A man was killed riding on PCH in Santa Monica Thanksgiving afternoon.
Or maybe in early morning.
According to the Santa Monica Daily Press, the victim was struck by a driver while riding on Pacific Coast Highway around 4 pm, between Entrada and the California Incline.
July 13, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Streets For All virtual happy hour tonight, SoCal’s killer highway getting bike lanes in OC, and Prime Day bike deals
Among the scheduled improvements are rehabilitating the pavement — whatever that means — replacing traffic loop detectors and guardrails, and upgrading facilities to Americans with Disabilities Act standards.
In addition, the plans call for adding Class II painted bike lanes, although they will be downgraded to a mere bike route in some areas, forcing riders to fight for road space with impatient drivers.
That could mean relying on the dreaded sharrows, which studies show could be worse than nothing. And which appear to exist only to help drivers improve their aim and thin the herd.
Additional plans call for $21.2 million to be spent on two projects in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach, including unspecified pedestrian and bicycle upgrades.
A Twitter user responds to Governor Newsom’s call to sue gunmakers by suggesting we should be able to sue the makers of killer cars.
Especially since the news media insists on holding their drivers blameless.
Gavin, what about the car companies? For too long in California those impacted by drunk drivers and terrible drivers have only been able to sue the driver. It’s time to take a stand and allow Californians the right to sue car manufacturers for producing cars that kill.
Heartbreaking story from the LA Times about a young Black man who lived alone and worked remotely, whose body was found five days after he logged off from work, after apparently dying in his sleep from an undetected heart condition; among his possessions was a new bicycle with just four miles on the odometer.
A speeding hit-and-run driver ran down a man riding a bicycle in San Francisco’s Mission District, driving off with the bike’s front wheel still stuck to their grill; fortunately, the victim is expected to survive. Although the driver may regret leaving the car’s license plate behind.
Unbelievable. A 40-year old Florida man faces vehicular homicide and hit-and-run charges for killing a 74-year old man who wasn’t even riding his bike at the time — or anywhere near the roadway; the speeding driver hit a mailbox on the wrong side of road before losing control, driving off the road and hitting the victim, then crashing into a building.
July 6, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Caltrans plans PCH bike lanes in Malibu, guilty verdict in DUI killing of LB family, and more on Griffith Park Drive closure
Caltrans is finally taking steps to tame SoCal’s killer highway.
Maybe.
The state transportation agency, which has responsibility for deadly Pacific Coast Highway, announced tentative plans to stripe bike lanes on a 16-mile stretch of PCH, from Malibu Lagoon to the Ventura County Line.
However, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press, Malibu officials complained about what they called vague plans, which could include the removal of over 2,000 roadside parking spaces.
And the state Coastal Commission might have something to say about it, since their rules prohibit the removal of beach access parking, while requiring some form of mitigation.
Never mind that the Malibu mayor’s primary concern seemed to be whether bicyclists would be ticketed for riding in the traffic lanes instead of the bike lane.
So much for the city’s flirtation with accommodating people on bicycles in recent years.
Maybe he should be asking why the state agency insists on having a major highway run through the heart of the coastal city, instead of turning it into a Complete Street Main Street to serve the needs of all residents and road users, rather than primarily benefitting cut-through commuter traffic.
The plans call for a painted, Class II bike lane, although bike riders called for a buffer zone next to any remaining parking, as well as next to traffic speeding by at — or often above — the 50 to 55 mph speed limit.
Someone also asked why the bike lane was planned for the west side of the city, rather than the east side where it’s needed more.
Carlo Adrian Navarro was just 20 years old when he drunkenly drove onto the sidewalk, striking a mother and father, and their three-year old son, as they were walking home from trick or treating.
He’ll be sentenced in September.
With a little luck he could be out by the time he’s 50.
The pilot closure comes in response to drivers using the park as a cut-through route to avoid freeway traffic, putting bike riders, pedestrians and other park users at risk.
SAFE, aka Streets Are For Everyone, the traffic safety organization founded by Finish the Ride’s Damian Kevitt, hosted a ride on Saturday attended by hundreds of bike riders to mark the closure.
Lionel Mares shared his photos from the ride.
SAFE and Finish the Ride Founder Damian Kevitt
LACBC Executive Director Eli Akira Kaufman, Streets For All founder Michael Schneider, and California State Senator Anthony Portantino
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Claremont Cyclist / CLR Effect author Michael Wagner sends us a photo from the July Ride Around Pomona, saying the long line of broken bollards doesn’t instill much confidence in the ability of drivers around the Cal Poly campus.
If your kid goes there, you might want to call just to make sure they’re okay.
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Streetfilms says Emeryville, California mayor John Bauters is the biking mayor your city needs.
Respect to Cameron Norrie – the last Brit still in the running – who has been cycling to @Wimbledon He said: “It’s nice to beat the traffic and it’s a good warm up.” #ActiveTravelpic.twitter.com/jnWxIxbGox
— Active Travel England (@activetraveleng) July 5, 2022
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Stephen Hallet forwards this context-free photo he ran across recently.
Something tells me there’s a story there. Albeit a painful one.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No surprise here. Texas officials dramatically undercharged a driver who intentionally drove onto the wrong side of the road, instead of the felony assault with a deadly weapon the crime calls for.
UPDATE: Robert Glenn, seen here using his two-ton Jeep to target a cyclist pedaling home from work, is now charged with misdemeanor reckless driving. Police say Glenn was mad the cyclist was in the roadway
A Portland man faces multiple charges for a racially biased attack on a bike-riding man and his five-year old daughter, after yelling slurs based on their Japanese ancestry while repeatedly punching the father in the head, as well as punching the little girl in her bike helmet. There’s not a pit deep enough for a jerk like that.
Denver is renewing its ebike rebate program after an initial rush depleted the funds in a matter of days. Meanwhile, California’s ebike rebate program continues to tread water waiting for the people in charge to get their shit together.
The inaugural Life Time Grand Prix moves on to Beaver, Utah this weekend with the 70-mile, mixed terrain Crusher in the Tushar race, featuring “60 handpicked WorldTour roadies, gravel pros, track world champions and MTB Olympians” competing for a $250,000 purse.
March 25, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hit-and-run driver busted in death of 15-year old Riverside boy, and Metro active transportation virtual meeting next week
Maybe there will be justice for Javier Gonzales after all.
SoCal’s killer highway continues to claim new victims.
I’m told the victim works at the Getty Villa, which leaves no viable option to commute by bike other than PCH, which continues to operate as a cut-through highway when it should be Malibu’s Main Street.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
In a prime example of too little, if not too late, Las Vegas area cops clamped down on drivers who endanger bike riders, enforcing traffic laws and educating motorists on how to share the road — for a whole four hours. Now they just need to do something the other 8,756 hours in the year.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Police busted a man who robbed a Kansas gas station, then made his getaway by bicycle. Maybe he was really just an anti-car freedom fighter raising funds for the rebellion. It could happen.
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Local
No bias here. The Hancock Park Homeowners Association hosted a candidate forum for the people running to replace Paul Koretz in CD5 — but notably excluded former Mid City West Neighborhood Council chair Scott Epstein, a longtime supporter of a bike-friendly street on 4th Street opposed by the wealthy neighborhood.
Black and brown Colorado bike riders say the state’s proposed Stop As Yield law, aka the stop sign part of the Idaho Stop Law, would keep them safer from both cars and cops, reducing the risk of Biking While Black or Brown stops that target people of color, as well as reducing potentially dangerous interactions with police. Maybe that argument that would finally get a California bill past Newsom’s veto pen.
A Florida man was convicted — again — of killing a teenaged boy over a stolen bicycle when he was just 15 years old. The victim had purchased the boy’s stolen bicycle, not knowing it was hot, then offered to sell it back to him for just $10; he returned with a gun after riding the bike home because he felt disrespected. The original conviction had been overturned because police had questioned him after he requested a lawyer. We’ve said it before — no bike is worth taking or sacrificing a life. Period.
Life is cheap in Jersey, where a 67-year old driver walked with the equivalent of a $6,500 fine for the right-cross crash — the equivalent of a left-cross in the US — that likely left a bike-riding woman with lifelong pain from a broken back, fractured rib and collapsed lung.
The hit-and-run epidemic show no sign of stopping.
The same day a Santa Ana bike rider was murdered by a driver who fled the scene, leaving his or her innocent victim to die in the street, another bicyclist was lucky to survive being run down by a hit-and-run driver on the Ventura County section of Southern California’s killer highway.
Or maybe calling PCH a serial killer highway is more accurate.
Here’s a brief press release from the victim’s family.
Santa Barbara family seeks answers and witnesses in PCH hit-and-run
On Saturday, February 12 at 11:10 a.m., Santa Barbara resident Jeff Sczechowski (seh-CHOW-ski) was struck from behind and thrown into a parked vehicle while riding his black mountain bike on the shoulder of the northbound side of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). This was just north of the Sycamore Canyon State Park entrance across from the Thornhill Broome Beach Campground that is south of the large sand hill on the inland side of the PCH. He was wearing a white helmet and grey and yellow cycling clothing. The victim was transported by ambulance to the Ventura County Medical Center, where he is hospitalized and receiving care. He has sustained significant injuries to his back, leg, and arms. Jeff, a chemical engineering PhD, manages a research center in the UCSB Department of Physics. He is also an avid cyclist and bonsai tree artist. Jeff, his wife, and their children ask anyone who may have been involved in or witnessed the event to please contact Ventura California Highway Patrol Officer Bowen at 805-662-2640.
Shamefully, fully half of the 12 people killed riding bicycles in Southern California this year have been the victims of hit-and-run drivers.
Yes, 50 percent.
There is simply no excuse.
Not for the heartless cowards who lack the basic human decency to stick around after a crash. Or for those in elected office who lack the courage to do anything about it.
The project would have added 4.75 miles of offroad trails along a pair of channels, where they would have had zero impact on traffic and the surrounding community. And provided much needed safe routes through the beachside city, which is already one of the most dangerous places to ride a bike in Orange County.
Instead, the responses from local residents were apparently so bad that local officials decided not to do the right thing, and killed the project instead.
Never mind the current dangers faced by bike riders and pedestrians in the city. Or the desperate need to get people out of their cars, at a time when Orange County is already a year-round fire zone.
And never mind that access to a safe bikeway increases local property values.
There’s simply no rational reason to oppose a project like this, let alone cancel it.
But they did anyway.
Thanks to Eric Eberwein for the tip.
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Say goodbye to the green bollards on Del Amo Blvd in Long Beach, and hello to a new curb-protected bike lane.
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The Davis Bike Counter wasn’t just removed. It was killed by an errant driver.
No bias here, either. An Indian protected bike lane was removed after drivers were “inconvenienced” by the lane reduction to make room for it, never mind that bike riders were inconvenienced by the drivers parking in it.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
San Francisco ripped out a protected bike lane due to a construction zone, temporarily replacing it with a painted bike lane, despite being on a street where three people have been killed in three years. Never mind that removing the protected lane will make the city liable for any injuries that happen as a result.
Utah’s law cutting the blood alcohol level required for DUI to .05, from the .08 allowed the other 49 states, is showing demonstrable benefits, with drunk driving deaths and crashes dropping 20% in the state since the law went into effect.
A cautionary story from Charleston, South Carolina, where police are reopening a crash investigation after a man died two months after he was hit by a driver, despite being released from the hospital the same day with an apparent misdiagnosis of just minor injuries.
Retired Irish pro Nicholas Roche has been warned not to ride in the mountains south of Dublin, while he’s filming the British version of Dancing With the Stars in the city, because thieves are known to knock riders off their bikes, then toss them in their van and drive off while the rider is still sprawled in the roadway.
The Italian movie The Pantini Affair should be coming to the US, after Capital Motion Picture Group picked up the North American rights to the 2020 film about the last five years in the life of legendary cyclist Marco Pantani.
February 10, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Candidate list for June primary, Times’ Abcarian says Vision Zero “impossible,” and PCH claims another victim
The goal is worthy, but why go out on a limb with a big, bold promise that is so obviously doomed to fail?
In Australia, at least, they call the effort “Toward Zero,” which seems more realistic…
As long as there is traffic, there will be traffic tragedy, especially in a car-centric city like ours, where you cannot drive an inch without seeing distracted drivers holding phones. How many times have you been stuck behind a car at a red light that doesn’t move when the light turns green because the driver in front is poking at a screen? At least while they aren’t moving, they aren’t killing anyone.
The obvious problem with that attitude is the question of just how many deaths are acceptable as the cost of just getting from here to there.
Graphic by tomexploresla
And if that number is anything other than zero, which of your loved ones are you willing to sacrifice to the motor vehicle gods?
Which makes it clear that one is the only acceptable answer.
Abcarian’s right that we may not get there today. But it’s up to all of us to do everything we can to make sure we get there tomorrow.
To her credit, she does identify one of the biggest problems with Vision Zero, with each of the city’s 15 councilmembers free to implement their own vision of how to end traffic deaths, or the lack thereof.
As well as the lack of alignment between the city and county, with Los Angeles aiming for 2025 — just three years from now — while the county aims to end traffic deaths a decade later.
Never mind the other 87 cities that call LA County home.
But the solution to that is to coordinate, not forget it. Then give the city and county transportation agencies the power to override individual councilmembers and supervisors to do what needs to be done to save lives.
Which also serves to shield our elected officials from blame by angry drivers, which is what some of them really care about, anyway.
And while we’re at it, someone please tell Ms. Abcarian the difference between a crash and an accident.
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Southern California’s serial killer highway has claimed yet another victim.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Someone in newly bike friendly San Diego clearly doesn’t get it, ruling that no action is necessary for a traffic signal clearly designed to thin the herd by encouraging drivers to turn left through a bike lane while bike riders still have the green. Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.
There’s a special place in hell for the couple who flipped off a bike-riding Florida boy as they passed him in their car, then whipped a U-turn and threatened him with a gun when he responded in kind, before proceeding to pistol whip and slap him repeatedly; they were arrested after the boy managed to record video of the couple, along with their car and license plate.
Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman takes a hard look at mayoral candidate and current Councilmember Joe Buscaino’s motion to crack down on bike chop shops, which could also catch legitimate bike repair in its wide net. Including if you decide to fix your own bicycle outside on a sunny day, if it’s too broadly written.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai is one of us, riding with a group to check out a new beachfront bike path. And yes, I included that one just so I could use his full title.
