I’m fucking done with traffic violence, and the way it rips innocent people out of our world and out of our lives, and the lives of their loved ones.
I’m done with people getting killed and maimed because they chose to ride a bicycle or walk across the street. I’m done with lives torn apart because someone made an innocent mistake, or pushed their luck a little too far.
I’m done with people dying or surviving with lifelong physical and/or emotional injuries because they unknowingly shared to road with the wrong person at the wrong time operating a multi-ton steel and glass weapon of mass destruction.
And there will be another one tomorrow, or next week, or the week after that.
And the bodies will keep piling up, one upon another upon another upon another, until we all yell “Enough!”
¡Basta!
Our most basic form of transportation is an abject fucking failure. Because what else cab you call a system that demands 38,000, 39,000, 40,000 or more human lives every year as tribute, just to get us all from here to there.
Enough already!
It doesn’t matter whether you do everything right, or everything wrong. Fuck up badly enough in the right place, at the right time, and you can walk away. Do everything right, follow every law, dress up like a neon clown and light up your bike and person like a Christmas tree, and you can still lose your life to a drunk, a stoner, a distracted driver texting with their thumbs while they try to grip the wheel.
Wear a helmet, or don’t. It might protect your skull if you fall off your bike. But it doesn’t do a damn thing to protect your midsection or keep your limbs attached.
Drivers seem to think it’s some sort of magic talisman to ward off injury and evil sprits, equivalent to a seat belt or an airbag, encased in a steel frame. Yet it’s only designed to protect against impacts at a whopping 12.5 mph.
But that’s more protection than pedestrians get. They get a couple of parallel white stripes drivers are supposed to stop for, but usually don’t. Or a curb that’s somehow supposed to halt a four-wheeled ballistic missile from slamming into an outdoor diner or a daycare.
Forty-fucking-thousand people every year, give or take. That’s a small city. And that’s just in the US.
Add in all the other people killed in traffic violence in all the other countries in the world, and you’re up to nearly 1.2 million lives lost. That’s like a WMD somehow wiped Dallas, Texas off the face of the earth.
Between 20 million and 50 million more people survive their injuries every years. Some recover in a few days, or a few weeks. Some never do.
Is this really the best we can do?
I’m done.
I’m done with all of it, all the deaths, all the injuries, all the shattered lives and families. All the traffic violence.
I want to scream it from the rooftops, shout it from the middle of Wilshire Blvd. I want to stop every fucking car until we fix this system of death and destruction.
I was in a jury pool several years back, and the defense lawyer asked who among the 20 or so people had been in a crash. Every hand went up. Then he asked how many people in the jury pool had lost a friend or loved one in a collision. Every hand but one stayed up.
I’ve been lucky. I’ve only lost two people close to me.
And somehow managed not to lose my own life through decades of walking, biking and driving. How, I don’t know, because I’ve come so close to disaster so many times, but always manage to walk away relatively unscathed, whether through luck or providence.
I used to say skill, but I don’t believe in that anymore. Because I read, and yes, write, about so many highly skilled people who didn’t.
I’m not done. But I’m done.
I want to keep screaming, keep yelling, keep ranting and raving enough! No more, forever!
But for one of the few times in my life, I have literally run out of words.
Which, I suppose, leads to my next subject. Because in a similar fit of anger and depression and inspiration the other day, I designed a few new t-shirts like the one above, and those below.
Buy one, or don’t.
I hope you’re as angry as I am, and want to yell it to the world. But that’s not the point.
The point is, I had to get it off — and in this case, literally on — my chest.
But more importantly, just fucking stay safe out there.
………
On a related subject, it’s time to storm City Hall on Tuesday, and join Streets Are For Everyone in demanding that the city declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence.
Below is an email I received from SAFE yesterday.
The time has come to demand a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence from our local leaders.
SAFE will join our coalition partners at Los Angeles City Council on September 15th to drop our open letter demanding that the Mayor and the Los Angeles City Council immediately declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence and address this public health crisis.
Thank you for signing on and joining this movement. Your signature helped us reach more than 1,250 signatures on this campaign, showing our local leaders that Angelenos want streets that are safe to use.
The next step is here, and we need you with us as we deliver that message directly to City Hall.
Please join SAFE on September 15th at 9:30 am in City Hall to help us deliver our open letter and make our voices heard. We are asking everyone who has signed this letter to attend the City Council meeting and give public comment.
Our goal is to have at least 50 people give public comment, making it clear to our local leaders that traffic violence is an urgent public safety crisis that deserves their attention.
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, September 15th, 2026
Time: Meet at 9:30 a.m.
Council Meeting Begins at 10:00 a.m.
Press Conference following Public Comment
Location: 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 (Entrance on Main St.)
After public comment concludes, advocates will leave the Council Chamber and regroup outside on the steps of City Hall for a Press Conference.
Thank you again for adding your name to this campaign and standing with us. We have built the movement. Now it is time to bring it directly to our local leaders.
If you have any questions, please reach out to me via email (aaron@streetsareforeveryone.org) or by calling my cell (818.697.2621)
We hope to see you at City Hall on September 15th.
If you’re still with me — and I don’t know why you would be after all that — l’shanah tovah, and may we never forget the lives lost on the 25th anniversary of this day.
I’ll see you on Monday. And hopefully I’ll have my shit together by then.
July 13, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Traffic deaths dropped last year — except for bikes, Trump declares war on “DEI” bike lanes, and Pico businesses fret loss of parking
Well, at least it wasn’t my fault this time.
It turns out Friday’s downtime was the result of a recent WordPress upgrade that left my site vulnerable to an attack by a swarm of 19,000 feed-crawlers.
And no, I never heard of a feed-crawler before Friday. Let alone 19,000 of the little bastards.
Anyway, they’ve all been gathered up and shoved back in their little feed-crawler cages, so we should be good now.
In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone, overall traffic deaths continued to decline last year.
Except, of course, for those of us on two wheels.
According to the latest statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, full-year traffic fatalities dropped last year to their lowest level since 2019, while the annual death rate of 1.10 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled was the second-lowest ever recorded.
That trend continues into the first quarter of 2026.
According to new preliminary estimates from the NHTSA, approximately 7,770 people died in traffic crashes during the first quarter of 2026, down 4.3 percent from the same period a year earlier. The fatality rate also dropped to 0.99 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, the lowest first-quarter figure since 2014 and just shy of the all-time quarterly record of 0.98…
Despite the positive overall trend, one category continues to move in the opposite direction. Bicyclist fatalities rose 4 percent in 2025 to 1,148 deaths, remaining near the highest levels seen in more than four decades…
According to the NHTSA, the first quarter of this year represents the 16th consecutive quarterly decline in overall traffic deaths.
If only the news was as good for people riding bicycles.
Total estimated driver fatalities decreased 5 percent.
Total estimated passenger fatalities decreased 12 percent.
Total estimated PV occupant fatalities decreased 10 percent.
Total estimated motorcyclist fatalities decreased 8 percent.
Total estimated pedestrian fatalities decreased 8 percent.
Total estimated pedalcyclist fatalities increased 4 percent.
Total estimated fatalities in crashes involving at least one large truck decreased 7 percent.
Total estimated nonoccupant fatalities decreased 5 percent.
However, unlike 2024, when bicycling deaths increased every month compared to the previous year, bicycling fatalities decreased in five months in 2025, while increasing in seven.
So that’s something, anyway.
What’s not clear, however, is the effect that ebikes have had on these stats, since the NHTSA stopped listing motorized bicycles as motor vehicles in 2022, and now includes them as pedalcyclists, aka bicycles, if the rider is killed in a collision with the driver of a motor vehicle — and not at all if it involves a single vehicle crash.
There’s no explanation, however, of whether than only applies to ped-assist bicycles, or if it also includes electric and gas-powered motorbikes that fall into the gray area between ebikes and motorcycles.
So at least part of the rise could be due to the increase in electric bikes, legal and/or otherwise.
Hopefully someone, somewhere, will eventually break out those numbers so we can actually know what’s going on out there.
Then again, if Trump handles his war on bikes as well as he has the war with Iran, we’ll probably end up with more and better bike lanes than we would have otherwise.
Or maybe he’ll just give us control over the roadways after declaring they’re open.
………
LAist reports that small business owners on Pico Blvd recognize the street has a speeding problem and can be dangerous for pedestrians, but worry about the loss of 228 parking spaces after LADOT gives the street a Complete Streets makeover.
According to the website,
LADOT will overhaul 3.5 miles of Pico Boulevard between Crenshaw Boulevard and Figueroa Street to reduce speeding and unsafe turns and lane changes. The agency said the project is intended to improve safety by adding a center turn lane for left turns and emergency vehicles, protected bike lanes and new TOUCAN traffic signals at Manhattan Place and New Hampshire Avenue. LADOT will also repair sidewalks and curb ramps.
To make room, the city will remove parking on the north side of the street and reduce travel lanes from two to one in each direction. Construction is set to begin by the end of the year.
In other words, just like business owners everywhere else where protected bike lanes have gone in.
And just like business owners everywhere else, chances are they’ll see increased foot and bike traffic that will more than make up for the loss of parking spaces — and likely more sales, as studies have repeatedly shown that sales and tax receipts usually go up after a project like this goes in.
Something you’d think LAist could have mentioned somewhere in their story.
Never mind that over a ten-year period ending in 2023, there were 75 crashes resulting in severe injury or death on that stretch of Pico, with nearly three-quarters involving people walking or riding bicycles, and all 11 of the people killed on the corridor were pedestrians.
Which is especially important to consider in the largely Jewish neighborhood, where large numbers of people walk to temple every Saturday.
West Hollywood Councilmember and State Senate candidate John Erickson, who lives nearby on Fountain Avenue, called on WeHo Mayor John Heilman and Council Member Lauren Meister to support plans to remake the corridor to improve safety.
“It’s been a year since the community lost Blake,” Erickson said. “If we just updated a street for street safety for pedestrians, bikers and cars, it would make the most sense. And that is what we are doing.”
Erickson said his own parked vehicle was nearly struck about a week and a half ago, calling it another example of dangerous driving along the corridor.
“I can’t replace my life, and clearly we can’t replace other people’s lives,” he said.
I stopped by the ghost bike the next day, and was please to see several people had left flowers on the bike, in a sign that he has not been forgotten. And hopefully, Ackerman’s will be the last ghost bike we’ll need on the deadly corridor.
Meanwhile, the case against accused 73-year old driver Douglas Morton Adams remains pending, with no trial date currently set.
………
Thanks to Megan for forwarding a story about a hero teenager who rescued an Arizona woman with dementia who was wandering the streets in triple-digit heat, even if he was likely riding an illegal e-moto instead of a bicycle.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Thanks again to Megan for forwarding news about to two Vermont men fined $35,000 for cutting down over 300 trees to build an illegal mountain bike trail.
Authorities are looking for 32-year old David Creech, who was last seen riding his bike away from his home in the Spring Valley Lake area of San Bernardino County just before 9 am on Wednesday, July 1st.
PeopleForBikes says bicycling to school matters more than you think, “creating opportunities for independence, physical activity, and lifelong riding habits. In many ways, it is investing in the future of bicycling itself.”
A Minneapolis-St. Paul website had a good idea, asking a road cycling grandfather to test a high-end e-cargo bike by transporting his own grandkids, which he described as feeling like “you’re balancing a tray of kettlebells as you walk through a cosplay convention.”
This is who we share the road with. A road-raging Florida driver rammed a 15-year old boy riding an “ebike” off the road, then slapped the kid, when a group of teens had tried to get the driver to stop after swerving at them; naturally, the police responded by impounding several of the teens’ bikes for not being street legal, rather than busting the driver.
International
Momentum calls out 30 bike lanes around the world that should have never been built, from blocked bike lanes to lanes that start and stop in the middle of high-traffic areas. I particularly like the ones that go over traffic islands, because cutting through them would have been just too much work, apparently.
Residents of a Montreal neighborhood have a reasonable complaint after the city removed parking spaces on one side of the street, including disability spaces, for a protected bike lane, arguing that the city wouldn’t even install a crosswalk so one older woman could reach the spaces across the street.
London’s department of transportation failed to install a single mile of bike lane in the city last year, relying on local council’s to do all the building. There’s probably no truth to the rumor that the head of Transport for London has been hired to run LADOT on that basis.
Former race leader Torstein Træen’s surprising turn in the yellow jersey didn’t last long, crashing out of the race by clipping a teammate’s wheel two days after he gained a remarkable seven-minute advantage on the race favorites.
We’re going to take a little different approach today by focusing on a single story, with another quick note at the end, due to the importance of this issue and the time required to put it together.
Barring anything unexpected, we should be back tomorrow for our usual links and hijinks.
………
Don’t take my word for it.
For some time now, I’ve been a voice crying in the wilderness about the dangers of the flat design and ever-increasing height of today’s grills, as pickups and SUVs continue to get bigger, and designs more aggressive.
Make that aggressive, as in dangerous.
I’ve come under a lot of criticism for calling them murder grills, because they are literally designed to kill. Maybe not intentionally, but the design of their grills and extensive blindspots dramatically increase the lethality of these increasingly popular vehicles.
And no one is doing a damn thing about it.
The design of a typical sedan, with a lower hood and a more rounded grill, means pedestrian in a low speed crash is likely to land on the hood, absorbing much of the impact. Although at higher speeds the victim can be thrown into the windshield or even over the car, greatly increasing the risk of serious injury or death.
However, the same crash involving a vehicle with a high, flat grill means the pedestrian will likely be knocked forward on the the roadway, and can easily be run over before the driver has time to react to the crash.
“We see a lot of devastating collisions even at lower speeds because the pedestrian gets punted forward,” said Shawn Harrington, whose company, Forensic Rock, conducted crash tests for us. “Before the driver knows what’s happened, the pedestrian’s head is under the wheel.”
More vehicles than ever have hoods that exceed the average American’s center of gravity, which is generally around the belly button.
The hood of an average passenger vehicle today is about three feet high. Anyone shorter than 5-foot-6 — about half of American adults — would frequently be rammed to the pavement. So would most children.
, who is
, is likely to be knocked down by about 39 percent of vehicles today. In 2002, that number would have been 29 percent.
They even offer an interactive graphic comparing the difference when someone in a smaller passenger vehicle hits a pedestrian compared to a large truck, making the impact crystal clear.
Pun intended.
In fact, researchers for The Times found that approximately 10% of the increase in pedestrian deaths over the past quarter century could be attributed to the sheer size of today’s vehicles, compared to just 25 years ago.
That’s 200 to 400 people each year who might not have had to die, if they hadn’t been sacrificed to the greed of American automakers. Not to mention the vanity of American car buyers, who gladly pay for oversized vehicles with excess capacity most will never use.
Then complain about gas prices.
In fact, The Times cites the excess growth in American vehicles as at least one factor explaining why traffic deaths in the US aren’t declining like they are in most of Europe — particularly for people outside of the vehicle.
Like those of us on bicycles, for instance. And others who just happen to be in the street — or even on the sidewalk — in the wrong place, at the wrong time, for whatever reason.
Then take the increase in blind spots.
Please.
To analyze how these blind zones have changed, we used a three-dimensional scanner to compare sightlines in four of the most common pickups today — the Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150, GMC Sierra and Toyota Tacoma — with their counterparts from the 1990s or early 2000s.
The Silverado’s blind zones have nearly doubled.
The Sierra’s and the Tacoma’s grew by about 60 percent.
The smallest increase was the F-150’s. Its blind zones grew by about 25 percent.
Our overall findings match what we found in court records and heard from dozens of experts who reconstruct crashes for police and lawyers.
Nicholas Vela, a 4th grade student at Alexander J. Stoddard Elementary School, did everything he was supposed to do. He waited patiently at the corner for the oncoming truck to stop, then rode his bike out into the crosswalk.
The driver proceeded to roll forward and over the boy and his bicycle, later telling police he never saw the kid on the corner because of his large wing mirror. And didn’t see him riding right in front on him because of the height of his jacked-up truck.
Here is how I described it at the time.
According to the driver, he never saw the boy, and he was not cited by police. Evidently, California drivers are no longer required to be cautious, alert and aware of their surroundings when behind the wheel.
I’m sure the driver is devastated. Lord knows I would be.
But somehow, I don’t think “Oops” should be a universal Get Out Of Jail Free card for someone who kills another human being. Especially not an innocent child who, by all accounts, was riding in a safe and legal manner.
I’ve been haunted by Nicholas’ death for 17 years now.
And how the sheer size and height of a jacked-up truck could hide a boy on a bicycle from the driver’s view. Although I doubt his truck was any larger or higher than some you can drive off the showroom floor today.
Murder grills.
The Times goes on to explain that vehicle design is not the only factor affecting rising pedestrian death, citing road design in particular.
Like America’s wide, straight urban streets and rural highways designed and built with excess capacity that virtually encourages speeding. Along with this country’s many cramped intersections with restricted sightlines, and our penchant for red lights and stop signs instead of roundabouts.
Automatic obstacle detection and braking systems are the miracle that’s supposed to save us.
And they do help. In fact, The Times reports that one study found that GM vehicles with so-called front pedestrian braking reduced the frequency of injuries by 35 percent.
Which ain’t nothing.
But they aren’t always reliable under variable conditions. And relying on them, rather than actually seeing what’s in the roadway in front of and beside you, invites needless collisions, injuries and deaths.
But let’s get back to that question of automakers appealing to the vanity of our fellow Americans.
Again, according to The New York Times,
What used to be utilitarian vehicles for construction workers are now marketed to the American masses, with messages tailored to specific audiences.
Other approaches emphasize the perceived safety of being the biggest vehicle around. “You’re the king of the road,” said Frank Hanley, a director at the automotive research firm JD Power.
At Ford, Nicole Gayney’s job was to identify specific social and psychological groups to target.
One was men who hoped to be seen as the neighborhood’s hero, keeping everyone safe, said Dr. Gayney, who left Ford in 2022. Another group was women who viewed a roomy S.U.V. as a way to be the community’s caregiver, taking the soccer team out for ice cream.
Yet the problem didn’t go unnoticed.
The ever-growing size of vehicles, and increasing rollover requirements resulting in ever-larger windshield support columns, or A-pillars, reduced visibility to such a degree that researchers at the US Department of Transportation became concerned, meeting with regulators four years ago.
That November, the researchers met with leaders at the department and N.H.T.S.A. They delivered a stark message: Large vehicles, with their big blind zones, were increasingly deadly. They were killing hundreds of pedestrians and cyclists every year and injuring thousands more, the researchers estimated, according to attendees and meeting materials we reviewed.
The researchers hoped that their warning would spur regulators to consider how to address the problem.
But a single senior official disputed the data, and argued that new pedestrian-sensing systems were already solving the problem. So in typical American fashion, the answer was to do nothing.
As you were, boys and girls. Nothing to see here. Pay no attention to that pedestrian or bike rider writhing in pain over there.
Never mind that higher grills — more than 50″ tall for pickups like the Ford F-250 and Chevrolet Silverado 2500, and luxury SUVs like the Lincoln Navigator and Cadillac Escalade — are becoming significantly more common, and more lethal.
Murder grills.
The Times built a complex statistical model to estimate the effects, while noting the inherent difficulties in calculating all the factors, and predicting an alternate reality in which vehicle sizes had remained the same.
But based on the best available data, the model reached a sobering estimate: The shift toward vehicles with higher hoods caused about 3,000 deaths from 2016 to 2024.
The estimate is conservative in many ways…
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, for example, found last year that vehicles with larger blind zones were substantially more likely to hit pedestrians when turning left.
And yes, once again, they clearly illustrate it, with side-by-side comparisons of a Chevy ’98 Silverado and the ’22 version of the same make and model.
In one, a pedestrian crossing in a crosswalk to the left of the vehicle is clearly visible as the driver turns. In the other, they’re not. I’ll let you conclude which one is safer.
I strongly encourage you to read the full article, because it’s a remarkable piece of work, and I have only begun to do it justice. (I’ve used a gift link for the article, so you should be able to read it without a subscription.)
And as bicyclists, and humans, our lives are literally on the line.
According to KTLA-5, Edjan Rocha turned himself in to Santa Ana police after they had located the vehicle he had allegedly been driving, and impounded it as evidence. He was booked into the Santa Ana Jail on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run for killing the 60-year old bike rider.
No word yet on whether he has made bail or is still being held.
May 27, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on A DIY Pasadena bike plan, US ebike panic ignores the real problem, and riding in LA feels like #2 because we’re #3
I’m writing this with a migraine that’s threatening to make my head explode.
So if you see this, it means my meds finally kicked in; if not, someone please clean up whatever is left of me.
The map will be unveiled on June 3rd for World Bicycle Day.
That will come about a month before the city begins work on a new Active Transportation Plan intended to update the 2006 Pedestrian Plan and 2015 Bicycle Transportation Action Plan, as well as other documents, combining them into a single comprehensive blueprint.
If you spend enough time reading local news headlines these days, you’d be forgiven for thinking electric bicycles are one of the greatest threats facing American streets. Teenagers on fat-tire e-bikes, viral videos of wheelies, stories about injuries complete with ER doctor interviews… the same themes are playing on repeat…
Some riders behave irresponsibly. Some companies sell vehicles that blur the line between e-bikes and electric motorcycles. Some inexperienced riders are suddenly traveling at speeds they aren’t prepared to handle.
But somewhere along the way, the conversation seems to have lost all sense of proportion.
According to Toll, ebike and e-scooter deaths are averaging around 135 a year across the entire US. That includes everything from Lime scooters to illegal, high-speed motorbikes passing as bicycles.
Meanwhile, motor vehicles kill over 40,000 people every year. A difference of a mere 29,500%.
Clearly, we have to do something to rein in ebikes that exceed the legal limits, and don’t meet the definition of a bicycle, ped-assist or otherwise.
But focusing on the dangers posed by ebikes is like trying to swat a fly on a crashing jet.
In practice most of the people with an instinct for obeying a speed limit aren’t going to be the people who were any sort of problem – morons will continue to moron, delivery riders will still need to earn enough to eat. Why am I so sure, you ask? I’ll refer to you our roads in general. And, as on the roads in general, enforcement will be minimal. Meanwhile, cyclists will continue to take abuse from everyone, from the local paper to the House of Lords, much of it because of a group who aren’t actually riding bicycles. Honestly, it’s time to start treating different things differently.
And yes, “morons will continue to moron” sums up the debate as well as anything else I’ve seen.
But at least a California bill intended to address the illegal e-moto issue is moving forward.
Twitter post
………
Riding a bicycle in Los Angeles may feel like number two, but we’re actually number three, according to a Texas law firm.
We have Megan to thank for a trio of news stories, beginning with a report on Boise, Idaho’s “Blessing Bike” getting seniors back out for a ride.
Karim Alim, co-founder of the Gaza Sunbirds paracycling team made up of Palestinians who have been injured or lost limbs as a result of the Israeli invasion, says their riding is a form of resistance.
And a group of Austin, Texas bike riders are roaming the city delivering food to people who may otherwise fall through the cracks.
………
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
This is who we share the road with. Former NYPD Blue star Kim Delaney reportedly settled a lawsuit over a hit-and-run crash that injured a motorcycle rider on Venice Blvd; witnesses say she appeared to be intoxicated, but she insists she only left the scene since she felt threatened because of her celebrity. Terms of the settlement were not made public.
A San Raphael man must not like bike riders. The 64-year old man was arrested after he allegedly confronted a bunch of bike-riding kids, swinging a fist at one before grabbing another child’s bicycle, first threatening to steal it, then throwing it at the kid when they wouldn’t let go; the same man was arrested three years ago for punching a man on a bicycle, knocking him off the bike, then striking him with a pipe during an apparent theft attempt.
A 75-year old Bay Area man says he’ll be riding in a SAG wagon in support of one of the two two legacy events replacing the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride, which ended last year; he’s aiming to raise $1,500 supporting the ride, after raising over $6,000 riding in the other legacy ride — and surviving with HIV since before the disease had a name.
A law group ranks the 25 bridges that bike riders fear the most; surprisingly, none are in Southern California. Although the results were based on a survey of just over 3,000 bike riders nationwide, raising questions of how someone is capable of judging bridges across the country that they’ve likely never seen, let alone ridden.
The Sierra Club and Sunrise Movement are hosting the Ride to End Fossil Fuels, a century ride across Connecticut calling for elected leaders and state agencies to take action to address the climate crisis.
Cardiff, Wales is combining new bike infrastructure with water conservation, designing bikeways that function as rain gardens and wildlife habitat, as well as providing shade, cooling the surrounding area and filtering air pollutants.
Before we get started, thanks to Kyle for sharing a candidate questionnaire prepared by the South Bay Bicycle Coalition for city offices in Torrance.
Out of the nine candidates they contacted, four responded. It’s going to take me some time to format the questionnaire and their responses, so I’ll try to share it as a separate post later today.
Let me applaud them for making the effort. Others have attempted similar surveys here in Los Angeles and surrounding communities, with varying degrees of success. It’s hard to get candidates to pay attention these days, let alone take the time to answer.
I used to question candidates for my home council district, but as more money from special interests have flooded local races, the responses dwindled to roughly none.
Okay, exactly none.
So a nearly 50% response rate is pretty damn good.
………
If you’re in the Simi Valley or West San Fernando Valley areas, keep your eyes on the skies for the next few days.
The Sandy Fire has swelled to 1,300 acres, which could affect where you ride. But more important, it can affect the air you breath if you happen to find yourself downwind of the flames.
Wildfire smoke contains tiny particulates and toxins that can cause lasting harm, and affect your lung health for days, if not weeks, afterwards — let alone the possibility of damage that can last for years, if not a lifetime.
As a bicyclist, your ability to draw in strong and healthy breaths are of vital importance, providing a lifelong benefit.
It’s not something you want to take foolish chances with.
And yes, that includes smoking, too.
………
As far as I’m concerned, tomorrow night mark’s one of the most important rides of the year.
The annual Ride of Silence takes place in cities around the world to remember those lost to, or injured by, traffic violence.
It’s a time to honor those victims — and we have a lot this year — and to call for traffic safety improvements. So that someday, the last person killed on our streets really will be the last person killed on our streets.
This year, we also call on Los Angeles city leaders to declare a Traffic Violence State of Emergency, after the complete and total failure to implement, let alone achieve, Vision Zero over the past decade. So if you haven’t already, sign the letter.
Then contact the mayor and your councilmember to demand action on safer streets.
Now.
And if they won’t do something, vote for someone who will.
Here are all the RoS rides I know about this year. If you know of any more, let me know and I’ll post them tomorrow.
Meet at Café Smitten downtown 909 18th Street at 6:35. We will read names of riders to remember and the Ride of Silence poem with enough time to gather and start in silence at exactly 7:00 PM in brotherhood with all Ride of Silence events in our time zone.
Organized by Car-Lite LB, community members, advocates, families, and local leaders will gather at Trolley Park at 2nd and Redondo on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at 5:00 PM for the Ride of Silence, a worldwide memorial event honoring the lives lost and forever changed by traffic violence in Long Beach and beyond.
The gathering will provide a space for remembrance, reflection, and solidarity while calling attention to the urgent need for safer streets for everyone — including people walking, biking, using mobility devices, and driving.
Afterward, pedestrians and cyclists will walk and ride westbound on 2nd St to Bixby Park and from there head to Bluff Park for a candlelight vigil overlooking the ocean.
On May 14, 2026, at around 8:30 p.m., the Irvine Police Department (IPD) responded to a traffic collision involving a Tesla SUV and an 87-year-old man using a mobility scooter at the intersection of Irvine Boulevard and Groveland.
IPD and Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) immediately responded and attempted life-saving measures; however, the man was pronounced deceased at the scene. The driver of the Tesla was transported to a hospital for minor injuries and is cooperating with investigators.
Preliminary information indicates the driver of the Tesla was traveling westbound on Irvine Boulevard with a green signal light, while the man on a mobility scooter traveled northbound in the crosswalk at Groveland when the collision occurred. DUI is not believed to be a factor in the collision.
Let’s repeat that.
The victim was an 87-year old man who needed a mobility scooter to get around. But cops somehow had to blame him because he couldn’t clear the crosswalk fast enough for a driver who couldn’t manage to avoid someone on a mobility device directly in front of them.
I mean, it’s not like Teslas come loaded with cameras and collision avoidance systems, or anything.
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Streetsblogoffers a recap of the transportation bills that bit the dust at the state legislature at the first deadline, as well as the handful that managed to move forward.
And some very good bills died an ignominious death.
To wit,
AB 1557 would have limited the motor output of ebikes sold in the state to a maximum of 750 watts, aligning it with federal definitions; however, a similar bill (SB 1167) is still alive in the Senate.
AB 1833 would have allowed drivers voluntarily opt into insurance telematics, with privacy protections, to allow insurance rates to better align with actual behavior, so safer drivers could pay less.
AB 1976 would have streamlined planning, construction and protection of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure across the state.
The good news is, AB 1942, which would have required owners of Class 2 and Class 3 electric bicycles to register them with the DMV and display a special ebike license plate, is dead — for this session of the legislature, anyway.
And SB 1035 would have suspended the state gas tax and other fuel charges for one year, which would have been a disaster for highway maintenance.
Among the bills moving forward,
AB 1546 increases penalties for repeat DUI offenders to bring California law more in line with other states.
AB 1662 would allow drivers who avoid fines through a court-mandated misdemeanor diversion program to still receive points on their driving record.
AB 2276 would have created a statewide pilot program requiring reckless and excessive speed offenders to install active intelligent speed assistance devices in their vehicles before they could regain driving privileges.
SB 1423 would steer half of State Transportation Improvement Program funds to projects to improve safety for people walking, biking, and taking transit, while also making the state’s top safe streets grant program easier for cities to access.
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Bike Long Beach invites you for Bikes and Coffee at the end of the month.
Toss in some donuts, and I’m in. Although for diabetics like me, that could be considered assisted suicide.
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LADOT wants you to check out the proposed final design for Pico Blvd between Crenshaw and Figueroa. And if “proposed final design” doesn’t tell you what’s wrong with LA’s process, I don’t know what will.
Twitter post
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Support the NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit line tomorrow.
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ActiveSGV invites you to learn more about the El Monte Clean Mobility Nexus Program.
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Thanks to Megan for forwarding a pair of recent videos.
In the first, a Bay Area nonprofit exec is taking on the “grueling challenge” of Everesting in downtown Los Gatos to help fund a program that helps people transition out of prison, after losing $3.4 million in federal funding. And yes, you can thank Elon Musk and his chainsaw for that.
In the second, Italian TV reports on a crash that was barely reported here, as a driver slammed into a bike and a group of pedestrians, injuring eight people — four critically. Police were unsure if it was an act of terrorism, or just another “accident.” It’s also unclear if anyone was on the bike at the time.
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Just stunning.
Bluesky post
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. An angry driver leaped out of his car to confront the UK’s Cycling Mikey, raging that “everybody hates you” for the bicyclist’s history of filming drivers illegally using their cellphones. Because the real problem isn’t distracted driving or even breaking the law, but getting caught.
A German writer tours Specialized’s Morgan Hill HQ, and gets to see a military-style ebike customized for Arnold Schwarzenegger, and one made for Jason Momoa, “the actor from Aquaman.” Although I must have missed the sequence where he rides his undersea bicycle, effortlessly flipping through gearing on the fl…uh, swim.
National
Denver is opening yet another round of ebike rebates, though the amount has gone down to a max of $675, which can be combined with state rebates of $225. Which is about $675 more than Los Angeles offers, combined with $0 from California.
A former Southern Californian is spending her retirement just a few miles from my Colorado hometown, putting over 10,000 miles on her bike. Or as I used to consider it back in the day, a good year.
A prothetic limb specialist in Saginaw, Michigan is attempting to address the global mobility crisis by fabricating prosthetic legs from old bicycle parts. Especially since wars in Ukraine, Iran, Sudan and other hotspots are increasing the need every day, with help from motorists.
Richmond, Kentucky will get its first singletrack course, in part because an 8th grade teacher and a bunch of kids in matching blue and orange jerseys stood before the city council to demand it.
Um, okay. An “ebike fan” writes about his favorite bike helmets for the London Telegraph, and how to choose the best one. So next week, we can probably expect a “bike helmet fan” writing about ebikes.
March 24, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on U-23 crit champ victim in SoCal road rage, motorcyclist killed on San Gabriel River Trail, and 80-year old family killer walks
Including one genius who tried tailgating him in a painted bike lane, apparently annoyed that anyone would have the temerity to ride a bicycle in what’s clearly intended as a traffic bypass lane for impatient motorists.
One more reminder to stay safe out there, because there are always angry, dangerous idiots behind some, if not most, of those steering wheels.
And bonus points for having the exceptional good taste to post his video to the Dropkick Murphys.
He died after both men were hospitalized in critical condition.
Needless to say, he shouldn’t have been there on the bike path to begin with. But I would guess most of us have encountered people on dirt bikes and/or motorbikes illegally using SoCal bike paths and bike lanes at one time or another.
Mary Fong Lau was sentenced to probation and 200 hours of community service, with no jail time or home vacation confinement, for the deaths of 40-year old Diego Cardoso de Oliveira and his wife, 38-year old Matilde Moncada Ramos Pinto, their one-year-old son Joaquim Ramos Pinto de Oliveira, and three-month-old Cauê Ramos Pinto de Oliveira as they waited at a bus stop.
San Francisco superior court judge Bruce Chan let Lau walk despite a petition with over 8,000 signatures urging him to impose “meaningful consequences proportionate to the gravity of this crime.”
Chan has already announced his retirement, rather than face angry voters at the polls.
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Apparently, parking spaces — not human lives — are what’s precious in WeHo.
Bluesky post
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Clearly, if we want a train line that serves everyone, we’re going to have to fight for it at Metro’s meeting Thursday.
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When it’s time to have “the talk” with your kid’s, tell ’em this is where road signs come from.
Although I’d say Bikes OK is a major understatement.
Twitter post
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About damn time.
LA’s favorite bike ride is staging a comeback worthy of a Hollywood sequel.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A Wisconsin man stands accused of using his pickup as a weapon by driving off the roadway onto a separated bike path to intentionally ram and kill someone riding a bicycle; he was detained after also ramming a couple patrol cars at the local police station, before officers even knew about the fatal hit-and-run.
A man riding a bicycle in the Philippines suffered severe injuries when he got into an argument with a road-raging motorcyclist who kept honking at him, then deliberately sideswiped him when the victim took out his phone to take a picture of the motorbike rider; he was then struck by a tricycle coming from the opposite direction.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department conducted a crackdown on illegal ebike usage in Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Westlake Village, citing 23 riders for illegal activity, towing seven illegal or illegally ridden ebikes, and arresting one ebike rider for fleeing a traffic stop. Which makes it seem like they weren’t even trying; I could have done more than that without leaving the steps of my Hollywood apartment building.
Simi Valley approved a new bike plan, which “identifies proposed bike paths, bike lanes and bike routes, along with intersection improvements and a prioritized list of projects based on safety, feasibility and funding potential.” Which, as any veteran of the Los Angeles bike plan wars can tell you, is bureaucrat speak for most of them will probably never, ever be built.
No bias here. The California/New York Post cites “alarming” ebike stats as proof of the that “chaos” New York Mayor Mamdani is unleashing on the city’s hapless citizenry, after four people were killed and less than 100 injured by ebikes in the city last year, while 16 ebike riders were killed. Just wait until someone tells them about cars.
International
Momentumdeservedly busts ten myth about bicycling, from only rich white guys ride bikes, to the perennial classic that bike riders don’t pay for the roads they ride.
Bikes are booming again in Cuba, as local residents cope with fuel shortages resulting from the Trump administration’s blockage of oil shipments to the island, revealing the resilience of the local population.
A writer for Bike Radar says riding was a dream in the UK following the 2012 London Olympics, but the dark days of angry road-hogging drivers are back. Which suggests maybe we could have a few good years after the ’28 LA Olympics. But I wouldn’t count on it.
Spanish cyclist Javier Romo grabbed American pro Matteo Jorgenson by the neck and verbally threatened him outside the Visma-Lease a Bike bus on Saturday after Jorgenson made an off-camera move to improve his third place position Italy’s Tirreno-Adriatico.
Let’s depart with our usual format today, because there are a couple of urgent matters we need to attend to right now.
We’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we missed today.
Pinky swear.
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First off, I’ve signed onto a letter demanding that Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council declare a Traffic Violence State of Emergency, after the abject failure of Vision Zero in Los Angeles.
Now I’m asking you to sign on to that letter as well.
Below you’ll find the full text of that letter. If you support it, please click this link or scan the QR code in the graphic below to sign on, too.
Dear Mayor Bass and Honorable Members of the City Council:
The City of Los Angeles has not been taking traffic violence and the public health crisis that is, seriously. The facts speak for themselves:
In 2015, the city committed to Vision Zero – its plan to end traffic violence by 2025. In 2025, traffic fatalities were reported by LAPD to be 290, 56% higher than in 2015.
For the past three years there have been more traffic fatalities than homicides.
An audit directed by the Los Angeles City Council found that Vision Zero failed – and thousands of people died – because of a lack of political will and poor coordination between city departments.
Traffic violence is the leading cause of death for children ages 4-14 in LA County.
Between 31 January and 5 February 2026, there were two mass traffic fatality events, resulting in 5 people killed and 7 others seriously injured.
The City of Los Angeles was about to return 100 million dollars in road safety funding to the State of California because it didn’t have the manpower to use the money.
We, the undersigned, demand that the issue of traffic violence be treated with the urgency and importance that it deserves. We request that the City of Los Angeles formally declare a State of Emergency due to traffic violence, thus redirecting resources and prioritizing actions to address this city-wide problem. This includes but is not limited to:
Recommitting to Vision Zero in its entirety – all five pillars, not just one or two.
Take serious and meaningful actions to fully address the failures of Vision Zero found in the city’s own audit.
Properly staff the LADOT, RIGHT NOW, with the personnel needed to use the grants and funding it already has.
Immediately empower the community to make their own roads safer through a community-led traffic safety program.
Fast-track road safety programs and improvements that are already in the works.
Vision Zero cannot succeed if it is treated as a slogan rather than a mandate. Preventable deaths are not unfortunate accidents; they are the predictable outcome of design choices and policy decisions.
Our city’s leaders have the tools, data, and authority to act. Now we are asking them to decide that a commitment to protecting human life should not be negotiable.
Jonathan Hale, Founder
People’s Vision Zero
Damian Kevitt, Executive Director
Streets Are For Everyone
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Second, Streets For All is asking for your help to support critical Los Angeles City Charter reforms at today’s meeting of the Charter Commission.
TODAY: TELL THE CHARTER COMMISSION TO PASS A CAPITAL INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN
This is it! Today the Charter Commission will be deciding whether to submit language for 1) a Capital Infrastructure Plan and 2) a Director of Public Works.
These reforms are absolutely critical. They will create transparency, accountability, and reform the City’s existing antiquated system for infrastructure delivery. This touches everything we care about, from crosswalks to trees to bike lanes to park space.
We are expecting significant push back defending the status quo. It is important that advocates make their voice heard.
3 WAYS YOU CAN HELP
Thursday, March 12, 4pm (AGENDA)
1) Show up in person and give public comment
City Hall, 200 Spring Street, Room 350, Board of Public Works Session Room
2) Call in and give public comment Please call early, they are limiting public comment to 30 minutes only
Use this Zoom link, or call 1-669-254-5252 (Meeting ID: 161 156 7882)
3) Submit written Public comment via email Add your name and zip code to the bottom, feel free to customize the suggested language.
January 26, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Mayor Bass, City Council no-shows up for traffic deaths die-in; and how can LA build a subway if it can’t fix poop spray?
People are dying to stop people from dying on the mean streets of Los Angeles.
“We’re out here today because the city of Los Angeles signed Vision Zero as a directive in August 2015 to prioritize saving lives on our roads — to achieve zero traffic fatalities by 2025,” said SAFE founder and executive director Damian Kevitt, who lost his right leg in a violent traffic incident in 2013. “Not manage or reduce [them] but eliminate traffic fatalities. We are a decade later and we are at 290 traffic fatalities. … It’s a 26% increase in traffic fatalities since the start of Vision Zero…”
“The city has tools, it’s just not using them,” Kevitt told The Times. “In 2024, voters approved measure HLA by a two-thirds margin. It requires the city must follow its own mobility plan … to make roads safer for cyclists, for pedestrians, for better transit.” He also cited state measure AB 645, which in 2023 authorized a pilot program for speed cameras in a handful of California cities including Los Angeles, as “a tool the city could be implementing — it’s speed safety systems.”
In a perfect illustration of just how unserious the city is about ending traffic deaths, CD 13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez was the only member of the city government who bothered to show up.
But hey, Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement.
No, wait. Her office did.
Apparently Mayor Bass had better things to do.
Mayor Karen Bass’ office said in a statement that Bass, who took office in December 2022, “has made street safety a priority by accelerating the implementation of hundreds of new speed humps, signage and intersection treatments which help ensure drivers are traveling slowly and with control near schools. Vision Zero started in 2015 and requires intensive coordination across departments.”
The office pointed to Bass’ October 2024 executive directive to facilitate street repairs, clean parks and infrastructure and city services enhancements ahead of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympic Games in L.A.
So, evidently, we need a World Cup or Olympic Games to justify saving human lives.
Oh, and clean parks.
Got it.
Kevitt had one parting comment for The Times: “Don’t use the word traffic ‘accident’ when writing about this,” he said.
“In the road safety arena, it’s ‘crash’ or ‘collision,’” he said. “ ‘Accident’ implies non-responsibility. It’s just an ‘oops.’ But when you’re driving drunk or distracted, that’s a choice. If you hit and kill or severely injure someone, it’s not an ‘oops.’ We’re trying to say: This is preventable.”
There’s a lot more to the article, and it’s worth a few minutes to read the other comments from people who have lost loved ones. Or fear exactly that.
Particularly since the Times appears to be the only media source that even bothered to cover it.
Evidently, our deadly streets are no more important to the people who report on them than they are to the people we elect to fix them.
Looks like the joke’s on us.
Because nothing will ever change until city leaders care enough to do something about it.
And the media, and the people, care enough to hold them to it.
Then again, my beloved Broncos finished a broken ankle and a snow storm short of the Super Bowl, too.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A Scottish city lived up — or maybe down — to its reputation as “hostile to anyone outside of a car” by scrapping plans for a bike lane through the town center because it would put the “economic vitality” of the town “at serious risk” due to the loss of six whole parking spaces. Yes, six. Never mind that studies have repeatedly shown sales go up when protected bike lanes go down.
LAistexamines Long Beach’s Vision Zero failure, as traffic deaths in the beachside city climb to their highest level in a decade. Although the public radio website may require your email address to read it.
What a long, strange trip it wasn’t. A local leader of San Francisco’s World Naked Bike Ride was arrested when he and several other people showed up naked for a tribute to the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, in the mistaken assumption their bare bodies would be seen as a tribute to the band.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 94-year New Zealand man who survived the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Holland will attempt to set a new age-group hour record, after already exceeding the record time on his own.
January 22, 2026 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Long Beach traffic deaths doubled since 2015; LADOT installed pathetic 30 lane miles of bikeways, ignores Vision Zero
Welcome to our world.
Traffic fatalities in Long Beach have more than doubled in the ten years since the city vowed to eliminate traffic deaths within a decade, rising to the highest level in the last ten years.
That corresponds with the City of Los Angeles, which adopted a Vision Zero program that promised to end traffic deaths by last year.
And you know how that worked out.
Now LA’s Vision Zero is a forgotten program, trotted out only when the city wants to assure us that they are really, truly doing something to reduce traffic violence, without actually holding themselves accountable for it.
Like Los Angeles, most of Long Beach’s traffic deaths have been inflicted on people who weren’t encased in a couple tons of steel and glass.
According to the Long Beach Post story in the above link,
Their greatest toll has been on people outside of cars. Last year, 32 people were killed while walking, biking or riding an e-scooter. That eclipses the number of people murdered here last year: 29.
At least in LA, it’s only the total number of traffic deaths that exceeds the city’s murders.
Including a rather underwhelming, if not pathetic, total of 31 lane miles of new bikeways installed during the last fiscal year. Which includes 1.3 lane miles of sharrows, which studies have shown are literally worse than nothing.
According to the judge, the law in Idaho defines a bicycle as a “human-powered” vehicle, and it wasn’t clear to his or her honor if an ebike is actually human powered.
And that’s the problem. Some ebikes are human powered with an electrical assist, while others are strictly throttle controlled, or a combination thereof.
So defining an ebike as human powered could be the solution to the current dilemma of cities cracking down on ped-assist ebike riders for the problems caused by people on electric motorbikes and dirt bikes.
Now Marvin forwards word that Trumed will be the source you’ll have to use.
He adds,
The reason I really like this is because it supports the middle class. if I was poor, I could get help purchasing an e-bike. If I was rich, I could get help purchasing an EV. Finally, with FSA/HSA benefits, I can finally qualify for something that helps me.
The only downside I see is that no one can establish a new or add to an existing FSA/HSA until Nov 2026.
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Streets Are For Everyone will hold a die-in on the steps of City Hall this Saturday to protest the unacceptable level of traffic violence in this city.
In 2025 alone, 286 people were killed on our streets — deaths that were preventable.
This Saturday, SAFE and partner nonprofits will gather to honor lives lost and demand action after a decade-old City pledge to eliminate traffic deaths was missed.
Next City says Victoria, British Columbia is one of the best bike cities not traditionally known for it, after tripling its rate of bicycling in just 11 years. Although they can’t seem to spell Victoria correctly. Or British, for that matter.
A Scotsman resigned from the rat race, quitting his high-stress job as a communications director for a renewable energy company for a much calmer career fixing bicycles. As I know all too well after a career in advertising, the problem with the rat race is the rats usually win.
Thanks to Ed for his generous support to help keep all the best bike news and advocacy coming your way every day!
But time is quickly running out, with just three two short days left to give.
So what the hell are you waiting for?
Just stop what you’re doing, and donate right now with just a few clicks through PayPal or Venmo, or via Zelle to ted@bikinginla.com using the banking app on your smartphone.
Although his marksmanship left something to be desired, thankfully.
According to Road.cc,
The shocking attack – which miraculous resulted in no injuries – took place as members of the S.C. Padovani Polo Cherry Bank team, which races in cycling’s Continental third tier, were training on the SS12 road just outside Dolcè, near Lake Garda in northern Italy on Saturday morning, as part of their pre-Christmas training camp.
Footage of the incident, shared by the team on social media, shows a BMW driver pull up alongside the seven riders as they navigate the twisting road, located in Italy’s Val d’Adige district.
According to the squad, the motorist then rolled down his window and produced a gun, before firing two shots at the cyclists. In the footage, one of the riders can be seen ducking as a shot appears to be fired. The motorist then drives off into the distance.
Unfortunately, I can’t seem to embed the video, so you’ll have to click through to see it.
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Not quite on the same level, but still demonstrating an extreme degree of assholery, is this post Megan forwarded from Mastadon, with some jerk blowing his vape pollution directly into the face of a ‘cross racer.
We’ve gone from open city data under former Mayor Eric Garcetti, to a near total statistical blackout under Mayor Bass and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.
The dearth of data hinders transparency, and means members of the public have no real sense of how well crime suppression is working at the neighborhood level. They have no idea, for example, if their neighborhood is experiencing a month to month or year to year rise in burglaries or car break-ins, information they could use to demand action from their senior lead officer or help from their local council office.
It’s not just crime, either — the LAPD’s traffic collision dataset stopped updating earlier this year. While Crosstown was previously able to break down traffic deaths by neighborhood — downtown, Sun Valley and Manchester Square topped the list of fatalities in 2023 — now that can’t happen.
This is problematic in a city where vehicular deaths exceed homicides, and as Golden State just noted, the Vision Zero effort to eliminate auto-related fatalities has been an abject failure. With functioning data we could detail which neighborhoods record the most pedestrians struck, or where the highest number of DUIs occur.
Not only is it impossible to break down traffic deaths by neighborhood, we now have no idea how many people have been killed on our streets, regardless of whether they were walking, biking or driving.
Vision Zero has long been a punchline in this city. But it’s even more ridiculous, and worthless, when city officials can’t or won’t tell us what’s happening on our own streets.
It’s worth giving the whole story a read.
Even if they’re a lot more forgiving than I am, assuming the problem stems from a switch in data systems, rather than a deliberate attempt to keep us in the dark.
Because every driver is a bad driver sometimes. And some drivers are bad drivers all the time.
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As we’ve said before, we’re not the only ones trying to raise funds before the year end, although we are the only one shamelessly exploiting a cute spokescorgi to do it.
No bias here. Residents of a London borough are calling for a total ban on bikes in local parks, after a man had his ticket for exceeding the 12 mph speed limit in the park rescinded by pointing out that a) the limit is too low, b) the limit isn’t posted, and c) most bicycles don’t come with speedometers; again, riders point out that the problem isn’t people on bicycles, but the ones riding illegal electric motorbikes.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A tiny Spanish village — population around 1,000 — stopped so many people for riding the wrong way in city alleys after a Christmas market blocked the main street that they had to call in reinforcements to write tickets for lines reaching 30 or more scofflaw salmon cyclists.
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Local
Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition takes a deep dive into refuting the “big lie about bikes,” aka BLAB, t,o wit “Most people don’t want to ride bikes! If we built a safe bike network, no one will use it.” Something that is demonstrably false.
This is who we share the road with. A post office in San Diego’s Mira Mesa neighborhood was the victim of an 81-year old driver when the woman slammed her car into it for some unknown reason; several people suffered minor injuries, while one person was hospitalized. Which should once again raise the question of how old is too old to drive, but probably won’t.
