By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass officially conceded yesterday, ushering in the Nithya Raman era at LA City Hall, and making her the city’s first mayor of South Asian descent.
According to LAist,
Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who offered a message of hope to a city beset by crises, has beaten Karen Bass in the race for Los Angeles mayor, the first time an incumbent has been ousted from that office in nearly a quarter century…
“And that work starts now, so that we can build housing that people can afford, parks for our children to play in, a transit system that can get people where they need to go, a city that is safe for its working people and its families, and a city government that is actually capable of delivering on its promises,” she said in the statement.
“I love this city, and I love its people, and I cannot wait to get started on building a better future together with all of you,” she continued. “Thank you so much, Los Angeles.”
She is also the first immigrant in memory to lead what has become a city of immigrants.
And in the Los Angeles Times’ look at how Raman will remake City Hall, the very first word is “bike.”
Bike lanes. Housing vouchers. A new police chief and many more new apartments, even in single-family neighborhoods.
And above all, data to find out if City Hall programs are working.
That’s a word that has been missing in action for the last four years, as the mayor led the city with a single-minded, and largely failed, focus on reducing homelessness.
Which isn’t to say that housing people living on the streets shouldn’t be a primary focus of a new Raman administration.
But it shouldn’t be the only one.
Los Angeles is failing as a city, with just two years to get our shit together before the world comes to our door for the ’28 LA Olympics. Will those visitors find today’s pothole-riddled and trash-lined streets? Or will Raman somehow find a way to make LA work in the short time before they get here?
This is how Streets For All founder Michael Schneider framed Raman’s ascension.
We will finally have a Mayor who is a trained urban planner who believes that you shouldn’t have to risk your life to cross the street, or ride a bike. Who believes in prioritizing efficient transit, and will accelerate good projects in the pipeline. Who endorsed Measure HLA and will tell city departments to stop fighting it. Who wants to build a ton more housing and will cut red tape to do so. A Mayor who is thoughtful, and cares about solving problems instead of speaking in platitudes.
However, it will be up to us to hold her feet to the fire, and ensure this becomes the bikeable, walkable, livable city we’ve been promised.
Because it isn’t now. And that, more than anything, is why Bass lost.
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Speaking of Measure HLA, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton reports that the city continues failing to comply with the requirements of the ordinance.
According to Linton, the city has installed only 300 feet of new bus/bike/walk/accessibility facilities since Measure HLA became law in early 2024. That’s because the city insists that the only project “HLA required the city to install is a 300 foot of Reseda Boulevard bike lanes in Tarzana,” as they’ve continued to find creative workarounds to avoid complying with the measure.
But, according to Linton,
But you shouldn’t have to come to Streetsblog to find this quantified. Measure HLA required the city to set up a website to “provide the public access to monitoring and evaluation data for the implementation of the Mobility Plan as required by [Measure HLA].”
The city’s HLA dashboard website has been online since early 2025, but it’s basically a sad joke: incomplete, opaque, and in many places outdated and incorrect. It’s worse than malicious compliance.
The public still has no straightforward way of tracking city progress related to HLA or the Mobility Plan that HLA requires the city to implement.
In other words, just like with Vision Zero and the mobility plan, where the city was required to maintain a website listing bicycle and pedestrian death, and hold monthly meetings to update the public on progress building out the plan.
Something they gave up on in both cases, when it became just too damned inconvenient for them.
Hopefully, Raman will force the city into compliance with the law. Because right now, the city is just basically giving us all the finger.
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She gets it.
A Pomona College professor complains that Claremont is one of the state’s most dangerous cities for children on bicycles, as well as one of the worst for speed-related injury collisions. Yet local officials are wasting funds on a hobbled transportation plan.
According to an op-ed by Heather Williams in the Claremont Courier,
Will our elected officials rise to the moment and make Claremont safer and greener? Or will they squander our best-in-a-generation opportunity to change that?
In March 2025, Claremont’s City Council authorized a $482,919 contract with Alta Planning+Design to develop an Active Transportation Plan. The objective was laudable: study our streets, consult residents, and develop a comprehensive strategy for making Claremont safer, more accessible, and more environmentally sustainable.
But she was disappointed to learn that the plan they came back with is disjointed and disconnected — because those were the marching orders Alta was given.
According to participants, Alta’s pedestrian proposals include promising improvements: raised crosswalks, curb extensions, flashing pedestrian beacons, and traffic-calming measures. But the proposed bicycle network is fragmented, with protected lanes that begin and end unpredictably, disconnected routes, and stretches offering little meaningful protection.
Why? Advisory group participants report that Alta was instructed to preserve existing vehicle lane configurations, landscaped areas, medians, and substantial on-street parking, while avoiding conflicts with driveways and school drop-off areas.
These restrictions effectively rule out many of the changes necessary to create continuous, protected bicycle routes.
According to Williams, city leaders need to explain to constituents why they’re spending nearly half a million dollars on a plan that “institutionalizes the very deficiencies it was commissioned to address.”
Most importantly, council members should ask a simple question: would they feel comfortable allowing a 10-year-old child to bicycle independently along the routes this plan recommends?
If the answer is no, the plan isn’t finished.
That was exactly the problem with the first draft of the 2010 Los Angeles bike plan, also prepared by Alta, which brought the phrase “currently unfeasible” into LA’s biking lexicon.
Alta returned a bike plan where most of the key connecting routes were considered “currently unfeasible” because they required the removal of parking spaces or travel lanes — or even just the narrowing thereof — and that was something beyond the comprehension of city leaders.
Fortunately, that plan was rejected by the city Planning Commission at the urging of the bicycling community, which told Alta and LADOT to go back to the drawing board.
Literally, in this case.
The result was a bold plan that re-envisioned Los Angeles streets, and how Angelenos could get around in the years to come. And which was unanimously approved by the city council.
Then allowed to wither and die on the shelf.
In fact, UCLA’s Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies estimates that just five percent of the bicycling facilities called for in the city’s mobility plan have been built out — which is why Measure HLA was required, and passed by an overwhelming majority of LA voters.
The question is, will that be the route that Claremont will be forced to take? Or will city leaders listen to local residents and send Alta back to the drawing board, with instructions to come back with something that actually works?
Let alone something that will save lives, and move the city far down on that list of dangerous cities for bike-riding kids.
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Local
Fifty-five-year old Jose Antonio Zayas pled not guilty to murder in the fatal shooting of a Culver City bus driver who refused to turn around or stop in the middle of a traffic lane; Zayas allegedly fled on a bicycle taken from the rack on the front of the bus after the shooting. No one has said whether the bike was actually his, however, or if he just grabbed someone else’s bike to get away. Which probably the least important detail, but still.
State
Circulate San Diego offers an open letter explaining their Vision Zero budget priorities. Which is pretty much the same case they made in their last open letter on the subject, signifying the lack of progress.
The Guardian examines how Lancaster transformed the former Highway 14 car sewer into a a leafy oasis of walkable ramblas rebranded as The BLVD.
The San Francisco Chronicle dropped its usual draconian paywall for a story about a “whimsical” birdhouse-lined bike trail just a BART ride from the city.
Bad news from Elk Grove, where a 72-year old man suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike.
California appropriated $75,000 for an art and storytelling project by Indigenous groups at a new $400,000 bike park under construction in Northern California.
National
A Salt Lake City man gets his stolen Surly back after a friend spotted it at a local bike co-op, four years after it had gone missing.
Sad news from Michigan, where an 82-year old man was killed when a driver crossed the center line and hit his bike head-on. Although despite what the story says, he was not “killed after being hit by a vehicle,” unless someone put him out of his misery afterwards.
International
Momentum debunks ten anti-bicycling myths used to argue against bike lanes. Which is pretty much the same arguments they debunked before.
Garmin is working with WAZE to provide drivers with an early warning about the presence of bicyclists.
Talk about missing the point. A writer for Pinkbike considers how El Salvador went from “murder capital to mountain bike haven.” Yet somehow fails to mention flawed elections and President Nayib Bukele ignoring a constitutional ban on two consecutive terms, while glossing over mass arrests, imprisonment without trials, and extrajudicial killings. But I guess none of that matters as long as it’s a great place to bike, right?
Tragic news from Bolivia, where the family of a 33-year old South Korean influencer has asked people to stop baseless speculating and malicious comments after he was killed by a hit-and-run truck driver while on an around-the-world bike tour.
London’s city assembly has called on the mayor to halt installation of floating bus stops until they agree on a better design, because of the danger they pose to blind bus riders when bike riders don’t stop like they’re supposed to.
Cycling Weekly follows a 127-mile singletrack trail along the UK’s River Wye, from its source in the boggy swamps of Wales’ Cambrian Mountains to the Bristol Channel.
A writer for The Independent makes the case for requiring numbered license plates for British bicyclists to rein in scofflaw riders. Because it has clearly worked so well to make drivers follow the laws, right?
Beijing, China has opened a new 21-mile riverfront trail along the south bank of the Qinghe River.
Finally…
That feeling when your KOM defeated by a squirrel. Why settle for natural loam when you can make your own?
And not all Limerick’s are funny. Or rhyme.
Especially the anti-bike ones.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
