three new retaining walls

Two realigned intersections

A vehicle pull-out for law enforcement use

Median reconstruction at various locations

Associated roadway improvements along Pacific Coast Highway within the Public Right-of-Way between the Ventura County line and Serra Road

There are additional safety improvements that can and should be made after this. They will require additional funding and much more work to secure approval from agencies like the California Coastal Commission. The items above are changes that can be easily implemented with the funds immediately available.

If the Planning Commission fails to approve the project, the funding will vanish. The road will not be repaved, the safety upgrades will not happen, and Malibu will lose its only realistic chance to prevent more deaths on the western end of PCH for years or even decades.

This is not just another meeting — it’s a moral choice between action and inaction. Every year of delay means more preventable crashes, more empty chairs at dinner tables, and more families devastated by the same road we all depend on.

What We’re Asking You to Do:

Email the Malibu Planning Commission today and tell them to approve the Caltrans PCH Safety Plan. Ask them to prioritize lives over delays — to say YES to rebuilding PCH safely, responsibly, and collaboratively. We can continue to refine the details, but we cannot afford to lose the funding and start from zero.

Please also show up to the Planning Commission Meeting on Monday, 3 Nov, starting at 6:30 at Malibu City Hall. This is the link to the agenda.

You can also join and provide public comment on this virtually using this link.

This is Malibu’s last real chance to fix the western end of PCH.

Not mentioned is that failure to approve the plan means the money will be reallocated to other projects, somewhere else in the state. Which will set back desperately needed safety improvements on SoCal’s killer highway years, if not decades.

The Malibu Planning Commission doesn’t want to hear from me, since I haven’t set foot or wheel on PCH or in Malibu for years.

They want, and need, to hear from you.

Photo from Caltrans.

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In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, CalMatters finds that California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the country.

California’s DUI enforcement system is broken. The toll can be counted in bodies.

Alcohol-related roadway deaths in California have shot up by more than 50% in the past decade — an increase more than twice as steep as the rest of the country, federal estimates show. More than 1,300 people die each year statewide in drunken collisions. Thousands more are injured. Again and again, repeat DUI offenders cause the crashes…

We found that California has some of the weakest DUI laws in the country, allowing repeat drunk and drugged drivers to stay on the road with little punishment. Here, drivers generally can’t be charged with a felony until their fourth DUI within 10 years, unless they injure someone. In some states, a second DUI can be a felony…

California also gives repeat drunk drivers their licenses back faster than other states. Here, you typically lose your license for three years after your third DUI, compared to eight years in New Jersey, 15 years in Nebraska and a permanent revocation in Connecticut. We found drivers with as many as six DUIs who were able to get a license in California.

Many drivers stay on the road for years even when the state does take their license — racking up tickets and even additional DUIs — with few consequences until they eventually kill.

Seriously, read it now. We’ll wait for you.

Back already?

Maybe you caught the part where they said “drunk vehicular manslaughter isn’t considered a “violent felony,” but DUI causing “great bodily injury” is. So breaking someone’s leg while driving under the influence can result in more jail time than killing someone.

Go figure.

Or that some California drivers have somehow remained on the road with up to 16 DUIs, until some innocent person pays the price. Or far too often, more than one.

And that arrests have dropped in half over the past 20 years, even as loosened cannabis laws and ready access to pharmaceuticals — legal and otherwise — mean more people than ever are likely driving under the influence of something.

This isn’t just theoretical for me.

One of my best childhood friends was killed by a drunk driver our senior year of high school. He was a state tennis champ deciding between a college scholarship and going pro when a woman somehow jumped a 50-foot median with guard rails on either side, and hit his car head-on, killing him and a passenger.

She walked away without a scratch. Or any jail time.

The same with my cousin, a rodeo queen killed when her father made a sudden turn, throwing her out of the back seat, then ran over her when he went back to get her.

So yeah, it’s personal.

And don’t even get me started on all the many victims of drunk and drugged drivers I’ve had to write about here over the last two decades.

Yes, this state just approved a law extending the ability of judges to order DUI drivers to install an interlock device. But that won’t do a damn thing to stop someone from getting behind the wheel stoned out of their mind.

Take this case in point. Or this one.

It’s long past time California got serious about drunk and drugged drivers, even if that means taking their cars away and not just their licenses. Or building a new effing prison to hold them all if we have to.

I’ll be happy to chip in to help pay for it, if it means a few more people will make it back home at the end of every day.

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More on yesterday’s story about the California Air Resources Board stabbing the bicycle community in the back by quietly stabbing the California Ebike Incentive Program in the front when no one was looking.

According to Streetsblog’s Damien Newton,

Despite demand for e-bike vouchers being so high that it crashed the website each time the state opened the lottery, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted at their last meeting to end the statewide program it oversaw, rolling the remaining $17 million of the original $30 million allocated by the legislature into its “Clean Cars 4 All” Program.

The concept of California E-Bike Incentive Project began had so much promise but was plagued with scandal and incompetence to such a level that one prospective applicant told Streetsblog last April, “If they were actively trying to sabotage the program, what would they do differently than this?”

Regardless of the intent, the effect is the same. The April application portal was the last time the program gave out certificates.

He adds that the most surprising thing is how quietly the program slunk out — or was tossed out — the back door, with no official announcement, no press release, and no mention on the program’s website.

There’s more. A lot more, in fact.

It’s all worth a read.

But what occurred to me yesterday is that this could leave CARB exposed to a lawsuit for age discrimination and violating the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Because by transferring the funds to a green car program, they are favoring people capable of driving over those who can no longer drive due to age and/or illness, and needed an ebike to provide greater mobility.

Could it win?

I have no idea. I’m not a lawyer, and have no expertise in ADA or age discrimination law.

But if someone needs a plaintiff, I know where they can look.

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LADOT reminds us they’re looking for feedback to finally fix dangerous Ohio Ave west of Westwood Blvd.

Twitter post

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Gravel Bike California explores the Breckenridge Mountain Loop, just a two-hour drive from Los Angeles.

Although the only Breckenridge I’ve ever ridden is just a tad further away.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. The local paper says adding a movable barrier to the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge is a good idea, allowing the state to close the bike lane on weekdays to make more room for cars. Because evidently, the convenience of drivers outweighs the convenience and safety of everyone else.

An English politician complains that a few feet of pavement for new bikeway is changing the character of the city by covering over historic cobbled paving stones. But the city just says hold on, we’re not done yet.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A British man was surprised to learn a bikeshare company has no legal liability for the ebike rider who crashed into his bicycle, leaving him “hours from death.”

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Local

Streets For All says the $2 billion — yes, with a B — LAX ATMP Roadway Improvement Project will only have the opposite effect, tearing up streets just before the Olympics, while making things more dangerous for pedestrians and people on bikes.

A Culver City paper offers more information on the official opening of the new Robertson Blvd Bus/Bike Lane Project.

Somehow, we missed this year’s Phil’s Cookie Fondo, hosted by former pro cyclist and Worst Retirement Ever host Phil Gaimon, to raise fund for the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club — but you can still donate to the fundraiser.

State

Around 1,600 people are expected to turn out for Saturday’s Bike the Coast in San Diego County, with distances ranging from seven miles to a century.

The annual two-day, 31-mile Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride is currently underway in San Diego.

That’s more like it. A 27-year old Bakersfield man was sentenced to 12 years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run crash that killed a 30-year old woman riding a bicycle in 2022, despite turning himself in a few days later after sobering up. As lax as California’s DUI laws are, the state-s hit-and-run statutes are even worse, providing an incentive for drivers to flee if they’ve had a few.

Marin County bike riders were expected to turn out last night for the annual Pumpkin Head Ride, which requires participants to wear a lit pumpkin on their helmets, if not their heads.

Sacramento’s Bike Lab works to empower local people through a variety of community services, including free bike repairs for anyone who needs it.

National

Knog is recalling its Blinder 900 and Blinder 1300 Front Bicycle Lights because the lithium-ion batteries could catch fire, but they promise they’ll replace it for you.

No point in waiting, I guess. Bike Magazine is the first out of the gate with a holiday gift guide. For all your Halloween giving, evidently.

Somehow, I’ve never heard anyone say they’d start riding if only ebikes had a bigger interactive touch screen.

Of all the crashes that are unsurvivable, getting run down by a cement truck driver ranks pretty high on the list.

A Utah woman got a custom postpartum bike fit to help her get back on her bike, addressing the unique physiological changes affecting women after having a baby.

This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work. Albuquerque, New Mexico is building a new HAWK signal at a bike trail crossing where a bike rider was killed three months ago. Except why do they always have to wait until it’s too late? And someone should tell that TV station that the victim probably had a name. Just saying.

The leaders of a Kansas hospital chain got together to build 25 new bicycles to donate to children and families across the Kansas City area.

An Ohio city opened a new connector project, including a new bike and pedestrian bridge, stitching together multiple miles of bike trails.

Great idea. A Baltimore-area bike shop teamed with a bike builder and custom painter to build a tricked-out, one-of-a-kind bicycle, raising over nine grand for a local homeless outreach group.

A Florida op-ed writer argues that greater enforcement against bike riders and pedestrians is exactly what’s needed to improve traffic safety. Because we’re the real danger, apparently, not the people in the big, dangerous machines.

International

A Canadian writer got his custom built, carbon frame Frankenbike back, courtesy of a small town marketplace, a year-and-a-half after it was stolen from the teenager he passed it down to.

Somehow, Brompton goes electric doesn’t quite have the same feel as Dylan going electric at the Newport Folk Festival, but still.

Europe’s most influential bicycle trade show is in jeopardy, after two leading German bike groups pulled out of Eurobike.

The UK now has a “boozy bike trail” through vineyards just 90-miles from London. Because if there’s one thing dank and drizzly England is known for, it’s wine.

That’s more like it. Lime is deploying 500 dockless ebikes with child seats installed on the back to the streets of Paris.

A travel writer takes his family on a first-of-its-kind Botswana safari to track lions and elephants by bicycle.

Competitive Cycling

I want to be like him when I grow up. A Grand Junction, Colorado newspaper celebrates a 77-year old local man’s second-place age-group finish on the world master’s cycling stage.

Finally…

That feeling when your new artistic bike rack becomes a sock library. Or when you invent the first aero bike by using balsa wood and mummy tape.

And evidently, you’re not supposed to hurl Lime bikes out the back of a van.

Who knew?

Instagram post

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Thanks to Ted F for his very generous donation to support this site, and help me stay in the fight for a few more rounds.

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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: Americans with Disabilities Act, bicycling, California, California Air Resources Board, California Ebike Incentive Program, CalMatters, Caltrans, Damien Newton, drugged driving, drunk driving, DUI, lenient sentences, Los Angeles, Malibu, PCH, SoCal's killer highway, Streets Are For Everyone, Streetsblog, traffic safety

Update: One man killed, two others severely injured by alleged drugged, hit-and-run driver on PCH in Huntington Beach

October 20, 2025 / bikinginla / 7 comments

This is not how any of us wanted to start the week.

Because once again, a motor vehicle has become a weapon of mass destruction in the wrong hands, killing one man and severely injuring two others.

And once again, on PCH in Huntington Beach.

According to multiple sources, the victims were run down, apparently from behind, while riding in the bike lane on southbound PCH just north of Newland Street around 6:45 this morning.

That would put it in the vicinity of Lifeguard Station 13.

Police arrived to find the victims strewn in the traffic lane, their shattered bicycles on the side of the road.

One of the victims was pronounced dead at the scene; he has not been publicly identified at this time.

However, KTLA-5 reported on air that the victims were members of a Long Beach bike club.

The driver fled the scene, but was arrested after stopping on the side of the road about half-a-mile away. Given the damage to the victims and their bikes, it’s likely her 2006 Mercedes E-Class wasn’t in drivable condition.

Police identified her as 43-year old Long Beach resident Amber Calderon, who was booked on suspicion of felony hit-and-run, gross vehicular manslaughter, felony DUI and possession of narcotics.

If she has a previous DUI on her record, those charges would likely be upgraded to murder.

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash. However, under California law, DUI can be considered a contributing factor, but not the proximate cause of any collision.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team of the Huntington Beach Police Department at 714/536-5670.

This is at least the 48th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in Orange County.

Drivers have fled the scene in 16 of those SoCal crashes, or one out of every three fatal crashes involving someone on a bicycle since the first of the year.

Update: The victim who died at the scene has been identified as 45-year old Garden Grove resident Eric John Williams.

There’s still no word on the identities or condition of the other victims.

Update 2: We have more information about the victims, thanks to a crowdfunding page for Eric Williams’ family, and a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

I’ll just let his family tell the story.

Our family is heartbroken. On October 20th, our brother-in-law Eric Williams — a devoted husband, father of four, and beloved pastor — was tragically killed while cycling in Huntington Beach. We’re doing everything we can to surround our sister Robyn and the kids with love and stability, and so many have asked how they can help. This fund has been created to support them through the days ahead.

Eric was a Godly man with a heart for Jesus and for people. He spent his life serving others — first as a youth and teaching pastor at Seaside Community Church, and later as the founder of Community Church of West Garden Grove. He was kind, funny, and steady in his faith, always lifting others up.

He and Robyn had just celebrated 20 years of marriage. Their children — Julia (high school freshman), Jeanette (6th grade), Alice (4th grade), and little James (3 years old) — were his greatest joy.

As of this writing, the crowdfunding campaign has raised an amazing $266,964 in less than three days.

Meanwhile, the driver, Amber Kristine Calderon, was arraigned in Santa Ana on Wednesday.

Calderon was charged with one felony count of hit and run causing permanent injury or death, and two felony counts of hit and run with injury.

Thanks to California’s lax hit-and-run laws, she faces a maximum sentence of 5 years and four months, according to the DA’s office. She did not enter a plea, and the hearing was rescheduled for Nov. 13 in the West Justice Center in Westminster.

Yes, that’s all.

Although the charges and possible jail time could change, depending on the results of her toxicology report.

The DA’s office says the other two victims, who should not be overlooked in the anger and grief over Williams death, suffered serious injuries “including spinal fractures, broken ribs, a broken ankle, as well as cuts and bruises.”

The press release also provides more information on how Calderon was taken into custody.

Despite having significant damage to her hood, windshield, front bumper and losing her passenger side mirror at the site of the collision, Calderon is accused of driving on a flat tire for another 2/3 of a mile to a beach parking lot at Magnolia Street and driving past the parking kiosk without paying.

A parking attendant flagged her down before a witness to the crash blocked Calderon in with his vehicle and told the parking attendant not to let her leave because she had just hit three bicyclists. The parking attendant radioed for the California State Parks Police to respond.

Calderon was arrested on suspicion of felony hit and run resulting in death or injury, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, felony driving under the influence causing death or injury, and possession of a hard drug with a prior conviction. Toxicology results are still pending.

My News LA reports that Calderon has previous convictions for misdemeanor petty theft, felony sale or transport of a controlled substance, and misdemeanor burglary.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for Eric John Williams and the other victims and their loved ones. And best wishes for a full and fast recovery for the survivors.

Thanks to Michael, Zachary, James Johnson, Jeffrey, Mike and William for the heads-up.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: Amber Calderon, bicyclist killed, drugged driving, DUI, Eric John Williams, hit-and-run, Huntington Beach, Orange County, PCH, SoCal's killer highway

The most dangerous intersections in deadly LA, injured Yaroslovsky staffer ID’d, and remembering Pepperdine PCH victims

October 17, 2025 / bikinginla / Comments Off

Day 290 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

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Thanks to Crosstown for analyzing Los Angeles Police Department data to determine the 20 most dangerous intersections in LA.

Particularly now that city officials longer seem to think we need to know such things.

Maybe because it points to what a colossal, stinking mound of crap they’ve given us when it comes to improving traffic safety here in the City of Angels.

Take Vision Zero, for instance.

Please.

In 2015, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti used an executive order to launch “Vision Zero,” an initiative designed to dramatically reduce traffic deaths through a wide-ranging set of proposed improvements to road design, education and more. Despite the aim of eliminating traffic deaths by 2025, road safety took a turn for the worse. This spring, the city released a lengthy audit of what went wrong.

Among the causes: Only half of the listed “actions” were ever completed. The plan lacked a program for accountability among city departments. There was poor coordination and diminishing participation from the LAPD’s traffic division.

In fact, traffic deaths have exceeded murders for the past three years. And already exceed the totals from 2015, with two full months to go.

The same with serious injury crashes, which have topped 1,500 for three years running, and likely will again.

The worst of the worst, though, is the notorious intersection of South Figueroa and Slauson.

Where South Figueroa crosses Slauson Avenue, bad things happen. Over the past four years, the intersection has been the scene of 17 felony hit-and-run collisions and five severe injuries. The crosswalks aren’t safe, either: seven pedestrians have been struck there.

All told, there were 66 serious collisions at the intersection, which is in the Vermont Slauson neighborhood in South Los Angeles, making it the most dangerous in the entire city during that period.

Then again, the rest of the South Figueroa corridor isn’t much better, with the intersections at Manchester, Florence and Gage also making the list.

Sepulveda makes the list three times, as does Western. Roscoe appears twice in just the top four, where it crosses Sepulveda and at Van Nuys.

Surprisingly, Sunset is only on there twice, where it crosses Highland, and a few blocks east at La Brea.

And Hollywood and Highland checks in a number 11. Which means it evidently wasn’t fixed in 2015 when all-way crossing was installed, after all.

So much for assurances from city officials.

Pedestrian deaths have exceeded the pre-Vision Zero totals for every single year after 2015, as have serious injuries and total traffic deaths.

Unfortunately, the stats don’t break out bicycling deaths, so we still don’t know how many bike riders have actually been killed on the mean streets of Los Angeles in recent years.

Other than too damn many.

Photo by Artyom Kulakov from Pexels.

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More on the hit-and-run crash that severely injured a staffer for CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, and killed her beloved corgi.

The Beverly Press and Park LaBrea News identifies her as Thao Tran.

Never mind that I’ve known, and carefully avoided naming her, for two weeks now.

Tran, who serves as Yaroslavsky’s business development deputy, was taken to a hospital with multiple fractures. Kobe, who was frequently by Tran’s side at community events, died as a result of being struck by the pickup. Tran posted about the incident on Instagram on Oct. 13.

“It was one week ago on Sunday morning that a hit-and-run driver struck me and killed Kobe while starting our morning walk. I sustained three broken ribs, three fractured vertebrae, a fractured fibula and two fractures in my cheekbones that required surgery. Kobe … died at the ER vet,” Tran said. “I’m recovering at home now, mourning the loss of Kobe and trying to make sense of it all. I’ve received countless gifts of flowers, food and care packages and I’m sincerely grateful for belonging to such a generous and caring community. My injuries will eventually heal but the loss of Kobe is a heartache I’ve not felt since the loss of my parents.”

According to the paper, the driver, identified only as a Los Angeles woman in her 30s, allegedly ran the stop sign at Eighth Street and Cloverdale Ave around 8:30 am on Sunday, Oct. 5th.

She stopped briefly after striking them, then left the scene without getting out of her pickup, leaving Tran and her dog lying injured and bleeding in the street. She was released on her own recognizance after turning herself in later that day, pending charges of felony hit-and-run causing injury.

Police don’t believe she was under the influence at the time of the crash, although the delay in turning herself in means she could have had time to sober up, if she was.

If this whole damn thing has left you anywhere near as angry and heartbroken as I am, Tran asks for donations in Kobe’s memory to Queen’s Best Stumpy Dog Rescue, the corgi rescue she volunteers with.

………

It’s hard to believe its just been two years since four Pepperdine students were brutally killed by a speeding driver, collateral damage after he crashed into a row of parked cars, which crashed into them as they waited to cross LA killer highway.

Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, will host a press conference and remembrance today near the site of the crash, at the heartbreaking white PCH Ghost Tire Memorial.

Here is the group’s press release for the event, in case you want to attend all or part of it.

Honoring the Four Pepperdine Students
Killed on Pacific Coast Highway on the 2nd Anniversary of their Passing

October 17, 2025, Malibu, California – On October 17, 2023, four Pepperdine University seniors — Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir, and Deslyn Williams — were struck and killed by a speeding driver on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu while walking along PCH after parking their car. All four were members of the Alpha Phi sorority and beloved members of the Pepperdine community.

Their tragic deaths sparked a wave of grief and outrage throughout Malibu and beyond, renewing calls for safety improvements along PCH — one of California’s most dangerous roadways. The tragedy galvanized city, state, and community leaders to honor the memory of these four young women whose futures were cut short by taking action to prevent future loss of life.

October 17, 2025 is the 2nd anniversary of this tragedy. While the focus of the press event is to remember four young lives tragically cut short–and the work of making progress improvements will never fully measure up to the families’ grief of lives lost–the important work of paying tribute by improving public safety continues. The urgency of improving safety is never more acute than on October 17 when we pause to remember their lives.

When:

Friday, October 17, 2025

Press Conference: 2:30 – 3:00 PM

Remembrance Event: 4:00 – 5:00 PM

Where:

PCH Ghost Tire Memorial

Pacific Coast Highway and Webb Way

Roughly 23661 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90265

PRESS CONFERENCE (2:30 – 3:00 PM)

Officials and advocates will honor the memory of the four Pepperdine students whose lives were tragically lost in 2023 and report on efforts to make the Pacific Coast Highway safer.

Confirmed Speakers:

Bridget Thompson, Roommate and close friends with Niamh, Peyton, Asha, and Deslyn (Opening remarks and emcee)

Senator Ben Allen, California State Senate

Lee Habor, Caltrans Representative

Rep for Supervisor Lindsey Horvath

Captain Jared I. Perry, CHP West Valley Area

Captain Dustin Carr, Lost Hills Sheriff’s Department

Councilmember Doug Stewart, City of Malibu

Michel Shane, Emily Shane Foundation & Fix PCH

David Rolston, Father of Niamh Rolston

REMEMBRANCE EVENT (4:00 – 5:00 PM)

Who: Open to the public — friends, families, students from Pepperdine University, and community members are all invited to attend.

Program:

Moment of Silence

Release of Four White Doves

Music by Skyla Woodward (vocals) and Alima Ovali (guitar), Pepperdine University students

Words of Remembrance: An open mic will be available for anyone wishing to share memories or reflections, guided by an emcee.

Memorial Benches Fundraiser

As part of the day’s events, Streets Are For Everyone, Fix PCH, and the Emily Shane Foundation are launching a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the installation of memorial benches at Point Dume in honor of the four girls.

This project began as Vinita Weir’s wish, in memory of her daughter, and has since been expanded — at the request of all family members — to honor all four Pepperdine students.

Donate or share the campaign here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/PCH-Pepperdine-Student-Memorial

For more information about Malibu’s fight for a safer PCH, including press releases, documents and statistics, visit: www.MalibuCity.org/PCHsafety.

I am so damn sick of traffic violence.

………

Streets For All is asking for people to turn out at 9 am Saturday to support their agenda for charter reforms in the City of Los Angeles, when they’ll be presenting to the Charter Reform Commission.

The meeting will take place at the Pacoima City Hall at 13520 Van Nuys Blvd.

Among their primary priorities are,

1. Make LADOT a chartered department that has responsibility to construct and maintain streets property line to property line, moving the Bureau of Street Services under LADOT.

Since being formed in 1979 under City administrative code, LADOT is responsible for planning nearly all of LA’s transportation projects without the ability to construct streets or sidewalks – a responsibility currently given to Public Works in the City Charter. Giving LADOT this authority would align LA with most large cities in the nation, where the department that manages streets safety and traffic flow also has the ability to effectively build and maintain streets and sidewalks.

2. Shore up street funding with a regular percent of city assessed property values.

LADOT and BSS have lost a significant number of staff in recent budgets and do not have the capacity to effectively deliver services in a timely manner. Currently in the City Charter, Parks and Rec and the Library departments are unique in receiving a dedicated percent of all taxable property values which ensures reliable funding for some of LA’s most vital public services. We believe streets, the City’s largest public space, should also be granted this privilege.

3. Change the City budget to a 2 year cycle and formalize a 5 year Capital Improvement Plan.

The benefits of both of these suggestions have been well researched and proposed by other groups, for the simple reason that not all infrastructure projects are going to fit neatly in a single city fiscal year. Long term planning can reduce costs and improve efficiency in delivering projects. While not every City formalizes a CIP in the City Charter, other large peer cities such as NYC, Houston, and San Jose do. A 2-year city budget and 5-year CIP process would allow departments to improve management of projects, staff capacity, and delivery timelines.

4. Replace the board of public works with a director position similar to other City departments.

The Board of Public Works is over 100 years old and has a unique management structure compared to other departments inside the City of LA by reporting to both a board and a director. It is also unique as a vehicle for structuring Public Works. The department should be run by a single director with a clear line of authority between the Mayor’s office, the department, and the Bureaus inside.

………

Gravel Bike California goes riding in Big Bear.

………

Nothing like a peaceful ride home, when suddenly a pub reaches out and grabs you by the collar.

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. After a stalled car caused a backup in morning rush hour traffic on a San Diego street, a local website naturally blamed bike lanes. But the very first comment linked to Momentum’s “comeback guide to all the anti-cycling arguments you’ll hear this year.”

City leaders in Leeds, England are calling for banning bicycles and ebikes from one of the busiest main streets in West Yorkshire, even though bikes represent just three percent of the 250,000 people who use the street every week. And once again, bicycles of every kind — both regular bikes and ped-assist ebikes — are lumped together with electric motorbikes, as one woman calls ebikes “a fatality waiting to happen.”

………

Local

The California Transportation Commission, which is different from Caltrans, has awarded a $6.4 million grant to extend the Ballona Creek bike path from its current northern terminus into Mid-City Los Angeles.

The Beverly Press introduces the new Hollywood Blvd bike lane sweeper unveiled by CD13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, in partnership with Streets Are For Everyone.

Pasadena’s city council unanimously approved a $1.09 million contract to design greenways on four north–south corridors, despite a “divided” public debate.

Malibu will host a virtual community meeting with Caltrans from 6 pm to 7 pm this Wednesday to discuss the Quick-Build Roundabouts Project on PCH at El Matador State Beach and Encinal Canyon Road.

Calbike says LA County’s South Bay offers a case study in how car dependency dictates design.

State

More Orange County cities are considering cracking down on reckless ebike riding. But as usual, they don’t seem to distinguish between ped-assist ebikes and electric motorbikes.

Westminster police busted a man with seven open felony warrants after a brief pursuit on his bicycle, and discovered he was carrying 200 grams of meth, 15 grams of fentanyl and “other items indicative of drug sales,” as well as being a convicted felon in possession of a gun. Although they don’t explain what justification they used to initiate a stop, let alone a police chase.

Rancho Cucamonga celebrated the opening of the Day Creek Channel Bike Trail with a seven-mile bike ride, after the path was extended by a mile-and-a-half.

A 44-year old man suffered severe injuries in a left-cross collision in Ventura when police say a driver turned in front of his ebike, impeding his right-of-way.

Now that’s how you do it. Police in Menifee conducted a bicycle and pedestrian safety operation, ticketing 23 people for not stopping for a cop in a crosswalk dressed in an inflatable dinosaur costume.

Palo Alto is planning to install separated bike lanes on three major thoroughfares on the south part of the city.

A pair of San Raphael men were termed “prolific bike thieves” after they were busted for stealing a number high-end ebikes, with police saying they had been arrested many times before for bike theft and drug possession.

San Mateo is working to revive a proposed 22-mile Grand Boulevard Initiative on El Camino Real, but will need Caltrans approval to replace parking with protected bike lanes. Which should be a given, considering the agency’s Complete Streets policy, but isn’t.

National

Now you, too, can have an ebike with a sidecar. Or as I call it, a corgi seat.

Cycling Savvy maps out how to successfully tame a multi-lane challenge.

Scientific American reminds us that a human on a bicycle is nature’s most efficient form of transportation, aside from a human in a velomobile. Although neither bicycles nor velomobiles were actually created by nature, but still. Thanks to Megan for the heads-up.

No surprise here, as nearly 70 Bend, Oregon residents are reportedly “thrilled” after receiving $1,800 ebike rebates from the city. Which compares favorably to LA’s $0 rebates.

A Las Vegas website says the deaths of two kids from traffic violence near city schools may be tragic and disturbing, but it’s “also predictable because of so many reckless Vegas drivers.” Kinda like drivers in every other American city.

Philadelphia makes a change that will allow more bike lanes in the city, as long as you don’t mind sharing them with trucks being loaded and unloaded.

A new lawsuit alleges an NYPD officer intentionally swerved into a man as he was riding a mo-ped against traffic in a bike lane; the cop reported he swerved to avoid the victim, but surveillance video exactly the opposite.

The fiancée of a fallen North Carolina bicyclist tries to turn tragedy into life saving by urging the city council to use his death, as well as two other bicyclists who were also killed by a dump truck driver, as a catalyst to improve safety on local roads.

A Florida sheriff’s deputy crashed into a girl riding a bicycle while making a turn, but they don’t bother to explain how it happened, how old the girl is or if anyone was injured. Like the kid riding the bicycle, for instance.

International

Mountain biking website Off.Road.cc offers tips for making your night rides more enjoyable.

British Columbia bike advocates urge the local police to take a better approach to bike safety than cracking down on bike riders.

A British writer says you don’t really appreciate your bike commute until you start working from home, and don’t have one anymore.

They get it. Dublin, Ireland is working to encourage safer and more sustainable cycling by building up to 300 secure residential “Bike Bunker” storage units across the city.

Bicyclists in Bengaluru, India complain about the lack of safe infrastructure, and that what little they have is overrun by pedestrians and piled with dust and trash.

A Korean newspaper offers a simple guide to the country’s bikeways “for the uninitiated.”

Finally…

That feeling when you get DQ’d for your kinky seatpost. Now you, too, can get over $228,000 worth of bike parts and office furniture for a $3,500 bid.

And enjoy your aperitivo before dinner. But maybe after your next ride.

………

Nobody bug me after 5:30 today. The Dodgers are up 3-0 and Ohtani’s pitching.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: bicycling, charter reform, Crosstown LA, High Injury Network, hit-and-run, Katy Young Yaroslavsky, Kobe, LA Charter Commission, Los Angeles, PCH, Pepperdine University, SoCal's killer highway, Streets Are For Everyone, Streets For All, Thao Tran, traffic deaths, traffic violence

Caltrans posts surprising PCH draft master plan, LA County raises penalty for street takeovers, and a long list of bike events

April 17, 2025 / bikinginla / Comments Off

Day 107 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

………

SoCal’s killer highway could finally see some much-needed changes.

If we can wait that long.

Admittedly, I didn’t have high hopes for the state transportation agency’s Pacific Coast Highway Master Plan Feasibility Study, given their long auto-centric history focusing more on what can’t be done to improve safety than on what can.

But the draft document seems to offer significant safety changes on the 22-mile long stretch through Malibu, though with one key caveat.

As Streetsblog’s Damien Newton puts it, the draft master plan “covers twenty years of projects that could be completed, should funding become available.”

Okay, make that two caveats, given a lack of funding and the extensive timeline.

The plan calls for protected bike lanes for nearly the full length, other than a nearly three-mile stretch where the roadway is considered too narrow, with too many driveways to provide safe protection.

It also includes numerous pedestrian improvements, as well as calling for narrowing traffic lanes to 10′-6” wide, the minimum standard for Complete Streets, according to Caltrans.

Other possible traffic calming improvements — key word “possible” — include, according to Newton, “gateway signage, speed tables at high-traffic crossings, trees, and angled parking,” as well as potential traffic circles and roundabouts, including at the entrance to El Matador State Beach.

But as noted above, the problem — other than coming up with the funding, which could be difficult given the current environment — is the extensive timeline.

As a list of short-term projects makes clear, most of the proposed changes will come 10 t0 20 years from now, if they happen at all.

A major problem given what Newton terms the “staggering” 1,245 deaths and serious injuries from traffic violence in just a five year period, from 2018 to 2023.

Which means the improvements will likely come too late for many bike riders who have taken their chances riding the coast highway for all those years, myself included.

But it could leave a much safer and more livable highway for those who follow.

Photo from Caltrans press release.

………

LA County supervisors passed a motion doubling the penalty for participating in a street takeover.

Which is nice, and needed. But it probably won’t actually stop anyone.

Thanks to Damian Kevitt for the heads-up.

………

The most impressive thing about this one is watching the guy recover from a death wobble after descending a flight of stairs, more than once.

………

We’ve got a long list of Twitter/X posts to catch up on, so my apologies in advance if Elon’s meddling on the site prevents them from embedding properly.

The San Diego Bike Coalition wants to pump up your tires and offer light refreshments this morning.

https://twitter.com/sdbikecoalition/status/1912538639462199489

Streets Are For Everyone reminds us about the bike ride and protest to mark the 3rd anniversary of Andrew Jelmert’s death at the hands of a speeding hit-and-run driver on Griffith Park’s Crystal Springs Drive this Saturday, as promised safety improvements continue to be caught in LA’s typical red tape.

https://twitter.com/StreetsR4Every1/status/1912234183696781562

BikeLA, aka the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, is joining Metro for a belated Earth Day Community Climate Action Day on Saturday, April 26th.

Twitter post

BikeLA is also inviting advocates to join them for a Handlebar Happy Hour at Santa Monica Brew Works on Monday, which is the actual Earth Day.

Twitter post

Mark your calendar for the next CicLAvia on Sunday, June 22nd, as Historic South Central meets Watts.

https://twitter.com/CicLAvia/status/1912627142824706228

The Militant Angeleno reminds us that ActiveSGV is hosting a five-mile open streets event following CicLAvia the same day, running from South Pasadena to San Gabriel from 3 pm to 8 pm.

Twitter post

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Toronto bicyclists are challenging Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s new law allowing the province to rip out bike lanes in the city, arguing that the law violates the country’s national charter; Bloomberg says the controversy demonstrates why the best bike lanes always get the blame.

A London bike rider complains about gates on the the city’s bike network that are intended to keep out motorbikes and quad bikes, but instead deter elderly and disabled people from riding a bike, arguing the “anti-bike” gates turn Low Traffic Neighborhoods into low bicycling ones.

The owner of a Scottish pizzeria demands that the city rip out new bike lanes in front of his shop, even though it’s part of an $8 million project to increase pedestrian traffic and boost the city’s “café culture and night-time economy,” which should benefit him, too.

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A New Zealand dog nearly lost his leg when he was struck by an ebike rider, which completely severed a tendon in the pup’s leg, after the dog’s owner says two men “came flying around the corner” doing at least 18 mph on their ebikes, and only said “get your fucking dog under control” before riding off; however, the 73-year old ebike rider says he was only doing 10 mph, and never saw the dog.

………

Local

South Pasadena warns about bike thieves, noting that most of the city’s stolen bikes were secured with flimsy cable locks that are easily cut; they also suggest noting your bike’s make, model, color, cost and serial number, as well as attaching an AirTag to your bike. Which gives us another opportunity to recommend free lifetime registration with Bike Index, which securely records all that information, along with photos of your bike — before anything happens to it.

State

An engineering grad student at UC San Diego, and a handful of other bicycle enthusiasts, spend their Sunday’s bringing bicycles back to life with Bikes del Pueblo in San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood, working on a sliding scale that allows people to pay what they can afford.

Bicycling says the new Levo 4 e-mountain bike from Morgan Hill-based Specialized predestines a future where ebike features that are now included in the cost of the bike will cost you extra. But they hid the story behind their paywall for members only, so you’re on your on if the magazine blocks you.

National

A Texas man was killed when he allegedly went through a red light on his ebike, and crashed into the side of an ambulance.

New York is installing new, smaller traffic signals mounted on the side of the road at eye level for people riding bicycles to make streets safer for bike riders and other street users, while politely not saying they’re hoping bicyclists will actually obey them.

At least one city is funding Vision Zero, with the new budget proposed by Philadelphia’s mayor for the coming year containing $5 million earmarked for Vision Zero, along with another $5 million for a protected bike lane.

International

A British writer says electric road bikes are as dead as wool jerseys and leather helmets. Or maybe not.

The European Union could change the definition of ebikes, with a new proposal limiting them to having “bicycle-like characteristics,” with a maximum 1:6 power boost ratio, and a top speed of just 10 mph.

The bike-centric Netherlands is pushing a new campaign to get people to wear bike helmets, in a country where almost no one does; the campaign notes an average of two hundred bike riders a day end up in emergency rooms with head injuries.

Melbourne, Australia is about to open a new, eye-catching green bicycle bridge as part of the city’s bicycle superhighway; one bicyclist described it as like “riding through a disco.”

A police interview with Australian Olympic champ Rohan Dennis just hours after the death of his wife, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins, reveals it began with a typical argument over kitchen renovations, before she fell under his SUV trying to hold onto the door handle as he sped away.

Competitive Cycling

Mountain biking events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are now set to be held in the San Gabriel Mountains at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas.

Finally…

If you’re going to intentionally swerve your car at a bike rider, maybe don’t stream it live on Twitch. Your new retro-style camper could be made from recycled milk cartons, complete with a built-in set of pro mountain bike tools.

And get ready for waxed chains and new kits that are easier to poop in.

Okay, maybe not actually poop in.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: bicycling, Caltrans, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Pacific Coast Highway, PCH Feasibility Study, protected bike lanes, SoCal's killer highway, street takeovers, traffic violence, upcoming events

Update: Road cyclist killed on PCH near Thornhill Broome Beach in Ventura County, another victim of SoCal’s killer highway

February 22, 2025 / bikinginla / 5 comments

Southern California’s deadliest roadway has claimed another life.

This time in Ventura County. And once again, the victim appears to be a road cyclist.

According to the Ventura County Star, the victim was struck by a motorist while riding in the northbound lanes of Pacific Coast Highway shortly before 11:15 this morning.

They place the crash in Ventura County near the sand dunes south of Thornhill Broome Beach, about 2.4 miles south of Mugu Rock.

Meanwhile, KVTA 1590 places the collision on PCH north of Sycamore Canyon Road at 11:13 am.

The station reports the victim was leading a group of eight other bicyclists on the shoulder of the highway when the rider allegedly made an abrupt turn into the northbound traffic lane, and was hit by a driver traveling at 55 mph.

Ventura County firefighters said someone was performing CPR on the victim when they arrived. Unfortunately, despite their efforts, the victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and additional units were called off.

There’s no information yet on the identity of the victim or the driver. And no word on why the victim may have swerved into the traffic lane, or what group the riders may have been associated with, if any.

Despite recent efforts to improve safety, too many people have died, and continue to die, on PCH as a result of traffic violence. And too many of those have been riding bicycles.

This was at least the seventh bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the first that I’m aware of in Ventura County.

Update: The victim has been identified only as a 66-year old Los Angeles man, though he has still not been publicly named, while the driver was a 37-year old woman from Malibu, also unnamed.

Update 2: The victim has been identified as 66-year old Los Angeles resident John C. McLaughlin. A comment from Damian Kevitt below says McLaughlin was on a training ride with LA Tri Club when he was killed.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for John C. McLaughlin and all his loved ones.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: bicycling fatality, John C. McLaughlin, Magu Rock, Pacific Coast High, PCH, SoCal's killer highway, Thornhill Broome Beach, Ventura County

Charlie Brown ready to kick ball as CA ebike voucher launch announced — again, and PCH Master Plan meeting next week

December 4, 2024 / bikinginla / Comments Off

Just 27 short days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

But not one LA city leader seems to give a damn about it.

Or if they do, they’re not saying anything.

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It’s Day 6 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

So join me in thanking Beverly F, James L, Mitchell G, Walter L and Lionel M for their generous donations to keep SoCal’s best source for bike news and advocacy coming your way every day.

So what are you waiting for? Stop what you’re doing and donate now!

It’s okay, we’ll wait.

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That chill you just felt was hell freezing over.

Streetsblog reports the California Air Resources Board, aka CARB, will finally launch the state’s long delayed ebike voucher program in just two weeks.

No, really, Charlie Brown. Go ahead and kick the football.

According to Streetsblog’s Melanie Curry, the program is now scheduled to launch on December 18th — 42 months after it was approved by the legislature, and almost exactly one year after the last promised launch date (see below).

Seriously, Charlie Brown, we won’t move it this time.

The income-qualified program is scheduled to go live at 6 pm on the 18th, and continue until all the vouchers have been claimed. Which will probably happen almost instantly, given the pent-up demand in a state of nearly 39 million.

According to Curry,

Eligible applicants must be at least 18 years old, with an income of 300 percent of the federal poverty level or less. That means, for example, a one-person household cannot make more than $45,180, and a four-person household no more than $93,600. More information on eligibility can be found here.

Applicants are encouraged to look at the Implementation Manual provided by CARB and ensure they have the proper documents ready to submit once applications go live. Income eligibility must be proven via any of the documents listed on page 16 of the manual (such as tax forms). Although the website encourages people to create a log-in now, before the launch window, it’s not clear how to do so.

Considering how well this program has been run up to this point — including choosing a program under criminal investigation by the state to manage it — they will undoubtedly clarify the process soon.

Right, Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown?

………

It’s now 349 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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Caltrans is hosting yet another in-person community workshop to discuss the feasibility of safety changes on SoCal’s killer highway through the ‘Bu.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the City of Malibu invite you to the 7^th public workshop for the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) Master Plan Feasibility Study.

The first three public workshops (Round One) gathered input from residents, businesses, and other stakeholders to identify safety priorities for the highway. Based on that input, the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th workshops (Round Two) focused on presenting and soliciting feedback on design alternatives and other recommendations to improve safety on PCH. Following Round Two, Caltrans developed a draft of the PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study. The upcoming 7^th workshop (Round Three) will present the draft Study’s key findings and release the document for a 30-day public review period.

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It’s the last CicLAvia of the year.

Five miles of Sherman Way will be closed this Sunday from Lindley to Shoup for your riding, scooting, rolling and walking pleasure.

Or rather, closed to motor vehicles, and open to people.

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Don’t forget tomorrow’s public meeting to consider installing what passes for protected bike lanes in LA on Forest Lawn Drive.

You know, so you don’t become one of Forest Lawn’s customers.

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Metro is hosting a series of public meetings to gather input on the “transformative” Metro Vermont Transit Corridor Project.

Saturday, December 7, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM at Masjid Omar ibn Al-Khattab, 1025 W Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007.
Monday, December 9, 2024 from 6:00PM to 8:00 PM at Crenshaw Christian Center, 7901 Vermont Av, Los Angeles, CA 90044
Wednesday, December 11, 2024, from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM, virtual via Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/MetroVTC1211.
Wednesday, December 11, 2024, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at LA City College Student Union, Room A, 798 N. Heliotrope Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90029.
Monday, December 16, 2024 from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM, virtual via Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/MetroVTC1216.

Which means it’s your chance to tell them the busway improvements are great, but they need to do more to protect people on bicycles.

……..

Works for me.

A Toronto advocacy group has hired to lawyer to explore their options, as a new provincial law allows Premier Doug Ford to overrule local officials and rip out popular bike lanes.

Twitter post

Meanwhile, a Hamilton, Ontario bike lane installed after a bike-riding kindergarten teacher was killed is among the 16 bike lanes being considered for removal under a new law sponsored by provincial leader Doug Ford, which removes local oversight of bike lanes.

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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Derbyshire Police arrested a 23-year-old man for murder in Mansfield, England, accused of being the driver who deliberately rammed two people riding an ebike off the road, killing a young mother and resulting in the man with her losing his leg below the knee.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Police in Wiltshire, England are looking for a man riding a bicycle who punctured another man in the face, apparently with a screwdriver, for no apparent reason. Or at least none the bothered to tell us.

………

Local

Glendale wants to know what you think about citywide traffic and mobility, which means it’s your chance to weigh in on how the city can protect your own safety. Meanwhile, dueling petitions call for “terminating” and preserving the temporary quick-build concrete barrier-protected bike lanes installed on the city’s Brand Blvd back in May.

Santa Clarita will install a pilot protected bike and pedestrian path on Orchard Village Road in the next few weeks.

This is who we share the road with. An LA County Sheriff’s deputy was canned after he was arrested in Long Beach for crashing into a wall and injuring the passenger in his car, while driving at nearly twice the legal alcohol limit.

State

They get it. The Santa Cruz Sentinel says California’s new daylighting law will improve safety for bike riders and pedestrians. It should be good for drivers, too.

Oakland is delaying the promised cycle track it previously expedited following the death of a four-year old girl who was killed by a driver while riding with her father.

Streetsblog’s Roger Ruddick wants to know if Caltrans engineers are intentionally trying to kill bicyclists with their design for the new Vallejo diverging diamond ~~deathtrap~~ interchange. I’d put my money on old fashioned motorhead incompetency.

Sad news from Rohnert Park, where 69-year old bicycling booster and local cycling team manager Phil Heiman died in a freak accident, after swallowing a bee while warming up for a bike race; a 45-mile “scone ride” will be held in his honor this Friday.

National

Slate examines why it’s so darn hard to stop driving, finding that people tend to get stuck in their habits until something happens to make them find a better alternative. Gas shortage, anyone?

Outside named All Bodies on Bikes cofounder Marley Blonsky one of their 2024 Outsiders of the Year for her work to make bicycling more inclusive for riders of all sizes, one group ride at a time; another choice was Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay, the first Black rider to win a stage at the Tour de France.

Electrek looks at the best ebikes, scooters and accessories they saw at the recent Micromobility America show, including hydrogen-powered bikes and a tricycle bucket ebike.

Apparently, not even national parks are safe from hit-and-run drivers, as a 70-year old Hawaiian man was severely injured in a hit-and-run while riding his bike inside Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

The rich get richer, as bike and pedestrian friendly Tucson, Arizona gets more protected bike lanes in the downtown area.

Good idea. An Arizona foundation created by the father of a fallen bicyclist is working with software engineering faculty and students at Arizona State University to develop a “dashcam” for bikes, which attaches to your handlebars and connects to your cellphone to record the license number, images and data of any car that comes too close to your bike.

The Ukrainian immigrant charged with killing 17-year old national team cyclist Magnus White in Colorado last year will face trial in March, after the planned December trial date was delayed due to the absence of a key witness; Yeva Smilianska is charged with reckless vehicular homicide.

A 79-year old Ohio writer says “ebikes are a good choice for many aging riders who still have decent balance, reflexes and vision.” Sounds about right to me.

A 56-year old Texas woman was found a day after she was separated from her husband while riding in a state park; she abandoned her bike after suffering a flat, wandered five miles in a circle before ending up back in the same spot she left her bike, then walked with it until she stumbled on a ranger station 20 miles from where she was last seen.

A former employee of a Richmond, Virginia TV station is trying to find the Good Samaritan who helped him while he was unconscious following a mountain bike crash 16 long years ago, calling for help and even returning his bike to his workplace.

International

Momentum selects seven of the best new bike routes around the world to check out in the coming year, including New York’s Empire State Trail and The Great American Rail-Trail, a 3,700-mile continuous trail from Washington, D.C., to Washington State that’s still in the works.

More proof that life is cheap in the UK, where a 75-year old double-decker bus driver walked without a day behind bars for fleeing the scene after crashing into a 13-year old boy riding his bike, but at least he won’t be able to drive again until he’s 76. If you want to know why no one is safe on the streets, this is a good place to start.

A pair of British university educators examine why being located near a bicycle network can boost home property values. Something that holds true on this side of the Atlantic, too.

A UK cancer charity is sponsoring a fundraising ride along the grueling 724 mile Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift route, riding each of the nine stages a day before the pros to raise money to fight cancer.

Competitive Cycling

Apparently, not even the world’s best cyclists are safe from careless drivers, as two-time Olympic and 2024 Vuelta champ Remco Evenepoel suffered a broken shoulder blade, hand and rib, along with bruised lungs and a dislocated collarbone when he was doored by the driver of a postal van while on a training ride in Belgium; witnesses say he was “completely hunched over and extremely pale” after the crash.

Twitter post

The head of New Zealand’s national cycling teams apologized to her family for the “appalling” treatment cyclist Olivia Podmore endured as part of the country’s national team, leading to her suspected suicide in 2021 just one day after the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games, after she was left off the team.

Finally…

If the city won’t change the signs to prevent parking in a bike lane, just change ’em yourself. When you’re already drunk and riding your bike with an open bottle of purloined wine, it’s not the best idea to threaten to bite the cops busting you.

And that feeling when your final wish for one last bike ride depends on whether the funeral home can find a tandem hearse.

Not that, you’d be feeling anything at that point. But still.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: bicycling, California Air Resources Board, Caltrans District 7, CARB, cicLAvia, ebike vouchers, Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, Malibu, PCH, SoCal's killer highway, Streetsblog, traffic safety

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Tag Archive for SoCal’s killer highway

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Day 316 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

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Competitive Cycling

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Day 310 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

Tell Metro to fully fund CicLAvia

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

But sometimes, it’s people on two wheels behaving badly.

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Day 304 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

Choose Life Over Delay — tell the Planning Commission to Approve the Plan

What We’re Asking You to Do:

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.

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Day 290 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

Honoring the Four Pepperdine Students Killed on Pacific Coast Highway on the 2nd Anniversary of their Passing

When:

Where:

PRESS CONFERENCE (2:30 – 3:00 PM)

Confirmed Speakers:

REMEMBRANCE EVENT (4:00 – 5:00 PM)

Program:

Memorial Benches Fundraiser

1. Make LADOT a chartered department that has responsibility to construct and maintain streets property line to property line, moving the Bureau of Street Services under LADOT.

2. Shore up street funding with a regular percent of city assessed property values.

3. Change the City budget to a 2 year cycle and formalize a 5 year Capital Improvement Plan.

4. Replace the board of public works with a director position similar to other City departments.

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

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Day 107 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Local

State

National

International

Competitive Cycling

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Just 27 short days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

But not one LA city leader seems to give a damn about it.

Or if they do, they’re not saying anything.

Honoring the Four Pepperdine Students
Killed on Pacific Coast Highway on the 2nd Anniversary of their Passing