Speed cams could soon be coming your way.
At a press conference in Studio City Tuesday morning, city and state officials explained the reasoning behind AB 645, which would establish a speed cam pilot program in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale, along with three NorCal cities.
According to LADOT’s Makenzi Rasey,
“Too many people are dying on our streets and these crashes disproportionately impact low-income communities, people walking, people biking, our seniors, and our children.”
Like the 4,379 Californians killed in traffic collisions in 2021 alone, including 1,275 people walking and riding bikes.
Every one of them someone’s mother or father, son or daughter, sister or brother, leaving massive holes that can never be filled in the lives of their loved ones.
Rasey went on to add that LADOT is fighting the speeding crisis with “every street design tool available,” including lower speed limits on nearly 200 miles of streets, speed humps, signals and redesigned streets, along with more bike lanes.
Although as we can all testify, not nearly enough of those.
And the city still hasn’t moved forward with shovel-ready lane reductions planned for North Figueroa and Temple Street, which were blocked by councilmembers who are no longer in office.
Never mind the Westwood Blvd bike lanes blocked by then-Councilmember Paul Koretz, who has been replaced by the ostensibly more bike-friendly Katy Yaroslavsky.
The bill is also tailored to inflict minimal financial impact on, well, anyone, as Assembly Transportation Chair and congressional candidate Laura Friedman explained.
“Under our bill, unlike with getting a traditional speeding ticket, there’s no points on your license … Under this program, your first ticket, assuming that you aren’t egregiously speeding, is a warning. and after that, if you get a second ticket, that ticket starts at just $50. Now if you’re low-income that $50 is cut in half to just $25. And there’s a small escalator for every 10 mph over the limit you are going,” said Friedman.
Which doesn’t seem like nearly enough to get drivers to take their damn foot off the gas.
But that’s the compromise needed to get the bill through the legislature in a state where driving — and exceeding the speed limit — is considered a God-given right.
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This may be the best answer to the incessant parking demands of drivers I’ve seen.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Portland city commissioner is calling for rolling back requirements to install bike parking facilities in new residential buildings to increase affordability. Even though the costs are pretty damn negligible, especially compared to installing car parking.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Seriously, don’t be a dick when riding your ebike at Burning Man.
A New Jersey teenager repeatedly punched a Target employee in the mouth when he was instructed to stop riding his bike. No, in the store.
A “thrill-seeking cyclist” was captured on video riding his bicycle on a busy Toronto freeway.
A middle-aged man in the UK, who should certainly know better, is accused of swearing at and threatening a young girl, and throwing her phone to the ground, after they collided while riding their bicycles. Schmuck.
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Local
ActiveSGV is hosting a family-friendly community bike ride this Saturday to demonstrate the Santa Anita Ave Complete Streets Project.
An LA-based writer for Velo is excited to encounter a man riding a custom Holland Cycles Titanium road bike on PCH in the ‘Bu.
State
Tragic news from San Diego, where a woman suffered life-threatening injuries when she was sideswiped by the driver of a massive pickup while riding her bike in the downtown Gaslamp District. Which should have at least been a prima facie violation of California’s three-foot passing law, but apparently wasn’t.
San Diego bike thieves are targeting ebikes as their popularity continues to grow. Ebikes, that is, not bike thieves, who continue to be unpopular in San Diego, and most everywhere else.
Bicycles — electric and otherwise — will now be banned from a five-block carfree section of downtown Ventura, along with skateboards and scooters. That would be illegal under state law if cars were allowed on the street, but apparently allowed since cars are banned.
SFist says San Francisco’s contentious Valencia Street centerline protected bike lane is causing confusion and chaos, with some people calling it the “Valencia Meatgrinder.”
Streetsblog talks with a 32-year old San Francisco man, seven years after he was severely injured by an inattentive driver while riding his bike, who argues that it would be easy to protect people on bicycles but the city won’t.
National
Apparently, rock and metal music tops the Spotify playlists for American bicyclists.
Bicycling offers tips on how to test-ride a bicycle before you buy. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.
Public comments submitted to the Consumer Product and Safety Commission calls for eliminating the requirement that kid’s bikes have coaster brakes, arguing the it keeps them from learning how to use handbrakes.
A lawsuit from the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) argues that the National Park Service was wrong to allow ebikes into national parks, saying the NPS hadn’t adequately addressed their potential to disturb wildlife and create conflicts with other people on the trail. Because evidently, the wilderness is only for fit people who don’t need a little help riding a bike.
Seriously? Alaska’s governor vetoed a bill regulating ebikes, arguing ”…it creates unnecessary bureaucracy by regulating recreational activity,” even though all it does is establish the same three-tiered classifications pioneered in California, and passed in many, if not most, other states. The sponsor says the legislature will override the veto of the bill, which passed with overwhelming support.
In a clear demonstration of bent-up demand for ebike rebates, Denver’s latest round of ebike rebate vouchers was completely snapped up just three minutes after they became available. Which does not bode well for California’s vastly underfunded program, whenever it finally goes online.
Even rural ski resort town Jackson, Wyoming could soon require bike parking in all future developments.
An AP sportswriter is one of the roughly 80,000 people riding across Iowa in this year’s 50th RAGBRAI, writing that the mantra of the participants is “The ride will provide.”
Um, okay. An Illinois man reportedly threw a kid’s bike into a pond because he thought the boys were fishing too close to some ducks.
A panicking Michigan father threw a bicycle at a second story window to wake his kids and alert them that their home was on fire; firefighters arrived shortly afterwards to pull the kids to safety.
Who needs a car to attend the legendary Rhode Island Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals when you have a bicycle?
Florida man strikes again — literally — after a 37-year old man whacked another man over the head with a bicycle kickstand, because the victim apparently refused to play a country song. Although it’s not clear if he refused to play a particular country song, or just country songs in general.
International
Police threw the book at a 17-year old Toronto girl after she crashed a stolen car into a female bike cop.
Oxford, England merchants are accusing the city council of being “hyper-woke” — whatever the hell that means — after refusing to close a bike lane for the city’s annual Christmas market. Because obviously, the lives and safety of bike riders are of no importance compared to selling holiday treats and trinkets.
A 55-year old Oxford, England man faces a charge of “‘wanton or furious cycling” for crashing into an 81-year old woman walking on a pathway, who died 12 days later.
Litium-ion ebike battery fires could eventually be a thing of the past, as Swiss bikemaker Stromer introduced the first solid-state ebike battery, which promises to cut charging times down to just 20 minutes or less, even for the largest batteries.
Competitive Cycling
Outside talks with trans cyclist Austin Killips, who says she just wants to ride her bike, after becoming the poster child for excluding trans athletes from women’s sports.
Bicycling says Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky continues to hold the yellow jersey in the women’s Tour de France, but expects a shake-up in today’s mountainous stage four. The story doesn’t appear to be locked behind their usual paywall, but here’s the Yahoo link just in case.
The Guardian says the pay parity gulf between men’s and women’s cycling is continuing to widen, as all three Grand Tours now have women’s versions, but with significantly less prize money.
Colombian national time trial champ and former Tour de Suisse and Volta a Catalunya winner Miguel Angel Lopez has been provisionally suspended for a suspected doping violation. But bicycling is clean now, right?
Finally…
What bikes of the future could look like, if it wasn’t for rules and stuff. Your next e-mountain bike could be made of bamboo, other than, you know, the battery and all that metal and rubber stuff.
And this is what happens when you give an ebike to a Slopestyle cyclist.
https://www.tiktok.com/@canyon_bicycles/video/7254580546742045979?embed_source=%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&refer=embed&referer_url=www.bikemag.com%2Fnews%2Fgravel-bike-slopestyle&referer_video_id=7254580546742045979
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin
