August 10, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Streets For All shares virtual drinks with Friedman, CicLAvia returns on Sunday, and Brits battle over riding abreast
Britain’s Jeremy Vine takes the contrarian view to all those drivers who insist people on bikes should ride single file all the time.
People who cycle in the country should be encouraged to ride 2, 3 and 4 abreast like this. For the following reasons:
1. It calms the traffic behind them 2. It makes it less easy for bad drivers to attempt dangerous passes 3. It is more pleasant and sociable for them. pic.twitter.com/vqi4dsuUSs
I am a cyclist. Simple rule – we are smaller than cars – so be polite, ride single file when holding up cars. Understand people are busy etc Do not go thru red lights/ pedestrian crossings. But also do ask drivers to be careful when passing? Please. https://t.co/bAP3mfVDYZ
Norm Bradwell forwards the best pro bike helmet commercial of all time.
Yes, you may have seen it before, but it’s more than worth seeing again. Or for the first time, if you haven’t.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. San Diego letter writers insist no one uses bike lanes because they don’t see them filled with bikes at the exact moment they happen to pass by, and that bike riders have to obey the law. Never mind that studies show safe infrastructure improves adherence to the law, and that bike riders break the law at about the same rate as people in the big, dangerous machines, but for much better reasons. Hint: Drivers cheat for convenience, bike riders to stay safe.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
For the second time in a week, a Santa Barbara driver has been busted for running down a teenage bike rider, as a driver is being held on $100,000 bond on DUI and hit-and-run charges after rear-ending a 14-year old boy on a bicycle; the victim was hospitalized with moderate injuries.
August 4, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hit-and-run epidemic hits LA and San Diego, volunteers wanted for carfree K-town fest, and best bike traffic sign ever
My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence.
Monday was a rough day.
It was supposed to be my wife’s first day at her new job, after the company she’d been with for 20 years shut down in the first days of the pandemic. But it lasted just three hours before her new bosses decided they needed someone familiar with their systems, rather than training her as they had promised.
So now we’re both back where we’ve been for the last 18 months, with her extended unemployment benefits expiring next month, just as the Delta variant is exploding.
$50,000 REWARD: @LAPDHQ says a 91 year old woman is killed by a hit and run driver that stopped for 3 mins to view victim before driving off. pic.twitter.com/hlUVcBNg2N
And if that doesn’t demand a murder charge once he’s caught, I don’t know what does. As always, there’s a standing $50,000 reward for any fatal hit-and-run in Los Angeles.
Streets For All is looking for volunteers to help host a two block, four hour, carfree block party in Koreatown a week from Saturday.
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This is who we share the road with.
During a road rage dispute between two North Carolina drivers, they each pulled out a gun and shot at each other, injuring a 4-year-old girl. Both drivers are claiming self-defense. One of the shooters is the grandson of a former county sheriff. #ncpolhttps://t.co/rL9PLaVHcY
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
After a New York state senator nearly ran down someone riding a bike with his car, he naturally responded by introducing legislation to crack down on people on bicycles; Streetsblog responds that the danger on our streets doesn’t come from bike riders, but from the people in the big, dangerous machines.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
T.I. was busted when Amsterdam cops politely invited him into the backseat of their patrol car after the rapper rode his bike through an intersection — apparently against the light — and broke the mirror on the police car.
San Luis Obispo’s popular Bread Bike is moving into a brick and mortar storefront after years of delivering their baked good by bicycle; no word on whether the two-wheeled deliveries will continue when customers can just pop in for a loaf.
National
What apparently won’t be included in the new bipartisan federal infrastructure bill is money dedicated to removing highways from urban areas; the intent was to restore damage from many existing freeways that destroyed what were then thriving Black neighborhoods.
It’s the end of an era, as Tejay van Garderen, one of the few American cyclists to make a mark in WorldTour in the post-Lance era, calls it a career after 12 years.
Thanks to James B and Elizabeth T for their generous donations to help keep this site coming your way every day; any donation, no matter how large or small, helps and is deeply appreciated.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
After we sounded the alarm yesterday, Streets For All is calling on everyone to email the Malibu Planning Commission.
The street safety PAC is urging bike riders to protest plans to widen a two-mile section of PCH to “improve bicycle safety” by installing even more roadside parking, forcing bike riders into the door zone.
And yes, that means you.
Ask the City of Malibu to add safe, protected bike lanes to PCH
However, their proposal is really a way to add even more parking for cars on PCH, while putting people in bikes in the “door zone.” We need them to do better, and eventually would love a protected bike lane for the entire stretch of PCH.
Cuong Trinh, the Active Transportation and Complete Streets/ Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for Caltrans District 7, wants your input on the state DOT’s active transportation plan for the Los Angeles region.
Hello Community Stakeholder,
I wanted to let you know that we are undertaking the development of the Caltrans District 7 Active Transportation Plan.
Our plan serves as a needs assessment, by utilizing our government agency partners, non-government stakeholders and members of the public to identify bicycle and pedestrian needs along the State Highway System. In order to undertake the completion of this plan, we have a Consultant that is analyzing existing planning documents from cities and counties, as well as user and partner-submitted needs (using a location-based-needs survey) that your organization and its stakeholders can participate in.
The State Highway System includes all state-owned freeways, select regional highways and some local streets. All of these freeways, highways or local streets are signed by a red and blue Interstate freeway shield (Interstate 5) or a green California state highway shield (State Route 2).
Next Thursday, July 22nd, we invite you to attend one of our informational meetings intended for our non-governmental stakeholders where we will provide an introduction to the Caltrans Active Transportation Plans and the effort to complete the plan in Caltrans District 7, serving Los Angeles and Ventura counties. You may be aware that other Caltrans districts are also in the process of completing their district-specific plans as Caltrans has 12 districts that serve 58 counties statewide.
Your organization and its stakeholders may be aware of bicycle and pedestrian needs on our State Highways. These needs can range from missing or broken sidewalks to gaps in bicycle lanes and paths along or across State Highway System facilities. We see that your input is critical in providing locations and context for those needs. With your help, we can prioritize those needs in our future highway projects. However, without sufficient input from our stakeholders, we would be short of sufficient information that our project engineers could use to address non-motorized user needs.
You can learn more about the CAT Plans, as well as take a survey (where users are invited to place pins on a map) at http://www.catplan.org and click District 7.
We have scheduled two informational meetings in the next week that you can attend at your convenience, as the same materials will be presented at either meeting. Therefore, you can attend one meeting that best fits your schedule.
Feel free to attend one of these (virtual) meetings at your convenience:
Also feel free to forward this to anyone from other organizations or people who may find the Caltrans Active Transportation Plans effort of interest or relevance, as we may have missed many organizations and local interests.
Should you have any questions regarding the CAT Plans, don’t hesitate to contact the project lead for the Caltrans District 7 Active Transportation Plan, at cuong.trinh@dot.ca.gov.
Hope you stay healthy and safe.
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Sunset4All is now over halfway to their goal of raising $25,000 to fund a public/private partnership to build protected bike lanes on eastern sections of Sunset and Santa Monica Blvds.
If you’ve got a few extra bucks, take a moment to help support the LA-area’s most important voice for transportation news.
We're still in our summer fundraising drive, and our next donor is our 25th new donor of the month! Support Streetsblog and support a more livable and clean California!https://t.co/7ihz72Qj5b
GCN explains how to successfully deploy chamois cream to keep your bike from being a pain in the ass.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
Horrifying video from Idaho, where a 26-year old man faces charges for responding to a minor dispute between kids at a skate park by chasing two young boys in his pickup, and running over their bicycles after they barely jump out of the way. Never mind what kind of a sick schmuck would actually do something like that.
No bias here. A Missouri newspaper says a young boy was injured when he hit a car with his bicycle. Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell what actually happened from the brief three-sentence article. But that probably wasn’t it.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Despite a number of street safety projects across the city, San Francisco is failing to make progress on Vision Zero, with roughly the same number of fatalities last year as in 2014, when the program to eliminate traffic deaths was adopted. On the other hand, at least they’re undertaking major Vision Zero projects, unlike a certain megalopolis to the south we could mention, which continues to just nibble around the edges.
Writing for Road Bike Action, a doctor explains how to treat and survive road rash. Don’t get me started. I once wiped out during a high-speed turn and ended up with road rash from my ankle to my chin. Good times.
Fast Company says simply designing cities better — whether through superblocks, a Paris-inspired 15-minute city or going carfree — could cut deaths by all causes up to 20%.
The New York Times and National Public Radio both pick up the story of Austrian cyclist Lachlan Morton’s remarkable solo ride along the entire Tour de France route, and every mile in between, raising over half a million for World Bicycle Relief while beating the Tour peloton the Paris by six days.
July 14, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on PCH widening will put bikes in door zone, support urged for CA bike/ped safety bills, and Branson lied about biking to launch
Nothing like sacrificing bike safety on the altar of parking that hasn’t even been built yet.
Except instead of adding bike lanes, they’re merely widening the shoulder so there’s room to add parking, while allowing bikes to share the space on the side of the roadway with the new parked cars.
Which means instead of dodging cars in the traffic lanes, bicyclists will now have to dodge swinging doors from parked cars. And risk getting knocked into those traffic lanes in front of speeding drivers if they don’t.
Streets For All has made a number of calls to urge support for important transportation safety bills in the state legislature in recent days.
Unfortunately, most have come too late to repeat here, with the deadline for comments coming before you’d likely have a chance to see it and respond.
However, this one is different.
The LA traffic safety PAC is urging you to send an email before 4 pm today to support a pair of common sense bills allowing bike riders to treat stop signs as yields, and eliminating the state’s blanket prohibition on jaywalking.
Two bills to make our streets safer and friendlier for walking and biking have passed the Senate Transportation Committee and will soon be voted on by the Senate Appropriations Committee:
AB 122 would legalize the safety stop, allowing people on bikes to yield at stop signs. Eight states and a number of local jurisdictions have already taken this measure, and research has shown a reduction in bicycle injuries of up to 23% as a result.
AB 1238 would replace the archaic ban on “jaywalking” with common sense rules for crossing the street. Today’s laws are used as a pretext for racial profiling and originated from auto industry pressure and corruption.
Both of these bills are important for democratizing our street space. It is time for the rules of the road to reflect the needs of different users, rather than just motorists.
Please use our template below to email a comment to the Appropriations Committee by 4 PM on Wednesday, July 14. Feel free to add your own message, and remember to enter your name and address at the bottom for your comment to be considered.
Never mind that the faked video was supposed to form the basis for a cross-promotion with Trek, which will now be left looking like fools if they use it as originally planned.
Next they’ll probably tell us the flight was staged, too.
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This is who we share the road with.
A Seattle bike rider was confronted by a road-raging driver, apparently for the crime of not confronting him when the motorist made a dangerous and illegal turn to go the wrong way on a traffic circle, and the rider just shook his head and went around him.
Then this —
He then yelled at me some more: "Do you think you own the road?!"
I biked away on the sidewalk the other direction, just trying to exit the situation as quickly as possible. He continued to stalk me through the streets but I was able to get away without further confrontation.
— Ballard-Fremont Greenways (@BFGreenways) July 14, 2021
It’s worth clicking on the tweets to read the whole tread, because most of us have been in similar situations with angry drivers.
And if you haven’t yet, chances are you will.
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That feeling when an Austin, Texas bike lane is just a feeder route for Pennywise the Clown.
“Move to Austin! We’re a real city! We have bike infrastructure!” An actual bike lane in Austin: pic.twitter.com/FPtTNwrAFa
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
There’s a special place in hell for a St. Louis hit-and-run driver who murdered two people at once when he ran down a 19-year old woman riding her bike home from work, despite being six months pregnant.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Sad news from Merced, where a 64-year old Ventura County man is under arrest for the hit-and-run death of a 22-year old man after rear-ending his bicycle. Note to cowards — If you’re going to run after a fatal crash, take your damn license plate with you. Or better yet, don’t.
June 25, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Donation match for LA’s 1st private/public bike lane partnership, and unconfirmed bicycling death in Solano Beach
Back in my blissfully misspent youth, there was a popular cartoon that showed a couple buzzards sitting on a fence.
One turns to the other, and says “Patience my ass. I’m going to kill something.”
It seemed funny at the time.
But that’s kind of where some LA bike advocates are right now.
Rather than wait endlessly for the city to finally get around to improving safety for bike riders and pedestrians on Sunset and Santa Monica Blvds, they’re trying to speed things up by helping pay for it through a private/public sponsorship.
And they need your help.
Here’s how Terence Heuston, the former author of LA Bike Dad, describes it.
Sunset4All, in partnership with the LACBC, is launching a crowdfunding “match” campaign to fund the initial engineering plans for protected bike lanes and pedestrian improvements on Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards through East Hollywood, Silver Lake, and Echo Park.
If the community reaches our $25,000 goal, angel donors will MATCH THEIR DONATION. Every dollar of their tax-deductible donation will be DOUBLED if we reach our goal! Declare your independence from traffic by donating before 4th of July!
The NUMBER of donors is as important as the number of dollars. The city of LA installs safe street projects where there is broad community support. Every individual donor is an individual VOTE for this project. Even a small donation is tangible PROOF that Angelenos support safer streets and protected bike lanes.
The private/public partnership model has been used successfully in other regions to accelerate the installation of the Arapahoe bike lanes in Denver and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. We want to transfer this innovative model to Los Angeles and release a flood of protected bike lanes region wide. It all starts with Sunset4All reaching its fundraising goal.
And yes, I just opened my wallet and put my money where my mouth is. If every else gives the same amount, we just need another 999 people to follow suit.
Assuming the victim’s death is confirmed, that will mean nine people have been killed riding their bikes on the suddenly mean streets of San Diego County in just the first six months of this year.
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Calbike calls on everyone to write your California state senator to urge their support — or in one case, opposition — for a trio of bills.
AB 371: This measure will place a large and unprecedented insurance requirement on shared mobility systems. It won’t make our streets safer but it will put every bike-share system in California, public and private, out of business. Email your senator to vote NO on AB 371 to save bike-share.
AB 1238 (Ting): The Freedom to Walk Act puts an end to unjust jaywalking laws advanced by the auto industry a century ago. these laws prevent people from enjoying their streets on foot safely, in the interest of making them the exclusive domain of cars. Today, jaywalking laws serve as a sometimes tragic pretext for biased policing, as a hugely disproportionate share of jaywalking tickets are issued to Black Californians. Tell your senator to support the Freedom to Walk Act, AB 1238.
Over the years, Nelson developed an encyclopedic knowledge of Los Angeles transportation issues, and her insights and in-depth reporting will be missed.
On the other hand, that means that her old job is now available.
— T.W.U. Local 320 – L.A. Metro Bike Share (@union_bike) June 24, 2021
As the son of a union man, I only wish my slowly healing hands would let me join in on the ride.
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We’ll have to see how it ends up when they flesh out the details. But right now, it looks like active transportation may have lost out in the bipartisan compromise on the transportation bill.
Pink Bike wants to teach you how to actually learn new bike skills.
Evidently, there’s a lot to learn, since this is just episode one of a ten part series.
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This is who we share the road with.
ROAD RAGE INCIDENT: Police say a Hemet man discharged bear spray during a road rage incident in Seal Beach. A child was among those injured, and police say he may have done this before. https://t.co/8QoN6IM0Dcpic.twitter.com/171AzsUaJA
Authorities near my Colorado hometown are looking for a man who apparently took offense when a woman nearly backed over his fellow bike rider, and punched her in the face. Seriously, don’t do that. It’s only natural to feel anger and fear when someone nearly hits you or a riding companion, but violence is never the answer.
After an Oklahoma group gave a young man a new bike when they learned he had to walk 17 miles roundtrip to work and back, a crowdfunding campaign raised nearly $50,000 to buy him a new car. Which just goes to show that kind gestures can take an unexpected bad turn.
The 32-year old musician was just 12 years old when he costarred with Jack Black and Joan Cusack in the hit movie, despite a lack of acting experience.
He had just formed a new band that performed live for the first time over the weekend.
Clark was riding a bicycle early Wednesday when he was struck and killed at a notoriously dangerous intersection on the Northwest Side. He was hit by a Hyundai Sonata around 1:20 a.m. in the 2600 block of North Western Avenue, Chicago police said.
Paramedics found him on Logan Boulevard and took him to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:04 a.m., according to the Chicago Fire Department and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 20-year-old woman, was issued several citations, police said.
Maybe someday, we’ll decide that too many people have died because of motor vehicles and the people who drive them, and actually do something about it.
But like gun violence, we seem to just talk about it, and look the other way.
The bill would provide purchase incentives to increase the affordability of ebikes by through subsidies for up to 10,000 people, similar to the $7,000 subsidies the state provides to buyers of electric cars.
Combined with a proposed federal tax rebate for ebike buyers, it could dramatically cut the cost of ebikes to replace motor vehicle use.
Maybe a jump in ebikes would finally push more California cities to provide safe spaces to ride them.
Rose Creek bikeway – 2 miles of a barrier protected bike path – is officially open! This is another section of the 44 mile Coastal Rail Trail that runs from Oceanside to San Diego near the railroad tracks. Thrilled to represent as the Chair of @SANDAG! pic.twitter.com/LoHnnF8mxS
— Catherine Blakespear (@Cblakespear) May 26, 2021
I definitely could have used that when I lived down there years ago.
Thanks to Phillip Young for the heads-up.
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A new video from Streets For All examines the true cost of LA’s freeway obsession.
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This is who we share the road with.
A road raging Maserati driver in DC got out of his car and opened fire on a woman with her two kids in the car, then apparently turned and shot at witnesses in another car.
A gunman in DC driving a Maserati opened fire on a mother just for cutting him off. She had her 2 kids in the car and was shot in the shoulder. There's a $10,000 reward for anyone who can help identify him. pic.twitter.com/AtplXaON2h
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) May 26, 2021
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A bike rider was injured during a New York bicycle protest to mark the first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police, after he jumped on the hood of a Volkswagen as the driver tried to push through the crowd of protesters.
Meanwhile, a second bike rider was injured by the driver as they tried to speed away.
A Mad City woman was busted for throwing a bicycle at another person during a large disturbance. No word on whether she was actually riding it or if she just grabbed the nearest thing she could throw.
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Local
The Sourceoffers a preview of today’s Metro Board meeting, which would finalize the route for the NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit line along Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock, as well as consider highway funding and free bus and train fares for students and low income people.
Nice story from Redding, where the community got together to raise funds to buy a new ebike for a school security guard and coach who suffers from a hereditary form of neuropathy; after the fundraiser surpassed the $2,500 goal, a local organization said they would pay for the bike, and use the funds to customize it for his disability.
An associate professor at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University will ride across the US this summer to raise funds for public education; Dr. Chris Willis will take the Adventure Cyclists Association’s northern tier route, passing through 51 school districts he hopes to help fund at the end of the trip. You can donate to his trip here. Thanks again to Tim Rutt.
May 19, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Worldwide Ride of Silence tonight, and video Wednesday with L39ION of LA and proposed Ballona Creek extension
If you’re planning a ride that’s not listed here, even if you’re just throwing one together at the last minute, let me know and I’ll try to get the word out.
A video produced by Santa Monica College students examines Streets For All’s proposal to extend the Ballona Creek bike path to the eastern end of the creek.
Sunday, 16 May 2021 at 11:50am. @MBTA ride vehicle right hooks two cyclists while making an illegal turn from Tremont onto Boylston. Continues head on towards cyclist with right of way before speeding away onto Charles Street. pic.twitter.com/dEQUOg86mZ
Great idea. Caltrans is funding a $200,000 program to “teach students about safe urban cycling, bike mechanic skills and to encourage ridership through group bike rides” at three Santa Ana schools for the next two years.
An Illinois paper misses the point, saying the bicycling death of famed German architect Helmut Jahn calls attention to “a shared responsibility by all road users…to take some precautions to make safety a priority.” Except only it’s just the people in the big, dangerous machines who pose a risk to everyone else.
CD4 City Council candidate Scott Epstein highlights Streets For All’s proposal to extend the Ballona Creek bike path to the creek’s eastern terminus in Mid-City Los Angeles, where it would connect with a planned Bicycle Friendly Street leading into Hollywood.
An exciting concept being spearheaded by our friends at @streetsforall to extend the Ballona Creek bikeway. This project would connect directly with the Formosa/Cochran Avenue Bicycle Friendly Street project I conceived and which is partially funded. (1) https://t.co/RqZM58zjn9
Speaking of Epstein, the longtime LA Bicycle Advisory Committee member is raising funds for his campaign to put another much-needed bike friendly voice on the city council.
Friends: if you want nice things, may I ask you to contribute to our campaign? We are working to access $150K in matching funds by mid-year to compete w/ the establishment candidates. To do so we need 100 LA city residents to contribute at the $114 level: https://t.co/pDXG4upBq2
The Week says there’s a simple and cheap way to make room on the roads for bicycles and transit — just put an end to car supremacy. Unfortunately, like other forms of supremacy, calling to end it is a lot easier than actually doing it.
This is who we share the road with. An Oregon driver is on trial for the road rage death of a motorcyclist, after repeated swerving his oversized pickup into the biker’s lane. Although he just faces felony vehicular homicide charges, rather than the murder count his actions would seem to call for.
Speaking of de Blasio, a Staten Island writer complains about plans to cut the speed limit on a major artery to 30 mph, calling it a traffic ticket money grab on the mayor’s part — even while acknowledging that dropping the speed limit is one of the best ways to halt the rising toll of pedestrian deaths.
Tragic news from Florida, where a bike-riding man and women were killed in a collateral damage crash when an allegedly stoned driver crashed into an oncoming SUV while passing slower traffic in a no-passing zone, knocking the SUV over and onto a bike trail next to the roadway, where the couple riding their tandem bike were sitting ducks.
American Joe Dombrowski celebrated an early birthday by surviving a long breakaway to win a dramatic, rain-soaked fourth stage of the Giro, while Italy’s Alessandro De Marchi slipped into the pink leader’s jersey.
April 29, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Former NTSB official says no deaths should be the only goal, legalize crossing the street, and building the 15 minute city
Sometimes I arrived at the scene of a business jet or helicopter crash, other times it was a train derailment, once it was a cargo ship lost in a hurricane — always, it involved a tragic loss of life. But despite the terrible toll of motor vehicle deaths on our nation, I never launched to the scene of a traffic crash. Why? Perhaps because the NTSB only has the capacity to investigate a handful of vehicle crashes each year. Perhaps because there weren’t any crashes classified as major disasters when I was on duty. But in 2019, more than 36,000 deaths were recorded on U.S. roads, so an average of nearly 700 traffic deaths occurred every week I was on duty.
Yet our nation doesn’t think of a traffic crash as a disaster, since deaths typically occur one or two at a time. Many of us don’t believe that every road death is preventable. As a nation, we haven’t yet decided that we can protect everyone, including the most vulnerable among us who use our streets and highways — people who are younger or older, people who are walking or biking, people with disabilities. We accept tens of thousands of deaths on our roads every year as simply unavoidable “accidents,” even though we have proven solutions to prevent them.
It’s worth a few minutes to read.
Because she’s right. There’s no acceptable number of traffic deaths.
And it’s long past time we did something about it.
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Los Angeles Walks is joining with partners across the state on Monday for a national discussion about jaywalking and efforts to decriminalize it.
Like their sponsorship of AB 1238, aka the Freedom to Walk Act, which would get rid of California’s jaywalking law, which is too often used to target people of color.
Tonight's @LADOTofficial meeting presentation photo usage complainer. This LADOT slide features 4 photos – the first three, I @JoeLinton took, and the 4th photo I didn't take, but it is a photo of me! (DOT can use SBLA photos free w credit, but never credit.) pic.twitter.com/4AAZWd7kPY
Bay Area transportation officials marked the beginning of Bike Month by announcing nine Bike Champion of the Year winners, honoring one person from each county in the Bay region for their commitment to bicycling.
They get it. A new survey shows Pittsburgh residents overwhelmingly support bike lanes, walking routes and reduced speed limits. And think traffic injuries are a major problem. Maybe someday someone will finally get around to asking Angelenos those same questions, so our elected leaders might finally see that the car-first crowd is just a very loud minority.
This is who we share the road with. A newlywed English teenager gets a well-deserved year behind bars for stealing a crate of eggs, then driving his car while friends threw the eggs out the window at passing people and cars, permanently blinding a motorcycle rider in his right eye with a direct hit. He took the fall for his friends, refusing to name who actually tossed the eggs.
Thanks to everyone for all the kind words following my surgery earlier this month.
My fumble fingers are finally functional again, even though the swollen new Frankenhand they’re attached to is still almost, sort of, not really, kind of back to normal.
But it’ll get there. And nearly two weeks after surgery, the pain is already better than it was before, so there’s that.
Meanwhile, we have a lot to catch up on.
It will take a few days to catch up on all the bike news we missed, but I’ll make sure we don’t miss out on anything important.
So let’s get started on the first installment.
And my apologies for the near-total lack of credits today; with one exception forwarded by multiple people yesterday, I lost track of who sent what to my attention during my extended downtime, which is going to be a problem until we get caught up.
Heartbreaking news from DC, where a longtime bike advocate was killed in a collision, just hours after tweeting about the dangers on the city’s streets.
Had to bike through a roundabout over a highway to get my Covid jab. Lifespan maximization function is clearly perfectly well-calibrated. pic.twitter.com/Zw62SRq70w
(Jim) Pagels was struck in a horrific chain-reaction crash along Massachusetts Avenue NW, about a mile from his home on Capitol Hill, his family said. The avid rider and self-described urbanist who was in his second year of a doctorate program in economics, died at a hospital.
Pagels’s sister, Laura Menendez, described her brother as funny, smart and passionate about many things — pursuing his postgraduate studies, playing tennis and board games, and traveling by bike.
“He had a good heart,” Menendez said. “And he was such a huge advocate for bike safety.”
The paper also quotes a friend of Pagels.
“He was so excited about working in that urban space,” said Finn Vigeland, a close friend who met Pagels while the two worked on the Columbia Daily Spectator. “He was well aware of the dangers of cycling . . . but he loved biking, and he wanted everyone to bike. He wanted everyone to feel like this was the best way to get around D.C…
I hope our city leaders hear about Jim and understand the life that was so senselessly taken away on Friday. He cared so deeply about the injustices that led to his death, and he would want us to be furious about it,” Vigeland said. “I hope that knowing that this was something Jim was working so hard to change might prompt people to take bolder action.”
Let’s hope city leaders get the message here, too.
And used the tragedy as a springboard to call for safer streets, and talk with Michael Schneider, founder of LA street safety PAC Streets For All.
It doesn’t take long for their conversation to get to the heart of the problems on our streets.
ME: Six years ago, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti set a goal of zero traffic-related deaths by 2025, part of the global Vision Zero initiative. So far, we’re not on track to meet that goal. My colleague Steve Lopez recently reported that 238 people died in car crashes in Los Angeles last year — only a tiny decrease from 2019 despite significantly reduced traffic due to COVID-19, and just 8% less than the first full year Garcetti’s policy was in effect. What is going on?
SCHNEIDER: Our city is very good at plans and goals and not very good at implementation. Can you imagine if you were a heart surgeon and people were coming in for heart surgery, and no one would let you operate? Vision Zero is a laudable goal, but until we have a City Council and a mayor who will spend the political capital to make the tough decisions and deal with NIMBY blowback to make changes to our streets, it’s never going to happen…
ME: Where has Mayor Garcetti been on safe streets?
SCHNEIDER: Absent. He says all the right stuff, and he hires great people, like Seleta Reynolds. He will never risk his neck at all for a bike lane or a bus lane.
But I think we’re on the cusp of some exciting changes, especially because the city of Los Angeles has now aligned their elections with federal elections, and the turnout is so much larger and so much more progressive. I think we are on the cusp of truly having different political leadership, where a guy like Paul Koretz, who’s termed out, couldn’t win in 2022 and beyond. And where someone like Nithya Raman, who had making the city more bikeable in her campaign messaging, can defeat an incumbent.
Then there was this about the recent failed attempt to make iconic Melrose Ave safer and more livable for everyone.
ME: Talking about blowback, I read the post you wrote about the proposed “Uplift Melrose” project, which would have added protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks and shaded seating areas along a 1.3-mile stretch of Melrose Avenue. There was broad support from local businesses, but City Councilmember Paul Koretz effectively killed the proposal. Why is it so difficult politically to get changes like these approved?
SCHNEIDER: Opponents typically say the following: If you remove parking or reduce car capacity in any way, how are people going to shop or get to businesses? You’re going to kill business. They also ask, “Why would we invest in this when no one uses the bike lanes anyway?” People cite anecdotes of driving by bike lanes and seeing them empty.
If we had a beautiful six-lane paved highway that only went for one mile and then became a dirt road with potholes, how many cars would take that road? That is the equivalent of what we ask people to do when they bike around Los Angeles. If we had a network of protected bike lanes, you would see a ton of people using them. One piece of evidence is CicLAvia. Those events bring out tens of thousands of people to ride their bikes on closed streets.
What happened to Uplift Melrose was egregious even by L.A. standards. Koretz basically became a puppet for mostly white, wealthy homeowners who couldn’t see themselves riding a bike or a bus.
But if anything ever happens to me when I’m riding a bicycle, I want you to politicize the hell out of it.
Take what’s left of my body to the city council and dump it on the dais, if you have to.
Metaphorically speaking, of course. Or literally, for that matter.
And if it happens on a street marked for safety improvements in city’s mobility plan, I hope those lawyers up there on the right will join together to sue the hell out of the city for failing to keep their commitment to safer streets.
Or maybe just sue over LA’s failed and forgotten Vision Zero plan to force the cowards we foolishly elected to lead us to the changes we so desperately need on our streets.
………
LADOT has finally release the results of the city’s biennial walk and bike count, which for years has been done on a volunteer basis by the LACBC and later, LA Walks.
Which is something they should have been doing all along.
And yes, they are just now releasing data collected that was collected two years ago, for reasons known only to them.
It also shows how easy it is to boost bicycling with a little decent infrastructure, with a 73% jump in ridership as a result of the protected and separated bike lanes on the MyFigueroa project.
MyFig also resulted the city’s most heavily-trafficked pedestrian corridor, even above the tourist-clogged sidewalks of Hollywood Blvd.
And it points to how Los Angeles can increase the far too low rate of women riding bikes on city streets.
While the report found that women make up 40 percent of pedestrians on weekdays and 44 percent on weekends, women made up just 14 percent of cyclists. However, the report also indicated a 120 percent increase in female riders on streets improved with dedicated bike paths.
In other words, all they have to do is what the city already committed to in the 2010 bike plan, and the mobility plan that subsumed it.
Not to mention LA’s nearly forgotten Vision Zero and the mayor’s Green New Deal.
………
What the hell.
I’m not sure where this video is from; I can’t make out the the police patches or or the name on the patrol cars.
But something looks seriously wrong about a bunch of while cops taking a young black man into custody for the crime of…wait for it…
And while some cities require bikes to be registered, I don’t know any place where police have the authority to seize private property over a handful of minor infractions.
Which would be illegal as hell if they tried to seize someone’s car for an expired license or failing to signal a turn.
Let alone not having their headlights on in broad daylight.
Unfortunately, there’s a term for crap like this — Biking While Black.
And regardless of their motivation, it makes the cops look racist AF.
Thanks to Jon, Megan Lynch and Stacey Kline for the heads-up.
And if anyone knows where this happened, let me know so I’ll never make the mistake of going there.
Update: Thanks to Al Williams for identifying this as Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Which I will make a point of never visiting.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Texas bike rider bike rider was hospitalized with a brain bleed and facial fractures when he was run down by a drunk driver — while riding on an ostensibly carfree bike path.
Singaporean actor Tay Ping Hui says he’s got nothing against bicyclists, despite complaining when a small group of riders merged onto the roadway ahead of him. Because apparently, it’s asking too much to slow down or change lanes to drive safely around them.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
No bias here, either. A Singapore motorcyclist calls for banning bicycles from the roads after watching one — count ’em, one — scofflaw bicyclist weaving through traffic. Meanwhile, the website somehow feels the need to point out that 34 bike riders were ticketed for breaking the law over the weekend. Makes you wonder how many motorcyclists got tickets the same weekend. Let alone drivers. But sure, blame everyone on bicycles.
Calbike wants your support for the proposed Safety Stop Bill, which would allow bike riders to treat stop signs as yields. Which is exactly what many riders safely do right now. And far too many drivers do unsafely.
Meanwhile, AB 43 unanimously passed the Assembly Transportation Committee with no opposition; the bill would retain the deadly 85th Percentile Law, but allow cities to consider factors other than drivers’ right feet in setting speed limits, such as the location as well as pedestrian and bicycle safety.
California is joining a nationwide movement to prioritize safety over speed. The question is whether the shift is real, or if the legislature will simply pass a few feel good bills before forgetting all about it and moving on to other matters, as too often happens.
A San Francisco woman celebrates seven years of living carfree after switching to an ebike when her car was totaled by an uninsured driver; she claims she’s saved over $50,000 over that period.
My hometown university has now joined the Vision Zero club. Which isn’t too surprising, considering it’s surrounded by one of the nation’s most bike-friendly communities. Even though it didn’t get that way until long after I left, of course.
Apparently writing with all seriousness, a New Hampshire medical worker and self-described cyclist says he worked with a state legislator on a bill that would require bicyclists to ride salmon, but the bill died when he couldn’t get time off work to attend the hearing. Because evidently, riding a bike in New Hampshire just isn’t dangerous enough already.
A pair of Vancouver business owners are taking their case to the British Columbia Supreme Court to fight the re-installation of a protected bike lane through a park, arguing the decision to swap a traffic lane for a bikeway wasn’t “reasonable, rational or logical.” Seriously. It’s in a park.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a 26-year old driver got a lousy 35 months in jail for intentionally running down a 13-year old boy riding his bike after getting into an argument with the kid in a park, and following him for 20 minutes before using his car as a weapon to attack him.
Scottish cyclist Josh Quigley is on his second day of a world record attempt for the greatest distance ridden on a bicycle in a single week, attempting to ride 320 miles a day in an 80-mile loop through the Scottish countryside; he’s aiming for Aussie pro Jack Thompson’s record of 2,177 miles, despite suffering multiple broken bones in a crash three months ago.
This is who we share the road with. A Kiwi driver is filmed blissfully driving on the right side of the road — which is the wrong side Down Under adjacent — until confronted head-on by a large truck. If your first thought was that it was probably just an American tourist confused about what side to drive on, join the club.
