Tag Archive for Streets Are For Everyone

Paris offers a guide to transform LA streets in time for ’28 Olympics, and video of Ackerman ghost bike vigil in WeHo

July 28, 2025 / / No comments
Day 209 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Maybe there’s still hope for Los Angeles.

Momentum takes a look at the transformation Paris made to the city’s streets prior to the 2024 Olympics, and looks for lessons for Los Angeles, as well as other cities.

The magazine spells out five key changes Paris made, from expanding bicycle infrastructure and pedestrianized streets to offering financial incentives to leave your car at home, that offers steps other cities could take to emulate the City of Lights.

Take financial incentives, for instance.

The Parisian government has introduced financial incentives to encourage cycling. Subsidies for purchasing bikes, especially electric ones, and grants for bike repairs make cycling more affordable. These measures aim to lower the entry barriers and promote a culture of cycling .

The “Coup de Pouce Vélo” program, launched in 2020, provided up to 50 euros for bike repairs and up to 200 euros for the purchase of a new electric bike. This program has been extended due to its success, with over one million Parisians benefiting from these subsidies . The country of France has also offered as much as 4,000 euros as an incentive to switch from a car to an e-bike or bicycle…

Governments can support cycling by offering financial incentives for purchasing and maintaining bikes. Subsidies and grants can make cycling more accessible to a broader population, fostering a more inclusive cycling culture .

Research: A study by the European Cyclists’ Federation found that financial incentives are one of the most effective ways to increase cycling adoption, with countries like Belgium and the Netherlands leading the way in offering substantial subsidies.

Then they take it a step further — or five steps, actually — to consider how to make tough choices and navigate political will, which is where Los Angeles has repeatedly failed.

It’s worth reading.

Because right now, the talk of making major changes to LA’s streets in time for the 2028 Olympics looks like just that.

Talk.

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The West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition shares video of the vigil and ghost bike for Blake Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding home from work earlier this month.

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, is holding a meeting this afternoon for volunteers to help encourage the use of public transportation throughout LA County.

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

A competitive cyclist in St. Louis, Missouri will be out of commission for the next several months because a hit-and-run driver brake-checked him after rolling down his window and yelling at the victim; that comes just two weeks after another rider was verbally and physically assaulted in the city, though police won’t say if the two incidents are related.

Someone appears to be sabotaging the bikeway on New York’s Marine Parkway Bridge by leaving string across the path at neck and head level, resulting in a number of injuries, although the NYPD continues to say “no criminality is suspected.”

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Local 

KCAL News takes an aerial view of the beachfront Marvin Braude Bike Path.

Someone described only as a minor was airlifted to a Valencia hospital after being involved in an ebike crash. Although what kind of ebike they were riding or whether anyone else was involved hasn’t been explained at this time.

Streetsblog says the landscaped walkway along Valinda Ave in unincorporated Los Angeles County between La Puente and West Covina is a community treasure.

 

State

Santa Ana says they’re halfway through a lane reduction project on Standard and McFadden avenues, and have begun installing “improved” bike lanes.

A four-year old boy was lucky to escape with abrasions after he was struck by a driver while riding his bike in San Diego’s Mission Bay Park Sunday evening.

The San Francisco Standard says if there’s a war on cars, the cars are winning as the city slowly surrenders to the automobile, despite efforts to encourage alternative transportation.

 

National

Go ahead and ride your bike just on Saturday and Sunday, or whenever your weekend occurs, because a new study shows “weekend warrior” workouts alone are enough to significantly reduce the risk of death from all causes for people with diabetes. And as we all know, diabetes sucks. 

A lawyer with the Bike League offers an update on multiple lawsuits filed by cities, states and advocacy groups over active transportation funding frozen by the Trump administration over unrelated issues like noncompliance with immigration or DEI orders.

A group of nine women have set off on a seven-week ride down the West Coast from Seattle to San Diego to awareness and funds for victims of sex trafficking.

Denver bike riders say they were left out of plans for a nearly $1 billion transportation bond measure that includes hundreds of millions for bridges, roads and underpasses, but virtually nothing for bikeways.

A Florida man was killed by a sheriff’s deputy while taking his usual morning ride to the beach as the deputy was responding to a crash with lights and siren; investigators suspected that he might not have been able to hear the siren, or could have thought emergency vehicles had all passed before riding his bike out into the intersection.

 

International

Momentum rates the best North American rail trails to ride this summer. Not that the summer isn’t half over by now, but still. 

A Mexican man has gone from cutting sugar cane in Belize to being recognized as the “bike guru” of the city of Orange Walk.

After a ten-year bike boom, Calgary, Alberta has gone bust, with roughly just a quarter of the bike lanes called for by 2020 actually built, and no one in charge of bike lanes at City Hall.

The New York Times examines the battle over bike lanes in Toronto as local bicyclists fight back against plans to rip out the city’s bike lanes.

Bicyclists in London are accusing a local council of trying to sweep the unsolved hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle by removing and destroying his ghost bike.

An English woman says instead of being the best time to ride, summer is actually the worst time to ride a bike in London due to “fair-weather cyclists, drunken riders and tourists,” causing gridlocked bike lanes, unpredictable behavior and a more chaotic commute.

Yet another tragic reminder to always carry ID with you when you ride, as detectives in the UK thanked the public for their help in identifying a man in his 70s who collapsed and died while walking his bike. Put a copy of your driver’s license in a secure pocket, wear a RoadID, write your name and phone number on your bike, or use some other form of identification that won’t get stolen if you’re somehow incapacitated in a fall or crash. 

An Irish man finished a year-long, 7,400-mile ride to Vietnam to raise funds for cancer patient support services.

Sad news from South Africa, where an incoming junior on Princeton’s Ivy League champion rowing team was killed while she was riding a bike back home in Johannesburg.

A consultant is encouraging Malaysia to enact a national code spelling out the rights and responsibilities of bicyclists, in a country where most people don’t know where bikes are legally allowed, or how to drive safely around them.

 

Competitive Cycling

To the surprise of no one, Tadej Pogačar won the Tour de France for the fourth time after taking control of the race midway, saying the victory left him speechless and he didn’t want to discuss speculation he’s chasing Eddy Merckx as the greatest cyclist of all time. Never mind that guy who claims he won the race seven times, but isn’t found anywhere in the record book.

Pogačar didn’t win the final stage, however, after Wout Van Aert dropped him on the climb to Montmartre, after the Tour dropped the traditional ceremonial, champaign-swilling final stage in favor of a more competitive finish.

Twenty-four-year old German cyclist Florian Lipowitz not only finished his first Tour de France wearing the white jersey for best young rider, but made the podium with a third-place finish in the general classification. 

Britain’s Geraint Thomas said goodbye to the Tour de France with his five-year old son on his handlebars, seven years after he won the race for the only time.

Fifty-four-year old Ofer Calderon didn’t compete in the Tour de France, but still rode along the Champs-Élysées in full Israel Premier Tech cycling team gear, invited by the team’s owners after surviving 484 days as a hostage in Hamas captivity.

The Washington Post examines the spreading rumors of motor doping in pro cycling, and whether officials are up to the challenge of keeping up with constantly changing techniques and technology.

Dutch great Marianne Vos won the opening day of the nine-stage Tour de France Femmes.

Spain’s Mavi Garcia’s became the oldest stage winner of the Tour de France Femmes by taking Sunday’s stage with an aggressive attack, breaking Annemiek van Vleuten’s record by more than two years.

Velo says 29-year old Mauritian cyclist Kim Le Court’s best pro season got even better when she donned the yellow jersey after Sunday’s stage of the Tour.

Velo examines the 10-rider strong North American contingent competing in the women’s Tour.

 

Finally…

The case for stealing Pee-wee Herman’s bike, again. And using your bike to smash a car windshield in a dispute over removing a political sign is not actually one of its many accepted uses.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Congress member echoes calls for safer WeHo Streets, and CO cops succeed with hit-and-run alert LAPD and CHP won’t use

July 24, 2025 / / 2 comments
Day 205 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Burbank Congressional Representative Laura Friedman echoed last week’s call for safer streets in West Hollywood.

The Beverly Press quotes the 30th District House member as saying,

“We need to be thinking about this from every angle, from the way we design vehicles, to what safety features are in vehicles, to employing technology like speed cameras across the state in a thoughtful way, to driver’s education,” she (Friedman) said.

Friedman also commended West Hollywood and other cities for implementing safer traffic measures, calling the increase in fatal collisions a “public health crisis.”

Because a public health crisis is exactly how we need to be looking at traffic violence. Just like we should consider gun violence, but don’t.

In both cases.

The paper also quotes Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, founder Damian Kevitt citing a “shocking” increase in traffic violence in the city of just 34,000 people.

Kevitt also cited the problem of drivers fleeing following a crash because the penalties for hit-and-run are more lenient than for DUI.

“That is a huge factor and that is where the law needs to catch up,” he said.

Kevitt added that reducing traffic congestion by adding surface area on streets has not been successful in Los Angeles and that using alternative means of transportation is a more effective way of reducing vehicle congestion.

However, we’re not likely to reduce congestion until people feel safer using other forms of transportation on those congested streets.

Egg, meet chicken.

The paper also reminds us about the petition to install a red light camera at Fountain and Gardner.

Which has gathered less than 250 signatures so far, when it should be at least ten times that number by now.

So if you haven’t signed it yet, do it already.

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The same day an Englewood, Colorado bike rider was seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation issued a Medina Alert, which is their version of a hit-and-run alert.

Which is exactly how it’s supposed to work.

Maybe someone should tell that to the cops here.

Because the hit-and-run alert programs for both Los Angeles and California were copied from Colorado’s successful program, which itself was based on the very successful program patterned after the Amber alert system that originated in Denver.

The only difference is they use it, and we don’t. Which just might have something to do with why Colorado solved every felony hit-and-run in 2022, while only around 20% ever get solved in California.

Or maybe they just care enough to devote the resources necessary to solve them, and the cops and elected leaders out here don’t.

But at least the LAPD only waited two days to ask for the public’s help this time.

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A new video game allows you to ride a magical bike through a massive open world in search of some legendary bike part; The Verge calls it “the feel-good game of the summer.”

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

No bias here. New York bike riders are understandably frustrated after a nearly 1,000% increase in bike traffic tickets in the second quarter of this year — except their now criminal summons, which require recipients to appear before a judge in criminal court, rather than traffic court.

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Local 

A Hollywood judge will now determine whether a 62-year old Pasadena man will stand trial for killing his wife, dismembering her and stuffing her remains in a suitcase, then taking his bicycle on a train, riding his bike to North Figueroa and setting the suitcase on fire in a Home Depot parking lot, after his attorney questioned the man’s mental competency. Gee, ya think?

Burbank unveiled its draft Safer Street action plan, including plans for traffic calming measures on nine separate streets; you can weigh in at the August 12th city council meeting.

 

State

Calbike shares strategies used by local advocates in two California cities to add bikeways to state roadways.

Chula Vista became the latest California city to crack down on ebike riders, although they put off enforcement of the new restrictions for 90 days.

Just like West Hollywood last weekend, nearly 100 people in San Rafael gathered outside City Hall Monday evening to honor a “beloved husband, coach and cyclist” who was killed while riding his bike last month, and demand that the city fix the dangerous intersection where he was was run down by a driver.

 

National

Bike Mag examines the impact Black Sabbath and the late Ozzy Osbourne had on mountain biking.

They get it. A Bend, Oregon newspaper says if the state wants more people to ride bikes, it has to invest in bike safety; if not, maybe the city’s bike riders should just stay home.

Seattle Bike Blog says riding your bike to transit is the ultimate hack to get around the city’s freeway construction this summer — and every other day, too.

Two people have already died during this week’s RAGBRAI ride across Iowa, despite receiving prompt medical attention from medical professionals taking part in the multi-day event; meanwhile, the 140-member Air Force Cycling Team is riding along with the RAGBRAI participants to provide assistance to anyone who needs it.

A Milwaukee driver faces up to 31 years behind bars for — allegedly — blowing through a red light and seriously injuring a man riding in a bike lane, while a) FaceTiming with a contracting customer b) smoking a joint, c) driving on a suspended license, and d) driving a car belonging to someone else.

An Atlanta city councilmember got a first-hand look at the dangers bike riders face on the roads, when he was struck by a driver making a U-turn, while he was riding his bike home from a soccer match with his four-year old daughter; his attorney says his bike was properly lit and he was doing everything right.

A new video series tries to normalize bike riding as it follows Tampa, Florida ebike riders on their way to local businesses.

 

International

A Canadian woman just set new Guinness World Records for the fastest speed on a Penny Farthing by a woman at 25.93 mph, and the fastest women’s one kilometer on a Penny Farthing. But bikes like that have only been around for 150 years, so no big deal. 

Friends of a Brazilian man who was killed while riding his bike in London last year plan to reinstall his ghost bike, after it was removed by the Tower Hamlets council just three months later without consulting his family or friends.

An English man discovers there’s nothing like working as a food delivery rider to train for an epic bike ride from the UK to Australia.

A bike-riding man in Singapore faces up to five years behind bars for killing a 70-year old pedestrian by failing to “keep a proper lookout” while riding his bike across an intersection.

 

Competitive Cycling

Italian cyclist Jonathan Milan won his second stage in this year’s Tour de France in a sprint to the finish after a big crash took down a number of riders, including Eritrean Biniam Girmay.

French gendarmes were quick to take down an imposter who tried to ride his bike across the finish line of yesterday’s stage just ahead of the peloton.

Velo offers the “ultimate guide” to all the bikes, components and gear used by the 22 teams competing in the Tour de France Femmes, aka Women’s Tour de France, which kicks off on Saturday.

A 68-year old Phoenix, Arizona woman is the world’s oldest elite-level paracyclist.

 

Finally…

That feeling when you borrow a kids bike to pedal to your first day of NFL training camp. Or when you go over your handlebars, and a TV reporter interrupts his live remote to ensure you’re okay.

And when you’re a convicted felon and known gang member illegally carrying a loaded weapon on your bike, just don’t ride salmon, already.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Car a weapon of mass destruction in East Hollywood, vigil for WeHo bike rider, and Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and…Pee-wee

July 21, 2025 / / No comments
Day 202 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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This is who we share the road with.

After getting kicked out of an East Hollywood nightclub just before closing time for fighting, a man is accused of intentionally driving his car into a crowd of people standing on the sidewalk, injuring at last 37 people — seven critically.

Twenty-nine-year old Fernando Ramirez was then pulled from his car and beaten by members of the crowd, before getting shot in the ass by someone, who the police are still looking for.

Now it turns out Ramirez has an extensive criminal record, with at least 11 felony and misdemeanor busts dating back to 2014 including arrests for violent assaults.

One of those resulted in a conviction for a hate crime after Ramirez sucker-punched an employee at a Whole Foods Market in Laguna Beach, telling an officer it was because the man was Black, and “he hated all Black people,” although the conviction was later overturned on appeal.

But maybe it’s time we ask why people with a demonstrated history of violence are allowed to continue operating a potential multi-ton weapon of mass destruction.

Because until we take cars away from violent felons just like we do guns, tragedies like this will keep happening.

Even the corgi honored a request from the family of Blake Ackerman that everyone wear Hawaiian shirts to the vigil for the fallen bicyclist to remember his love for the islands. Photo by Damian Kevitt,

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WeHo Times continued their coverage of the ghost bike and vigil for Blake Ackerman, who was killed at Fountain and Gardner in West Hollywood on July 10th.

Ackerman’s fiancé Victoria “Torie” Ball was there representing the victim, since his family chose to mourn in private, in what Streets Are For Everyone founder Damian Kevitt described as “a very emotional time for the family.”

The website reports that West Hollywood Mayor Chelsea Byers and Councilmembers Danny Hang and Lauren Meister attended, along with Culver City Councilmember Bryan “Bubba” Fish.

Unfortunately, no representatives of the City of Los Angeles chose to attend, even though the dividing line between the cities is literally the curb on the north side of the street, with Fountain in West Hollywood and the sidewalk in Los Angeles.

According to Kevitt,

“They (Ackerman’s family) thanked us for the work we’re doing–not only remembering Blake, but making sure this moment leads to real change. It’s about more than what happened. It’s about preventing future tragedies.”

Mayor Byers echoed that sentiment. “We’re here holding a vigil for Blake, who died on Fountain Avenue while riding his bike, and we’re vowing to fight for safer streets in West Hollywood and across the region,” she said. “I’m grateful that a council member from Culver City joined us tonight–it shows this is a regional issue. We’re all fighting for a future where people don’t have to risk their lives just to ride a bike.”

Amen to that.

A poster for another fatal hit-and-run was posted across the street from the Ackerman vigil and ghost bike, for a crash less than two weeks earlier, and just block away.

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Um, okay.

“Remember the Alamo” will soon take on a whole new meaning, after the Texas historic site “officially acquired the original screen-used stunt bike” from the 1985 film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

The iconic red bicycle, one of several made for the film, will be permanently displayed in the future Alamo Visitor Center and Museum, currently scheduled to open in Fall of 2027.

You can just imagine the lessons learned by future school kids as they admire memorabilia from Alamo legends Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis, and yes, Pee-wee Herman.

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

No surprise here. A New York bike rider was injured by a turning driver on a street where New York’s mayor cancelled plans for a road diet and protected bike lanes to appease his wealthy campaign donors.

No bias here. A self-identified London “cyclist” says he looks at Lime bikeshare ebikes with the same contempt as London cabbies look at him, because they litter the street corners and clog the bike lanes — and the sidewalks, apparently. Meanwhile, Electrek says if you think ebikes are bad, just wait until you learn about cars.

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

Seriously? A Staten Island writer blames a jeep driver for blowing a stop sign and nearly hitting a kid as he rode his bike off the sidewalk, but says the child on the bike bears responsibility for not stopping or wearing a helmet. Even though a) riding on the sidewalk is legal for kids there, and b) a bike helmet wouldn’t haven’t prevented a crash.

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Local 

Once again, the LAPD failed to use their hit-and-run alert system, and waited months to tell us a man in his 60s was severely injured when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver, while riding his bicycle in LA’s Pico-Union neighborhood in the early hours of May 28th; there is a standing $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injuries in the City of Los Angeles.

 

State

A 17-year old San Diego boy suffered a fractured left femur and shattered left ankle when he was right-hooked by a driver while riding in a crosswalk in the Fairmount Village neighborhood Saturday afternoon.

A 73-year old man suffered an open leg fracture when he was run down by a driver while biking in San Diego’s Point Loma Heights Thursday.

The founder of apparel brand Cherry Willow just finished a 715-mile ride from Sacramento to San Diego to raise awareness and funds to fight homelessness and food insecurity.

 

National

The Verge says 24,000 batteries sold with cheap ebikes have been recalled because “the US can’t get its shit together” and regulate them properly.

Thirty-one members of my old college fraternity are riding across the country from San Francisco to Washington DC to raise awareness for people living with disabilities.

That’s more like it. A New Mexico woman was sentenced to ten years behind bars for the high-speed crash that killed a Las Cruces man riding a bicycle while she was driving drunk and stoned.

He gets it. The county attorney for Leavenworth, Kansas says “When you see a cyclist, even if you’re in a rush, don’t let it crank your gears. Respect their space.”

Nelson Vails, 1984 Olympic cycling hero and the first Black man to win an Olympic medal, says he likes RAGBRAI, aka the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, because it’s just a relaxed ride, and not a race.

Two New York woman are facing charges for fleeing on foot after racing their car off a bridge at a high rate of speed, and crashing into a 55-year old man out for his usual morning bike ride, along with a 63-year old woman just sitting on a bench, killing both, then crashing into a police van with enough force to knock it into a jewelry store. The family of the bike riding victim, who was known as an advocate for safer streets, said “It’s devastating to know he was killed doing something he loved.”

 

International

A Ukrainian soldier will spend the next 61 months behind bars for stealing a bottle of whiskey from a store in Odessa, along with a bicycle worth the equivalent of $119; he was also fined the equivalent of $845.

Despite suffering a disabling brain injury seven years ago, a 65-year old New Zealand man has set off on a ride around the world, saying “Either you master your disability or it masters you.”

 

Competitive Cycling

Belgian cyclist Tim Wellens won Sunday’s stage 15, becoming just the 113th rider to take stage wins in all three Grand Tours, while Tadej Pogačar continued his march towards a fourth Tour de France win.

US champ Quinn Simmons says he was in position for the win on stage 15 after a 33-mile breakaway until a race moto interfered with the finish, implying he might have done better that finishing 21st in a mass sprint otherwise.

More proof cyclists are tough, after Julian Alaphilippe popped his shoulder out crashing his bike on stage 15, popped it back in, and still finished just off the podium — even though he thought he won, except a) two riders finished far ahead of him and the rest of the peloton, and b) Primož Roglič knocked him off the podium in a photo finish.

That came just a day after Alaphilippe made headlines for snatching a cardboard sign out of a spectator’s hands and stuffing it inside his jersey as protection from the cold.

Two-time world champ and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel was just one of several riders to abandon the Tour, complaining that his body wasn’t responding to the demands of the race.

A Tour de France spectator was knocked down by the driver of the INEOS-Grenadiers team car during Saturday’s 14th stage; INEOS directeur sportif Oliver Cookson, who was driving the car, was fined 5,000 Swiss francs — the equivalent of $6,200 — and given a yellow card for the crash, even though he was driving in the middle of the road.

 

Finally…

That feeling when grandma doesn’t want you riding that damn BMX anymore. Or when you’re still wanted in Belgium for using a forged Tour de France press pass, after retiring as road manager for the Clash.

And don’t try this at home.

No, literally.

3:18pm La Costa Avenue / Carlsbad
byu/MusicMan559 insandiego

Thanks to Phillip and Ellectrek for the heads-up. 

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

When Streets Are For Everyone says everyone, they mean everyone; and join Bike LA for South LA CicLAvia feeder ride

June 13, 2025 / / No comments
Day 164 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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It was a light news day in the world of bikes yesterday, so let’s get right to it. 

I mean, it’s not like anything else happened Thursday, right?

Ice photo by Dragon77 from Pixabay. 

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, responds to the recent ICE raids and the protests that followed by stressing that when they say everyone, they mean everyone. 

At Streets Are For Everyone, our mission is simple: improve the quality of life for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers alike by reducing traffic fatalities to zero. This mission does not exclude any Angeleno from our work. We strive to make streets safer for everyone, regardless of their mode of transportation, income, housing status, or immigration status. That means pushing for equitable design, advocating for justice, and demanding infrastructure that protects our most vulnerable neighbors.

The ongoing immigrant raids across Los Angeles, including the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops (and now Marines), did not make the streets safer. In fact, they worked to sow fear and discord across our communities.

Long after this current moment of ICE raids is over, our most vulnerable neighbors will continue to live in fear of moving around the city, of taking the bus, or simply walking down the street.

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Bike LA, nee Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, is hosting a CicLAvia feeder ride along the new Rail-to-Rail trail through South LA next Sunday.

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

No bias here. Washington DC unraveled two years of community work by unceremoniously removing barriers protecting a two-way bike lane, apparently because some people thought it was ugly and didn’t even bother to tell anyone before they did it, safety be damned. DC bike riders weren’t too thrilled by it, either.

A road-raging Florida woman says she drove down a multi-use path chasing a 14-year old boy riding an ebike, just so she could tell his parents he was riding too fast, apparently confused what “multi-use” means. So why is it always Florida?

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

The news director for a Wisconsin radio station complains about having to jam on the brakes to avoid a couple of stop sign-running bike riders. On the other hand, reckless drivers don’t seem to bother him at all. And why do people always feel the need to remind us that getting run over by a car or truck “doesn’t end well for the bicyclist,” as if that will somehow come as a surprise to anyone?

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Local 

A UCLA student was knocked cold by an attacker while riding his bike on campus and woke up to find his cellphone missing; the suspect was described as male, 5’6″ tall and wearing a black hoodie and black pants.

Santa Monica received $875,000 from SCAG — the Southern California Association of Governments — to improve and expand their neighborhood greenways.

 

State

GT Bicycles has cut ties with extreme mountain biking pioneer Hans ‘No Way’ Rey after a remarkable 38 years, as the Aliso Viejo-based bikemaker continues to shed sponsorships.

Santa Cruz County is encouraging residents to get out of their cars by launching their own ebike incentive program, with vouchers ranging from $300 to $1,200. That compares favorably to LA County’s program offering absolutely nothing. 

San Francisco moved the center-running Valencia Street protected bike lane back to the curb, but evidently forget to protect all of it.

A Chico bike park will now serve alcohol, for anyone who needs a few drinks to give it a try. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

 

National

Say what? Hawaii’s governor targets a bill prohibiting “high-speed electric devices” from the state’s roadways, arguing that it could ban electric cars and probably violates the US Constitution clauses regulating interstate commerce and banning discrimination against groups and individuals.

Denver removed plastic bollards from some protected bike lanes because drivers kept knocking them over, and concrete barriers last longer with less maintenance, anyway.

That’s more like it. A Colorado woman was sentenced to five years behind bars for fleeing the scene after killing a man riding a bicycle, until her lawyer called hours later to turn her in.

A Boston letter writer corrects a recent editorial, pointing out that it wasn’t the bike lane’s fault when a speeding driver jumped the sidewalk and hit a man riding a bicycle head-on.

Writing for Streetsblog, a New York man channels the spirt of 1970’s bicycle philosopher Ivan Illich, arguing that he would probably agree with the mayor’s 15 mph speed limit for ebikes, and wouldn’t be a fan of bicycle delivery riders, either.

Speaking of Gotham’s ebike-riding delivery riders, the city’s Department of Transportation is distributing four hundred fire-safe, certified ebike batteries to cut down on the risk of fires.

A Pennsylvania woman says she settled for riding just 10,000 miles in the year leading up to her 50th birthday, because it was too cold to ride 12,000.

A Virginia man blames a new bulb-out for making him fall off his bike, insisting that he didn’t see it on a road he rides regularly until it was too late.

 

International

No one else was around when a well-known Canadian paracyclist came to, after he was run down from behind while training in Whitehorse, forcing him to flag down a motorist with one good arm because the other one is now paralyzed — yet somehow, police aren’t even treating it as a hit-and-run.

A Guardian op-ed says cars already made pedestrians second-class citizens, and we can’t let driverless cars push us off the street entirely. If pedestrians are second-class citizens, imagine what that makes us. 

They get it. The New Zealand government is installing a dozen ebike charging stations along trails in Hawke’s Bay and Wellington to boost bicycle tourism, at a cost of nearly a half-million dollars.

 

Competitive Cycling

America’s other ex-Tour de France winner talks with Cyclist about the dark years following his fraudulent doping denials, and the redemption that was years coming.

 

Finally…

That feeling when electric bike pumps are great, but you’d rather do it the old-fashioned way. Call it the Wonka Chocolate Factory of cargo bikes, but without all the golden tickets.

And your next $3,500 electric scooter could look like a Cyber Truck.

Which ain’t necessarily a good thing.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , ,

SAFE introduces 2025 legislative agenda, call to action on deadly Crystal Springs Drive, and how tariffs will effect bike biz

April 9, 2025 / / Comments Off on SAFE introduces 2025 legislative agenda, call to action on deadly Crystal Springs Drive, and how tariffs will effect bike biz
Day 99 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Please join me in welcoming back — and thanking — Los Angeles Bicycle Attorney Josh Cohen of Cohen Law Partners, who renewed their sponsorship of this site for another year. 

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Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, unveiled their legislative agenda for the current session yesterday.

The group is currently co-sponsoring four bills, hoping to add to their impressive record of success in getting bills passed and signed into law:

AB 891
Quick-Build Project Pilot Program.
Stance: Co-Sponsor (Priority)

AB 891 establishes the Quick-Build Project Pilot Program within the department’s maintenance program to accelerate low-cost projects on the state highway system and fund at least six projects by December 31, 2028.

SB 455
Electric motorcycles and electric bicycles.
Stance: Co-Sponsor (Priority)

SB 455 improves labeling requirements for electric bicycles, e-mopeds, etc. It prohibits labeling 2-wheeled electric vehicles as electric bicycles if they can reach a speed exceeding 28 miles per hour. It also mandates customer notifications for products that no longer meet the electric bicycle definition, with violations subject to criminal penalties.

SB 720
Automated traffic enforcement system programs.
Stance: Co-Sponsor (Priority)

SB 720 would establish a new opt-in red light camera program with $100 civil fines (not moving violations) to the owners of vehicles that run red lights. There are stricter privacy equity provisions, solving many reasons why most cities don’t use the current red light camera law.

AB 954
State transportation improvement program: bicycle highway pilot program.
Stance: Co-Sponsor (Priority)

This bill would create a bicycle highway pilot program to test its feasibility in two yet-to-be-named major metropolitan areas. Bicycle highways are networks restricted to bicyclists intended for trips primarily at least 5 miles in length at travel speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.

The traffic safety advocacy group is also supporting 27 bills, while requesting amendments to six bills.

SAFE also opposes three others, including a ban on towing or impounding vehicles for unpaid tickets, and removing high-speed rail funding from the state’s cap-and-trade program.

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Speaking of SAFE, the group says fully funded and shovel-ready improvements to deadly Crystal Springs Drive in LA’s Griffith Park are being needlessly delayed by red tape, three years after Andrew Jelmert was killed on the street while training for the AIDS/LifeCycle fundraising ride.

This Griffith Park active transportation plan, the funding, and the contracts to begin the most significant safety improvement upgrade to Griffith Park in decades, possibly ever, have been ready to start since mid-2024. We have recently found out they are currently held up in bureaucratic red tape by LA Recs and Parks.

As we come up on the eve of the third anniversary of Andrew Jelmert’s fatality, there is still no target date to start construction on the expected safety improvements on Crystal Springs Drive. Despite the initial push and commitment from the city to transform parts of the park and safeguard the lives of those who use it, the bureaucracy has caused safety improvements to grind to a screeching halt.

The group urges you to email Recs and Parks General Manager Jimmy Kim to demand that that Crystal Spring Drive be made safe for the pedestrians, bicyclists, families and kids who need it the most.

Just click on the link above to email Kim and other city officials. You can click here to find a customizable sample letter (scroll all the way down).

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Today’s common theme is Trump’s tariffs and their effect on the bike industry.

And your next bike.

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It looks like the first leg of Metro’s Rail-to-Rail Trail is open along Slauson Ave.

It’s open!! Or at least a little stretch of it! Slauson bike lane. So happy!
byu/cesgar21 inBikeLA

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

Seriously? Boston’s mayor admits that she made a mistake in ripping out the barriers protecting a number of bike lanes, and pledges that not only would they be replaced, but some car-tickler bendy-post bollards would also be replaced with more permanent and durable materials. I’m sure her dramatic change of heart had nothing to do with the outrage of bike-riding voters as she prepares to face re-election. 

No bias here. Former Top Gear presenter James May says he’s a “big fan” of urban bicycling, but bike lanes are overdone and “pedantic.”

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

This one could go under either category, as a 21-year old man in the Netherlands was hospitalized, and a 22-year old woman knocked off her bicycle, after they were shot with gel guns — similar to paintball guns — as they were riding their bikes, following an argument with kids on e-fatbikes.

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Local 

A state grant is funding bike and pedestrian safety improvements near affordable housing developments in South LA, including a traffic circle and two miles of protected bike lanes. And yes, it also includes five mile sharrows, which have been shown to be worthless at best, if not downright dangerous.

Police are looking for a hit-and-run driver who killed a woman riding an e-scooter on South Figueroa, in the Vermont Vista neighborhood of South LA.

 

State

The Orange County Cycling Business Coalition, which could use a snappier name, is hosting a Community Bike Tour exploring Irvine, offering either a five-mile ride loop or a 25-mile ride examining some of the city’s 113 miles of off-street bike trails and 286 lane miles of on-street bikeways. Which translates to 143 miles of streets with bike lanes, because lane miles counts each side of the street separately.

The beachside city of Del Mar preliminarily approved a new ebike ordinance; the new ordinance would include “obeying traffic laws, yielding to pedestrians and wearing a helmet,” as well as requiring ebike users to use bike lanes on any street that has them. Although it doesn’t say who would be required to wear a helmet; they lack legal authority to require them for anyone over 18. 

A Santa Barbara professor shares the facts, and the heartbreak, of bike theft.

San Luis Obispo is the latest California city to adopt a Vision Zero Plan. Let’s just hope they take it more seriously than Los Angeles has. 

Sad news from Clovis, where a boy was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle; and yes, the woman who hit him stayed at the scene and didn’t appear to be under the influence.

Los Altos has removed parking and installed semi-green bike lanes on iconic El Camino Real.

 

National

A Utah man took his 70-something parents on a 400-mile bike ride across the Canadian border, even though they were bicycling beginners.

Reports of blocked bike lanes are “exploding” in Denver, forcing people to ride out into traffic, which kind of defeats the whole purpose. And kind of like pretty much every other American city. 

About time. Colorado legislators have introduced a bill to increase penalties for killing someone on a bicycle by reclassifying the crime of careless driving – causing death as a felony, rather than a misdemeanor.

Interesting idea from DC, where officials launched a new traffic safety campaign by having people walk near busy intersections wearing old-school sandwich signs, with messages like “Follow the rules of the road. Slow down. Don’t nip corners. Don’t jump the gun.”

Atlanta could be preparing for a second round of ebike vouchers, after funding 579 new bikes the first time around. Which would make it one more round than California’s seemingly moribund program has managed so far.

 

International

London bike riders seem largely unimpressed with the new bus service shuttling them across a busy bridge, saying it’s a far cry from the tunnel under the Thames they had been promised.

Even a British reality star, and distant relative of King Charles, had his bicycle stolen while locked up in London, despite using three separate bike locks worth a combined 250 bucks.

This is why people keep dying on the streets. An 11-year old boy in the UK was killed when a bus driver honked at him while passing, startling the kid into swerving towards and under the bus — yet an inquest ruled the driver didn’t do anything wrong.

 

Competitive Cycling

Reggie Miller urged UAE Team Emirates to make him an honorary member of the cycling team, with the 59-year old former NBA star promising to trade much needed lessons in how to shoot baskets. Which could offer a whole new dimension to bike racing by painting a three-point line on the course and giving the peloton a ball or two. Or maybe each team gets a ball, and has to sink a three-pointer before proceeding. It could work. 

 

Finally….

A bike helmet maker says you need more padding on your butt. A 12-year old cat has probably ridden more cross-country miles than you have.

And sometimes you don’t need GPS to know where you’re riding.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Collecting bikes for Altadena fire victims, 12 years since crash inspired Finish the Ride, and NY congestion pricing works

February 19, 2025 / / Comments Off on Collecting bikes for Altadena fire victims, 12 years since crash inspired Finish the Ride, and NY congestion pricing works
Day 50 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Hats off to my old friend and former longtime LACBC staffer and volunteer Colin Bogart, who has organized a bike donation program for victims of the Eaton Fire for Pasadena nonprofit Day One.

According to the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition, the nonprofit is working with the Bicycle Kitchen, the Bike Oven, the Bikerowave, and the Long Beach Bicycle Co-op to collect and repair the bikes, along with local bike shops including Around the Cycle, Pasadena Cyclery, and Trek Pasadena.

The organization has received requests for over 300 bicycles.

So if you have a bike you don’t need, or can help in some other way, drop it off at Day One’s Pasadena office at 175. N. Euclid Ave from 9:30am to 5:30pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, or by special arrangement 626/657.8744 or colin@godayone.org.

Photo by Olya Kobruseva from Pexels.

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It’s been a dozen years since a hit-and-run driver crashed into Damian Kevitt on Zoo Drive, and dragged him under his van onto the nearby 5 Freeway as he fled the crash.

Remarkably, Damian channeled the trauma of the crash that cost him a leg, and nearly his life, into the creation of Finish The Ride and Streets Are For Everyone to fight for safer streets and an end to hit-and-run.

And no, the driver was never found.

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More proof New York’s congestion pricing is working, even as Trump vows to kill it.

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

Police in Detroit are looking for the woman who used her car as a weapon to intentionally ran down a man riding a bicycle after an argument, along with her male passenger who got out of the car and hit the victim with a baseball bat.

Seriously? A writer for the Boston Globe investigates who has the right to public space on the streets, after a mayoral candidate calls for hitting pause on building bike lanes, and can only manage to conclude that bike lanes are the third rail of Boston politics. Even though the law is clear that bike riders have a right to the road, and well-designed bike lanes improve safety for all road users.

No bias here. Residents of Suffolk, England are up in arms because a car-shaped bike corral replaced a single parking space. Yes, one.

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Local  

The annual LA Chinatown Firecracker run, walk and bike ride has been rescheduled for March 8th and 9th, after it was postponed due to the January firestorms.

Streets For All says the long-sought extension to the Ballona Creek bike path is moving forward, despite missing out on ATP funding, after Metro recommended it for regional funding.

Streets Are For Everyone is teaming with the Pico Union Neighborhood Council to clean up MacArthur Park on Saturday morning, including the 7th Street bike lanes.

As we noted the other day, some people are criticizing a new demonstration bike lane in Santa Clarita, complaining that the flexible plastic bollards separating it from motor vehicles are a form of visual blight, but even the president of the Santa Clarita Valley Bicycle Coalition sympathized with the outcry over the “aesthetic unattractiveness.”

 

State

Calbike is hosting a webinar this Thursday to discuss creative approaches to funding active transportation infrastructure, as the usual sources threaten to dry up.

Apparently, former baseball star Barry Bonds is killing it on Strava, saying bicycling is his second passion. Although no one tests for steroids on the bike app.

A San Francisco website says anarchy has ensued on Valencia Street, as work begins to remove the contentious centerline bike lane and move it curbside, with people riding bikes forced to choose their own route on the street.

A Yuba City bike co-op is refurbishing bicycles and donating nearly 20 a month to homeless people.

 

National

Bicycling recommends ten expert-approved road bike upgrades for under a hundred bucks apiece. But you’ll have to fork out for a subscription if the magazine blocks you, because this one is limited to members only. 

It looks like bicycles, ebikes and bike components won’t be subject to Trump’s new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, but will be affected by other tariff increases.

The mayor of Honolulu signed a new law requiring helmets for bike riders under 18, while limiting the power of ebikes and providing guidelines to prevent reckless riding.

A Las Vegas writer wisely observes that sometimes, the best bike ride is the one you don’t take.

A Park City, Utah website says riding a fat bike through the snow could be the cure for the winter blues.

The Illinois legislature is considering legislation that would fix a bad court ruling that said bike riders aren’t intended road users unless a street or highway is designated for bicycle use.

 

International

Momentum recommends the top six routes for solo bike tourism. And for once, the Los Angeles area is included, as part of the 800-mile California Coast ride.

Bike Radar recommends nine bikes that give you the best bang for your bucks.

A London food delivery rider says he’s been knocked off his bike by drivers eight times already, arguing that bike couriers are people too, and deserve safer streets.

A retired English man has earned the moniker “Dr. Bike” for fixing bikes for community members or to donate to people in need, while raising the equivalent of over $11,000 for local charities.

A British writer took part in an study riding around York measuring air quality with a small device on his handlebars, and found the air was even dirtier than expected — even on quiet country lanes.

Ebike makers in the UK are worried about whether they can rsurvive after the government scrapped anti-dumping tariffs on China earlier this month, with one calling it the final nail in their coffin.

 

Competitive Cycling

Former pro cyclist Jérôme Pineau called out the World Anti-Doping Agency, aka WADA, for giving top-ranked tennis pro Jannik Sinner a three-month slap on the wrist for testing positive for a banned substance twice last year, saying a cyclist would have been banned for at least a couple years.

 

Finally….

2 Chainz may be a rapper, but two chains could be coming soon to a bike near you. If the city won’t clear snow from the bike lanes, just put a plow on an ebike and do it yourself.

And what could be more humiliating than getting busted for bike theft in front of your mom?

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bike-riding man suffers life-threatening injuries in Encinitas crash, and die-in next week to mark LA’s Vision Zero fail

January 3, 2025 / / Comments Off on Bike-riding man suffers life-threatening injuries in Encinitas crash, and die-in next week to mark LA’s Vision Zero fail

This year is already off to a bad start.

Less than eight hours after a bike rider was killed by a driver in Rancho Mirage to inaugurate the new year, a 45-year old man was left fighting for his life when he was run down by a 79-year old woman in Encinitas while riding a bicycle.

The victim, who hasn’t been publicly named, was riding in the area of Encinitas Boulevard and Cerro Street just before 6 pm Wednesday.

Investigators say drugs or alcohol weren’t factors in the crash. But the age of the driver once again raises the question of how old is too old to drive safely.

Or at all, for that matter.

Anyone with information or video of the crash is urged to call San Diego County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeremy Collis at 760/966-3555, or email jeremy.collis@SDSheriff.org.

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Meanwhile, it’s Day 3 of the Vision Zero failure here in Los Angeles.

Instead of eliminating traffic deaths by 2025, as former Mayor Eric Garcetti committed to ten years earlier, Los Angeles drivers continue to kill bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists at near record levels.

That’s why a coalition of nonprofits and road safety advocates will once again host a die-in on the steps of LA City Hall next weekend to raise awareness of the need for safe streets.

Here’s how Streets Are For Everyone announced the event.

As of this writing, traffic fatalities in the City of Los Angeles are expected to once again be above 300 for the third year in a row.

And yet, 2025 will be the 10th anniversary of the start of the Vision Zero program, a program aimed at reducing traffic fatalities to zero by 2025.

However, the core components of this program were watered down, removed, or underfunded within a few years of its start. The result is that in the last 10 years, there has been an 80% increase in traffic fatalities, primarily affecting pedestrians in underserved communities.

We again need to raise our voices and let the Mayor and our City Council know that the issue of traffic violence needs to be treated as the public health crisis that it is.

*A die-in is “a protest or demonstration in which a group of people gather and lie down as if dead.” (Oxford Dictionary) In our case, to represent the lives lost to traffic violence and protest the lack of effective action by our City and state leaders, as demonstrated by rising fatalities.

We aim to have 300 people in attendance, representing each life lost. Help us make this happen!

  • Date: Saturday, January 11th 2024
  • Location: Steps of Los Angeles City Hall 232 N Spring Street
  • Set-up Time: 8:30-10 AM
  • Press Conference & Die-In protest: 10 AM to 11 AM
  • Breakdown Time: 11 AM to 12 PM

Volunteers and Activists needed:

  • 10 volunteers are needed for setup and breakdown.
  • 300+ volunteer activists are needed to lay on the steps of City Hall during the press conference. White roses will be laid on top of those participating in the die-in to represent the over 300 lives lost in 2024.

What to Bring: We will have signs and poster boards to make signs. However, we also encourage you to bring signs emphasizing the importance of road safety, responsible driving, and the need for change.

Parking: Parking is limited and pricey around LA City Hall. It is recommended that you ride, walk, or take Metro Line B (exit Civic Center/Grand Park Station) to City Hall.

I’ll be There!

And yes, I plan to be there.

Because our elected leaders and other city officials need to be reminded of their commitment to end traffic deaths, and start taking it seriously.

Before we lose one more Angeleno to traffic violence.

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British singer James Blunt is one of us, interrupting his Christmas festivities to call for more peace and patience on the roads.

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

Birmingham, England continues its efforts to ban “dangerous, careless, or inconsiderate” bicycling in the city center, while bicyclists condemned the watered down proposal as a “waste of paper” and the “single stupidest thing” city officials have ever done.

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Local  

Streetsblog says the short bike lane extension on Reseda Blvd is the first LA project clearly forced by Measure HLA, adding a little more than the length of a football field to the existing bike lanes after the street was resurfaced.

Urbanize highlights ten Los Angeles projects to watch in 2025, none of which are bikeways.

 

State

California finally clarifies that if it goes too fast or doesn’t have pedals, it’s not an ebike.

We could have new supporters in Sacramento, as several newly elected California legislators have called for improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians improvements.

CBS news explains why drivers can now expect a ticket for violating the state’s new daylighting law, which prohibits parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk. And every intersection has a crosswalk, painted or not, unless it’s clearly marked otherwise.

A San Diego letter writer says bike lane critics are wrong, and that bike lanes “are definitely a major factor to get people out of their cars.”

 

National

Smart Cities Dive talks with urban experts to get their predictions for the coming year, including the rise of “playground cities,” and neighborhood decarbonization.

A father shares the lessons he learned trying to teach his young daughter to ride a bicycle, even though she’s already lost interest at the advanced age of four.

That’s more like it. A 23-year old Las Vegas woman will spend the next 11 years behind bars for the hit-and-run death of a 32-year old man who was riding a bicycle; she was sentenced to 15 years for vehicular homicide with four years suspended, along with a concurrent term of three years for tampering with evidence, and 90 days for driving under the influence.

 

International

Road.cc suggests that if those deals on what appears to be Rapha’s website seem too good to be true, it’s only because they are

Bike Radar says the secret to every New Year’s resolution is to buy a bicycle.

Momentum highlights five bucket bikes that could replace your car right now.

British foldie maker Brompton suffers the post-Covid bike boom blues, as its profits drop by 99%, or over 10 million Euros.

An Irish news site explains how to make this the year you start riding a bicycle, adding that you won’t regret it; London’s Independent also tries to get in on the act.

Czech carmaker Škoda’s We Love Cycling website looks forward to this year’s bike trends and predictions.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks forward to the upcoming Monuments and spring classics that will start the year’s racing calendar.

A YouTuber crashed Jonas Vingegaard’s Spanish training ride, clinging to his wheel to ask burning questions like “Why don’t you shave your legs in the winter.”

 

Finally…

That feeling when your analog bicycle odometer is more secure than some of America’s most critical infrastructure. Just call it Still Life with Bike Computer.

And no, you can’t pump up your bike tires with a syringe.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , ,

Where to give this Giving Tuesday, elderly bike rider run over by heartless hit-and-run driver, and taking The NY Times to task

December 3, 2024 / / 2 comments
Just 28 short days until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 
But not one LA city leader seems to give a damn about it. Or if they do, they’re not saying anything. 

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It’s Day 5 of the 10th Annual BikinginLA Holiday Fund Drive!

Thanks to Michael B, the M’s, and Miriam H for their generous donations to keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day. 

Now it’s your turn. Take just a few minutes, and donate now!

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If you’re looking to put your money to good use this Giving Tuesday, consider giving to Streets For All, Streets Are For Everyone, Bike LA, Streetsblog LA, , Calbike, Orange County Bicycle Coalition, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, Bike SD, or your local bike advocacy group, wherever you live.

And give a little extra Giving Tuesday consideration to Culver City-based Walk n’ Rollers, after the trailer and equipment they use to train kids on bike safety was stolen. Because they can use the help right now.

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A 71-year old man is in critical but stable condition after he was run over by a heartless hit-and-run driver while lying helpless in the roadway, after apparently striking an object with his bicycle.

According to the Ventura Police Department, a motorist called 911 after spotting the man lying in the road near Foothill Road and La Fonda Drive in East Ventura.

But after pulling over, the caller watched as the driver of a white car, possibly a Lexus, drove over the incapacitated victim. The driver, described only as a woman who appeared to be in her 70s, and another woman in her 20s got out and walked over to the victim, but fled the scene before emergency personnel arrived — without assisting the victim or calling for help, as required by law.

We shouldn’t need to remind anyone that major injuries are far more serious and difficult to overcome in older people, compounding the outrageousness of their crime. Although, unfortunately, that’s not something California’s overly lenient hit-and-run laws take into account.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Ventura Police Traffic Division at 805/339-4437.

Let’s hope they find these two and get them both off the road.

Permanently.

Thanks to Joe Linton and Jeffrey Rusk for the heads-up.

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Good for them.

Streetblog takes the New York Times to task for their recent piece that appeared to blame the recent murder of a Parisian bike rider by the driver of an SUV on the mythical “war on cars.”

Here’s how Streetsblog describes the paper’s reaction to the death of 27-year old bike advocate Paul Varry, who was intentionally run down by a 52-year old driver as he rode in a Paris bike lane.

The New York Times, though, suggested that another suspect deserved some of the blame: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who, the paper said, has been “ratcheting up tensions” in the City of Light by implementing policies that “limit the movement, speed and parking options of cars.”

In a stunningly misguided article “Death of Cyclist in Paris Lays Bare Divide in Mayor’s War Against Cars,” writers Richard Fausset and Ségolène Le Stradic devoted much of the first 1,000 words of a roughly 1,450-word story to those who would paint Varry’s death as the latest salvo in the battle against Paris motorists’ “liberty to circulate,” to quote just one of the many angered drivers the writers interviewed.

According to the same driver, Hidalgo “is putting a garrote around Paris” by building bike paths and reducing speed limits on many of the city’s most famous roads — an “anti-car stance” that the article seemingly implies is now driving motorists to lethal violence.

It’s worth taking a few minutes to read the whole story. Because the Times certainly didn’t give that to their readers.

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Speaking of Streets For All, the transportation PAC is urging anyone who rides Forest Lawn Drive to turn out tomorrow to voice their support for protected bike lanes on the hazardous, high speed street.

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

An Athens, Ohio paper complains about “the world’s loneliest bike lanes,” which are “woefully bereft of bikers” riding on the city’s busiest commercial corridor, “negating their purpose.” Never mind that bike lanes are more efficient, often making them appear to be used less than they really are. Or that bike lanes are an effective tool to slow speeding drivers and improve safety for everyone, even if no one uses them.

A Florida man faces charges for allegedly shooting a passing bicyclist with a shotgun, as he got out of his car while the victim was riding past on his way to a friend’s house.

Separated bike lanes in Mysuru, India are under attack from roadside vendors, who are deliberately removing plastic bollards to create prime business real estate.

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It’s now 348 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 42 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

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Local  

A 61-year old Westlake Village man is in critical condition after he was struck by a minivan driver while riding on PCH near Sycamore Cove in Malibu.

SoCal bikemaker Linus Bike is closing their iconic Venice store on Abbot Kinney Blvd, and shifting to an online-only focus.

Santa Monica is cutting speed limits on over 30 miles of city streets to improve traffic safety; a revision in state law from a few years ago allows cities to drop speed limits by 5 mph under specific conditions.

Speaking of SaMo, the beachfront city is making the city’s dockless e-scooter micromobility program permanent, after years of operating on a trial basis.

 

State

A 100-year old, and still rideable, road bike will find a new home here in California, as a 96-year old Canadian man passed it down to his American son after moving into a retirement home.

San Diego’s newspaper of record uncovers an apparent non-scandal, reporting that La Mesa City Councilmember Colin Parent solicited donations to Circulae San Diego, the transportation advocacy nonprofit he works for; Parent says he was careful to adhere to the rules for behest donations even as he ran in a failed bid for the state Assembly.

A San Bernardino man learns the hard way that when you’re riding your bike with an outstanding felony warrant, while carrying meth, marijuana, a working scale and “additional paraphernalia suggestive of drug transport and sales,” it pays to follow city ordinances and state vehicle codes.

 

National

A Philadelphia injury epidemiologist calls on the city to slow drivers, better protect bike riders, and collect better data to improve safety.

 

International

Seriously? Bicycling examines how international nonprofit Best Buddies uses bikes to make the world a more inclusive place, assisting 200 million families around the world affected by intellectual and developmental disabilities. But even that story is hidden by their paywall, so you’re on your own if they block you. And unfortunately, so is the charity they’re ostensibly trying to help.

About damn time. British cops are going undercover on bicycles to bust dangerous drivers making unsafe passes. We tried, and failed, to talk the LAPD into doing the same thing, for reasons that were never explained to us.

Mint considers India’s best cities for bicycling, from Bengaluru to Mumbai, for your next trip to the subcontinent.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist looks back at French cycling great Jeannie Longo’s victory in the 1985 Coors Classic, which was America’s biggest bike race at the time. I was lucky enough to be standing on or near the finish line for several of her stage wins in the race.

Rare historic and collectors items will be on display at Italy’s Longarone Fiere Dolomiti during next year’s Giro d’Italia, if you happen to be hanging around for the race.

British cycling great Sir Bradley Wiggins says Lance Armstrong isn’t so bad once you get to know him, arguing that the ex-Tour de France champ “has got a heart under there somewhere” after he offered to pay for a week of special therapy in the US for Wiggins, even though Wiggins had termed the Texan a “lying bastard” in the wake of his doping charges. So, maybe a lying bastard with a heart of, well, certainly not gold. 

 

Finally…

If you want to bike through a fast food drive thru, you’re probably out of luck. How to leap from winning KOMs to the WorldTour.

And a bus so nice, he stole it twice — running down a bike rider in the process.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

World Day of Remembrance,Westwood Mobility Popup on Sunday; and bike-friendly November election wins

November 15, 2024 / / Comments Off on World Day of Remembrance,Westwood Mobility Popup on Sunday; and bike-friendly November election wins
Just 45 days until LA fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

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Sunday is the World Day of Remembrance for the victims of traffic violence.

So take a moment to remember those who have been sacrificed to the almighty motor vehicle gods, and those who drive them — including the 48 SoCal bike riders who have needlessly lost their lives this year.

Streets Are For Everyone, So Cal Families for Safe Streets, LA Walks, Bike LA and SAFE Families will hold memorials Sunday to remember the 746 people killed in collisions in Los Angeles County last year at Gloria Molina Grand Park in DTLA, at 9:30 am, 11 am, and 2:30 pm.

Other observances will be held in Corona and San Diego; see the top link in this section for details.

Photo by Tucă Bianca from Pexels.

………

Candidates endorsed by Streets For All helped lead to bike-friendly city council majorities in Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Culver City, as well as winning races in CD10  and CD14 in Los Angeles.

So maybe the new majority in Culver City can undo the ridiculous removal of the highly successful MOVE Culver City protected bike lanes.

We can hope, right?

Meanwhile, Calbike claims victory for seven of the nine bike-friendly candidates they endorsed in this month’s election, including new Burbank Assemblymember Nick Schultz, and new Los Angeles Assemblymembers Jessica Caloza and Sade Elhawary.

And famed Emeryville “Bike Mayor” and cargo bike pilot John Bauters is now officially an Alameda County District Supervisor.

………

Streets For All is hosting a mobility popup in Westwood this Sunday, in conjunction with AARP.

And Bike LA — the former Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition — will host their annual Bike Fest Happy Hour a week from tomorrow.

………

It’s now 331 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 41 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

Meanwhile, San Francisco’s ebike rebate pilot program boosted the net earnings of delivery workers compared to using a car, while generating virtually no greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up. 

………

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

Cycling Weekly offers tips on how to rebut the usual anti-bike rants.

It will cost at least $48 million to remove Toronto bike lanes targeted by bike-unfriendly Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Once again, someone has boobytrapped a UK mountain bike trail, stringing electric wire fencing at neck level across the trail, which could shock or strangle, if not decapitate, an unsuspecting victim. And which should be prosecuted appropriately once they find the asshole.

A road raging Norwegian driver went on a rampage against a bike-riding man, first blocking the bike lane with his van, then drop kicking him off his bicycle before assaulting both bike and rider.

………

Local  

Santa Monica’s 17th Street and Michigan Ave Safe Streets project was named Transportation Project of the Year by the Southern California Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA).

 

State

Coronado considers banning ebikes from sidewalks.

Livability says the all-year sunshine, mild high desert climate, and open roads and mountain bike trails make San Bernardino County’s Victor Valley a bicycling paradise.

Heartbreaking news from Bakersfield, where a 13-year old boy was killed by a driver while riding his bicycle home from school.

Sonoma is looking for feedback on the city’s Active Transportation Plan.

Sad news from Sacramento, where a man in his 40s was killed by a motorist when he allegedly swerved his bike in front of the driver’s SUV.

Sacramento is considering a plan to limit parking spaces in new buildings, while increasing bike parking; Los Angeles passed a similar measure over a decade ago.

 

National

Consumer Affairs ranks the worst states per capita for bike thefts. Shockingly, California isn’t on the brief list.

About damn time. GM is making technology to alert drivers to the presence of bicyclists standard equipment on all its brands, beginning with the 2025 model year.

Bike Magazine highlights the country’s six best winter mountain biking destinations; the list includes Southern California from Santa Barbara to Santa Monica. Although word has it that Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties ain’t bad, either.

Five years after a Minneapolis street safety advocate was killed while riding his bicycle, his father continues to carry on his son’s work.

Tragic news from Wisconsin, where five people were killed when their car went off the road and struck a tree; all five were active in the annual Ride to Cure Diabetes, a fundraising ride to fight type 1 diabetes.

Life is cheap in Connecticut, where a 72-year old woman walked without a single day behind bars for killing a 47-year old woman riding a bicycle while “fiddling” with her steering wheel, and the two “just seemed to merge together.” Yeah, that’s one way to describe it.

An Atlantic City writer says he knew an ebike was the best investment he ever made the moment he sat in the saddle.

 

International

Momentum highlights the seven lightest ebikes for easy urban riding, and lists the top ten reasons to bike to work in the winter. Most of which don’t apply here in sunny SoCal.

Life is cheap in Ontario, Canada, where a driver walked without a single day behind bars after he was sentenced to home vacation detention for the hit-and-run death of a 54-year old man, despite leaving his bike-riding victim to die alone in a ditch.

British bicyclists are warned not to ignore pain or weakness in your hands, which could result in a serious condition known as cyclist’s palsy. The same advice holds on this side of the Atlantic. 

A 62-year old father and noted criminal defense attorney died in a solo fall during a Belfast, Northern Ireland sportive when he struck a badly worn speed bump.

No surprise here, as a “groundbreaking” new German study shows bicyclists exhibit a greater commitment to the common good than their motoring counterparts.

More proof bikes make the best emergency vehicles, as bicycles prove critical in the wake of extreme flooding in Spain’s Valencia region. Thanks again to Megan Lynch. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist ranks the top 50 cyclists of this decade; Sepp Kuss is the top rated American at number ten.

Sad news from Germany, where six-time world track cycling champ Michael Hubner passed away in a Saxony hospital; he was 65.

French pro cyclist Célia Le Mouel was lucky to escape with minor injuries when a driver turned across her path without looking; her bike was not so lucky.

Three-time Tour de France champ and one-time shotgun blast survivor Greg LeMond tops Cycling Up To Date’s ranking of the all-time best North And South American cyclists.

Carbon monoxide could be the new doping.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to steal a $6500 ebike, maybe don’t leave your old bike behind as evidence. It’s one thing to carry a keyboard on your bicycle, it’s another when your entire bicycle is a piano.

And of course Hitch was one of us.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Compromise offer on WeHo streets, Caltrans promises bike lanes in San Pedro, and LA failing us on speed cams

October 18, 2024 / / One comment
Just 73 days left until Los Angeles fails to meet its Vision Zero pledge to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. 

………

I am now officially a non-driver.

Yesterday morning, I went to the DMV to trade my driver’s license for a non-driving ID.

Between my medical issues and the meds I’m on, I simply don’t belong behind the wheel. And I probably never will.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make. I’ve held onto my license despite not driving for the past several years, just in case I needed it at some point. 

But it’s just not worth the risk I could pose to others. 

I only wish more people would realize that. 

………

In a surprisingly reasonable op-ed, West Hollywood city council candidate Larry Block, who has opposed bike projects in the past — especially in front of his Santa Monica Blvd store — offers a compromise on his opposition to removing parking for a lane reduction and protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave in the largely residential Mid-City area.

Or as he puts it, a little argy-bargy, a term that should be familiar to fans of cycling announcer Phil Liggett.

Bike lane supporters need to recognize the daily needs of disabled residents, emergency vehicles, delivery trucks, and basic services. Bike supporters must understand that residents need access to their driveways, and services like city garbage trucks and emergency vehicles need space to do their jobs. We can’t take away that access in favor of a ‘build it, they will come’ mentality’. Residents also need to accept that many people can’t afford a car, and keeping WeHo vibrant means making room for bikes and other ways to get around. Their safety matters, too, and it’s our responsibility to do what we can.

While there’s a lot we could take issue with there — like how ebikes ca serve as mobility devices for handicapped people, and the myth of bike lanes slowing emergency vehicles — Block goes on to call for developing a master plan to improve safety and livability in WeHo’s Mid-City area.

We should focus on creating a Mid-City Master Plan while working on the Fountain Ave. Streetscape and Bike Lane project. Instead of just arguing about bike lanes, we need to shift the conversation to mid-city livability and make Fountain Ave. improvements part of the bigger plan.

There’s a livability and safety problem on Fountain Ave., and we need to look at the big picture. Let’s discuss a Mid-City Master Plan that incorporates the needs of all residents. But for now, after several accidents on Fountain Ave. in recent weeks, our top priority should be making Fountain safe today.

If this is the approach a bike lane opponent — or possibly former opponent — is willing to take, there may be hope for WeHo yet.

………

As a followup to Tuesday’s piece about an apparent violation of Measure HLA along Western Avenue and 1st Street in San Pedro, Ken Shima forwards a screenshot from CD15 Councilmember Tim McOsker saying the current striping is just a temporary measure, and bike lanes really are coming.

But from Caltrans, not Los Angeles.

As Joe Linton clarified in a comment to Tuesday’s post, HLA applies to “any paving project or other modification,” other than limited work like “restriping of the road without making other improvements, routine pothole repair, utility cuts, or emergency repairs.”

Which would mean it should apply here.

However, as a state agency, I’m not sure if Caltrans is required to abide by HLA, unlike Metro or the City of LA. But it’s definitely something to keep an eye on, to make sure those promised bike lanes really do go in.

Regardless of who is responsible for them.

Meanwhile, Linton visits the new bike/walk path along San Pedro’s Front Street from the Vincent Thomas Bridge to just west of Pacific Ave.

………

San Francisco has selected the vendor for the city’s speed cam pilot program, with 33 cams expected to be fully operational by early 2025.

Compare that with Los Angeles, which hasn’t.

Here’s what a press release from Streets Are For Everyone, aka SAFE, had to say on the subject.

“While Los Angeles continues to ignore the problem, San Francisco takes speeding seriously. I commend San Francisco for taking this significant step towards making its citizens safer. Through their selection process, the city has done the hard work and set the stage for other cities to follow,” said Damian Kevitt, Executive Director of Streets Are For Everyone. “Los Angeles and the other pilot cities have no excuse for bureaucratic feet-dragging that is risking people’s lives.”

At the start of 2024, the Chief of Police and Mayor of Los Angeles announced that there were a staggering 336 traffic fatalities, the highest in almost 50 years and more traffic fatalities in 2023 than homicides. Across the state, 35% of fatalities are speeding-related, with over 1,500 speeding-related fatalities in 2021. Traffic violence in Los Angeles continues to get worse, and there is insufficient effort being put into implementing sensible solutions to save lives.

Yep.

That pretty much sums it up.

It took years of fighting in the state legislature to finally pound out a compromise allowing Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale to try a speed cam pilot program, along with three NorCal cities, including San Francisco. That was later amended to allow speed cams on PCH in Malibu, as well.

But all of that appears to be wasted on the City of Angels, which seems to be moving with all due non-haste at its usual glacial pace.

Mayor Bass has often said that she was elected to solve the city’s homelessness crisis.

Too bad that’s the only crisis she seems to think she was elected to address.

………

It’s now 303 days since the California ebike incentive program’s latest failure to launch, which was promised no later than fall 2023. And a full 40 months since it was approved by the legislature and signed into law — and counting.

………

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

No bias here. The anti-bike OB-Rag writes that San Diego officials are “quietly picking our pockets” with things like a $155,000 bike counter, which amounts to a rounding error on the city’s $104.6 million streets budget. Let alone the SANDAG’s $1.3 billion — yes, with a B — highway budget.

No bias here, either. A 76-year old Baltimore man died weeks after a driver pulled out of a sidewalk and cut him off while riding on the sidewalk, but the local press somehow blames the victim for crashing into the car. And waits until the penultimate sentence to mention the car even had a driver.

He gets it. An Ottawa, Ontario columnist says Premier Doug Ford’s plan to give the provincial legislature final say over bike lanes is all about politics, not safety or traffic flow, while the mayor of Waterloo says Ford is stepping directly into municipal jurisdiction.

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

A 22-year old Novato man faces a felony hit-and-run charge for fleeing the scene after after crashing his bicycle into an eight-year old boy; fortunately, the kid was hospitalized with minor to moderate injuries. Which raises the question of why a felony charge was filed, which under state law on only applies in cases resulting in serious injuries. 

………

Local  

Pepperdine remembered the four sorority sisters killed by an alleged speeding driver on PCH a year ago, as they were walking from their car to a party; their accused killer was reportedly doing 104 mph in a 45 mph zone. But hey, about those speed cams.

 

State

Congrats to the Costa Mesa Police Department for busting a thief who made off with a family’s e-cargo bike; the department has already returned it to the owner.

 

National

CNN considers the best bike lights, settling on a pair from Cygolite.

Annapurna’s scenic bicycling adventure game Ghost Bike is getting a makeover, and will re-emerge next year as Wheel World, with a lighter design to make it more fun to play. Because ghost bikes may be a lot of things, but fun ain’t one of them. 

Parents, classmates and the Littleton, Colorado community came together to call for safer streets, a year after a seventh-grade boy was killed riding his bike to middle school. Yet another reminder that the time to fight for safer streets if before it’s too late, not after. 

A Tulsa, Oklahoma TV station responds to the state’s appalling NHTSA ranking as the nation’s 6th deadliest state for bike riders by examining safety concerns for bicyclists. Meanwhile, in 6th ranked California <crickets>.

A writer for Business Insider takes a 330-mile bikepacking trip from Pittsburgh to Maryland, and says she’d absolutely do it again, despite the challenges.

Prosecutors have added a murder charge to the long list of charges against the alleged drunken and speeding hit-and-run driver who killed a beloved young doctor out for a bike ride; he was allegedly driving over twice the speed limit with a BAC double the legal limit.

Roanoke, Virginia shows how it should be done, installing multiple temporary bike lanes to encourage people to ride their bikes to the city’s largest outdoor fest. Now they just need to make them permanent.

 

International

Momentum rates the six best foldies currently on the market.

A writer for Bike Radar takes a six-day, 400-mile bike tour along South Korea’s “stunning” Four Rivers route from Seoul to Busan.

A cop in New South Wales, Australia faces charges for dangerous driving for a crash that killed a 16-year old boy riding a bicycle.

 

Competitive Cycling

One of the brightest American cycling prospects, 21-year old Boulder, Colorado resident Jared Scott, walked away from his burgeoning European pro career to become a professional DJ.

A Welsh Continental cycling team learns the hard way the dangers of relying on a bikemaker’s promise that their frames will meet UCI standards.

 

Finally…

How to not pull an endo on your mountain bike. Making a Pashley the star of Swan Lake.

And seriously, who doesn’t need a sidecar for your ebike? Or a corgi car, in my case.

………

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

Oh, and fuck Putin

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