Yesterday’s post featured a Twitter/X post announcing a Thursday night ghost bike memorial for 36-year old Google executive, mom, wife and expectant mother Regan Cole-Graham, who was killed by a 87-year old driver while riding with her husband and two young sons in Playa del Rey earlier this month.
So my apologies to anyone who showed up last night expecting to honor her.
Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, will host a memorial and ghost bike installation for Cole-Graham and her unborn daughter, who the couple named Ophelia, at 10 am this Sunday.
Speaking of SAFE, you can’t blame the organization for taking a small victory lap following LADOT’s announcement that they are finally ready for public comment on the city’s speed cam pilot program, after months of inaction.
Let’s hope they have at least one planned for Deadly del Mar.
On February 11, LADOT officially began a 30-day public review and comment period of the upcoming Speed Safety Systems Program Pilot.
Angelenos will have the opportunity to review the program’s policies and proposed locations of 125 speed safety systems, which are set to be placed in every council district. This is your time to ask the department questions and offer feedback on the pilot program’s policies, meaningfully contributing to the process of making our city safer, together.
To confront rising traffic deaths and injuries, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) is launching a Speed Safety Systems Program pilot across the city. The pilot program seeks to curb speeding and dangerous driving activity to make our city safer. But they can’t do it alone.
Speeding is one of the leading causes of serious injuries and deaths on our streets. In Los Angeles, around one in five fatal crashes in the city were directly attributed to speeding in 2024.
How to Submit Public Comment
You know your neighborhoods best. Your voices are essential to ensuring this program reflects community needs and advances our shared goal of safer streets for everyone.
The full program policies and recommendations are available on LADOT’s website.
To submit comments on the program, please do so through the council file. You can also send questions regarding the program to LADOT staff by replying to this email at ladot.speedsafety@lacity.org.
Thank you for your time and consideration during the process of this critical pilot program launch. Together, we can make our streets safer and reduce traffic deaths.
Ireland’s bus drivers union gets its Irish up calling for mandatory hi-viz for bike riders, insisting it would make the roads safer by making us easier to see. Even though people still manage to crash into such hi-viz items as road signs, bridges and emergency vehicles.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The Loyola Marymount University student newspaper reports campus theft has returned to pre-pandemic levels, with thieves snatching everything from laptops to Labubus — including almost as many bicycles and skateboards as motor vehicles.
Sure, let’s go with that. A South Carolina woman was arrested for a hit-and-run that left a bike rider with a broken leg, as well as cuts and abrasions, insisting she had no idea she had crashed into someone because she was busy looking down at her phone and thought she just hit a sign; she was not charged with DUI, despite appearing “grossly intoxicated” when police arrested her two hours later. Never mind that distracted driving is illegal in South Carolina. Or that most rational people would have at least stopped to check for damage if they thought they’d hit something.
If you build it, they will come, part two. In an annoyingly paywalled story, a Scottish paper reports that for the first time, there were more bicycles than cars on a Glasgow street during both the morning and evening peak rush hours. But at least the first two paragraphs are worth reading.
Competitive Cycling
Former pro Phil Gaimon says he’s got leaked information detailing the full route of the road cycling race for the 2028 Olympics, and says he couldn’t have designed a better course himself.
But will he be on the side of the road handing out fresh cookies to the competitors? Only time will tell.
Here is a press release from Streets Are For Everyone and Domestique Cycling Club, providing details on DCC’s Saturday Unity Ride, which promises to be one of the largest in the LA area.
ALEX PRETTI UNITY RIDE IN SOLIDARITY
WITH MEMORIAL RIDES ACROSS THE US
LOS ANGELES, CA — Alex Pretti was a nurse and a cyclist who loved the outdoors. This Saturday, cyclists from across Los Angeles will join cyclists from across the U.S. and around the world for memorial rides honoring Alex Pretti, in unity with the Minnesota cycling community and in solidarity with @angrycatfish, the cafe and bike shop Alex frequented.
From @angrycatfish:
“Alex was one of us. He rode bikes, he believed in community, and he believed in justice. Whether you’re 5 or 80, you remember the first time you rode a bike—because bikes are magic, and joy itself is an act of resistance. Today, with tens of thousands of cyclists expected nationally, we are showing not just grief, but unity. We are stronger together.”
The Unity Rides are taking place simultaneously across time zones, with riders gathering and rolling together to demonstrate collective grief, unity, and resolve within the cycling community.
Domestique Cycling Club is organizing a slow 10-mile ride leaving from the parking lot of the Veterans Administration in collaboration with dozens of cycling clubs and advocacy groups across Southern California.
Additionally, several smaller rides are independently organized by local cycling groups and bike shops as part of a national and international effort led by community organizers.
📍 VA Med Center Parking Lot 6
304 Dowlen Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90025
Hundreds of cyclists are expected (between 150 and 500). This will be an easy, calm, no-drop ride focused on unity, respect, and showing up together as a cycling community.
OTHER LOS ANGELES–AREA RIDES
Friday
• Allez LA Bike Shop & CA Chicken, 7:30 AM — Boyle Heights
Saturday
• West LA Bicycle, 1:00 PM — Bike Path & Main Street
• Trash Panda Cycling, El Mariachi Plaza
Sunday
• Mom Ridaz BC, Downtown Los Angeles
To be honest, I don’t care what your politics are, or where you stand on immigration.
This is about the violation of the right to assemble, protest and report what’s happening guaranteed by the 1st Amendment, as well as Pretti’s right to legally bear arms, as guaranteed under the 2nd.
And the needless killing of our fellow Americans under the color of authority.
Evidently, San Diego has the same fights over increased density that we do.
Except their city leaders are fighting for it, rather than opposing greater density in most of the city, like their neighbor to the north, while retaining single-family zoning and fighting SB 79, which overrides local zoning to allow dense, multi-family housing near major transit stops.
Lawrence Herzog, a writer and lecturer on urban studies and planning at San Diego State University makes the case for the mixed-use Midway Rising project, a medium density development that would replace the current sports arena and warehouses with housing and an entertainment district that opens onto the bay.
The project includes bike and walking paths connecting the various villages that make up the development, as well as connecting to a transit station less than a mile away.
The difference is that San Diego has been fighting a CEQA lawsuit filed by an anti-density group, which recently won its appeal over a failure to conduct an adequate environmental review of the height of some of the buildings.
Never mind that the city had placed the project before the voters, who narrowly approved it.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles continues to fight for an exemption to SB 79, despite a severe housing shortage in the city, affordable and otherwise, leaving us no choice but to increase density, despite what our city leaders seem to think.
Even though that increased density would effectively shrink the city, allowing it to become more walkable and bikeable, and reducing the need to drive everywhere.
And maybe even freeing up road space for better transit and safer bikeways.
Maybe someday our city leaders will stop kowtowing to residents desires to seal Los Angeles in amber and preserve it as it is today, and begin fighting for the healthy growth we so desperately need for the people who are already here. Let alone those who will inevitably come.
It’s a good read, even as Schneider patiently explains that you really can ride a bike to LAX.
But what really stands out is this section —
Disrupting the existing automotive order can mean more traffic and less parking, of course. So Schneider has angered some people over the years.
In 2022, he was on a neighborhood council championing a proposal for a dedicated bus lane along La Brea Avenue. The proposal passed, but in the run up, he says, one guy got pretty mad about it: “He put up a mugshot of me along La Brea at different establishments saying, ‘This guy’s about to ruin your neighborhood,’” Schneider recalls. When his mother-in-law saw the flyers, she “thought her grandkids were in danger.”
Matthew Tallmer says he did post — though not create — those flyers. “Obviously, the businesses were very concerned that they were going to lose business because there’d be no parking,” says Tallmer, now a member of the Mid City West Neighborhood Council, though at the time he was just a guy going door-to-door opposing a bus lane.
Tallmer’s larger objection is that Schneider’s unique lifestyle just may not work for everybody: “The whole idea that people are going to bike all over the place is an elitist fantasy, to be honest.”
So someone who sits on the Mid City West Neighborhood Council posts wanted posters with a photo of Schneider’s face, for the crime of daring to contest the automotive hegemony on La Brea.
And yet he somehow calls Schneider elitist for riding a bicycle, and thinking other people might want to do that, too?
Um, sure.
And I thought the Mid City West NC was one of the good ones.
The Argonaut looks at the weekly Venice Electric Light Parade and founder Marcus Gladney, who leads bicycle riders on a musical tour of the city that draws participants from around the world — including the Australian group RÜFÜS DU SOL, who hosted the listening party their fourth album on the parade.
State
The National Law Reviewexamines California’s new regulations regarding ebikes, including a ban on converting new ebikes to exceed legal limits, as well as the regulatory gaps in the law that should be corrected. Like defining an ebike as at least partially human powered, and anything that’s not as an electric motorbike.
Newsweekexamines why bicycling feels easier than walking and remains the world’s most energy‑efficient mode of human transport, more than five decades after Scientific American first reported it. Which is truly shocking. Not that bicycling is so efficient, but that Newsweek is still a thing.
Escape Collective says Trek is in deep doo doo as it marks its 50th anniversary, with layoffs, overstock, retail decline and debt making this its most challenging year yet. I bought my first adult bike from the company when they were just five years old. And I still have it, even if it’s not in rideable condition these days. Then again, neither am I.
That’s more like it. A 22-year old Texas man faces up to 20 years behind bars after being convicted of manslaughter for killing a high school student as he rode his bike in a crosswalk; investigators said he never touched his brakes before slamming into the boy’s bike. Although in California, he would only face a maximum of six years for vehicular manslaughter.
“We’re out here today because the city of Los Angeles signed Vision Zero as a directive in August 2015 to prioritize saving lives on our roads — to achieve zero traffic fatalities by 2025,” said SAFE founder and executive director Damian Kevitt, who lost his right leg in a violent traffic incident in 2013. “Not manage or reduce [them] but eliminate traffic fatalities. We are a decade later and we are at 290 traffic fatalities. … It’s a 26% increase in traffic fatalities since the start of Vision Zero…”
“The city has tools, it’s just not using them,” Kevitt told The Times. “In 2024, voters approved measure HLA by a two-thirds margin. It requires the city must follow its own mobility plan … to make roads safer for cyclists, for pedestrians, for better transit.” He also cited state measure AB 645, which in 2023 authorized a pilot program for speed cameras in a handful of California cities including Los Angeles, as “a tool the city could be implementing — it’s speed safety systems.”
In a perfect illustration of just how unserious the city is about ending traffic deaths, CD 13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez was the only member of the city government who bothered to show up.
But hey, Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement.
No, wait. Her office did.
Apparently Mayor Bass had better things to do.
Mayor Karen Bass’ office said in a statement that Bass, who took office in December 2022, “has made street safety a priority by accelerating the implementation of hundreds of new speed humps, signage and intersection treatments which help ensure drivers are traveling slowly and with control near schools. Vision Zero started in 2015 and requires intensive coordination across departments.”
The office pointed to Bass’ October 2024 executive directive to facilitate street repairs, clean parks and infrastructure and city services enhancements ahead of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympic Games in L.A.
So, evidently, we need a World Cup or Olympic Games to justify saving human lives.
Oh, and clean parks.
Got it.
Kevitt had one parting comment for The Times: “Don’t use the word traffic ‘accident’ when writing about this,” he said.
“In the road safety arena, it’s ‘crash’ or ‘collision,’” he said. “ ‘Accident’ implies non-responsibility. It’s just an ‘oops.’ But when you’re driving drunk or distracted, that’s a choice. If you hit and kill or severely injure someone, it’s not an ‘oops.’ We’re trying to say: This is preventable.”
There’s a lot more to the article, and it’s worth a few minutes to read the other comments from people who have lost loved ones. Or fear exactly that.
Particularly since the Times appears to be the only media source that even bothered to cover it.
Evidently, our deadly streets are no more important to the people who report on them than they are to the people we elect to fix them.
Looks like the joke’s on us.
Because nothing will ever change until city leaders care enough to do something about it.
And the media, and the people, care enough to hold them to it.
Just got this photo from a friend of mine: #Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch casually riding a bike en route to Lumen Field for today’s NFC Championship Game.
Then again, my beloved Broncos finished a broken ankle and a snow storm short of the Super Bowl, too.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Scottish city lived up — or maybe down — to its reputation as “hostile to anyone outside of a car” by scrapping plans for a bike lane through the town center because it would put the “economic vitality” of the town “at serious risk” due to the loss of six whole parking spaces. Yes, six. Never mind that studies have repeatedly shown sales go up when protected bike lanes go down.
LAistexamines Long Beach’s Vision Zero failure, as traffic deaths in the beachside city climb to their highest level in a decade. Although the public radio website may require your email address to read it.
What a long, strange trip it wasn’t. A local leader of San Francisco’s World Naked Bike Ride was arrested when he and several other people showed up naked for a tribute to the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, in the mistaken assumption their bare bodies would be seen as a tribute to the band.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 94-year New Zealand man who survived the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Holland will attempt to set a new age-group hour record, after already exceeding the record time on his own.
December 9, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on SAFE takes Long Beach and Los Angeles to task for failing on speed cams, and how to request improvement on county roads
Day 343 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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And yes, that’s the same photo of our official spokescorgi that we used yesterday, because it’s after 4 in the damn morning and I want to go to sleep, already.
Speaking of SAFE, the organization takes Glendale, Los Angeles and Long Beach to task, along with Oakland and San Jose, for failing to implement the state’s speed cam pilot program, over two years after it was signed into law.
Only San Francisco has actually placed speed cams on the streets, getting a 100% A+ grade in SAFE’s scoring system, while seeing a dramatic decrease in speeding where the cameras have been installed.
Los Angeles, on the other hand, gets a D grade, with Long Beach only slightly better at D+.
Although, while I can’t speak to Long Beach, that’s probably being undeservedly kind towards LA.
Malibu, which was added to the plan a year later as residents clamored for speed cams on deadly PCH, has done much better at implementing the program, already achieving a B+ in SAFE’s scoring.
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Thanks to Luc for forwarding a response from LA County on how to request safety signage or other improvements on country roads.
Report a Problem: Bike Path: Hi – Not a problem but a proactive measure to enforce safety for all. Now that the Rockstore section on Mulholland is finally open to all traffic:
Who do I ask for a sign to be placed showing to “share the road with cyclists”?
Thank you!
Answer: Thank you for contacting the website for Los Angeles County Public Works. We provide services to the unincorporated areas of L.A. County. Your concerns have been forwarded to the Traffic Investigator for the subject location, who should be contacting you shortly. You may also contact them at 626-300-4848.
And no, “more protected bike lanes everywhere” is probably not quite what they’re looking for.
But still.
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Gravel Bike California discovers some some hidden trails and camps in the Verdugo Mountains in the inaugural Tour de Dugo.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Once again, business owners try to shoot themselves in the foot, protesting new curb-protected bike lanes in Chicago while alleging they were losing business after just 45 days, even though studies show protected bike lanes usually result in increased sales if they just give it a little time.
A Fresno driver was on the wrong side of the roadway when he struck and killed a 51-year old anthropology professor three years ago as she was riding with three other bicyclists, according to a woman riding with her; the 50-year old driver faces a vehicular manslaughter charge, as well as a couple misdemeanors for her death.
A 24-year old man pled not guilty to DUI and hit-and-run charges in San Mateo County, after he allegedly hit a 15-year old boy riding an ebike in a bike lane, and dragged the kid several blocks before crashing into a couple parked cars; police found half gram of meth and 14 empty beer cans in his car after the crash. No word on how the boy is doing, but he can’t be good after that.
The New Jersey legislature advanced a bill that would reclassify all ebikes, including ped-assist bikes, as motorized bicycles, and require a drivers license for anyone over 17 to operate one, or a motorized bicycle license for anyone 15 to 16. A perfect example of how lumping all forms of electric bikes, including motorbikes and dirt bike, together as ebikes can result in a crackdown that harms everyone.
Amsterdam considers a ban on fat-tired ebikes, hoping that restrictions on tire widths will substitute for a ban based on engine power or potential speeds.
A South African appeals court called for a new inquest into the 2016 death of a woman who fell off a cliff while mountain biking with her husband, after a magistrate had ruled that her husband was implicated in her death “on the face of it,” without hearing any testimony; she supposedly fell when he turned his back after stopping to take a photo.
December 5, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on The abject failure of Vision Zero in America, the dangers of conflating ebikes and e-motos, and Calbike’s 2026 agenda
Day 339 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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And deadly Vista del Mar, aka Deadly del Mar, in particular.
And I do mean heartbreaking.
LOS ANGELES — As the sun set over the Pacific Ocean one Sunday this past spring, Cecilia Milbourne returned from a walk on the beach with her dog, Gucci. To reach her parked Tesla, she had to cross a road that city officials have known for years poses a danger to people on foot.
Eight years ago,as part of a nationalinitiative to stemtraffic deaths called Vision Zero, the city shrank the number of lanes on the road, Vista Del Mar, and several connecting streets in the shoreside community just south of Venice. But they restoredit to four lanes after an uproar by drivers— among them Octavio Girbau, who railed against a city official in a 2017 Facebook post stating he wasstuck on one of those intersecting roads“in the traffic hell you created.”
On March 16, Girbau was driving south on Vista Del Mar as Milbourne was about to cross in a spot with no crosswalk and no sidewalk — just a concrete curb separating her from the moving cars. Girbau bumped another car, lost control and struck Milbourne on the side of the road, sending her flying as his Mercedes flipped onto the beach, according to a police report. Milbourne, 29, a hairdresser and actor who had moved to Los Angeles from Atlanta, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her dog died with her.
In addition to pushback from outraged, or even slightly peeved, motorists, WaPo cites too little funding for the death of Vision Zero.
Like the $80 million called for initially in Los Angeles to even put a dent in traffic deaths, which never materialized.
And that has led to endless delays in making the safety improvements the city already knows we needed. Like in Koreatown, for instance.
In some cases, Angelenos have died as planned safety upgrades stalled.
It has been over a decade since the city decided to put a roundabout at the corner of 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue in Koreatown, a neighborhood where 34 people have been hit by cars and trucks and killed between 2015 and 2023. But there was a dispute between the city and the stateover funding, and some objected to the plan to include bike lanes. The roundabout was delayed.
On July 31, Nadir Gavarrete, a 9-year-old, was killed at the intersection while crossing the street on his scooter by a driver in a motor home.
LA guerrilla activists responded by painting their own DIY crosswalk at the intersection days later, working in broad daylight.
After all, she’s only had three years to come up with something.
Anything.
But back to Deadly del Mar, which Los Angeles is considering for one of the speed cams authorized by a state pilot program passed and signed two years ago.
None of which have yet been installed in the City of Angels, as city leaders continue their usual dithering and obfuscation.
One of the first locationsbeing considered is the spot where Milbourne was killed on Vista Del Mar. This fall, Kevitt and some of his colleagues did their own radar testing on the road. They found that about half of drivers are going above the speed limit during rush hour. In the morning, more than a quarter of cars are going over 50 miles per hour.
Milbourne died near two sets of stairs that lead from the wide expanse of Dockweiler Beach to Vista Del Mar. At the top, there is barely space to stand between the sandy bluff and the road. Cars whip by fast enough to be heard over the sound of planes taking off at Los Angeles International Airport, which sits just east of the beach.
Inevitably, the first response to complaints about speeding drivers is to call for greater enforcement. Except, of course, from the speeding drivers themselves, who fear getting ticketed because they’re unwilling to actually slow down.
But there aren’t enough cops in California, let alone Los Angeles, to patrol every street in LA 24/7. Or even enough to make a difference.
The equation is simple. Lane reductions, aka road diets, slow drivers, sometimes by causing greater congestion at peak hours. But drivers don’t want to slow down, and definitely don’t want to get stuck behind other drivers, blissfully unaware that they themselves are the cause of that congestion.
When a teenager crashes an “e-bike” at dangerous speeds, communities call for sweeping bans. When batteries ignite and cause a fire in apartment buildings, local governments restrict where electric bikes can be charged. And when pedestrians are struck by riders on sidewalks, cities work swiftly to cut riding speeds or discuss implementing licenses.
The problem? Many of these e-bike injuries and incidents can be avoided if only we defined what makes an electric bicycle.
Several of these incidents involve what cycling advocacy group PeopleForBikes calls an ‘e-moto’: electric motorcycles and mopeds sold as “street legal” e-bikes that don’t need a license or registration.
Many – but not all – of these e-motos sell new following standard e-bike Class 1,2, or 3 speed classifications. But with some modifications, they can reach speeds of 30, 40, or even 50 miles per hour, and are causing growing problems nationwide.
The solution, they say — as does People For Bikes — is federal legislation classifying anything with a built-in capability exceeding ebike specifications to “be classified as a motor vehicle, period.”
That’s just the first step.
They also call for requiring more truthful advertising as to what is actually “street legal,” as well as standardizing state laws regulating ebikes, just like bicycling regulations are virtually identical from one state to another.
It’s worth taking a few minutes to read.
Because as long as anything with an electric motor is considered an ebike, regardless of power or speed capabilities, we risk ill-informed crackdowns on, and condemnation of, all of us.
Sixty-two 3rd graders in Fayetteville NC got new bicycles, after telling the assembled that four kids earned one of the new bikes by winning in an essay contest, then announcing that everyone else would take one home, too.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Chicago residents complain about new bike lanes causing traffic to overflow onto surrounding streets and alleys — except what’s causing the backup is the construction work to build the bike lanes, not the bike lanes themselves. And a former daily bike commuter says he doesn’t think bike lanes are even necessary, apparently not grasping that bike lanes are for the people who don’t feel comfortable mixing it up with motor vehicles, rather than those who do.
A CicLAvia-style open streets event is coming to East LA next weekend, when about 1.6 miles of City Terrace Drive and Hazard Ave will go carfree for the benefit of pedestrians, bicyclists, joggers and runners. As well as just plain, you know, people.
Life is ludicrously cheap in Montana, where a driver walked with a gentle caress on the wrist for killing a seven-year old boy riding his bicycle in a crosswalk, after prosecutors reduced a negligent homicide charge down to misdemeanor careless driving, and he was sentenced to a lousy $1000 fine — which the judge deferred for a year, meaning it could be dropped entirely if he keeps his nose clean.
In news that is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, the family of a 13-year old Huntsville, Alabama boy who was killed by a driver while riding his bicycle have installed a Christmas tree at the roadside memorial marking where he was killed, and asked the public to come place an ornament on it.
International
Road.cc argues that the bicycle industry is not sustainable by design, and they could do their part to save the environment by returning to steel frames instead of carbon fiber, without sacrificing performance.
A “passionate cyclist” from the UK is suing Lime over a crash that snapped his leg in four places, claiming the rear wheel unexpectedly skidded out when he braked to avoid pedestrians, leaving him with life-changing injuries.
That’s more like it. A British distracted hit-and-run driver got nine years behind bars for killing a bike rider, after swearing he didn’t know he hit anyone and just thought his van’s engine had blown up; he’d avoided a previous driving ban for distracted driving by claiming he needed to drive for his job. Yet another example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late.
Bicycles provided by World Bicycle Relief are giving Kenyan farmers a route out of poverty by providing a safe alternative to paying for dangerous motorbike trips to get their produce to market.
Day 330 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Just a quick note before we get started.
As usual, this will be our last regular post for the holiday week. I’ll be taking tomorrow and Friday off to spend with family, so we’ll see you back here bright and early on Monday.
Although if you’re not too busy hitting the Black Friday sales — or better yet, getting out on your bike and avoiding the hell out of the whole mess — come back Friday for the kick off of our 11th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive.
I’ll do my best to put the fun back in fund drive, while simultaneously begging you to part with a small portion of your own hard-earned funds to help keep this whole thing going for another year.
Today’s photo depicts yours truly signing the original petition in support of Measure HLA, corgi in tow, with Streets For All founder Michael Schneider.
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Okay, one more quick note.
Because I’m thankful this year for a lifetime on two wheels, which has led me to so many of my best experiences and memories.
And I’m even more thankful for you, and everyone else who reads this site. Because I couldn’t do what I do without you.
So in all sincerity and with deepest humility, thank you.
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To the surprise of absolutely no one, LA’s Board of Public Works rejected the overwhelming majority of Measure HLA appeals heard on Monday.
First round of appeals: The Board of Public Works partially sided with the appellant in one appeal and rejected the other six. Joe Linton, in his capacity as a resident and not as editor of Streetsblog L.A., filed all the appeals heard on Monday. “It’s the very first time, so we’re kind of throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks,” Linton told LAist. “Not a lot stuck.”
One appeal approved: Linton partially won his appeal claiming the city did not adequately install pedestrian improvements along a nearly half-mile portion of Hollywood Boulevard that it resurfaced last year. The city said it will publish an “appeals resolution plan” to fix sidewalks there within the next six months. “It was really obvious to me that the city’s justification … was not true, so I was glad that that was acknowledged,” Linton said.
Per the text of the Measure HLA ballot measure, the city does not have to implement its mobility plan if the city is only completing “restriping without other improvements.” This exemption is listed alongside pothole repairs, utility cuts, and emergency repairs. In the six appeals that the board voted to reject, the city did not “restripe” the existing configuration, but installed new lane striping to change traffic patterns, added parking, bike lanes, turn lanes, etc.
The appeals argued that these changes go beyond “restriping without other improvements.”
The city disagrees.
The city’s position appears to be more or less along the lines of: if a street reconfiguration project included installed pretty much any kind of lane striping, then it’s exempt from HLA because it’s considered “restriping without other improvements.”
Not that their prospects look too good right now, with or without it.
Meanwhile, a writer for a surf site puts tongue firmly in cheek to discuss the “grom immolation terror” brought on by the recall, while questioning why the Consumer Product Safety Commission is even still around following the Trump budget cuts. “Grom” being slang for a young or inexperienced surfer, and by extension, any inexperienced and/or overly enthusiastic teen — the opposite of what waits for me in the mirror every morning. And you’re welcome.
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Thanks to the generosity of a fallen bicyclist’s family, all donations to Streets Are For Everyone will be matched dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.
Calbike examines how Metro’s Nina Kin, Tech Lead on LA Metro’s Digital Experience Team, is building more reliable data and trust for transit riders on bicycles, as Metro begins to recognize that transit and bikes are two “halves of the same promise.” And no, that’s not an exceptionally awkward and unwieldy job title at all.
Pasadena approved a contract of up to $4.8 million to move forward with a new design for the Pasadena Ave and St. John Ave Roadway Network Project, including a safer and more accessible bicycle and pedestrian network — without removing existing traffic lanes, of course.
Santa Monica announced plans for a Holiday Sweater Community Ride on Saturday, December 6th, offering guided bike tours of the Bergamot Area First/Last Mile Improvements, departing from the 17th Street/SMC Metro Station from 10 am to noon.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office urges parents to think twice before buying ebikes for their kids, warning that they can be held criminally liable for whatever mischief the little miscreants get up to with them. And once again, conflating electric dirt bikes and motorbikes with regular ped-assist ebikes, to the benefit of no one.
The New York Times also talks with French ultracyclist Sofiane Sehili, who spent 50 days in a Russian hoosegow after trying to cross the border despite Russian border guards refusal to acknowledge his previously approved visa, while attempting to set a new record for the fastest crossing of Eurasia.
November 24, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 16 years for killer Santa Ana DUI driver; Burbank approves $3.3 million Chandler Bikeway extension “with trepidation”
Day 328 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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It’s kind of a quiet news day, as the holiday week doldrums hit the bike world. Or at least the press that usually covers it. So let’s just dive right in, for those of us who are still around this week.
Thirty-year old Ceferino Ascencion Ramos was convicted of driving at nearly three times the legal alcohol limit when he ran down the entire family of five last summer.
According to KTLA-5,
The incident took place on Sunday, July 7, 2024, shortly after 7 p.m. Angel Ramirez and Angela Hernandez-Mejia were riding e-bikes with their three young children near Haster Street and Twintree Lane. Angela led with the couple’s 7-month-old daughter in a bike trailer, while Angel followed with a trailer carrying their 5-year-old son, Jacob, and 6-year-old daughter.
A witness told police that the family was riding on the right side of the road when Ramos struck all five members and drove away. The witness followed Ramos until authorities could stop him. His blood alcohol level was later measured at .22, nearly three times the legal limit of .08.
Jacob died at the scene.
The family’s bones and abrasions may have healed by now.
Police in Cambridge, Massachusetts continued their search for the thumbtack-wielding anti-bike terrorist who tossed the tiny tacks across a bike lane, resulting in flat tires for several riders. While it may sound like a relatively petty form of protest, it can be expensive and inconvenient to replace a tire, and potentially dangerous — or worse — if a tire pops at speed.
A San Francisco med student makes the case for AB 981, which would create a test program requiring Intelligent Speed Assist systems for serious or repeat speed violators — in other words, using software to cap speeds for drivers who can’t keep their damn foot off the gas; the bill was left hanging in the Appropriations Committee when the last legislative session ended, and will need public support to move forward.
Life is cheap in Hamilton, Ontario, where a bicyclist says “the laws are not there to protect you,” after prosecutors allow the driver who fractured his hip off on a lessor charge; the bike rider complained he was struck during an aggressive pass, while the driver insists he never actually made contact with the victim. Which shouldn’t matter, since a close pass can do as much damage as an actual collision.
Life is even cheaper in the UK, where the mayor of an English town walked with a fine of 3,000 pounds — the equivalent of $3,900 — for the drunken hit-and-run that knocked a man off his bike; the mayor denied hitting the victim until police found the passenger mirror from his car at the scene of the crash.
A Milan bike lane represents the dividing line in Italy’s politics, with the right promising to rip it out, and the city’s center-left mayor calling the conservative head of the country’s senate a NIMBY. In other words, kind of like the left-right divide in much of the world, and especially right here in the good ol’ USA.
Once again, a pro cyclist has been struck by a driver, as 28-year old Frenchman Thibault Guernalec suffered multiple fractures, as well as a concussion, when he was run down while on a training ride this this week, only days after Dutch cyclist Lorena Wiebes was also struck by a hit-and-run driver.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We’re planning upgrades for Ohio: Proposals include a 1.3-mile protected bikeway, signal improvements and safer crossings! Your feedback will help shape the final design. Take the survey and share your thoughts: https://t.co/bHod2PFwdUpic.twitter.com/Fqux8I7xyo
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.
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.
October 17, 2025 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on The most dangerous intersections in deadly LA, injured Yaroslovsky staffer ID’d, and remembering Pepperdine PCH victims
Day 290 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Or as it’s known here in Los Angeles, just another week.
Because officials in this city would never want to suggest to drivers that they might want to leave their car at home for even a week, no matter how good the cause.
And this is a very good cause.
According to the website,
If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it’s like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a third of people living in the United States – people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can’t afford cars or gas – this is our every day.
We created the Week Without Driving experience so that those who have the option to drive can learn firsthand about the barriers and challenges that nondrivers face and work with nondrivers to create more accessible communities for all.
And one of those barriers, as I learned last week, is just how difficult it is to replace a lost ID here in California if you don’t drive a car.
Unlike drivers, who can request a new license online with just a few clicks and get it days later, non-drivers have to fill out a form, and schedule an appointment to appear in person at the DMV.
Since evidently, anyone who doesn’t drive is such a strange thing they have to ensure we actually exist.
Never mind that the next available appointment here in Los Angeles is mid-November.
Yes, November.
Then, and only then, according to the DMV’s website, you can expect a replacement ID to arrive in your hot little hands “just” three to four weeks later.
Which means it will be just a couple weeks before Christmas before I’ll once again have a little piece of plastic to tell anyone who the hell I am if I should get hit by a bus.
All because my wallet fell out of my pocket while riding one.
Yet when my wife realized she’d somehow become separated from her driver’s license when the paramedics took her to the hospital recently, she received a replacement little more than a week later.
So not only should drivers use this week without driving to walk in our shoes, officials in this state should try giving up their licenses to see how the DMV treats anyone crazy enough to live without a car in car-centric California.
Go on. I double-dog dare ’em.
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Streets Are For Everyone is urging, well, everyone to email or call California Governor Gavin Newsom to demand — okay, politely ask in a very firm manner — that he sign SB 720, the Safer Streets Program.
The bill is intended to modernize and simplify the regulations for red light cameras in California, to overcome the problems that have prevented their installation and, in too many cases, led to their removal.
California’s roads tell a grim story. SAFE reviewed the data. Since 2013, severe injuries and fatalities tied to intersection violations have surged 96.1%. In 2023 alone, red-light violations were linked to 195 deaths and more than 1,200 severe injuries. And these aren’t just drivers—the victims include cyclists and pedestrians, who made up nearly one in five of those killed or seriously injured.
Even seasoned drivers admit they hesitate after a light turns green, waiting to see if someone will barrel through the intersection. That hesitation isn’t paranoia—it’s survival.
Never mind the economic costs.
The human toll is incalculable, but the economic cost is staggering. Using the CDC’s WISQARS Cost of Injury calculator, SAFE estimated the financial burden of intersection crashes between 2021 and 2023:
$985 million in costs from severe injuries, nearly a third of it from medical expenses.
$6.96 billion in costs from fatalities.
Altogether, more than $7.9 billion was drained from California in just three years. That’s money that could have gone into schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and community programs—but instead was lost to preventable crashes.
SB 720 is designed to address the problem by improving red light enforcement.
There is a better way. Senate Bill 720—the Safer Streets Program—offers a critical chance to modernize California’s red-light enforcement. Modeled after the state’s successful speed safety camera bill (AB 645), SB 720 would:
Eliminate facial photography, capturing only license plates.
Treat violations like parking tickets, keeping enforcement simple and privacy intact.
Require revenue from citations to be reinvested into safety improvements—not city general funds.
Reduce the cost of citations to a flat $100 for the first citation and increase fines for those who repeatedly run red lights in proportion to the number of violations.
This approach has already proven effective in other states. Red light camera programs across major U.S. cities have reduced fatal crashes by 21% and saved an estimated 1,300 lives in a single year. When programs are dismantled, crashes and fatalities climb again.
It’s already passed both houses of the legislature, and is just waiting for Newsom’s signature, which is anything but a sure thing.
And that’s where you come in.
Once again, here’s how SAFE sums it up.
The data is clear. The solutions exist. And yet, lives continue to be lost every day California delays reform. SB 720 is now in the Governor’s hands, representing a chance to save lives and reclaim billions of dollars for our communities.
The question is not whether red-light running is preventable—it is. The question is whether California will finally choose to act.
Because every number in these statistics is more than a data point, it’s a life, a family, and a future stolen. And the cost of inaction is simply too high.
Although he was reportedly riding an electric motorcycle, rather than a ped-assist bicycle.
Which does not make it any less tragic.
The crash occurred about 5:55 pm September 23rd, near Superior Ave and Nice Lane. There’s no word on whether this was a solo crash, or if there was a driver involved.
Anyone with any information is urged to call the Newport Beach Police Department at 949/644-3747 or email alaverty@nbpd.org.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
A New Zealand woman known as the Helmet Lady has died, 31 years after her successful campaign to make bike helmets compulsory for all bicyclists in the country, following the bicycling crash that left her 12-year old son paralyzed from the neck down.
EXCLUSIVE: Earlier today ICE agents chase after a man in downtown Chicago after he made verbal comments but no physical or threatening contact. The man was able to get away. pic.twitter.com/uOiHXSmQny
More on the hit-and-run crash that severely injured a staffer for CD5 Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, and killed her beloved corgi.
