Before we get going, I had the misfortune of watching yesterday’s gubernatorial debate.
To quote Doonesbury, back when it was still funny, it had “all the subtle dynamics of a grade school recess.”
Six of the candidates kept insulting and shouting over one another, while Katie Porter asked people over and over not to interrupt her, which they continued to do.
If you listened to the only two Republicans on the dais, you’d be left with the assumption that Democrats were responsible for all the state’s problems, and if you just elect one of them, everything will be sunshine and puppies forever.
Personally, I thought former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came off best, although with this group, that’s such a low bar he could have tripped over it walking off the stage. But his chances of winning are somewhere south of a snowball in hell.
My main takeaway when the whole damn thing was over was wondering if it was too late to get someone else.
Which it is.
I’d give you my take on the Los Angeles mayoral debate that proceeded it, but I fell asleep shortly after it began.
But considering the bickering that it began with, that would probably have been my take, anyway.
Photo of Kenneth Mejia and his corgis from Abundant Housing LA.
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On a related subject, the conservative Los Angeles Daily News surprisingly endorsed bicyclist and corgi dad Kenneth Mejia for re-election as City Controller.
That comes despite a $1.5 million campaign from opponent Zach Sokoloff aiming to oust him, which is funded by Sokoloff’s mother.
Yes, his mommy is paying for the whole thing.
But the Daily News evidently doesn’t want you to know about it, because even their own opinions are hidden behind the paper’s draconian paywall.
You’d think if they really wanted people to vote for Mejia, they’d want everyone to read it.
But you would be wrong.
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Looks like they got him.
The LAPD made an arrest in the Monday morning Play del Rey hit-and-run that killed a one-year old boy and a 27-year old man on Vista del Mar, aka Deadly del Mar, as they were driving home after a night at the beach.
Twenty-seven-year old Osvaldo Sandoval died at the scene, while his 14-month old nephew Roger Sandoval died after being taken to a hospital; Osvaldo’s 15-year old sister, and Roger’s aunt, remains on life-support at UCLA Medical Center.
To make matters worse, Oscar Sandoval, the driver of the car and the father of one-year old Roger, believes the crash was an intentional act of road rage.
According to KTLA-5,
Oscar Sandoval survived the crash and said he believes it may have been intentional. Family members also told KTLA’s Rick Chambers that the driver of the white Jeep had been flashing his lights and trying to cut them off moments before the collision.
“The Jeep hit my door where my son and brother were sitting, the ones who took the strongest impact,” Oscar said in Spanish. “My son was still alive, but barely.”
Police confirmed a suspect was arrested yesterday morning, but only identified the him as a Hispanic male.
If this was an intentional act, let’s hope prosecutors charge him with two counts of felony murder.
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If you haven’t yet, sign your name, business or organization to the open letter urging city leaders to declare a state of emergency over traffic violence, sponsored by People’s Vision Zero and Streets Are For Everyone.
Because traffic injuries and deaths continue to be out of control, over ten years after former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the city’s Vision Zero plan — and more than a year after it officially failed.
If you belong to an advocacy group, get them to sign it. If you belong to a bike club, sign for the club and ask members to sign individually. If you own or work for a bike shop or in the bike industry, do the same.
Add your name.
The letter will be released soon. So do it today.
Declare a State of Emergency in LA Due to Traffic Violence
Traffic Violence in Los Angeles is OUT OF CONTROL!
The City of Los Angeles has not been taking traffic violence and the public health crisis that is, seriously.
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.
What We’re Asking You to Do
Sign onto an open letter we will be releasing to the media and sending to the LA Mayor and City Council, demanding that they declare a State of Emergency due to traffic violence and treat it as the public health crisis that it is.
The full letter is on this page. Please spread this around to as many people as possible. Thank you!
Jonathan Hale — People’s Vision Zero
&
Damian Kevitt — Streets Are For Everyone
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This puts the horrible state of LA’s roads in perspective.
Although Mr. Smith somehow seems to think it’s a “gotcha” that Streets For All is a PAC, which they’re very open about, and that progressives tend to support safer streets that serve all road users, unlike their more conservative brethren.
Shocking, I know.
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Here’s a couple more posts from one of my favorite Bluesky accounts.
I confess, I never knew that Keith Haring rode a bicycle, let alone drew one. And ’60s bike advertising is just effing cool.
https://bsky.app/profile/coolbikeart1.bsky.social/post/3ml2e6oqdn22t
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Nice story from San Diego, where a team of engineering students designed a pedal extension that allows a Marine vet to ride a bicycle for the first time since 2003, when an explosion shattered his leg while he was deployed to Iraq.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. When residents of the Scottish Isle of Cumbrae complained about drivers “speeding away from the ferry terminal and ‘pelting’ around corners towards oncoming traffic,” the local cops naturally responded by admonishing bicyclists, including toddlers on balance bikes.
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Local
Writing for Torched, the great Alissa Walker had a different, and more positive, take from mine yesterday about Mayor Karen Bass’ Capital Infrastructure Program for the City of Los Angeles, though we’re both in agreement that it was long-overdue.
Metro will offer free rides across the their system, including buses, trains and the Metro Bike bikeshare all weekend to celebrate the three-stop extension of the D, aka Purple, Line subway. Although it still won’t go far enough for my wife to take the train to work.
Secret Los Angeles writes that Los Angeles will shut down four miles of streets next month when CicLAvia connects Exposition Park and Leimert Park, which is hardly a secret.
The LAPD reminds drivers to share the road during Bike Safety Month. The other eleven months, it’s as you were, apparently.
State
San José Spotlight gently breaks the news that construction on a local street is due to a bike lane project. And yes, I take great pride in including the diacritical in the website’s name.
Oakland skips the work requirement, and celebrates next Thursday as Bike Anywhere Day, instead of Bike to Work Day. Or as it’s known in Los Angeles these days, Thursday.
A Marin County serial ebike thief was arrested after he was caught using a rented Amazon truck to make reverse deliveries.
The family of a UC Davis student who was killed riding a bike on campus last month are calling for protected bike lanes to be installed in his honor.
National
A writer for Bike Mag opens up about how bicycling saved his mental health, forcing him to slow down and breathe following his diagnosis of ACHD.
It’s now illegal to block a bike lane anywhere in Colorado. California, not so much.
Jefferson City, Missouri, population 43,000, adopts the “Idaho Stop Laws,” allowing bike riders to treat stop signs as yields, and stoplights as stop signs.
Rock Island, Illinois is celebrating a colorful new bicycling sculpture in memory of a long-time local bicyclist, who rode a custom-built bike without a saddle, which is replicated in the sculpture. If anyone designs a sculpture in my honor after I depart this mortal coil, put a damn saddle on it.
Tennessee titanium frame maker Lynskey Performance Products, LLC, is just the latest company in the bicycle industry to go belly-up, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in hopes of reorganizing after a disastrous move to Shopify.
Massachusetts approves a new four tiered system defining bicycles and ebikes by their speed, with traditional bicycles, Class 1 and Class 2 ebikes, low-speed scooters and mobility devices in the new Class 0, up to Speed Tier 3 covering anything above 40 mph.
Bike advocates in Saratoga Springs NY are complaining that the city is ignoring its Complete Streets plan as it repaves streets, despite an ostensible commitment to improving its multimodal infrastructure. Something people in a certain Southern California megalopolis can probably relate to.
Okay, now he’s just rubbing it in. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined NYC DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn to take part in a bike bus to announce plans for two new bike boulevards. I’m not sure if LA Mayor Bass knows what a bike bus is, let alone has ever ridden one.
Alexandria, Virginia and the DC region will offer giveaways and prizes to encourage people to bike to work next week. Los Angeles, not so much.
Atlanta will celebrate the week-long Atlanta Cycling Festival next week, including Spoke & Word, a two-day “progressive dinner” combining bicycling and storytelling.
International
Momentum highlights Canada’s most bike-friendly cities, in case anyone wants to flee north of the border, where things seem a little saner these days.
Speaking of draconian paywalls, that’s the reason I don’t link to the BBC anymore.
A Deutschland magazine looks back on those heady days of National Socialism, when bike races were just another form of Nazi propaganda.
You can now bring your bicycle on China’s high-speed Beijing to Zhangjiakou train line, although it’s limited to stops between Beijing North and Chongli.
Competitive Cycling
Britain’s longest‑running, biggest and most prestigious single-day and somewhat cobbled road race marks its 70th Anniversary on Sunday.
Road.cc answers the question of what pro cyclists do after they retire, profiling seven former racers who now work in professions as diverse as firefighter, banker and sommelier — including America’s one-time ex-Tour de France champ-cum-CBD maven.
Finally…
That feeling when you’re stopped for illegally impeding traffic in a teeny, tiny little car, and people want to know how many clowns were inside. Or when you pedal across the country to spell out “kindness,” while inviting strangers to ride along.
And now you, too, can have a MagSafe dock in the shape of the world’s ugliest truck.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
