Tag Archive for stupid government tricks

More corruption at LA City Hall, more Metro money for induced demand, and SaMo suffers premature evaluation

Is anyone really surprised to find still more corruption on the Los Angeles city council?

The LA Times is reporting that CD9 Councilmember Curren Price, a ten year veteran of the council, was charged with ten counts of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest yesterday.

Price, a 10-year veteran of the City Council, is accused of having a financial interest in development projects that he voted on, and receiving tens of thousands of dollars in medical benefits from the city for his now wife while he was still married to another woman, according to a statement issued by the L.A. County district attorney’s office.

He was charged with five counts of grand theft by embezzlement, three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest, according to a criminal complaint made public Tuesday.

The Times says Price, who resigned his position in the state legislature to run for the council seat, should do the right thing and resign.

Yeah, that’ll happen.

City Council President Paul Krekorian says he’ll move to suspend Price, just the latest in a long line of councilmembers to face criminal charges or resign under a cloud.

Maybe we’d have better luck getting safer streets if we slipped bag of cash to a few councilmembers under the table.

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Metro’s board will vote today on a proposal to seek grant funds and shift yet more money to a $100 million plus project to widen the 405 Freeway between Artesia Boulevard and the 105 Freeway.

Demonstrating that they have learned absolutely nothing from the failed $1 billion project to widen the highway through the Sepulveda Pass, which actually resulted in more congestion and longer rush hour commute times.

Metro, meet induced demand.

Meanwhile, Streets For All wants you to tell Metro’s Planning and Programming Committee at this morning’s meeting not to flush another $26 million down the toilet on freeway projects.

They accuse Metro of greenwashing highway expansion by putting “multimodal” in the name of highway projects including a “widening project right in front of a middle school in Whittier, and laying the groundwork for the i-605 Hot Spots program which may destroy homes.”

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Streetsblog’s Damien Newton reports that Santa Monica councilmembers RE asking for a premature report on the still-unfinished 17th Street protected bike lane and pedestrian improvements, which could shade results showing the eventual usage and effectiveness of the project.

Streets For All urges you to contact the council to object to the slightly disguised effort to rollback progress in the city.

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Boy George is one of us.

So was the original voice of Jiminy Cricket. Although playing his uke while riding with no hands might be more impressive if there wasn’t a rack holding the bike in place.

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

A proposal to rip out a bike lane in Kingston, Ontario is rattling local bicyclists, who fear a change in the ostensibly bike-friendly city.

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Local 

The Metro Bike bikeshare system will be free all weekend, along with all Metro buses, trains and Metro Micro, to celebrate the opening of the Regional Connector line in DTLA.

 

State

In case you missed it, a bike-riding mom was apparently collateral damage when an out-of-control driver ricocheted across the roadway in a Lake Forest crash on Sunday.

Four Santa Barbara women have set off on a 930-mile ride from California to Colorado to raise funds to encourage more young girls to ride a bike.

A Fresno County man faces a murder charge for the drunken hit-and-run that killed a Clovis bike rider last month; he was driving at nearly three times the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash, and had signed a Watson advisement after a previous DUI conviction, informing him he could be charged with murder if he killed someone while driving drunk again.

You’ve got to be kidding. Business owners in Burlingame are stressing over plans to install a bike lane, fearing the loss of a whole 12 parking spaces — yes, twelve — will somehow negatively affect their business. Never mind that studies show bike lanes usually improve sales at local businesses.

A child was hospitalized with leg injuries after they were right hooked by a commercial truck driver while riding a bike in a Concord crosswalk.

 

National

Streetsblog discusses more effective ways to conduct driver education beyond “pedestrian-shaming PSAs, flimsy driver’s ed courses and lame signs on the side of the road.”

Alpecin Cycling advises how to boost your balance on your bike.

BikeRumor discusses the year’s best bike helmets, and how to get the best bike upgrade bang for the least amount of money.

A health website considers four weird things bicycling does to your body, like causing saddle sores and numbness “down there.”

An Alaska bicyclist complains about a proposed Anchorage vulnerable road user law, calling it “an exercise in virtue signaling” that wouldn’t do anything to protect bike riders.

No bias here. An Oregon driver got 19 years behind bars for intentionally running down a bike-riding man after getting into a physical fight with the victim, copping a plea to a reduced charge of manslaughter. Yet the local TV station somehow insists on describing him merely as a hit-and-run driver, as if the violent attack was just an “oopsie’ he drove away from.

The Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, aka RAGBRAI, has cancelled plans to attempt a world record for the longest parade of bicyclists during the ride’s Ames to Des Moines stage, saying rule changes from Guinness have made it impossible too do. Meanwhile, the paper has sent a cease and desist order to a former ride official who posted an alternate route for the stage, fearing RAGBRAI could compromise safety by having too many riders on the route.

A bike rider was apparently collateral damage in a Houston police chase when she was run down by a driver who may have been distracted by the car chase zooming by on surface streets at speeds up to 100 mph.

New York has established a nearly $18 an hour minimum wage for food delivery workers, most of whom use bikes and ebikes for their work. Yet Tech Crunch says no one seems to be happy about it.

 

International

A pair of university researchers explain how bike helmets and safety vests make bike riders look less human to other road users. Then again, even riding naked doesn’t seem to get a better result. 

This is who we share the road with. A pair of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan cops chasing a suspected bike thief somehow managed to crash their patrol cars together, as well as hitting a parked car, allowing the suspect to slip away.

An angry London pub owner demands an explanation after his outdoor seating was replaced with bike racks with no advance warning.

Two Welsh cops were served with gross misconduct notices for closely following, if not chasing, two boys riding an ebike just before they both were killed falling off the bike — which means the cops are under investigation, but it apparently has the legal impact of a slap with a wet noodle.

A Scottish newspaper recommends the “splendid isolation” of riding your bike through the secluded Borders region.

He gets it. Britain’s top road safety cop urges the media to stop wasting time talking about putting license plates on bicycles, and focus on the real causes of traffic deaths. Which ain’t bikes.

The subject of mandatory bike helmets once again raises its ugly head, as an Irish children’s hospital consultant called for helmets to be required for all bike riders, children and adults. Never mind that helmet laws have been shown to reduce bicycling rates, at a time when the climate crisis demands putting more people on bikes. 

The Financial Times talks with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is rapidly remaking the city with much less emphasis on motor vehicles. We could have that here in Los Angeles, if our elected leaders actually had the vision and political courage they profess. 

A Streetsblog op-ed examines how Copenhagen constantly measures the true costs of driving and crafts policies to reduce them.

 

Competitive Cycling

Bicycling reports that if you want to watch the nine stage Giro Donne — aka the women’s Giro d’Italia — which starts on June 30th, you’ll need a subscription to GCN+. As usual, read it on Yahoo if the magazine blocks you.

The Guardian profiles endurance cyclist Leah Goldstein, as she sets out to win a second consecutive RAAM — aka Race Across America — after dropping her male competitors like freshman English in last year’s race.

Belgian veteran pro Thomas De Gendt has pulled himself out of the Tour de France, but invites you to join him on his own 12-day tour from Flanders to the Costa Blanca, with the mountains of Andorra thrown in along the way.

A Milwaukee website offers tips on how to ride your bike to, but not in, all 11 stages of the Tour of America’s Dairyland.

 

Finally…

That feeling when your local bike lane only works part-time. Probably not the best idea to try to steal a bicycle from the police parking lot.

And try not to ride your ebike when you’re falling down drunk.

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

Oh, and fuck Putin, too.

Morning Links: City Atty says scrap Griffith Park Blvd bike lanes, and bike riders victim of London terrorist attack

LA City Attorney Mike Feuer has recommended removing the bike lanes on Griffith Park Blvd due to the crappy condition of the aging concrete pavement.

His recommendation comes after paying out a total of $700,000 following lawsuits from a pair of bike riders — only one of whom was actually injured on the section of Griffith Park that has bike lanes.

And even though it would increase the city’s liability the next time someone gets injured where the lanes used to be. Which is a given considering the condition of the street.

The obvious solution is to actually fix the crumbling pavement on Griffith Park, as the LA Bicycle Advisory Committee voted to recommend, which would solve the real problem.

That’s something we thought was in progress after the $200,000 settlement with Patrick Pascal, who was injured on the street beyond where the Griffith Park bike lanes end near Los Feliz Blvd, before they actually enter Griffith Park.

But they only fixed the section that took him down. And only after the city settled with him, despite countless calls to fix it prior to his injury.

Which is how it usually seems to work in the City of Angels.

In the photo, LA’s Bureau of Street Services repairs the section of pavement on Griffith Park Blvd where Patrick Pascal was injured. 

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Once again, bike riders were the victims of a terrorist attack.

Last time it was New York, this time in London, where a man in his late 20s was arrested after driving into a group of bicyclists and pedestrians in what appeared to be a deliberate act.

Fortunately, no one was killed in the attack outside the British Houses of Parliament, though at least two people were injured, and a number of bikes mangled — a surprisingly good outcome considering the suspect drove an estimated 50 mph along the sidewalk for at least 130 feet.

And in typical British fashion, a bicyclist who chased the suspect until police intervened said “you just have a cup of tea and a biscuit and you carry on.”

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Local

LAist offers a refresher on how to drive safely around kids headed back to school, including advice to watch for bicycles. And presumably, their riders. Speaking of which, remember that bike riders are required to stop for school buses, just like drivers, to avoid collisions with kids running across the road — or getting on or off the bus, if riders try to pass on the right. And yes, I’ve seen that.

The James Beard award-winning celebrity chef behind DTLA’s NoMad Hotel is one of us; Daniel Humm was a professional mountain biker before he won his first Michelin star at 24.

CD5 Councilmember Paul Koretz wrote a letter to the LA Times explaining his call for a temporary ban on e-scooters in the name of pedestrian safety, something he never seemed to give a damn about before. A Streetsblog reader kindly fixed it for him to focus on the real threat.

Lime and Bird scooters were shut down yesterday in Santa Monica in advance of a protest that reportedly drew hundreds to SaMo city hall to call for the e-scooter providers to be allowed to remain in the city; a proposal under consideration would boot both in favor of new scooters from Uber and Lyft. You have two more days to voice your opinion before the city cuts off the comment period.

 

State

Police data reveals the most dangerous intersections in Mountain View.

San Francisco’s Masonic Ave remains a work in progress as safety measures are unveiled by the city, with the city’s new mayor promising protected bike lanes are on the way.

Bay Area bike advocates are calling on San Francisco to lift the restrictive caps that are preventing bikeshare from growing in the city. Meanwhile, the city apparently has no idea what to do about e-scooters, which are banned in the City by the Bay until it figures it out.

A Eureka physician displays a remarkable amount of windshield bias, saying bike riders don’t need to use a particular bike path if the wind blows because there are several others, even it they don’t go the same way. And that there are no reproducible studies showing bicycling prolongs life, or that road diets work (hint: there are, on both counts). The remarkable thing is how he can still treat patients when he can’t seem to see past his own dashboard.

A group of bicyclists stop in Humboldt County on a ride from Seattle to San Diego to promote the Dream Act.

 

National

A post on Bike Portland says sidewalk cycling can be a savior for family biking.

Public tips led to the arrest of a Washington man who left a grandmother dying in a ditch next to her crumpled bicycle.

A Boise ID woman says a speeding, spandexed bicyclist sent her to the hospital to have a one-pound blood clot removed after crashing into her on a park pathway.

As we mentioned yesterday, the driver who killed two German bike tourist in Kansas earlier this year won’t face charges; the county attorney explains that it’s because she wasn’t under the influence or otherwise operating the vehicle in a reckless or dangerous manner. Although you’d think running over two people directly in front of you would be prima facie evidence of the latter.

Caught on video: Onboard cameras catch an Austin TX bus driver sideswiping a bicyclist — and nearly running him over — as he rode in a bike lane. It’s hard to watch, so be sure you really want to see it before clicking on the link. Thanks to Stephen Katz for the heads-up.

Two air conditioned teepees await bike tourists in an Arkansas city, as long as you’re willing to pay the price of a regular hotel room.

Chicago police double down on claims that a crackdown on bike riders in predominately black and Hispanic neighborhoods is an effective tool to prevent violence.

A New York councilmember responds to the death of a bike-riding Australian tourist by calling for a two-way protected bike lane on Central Park West. Meanwhile, a New York radio station asks listeners to imagine safer streets where bike riders are protected from things like that.

A Baltimore firefighter has been sentenced to one year probation after pleading guilty to an off-duty assault on a bike advocate at a community meeting to discuss bike lanes. At least we can be grateful that the bikelash over LA bike lanes haven’t turned violent. Yet.

A writer for the Washington Post tries, and fails, to understand the rights of bicyclists through his decidedly windshield perspective, before concluding that maybe bikes just don’t belong on the road.

 

International

A Canadian university professor says it’s odd that Toronto officials espouse the same 100-year old approach to bike and pedestrian safety that failed so spectacularly in the past.

The shooter who killed four people in Fredericton, New Brunswick last Friday is also one of us.

France’s first lady is one of us, too.

Now that’s bike friendly. A vote in Switzerland next month could enshrine bicycling in the nation’s constitution, committing the country to promoting bike transport and building suitable infrastructure.

An Indian website recommends riding a bike to pedal your blues away.

New Zealand police conclude that the truck that critically injured a champion triathlete doesn’t exist.

A Malaysian website says riding a bicycle is the healthiest form of urban transport.

 

Competitive Cycling

Santa Rosa native and defending Leadville 100 champ Larissa Connors arrives at this year’s race mourning the damage done to Trabuco Canyon by the devastating Holy Fire.

A writer for The Guardian complains that women’s cyclists will compete on a watered-down road course at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, saying it shows the Olympic motto of “faster, higher, stronger” only applies to men. Seriously, we should be long past the days when women were considered the weaker sex, especially in athletic competition.

Vincenzo Nibali says pro cycling has become a circus due to the aggressive behavior of racing fans, following his fan-caused crash in the Tour de France.

America’s most famous ex-Tour de France champ says he’ll do anything in his power to help former rival Jan Ullrich recover from his downward spiral.

 

Finally…

When your GPS may not have your best interests at heart. Evidently, there’s a backspace button for bike corrals.

And biking across the US is no joke, even for a former pro cyclist turned comedian.

And neither is fighting domestic abuse.