Day 265 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with some people?
The debate at West Hollywood City Hall that resulted in approval of the Complete Streets makeover of Fountain Ave last Monday was acrimonious.
To say the least.
And in any such debate, some people will inevitably be upset by the result. But why take that anger out on a memorial for a victim of traffic violence?
It was two months ago, nearly to the day, when Blake Ackerman’s ghost bike was installed, as his friends and loved ones, many of whom had flown in for his funeral, carefully attached photos and inscribed messages on the bike.
In the two months since, it has been carefully maintained, as someone — whether family members or friends — kept it clean and replaced the flowers before they could whither.
Then sometime after that contentious vote, some vindictive vandal destroyed all that.
According to the WeHo Times, the heartless destruction occurred sometime overnight, with the vandal ripping up photos and signs, dumping flowers and shattering vases. But at least they left the bike itself alone.
A photo taken the next morning showed shards from broken vase next to the sparse white bike.
It broke my heart to pass by in the days since, knowing the love and grief that had been poured into it.
So I resolved to buy a bunch of flowers to put on his bike, just to show that someone cared, and that hate and rage can’t be allowed to win.
But before I got there on Sunday, someone had beaten me to it, placing a small bunch of flowers in the basket, and adorning it with artificial white roses.
Maybe others in the community will be inspired to add to it, showing that we care, and sending a message that love is stronger than hate.
We can hope.
Or better yet, we can do it.
Thanks to Andrew for the heads-up.
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It takes a major schmuck to assault a 14-year old kid.
And an even bigger one to attack the kid in an apparent case of bike rage, just because he didn’t like the way he got passed on a bike path.
I mean seriously, get over it already.
According to KTLA-5, the boy was riding ebikes with a friend on the San Francisquito Creek Trail in Santa Clarita around dusk last Wednesday, when they were startled to see a man riding his bike without lights just ahead of them.
They swerved around him, with one boy letting out a scream as them continued down the path.
But instead of leaving him behind, the man chased the kids, and knocked the victim off his bike when he caught up to him. Within seconds, the man was on top of him, repeatedly punching the kid with one hand while holding a knife in the other, shouting that he was going to kill him.
The boys then recorded the man stomping of the victim’s ebike, cutting the cables and slashing the tires as they cried out for help.
The attack only ended when a Good Samaritan stopped his car and got out to help, and the attacker slunk away into the night.
The boy, whose name has been withheld, was lucky to escape without serious injuries.
Sheriff’s deputies are looking for a muscular white man with a mustache in his 30s or 40s, who was riding an orange bicycle.
If you think you know this jerk, call the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station at 661/260-4000
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If you want to keep a sharp mind as you age, ride a bike. That’s the conclusion of a new study showing bicycling dramatically reduces your risk of dementia.
According to CNN,
Riding a bike is associated with a 19% lower risk of all-cause dementia and a 22% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, compared with taking nonactive travel modes such as a car, bus or train, found the study that assessed nearly 480,000 participants from Great Britain and published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Physical activity has long been associated with lower dementia risk in multiple studies, so much so that the 2024 Lancet Commissionidentified it as one of 14 factors responsible for preventing or delaying approximately 45% of dementia cases. More than 55 million people worldwide have dementia, a number expected to nearly triple by 2050.
So get pedaling.
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Local
A 30-year old man was killed in a collision with an LAPD cop while riding a skateboard in Highland Park Friday night; the victim was riding in the center divider when the officer passed other traffic on the left while responding to a call without lights and siren.
State
An enterprising — or maybe desperate — Santa Fe, New Mexico bike rider started a fire to signal police, after he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver fleeing the cops after allegedly choking a family member; police arrested the 24-year old man on DUI and hit-and-run charges, as well as domestic violence and false imprisonment. Yet he was somehow still on the road despite three previous DUI convictions.
Fallen ebike rider and surf legend scion Kolby Aipa was honored with a traditional paddle out in Huntington Beach, as well as induction into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame.
Sad news from Santa Rosa, where an elderly bike rider was killed after stopping on the side Old Redwood Highway north of the city when an SUV driver drifted off the roadway.
National
Great idea. A couple of Hawaiian bicycling organizations are teaming with a funder to provide ebikes to victims of the Maui wildfire.
A 19-year old college sophomore from Belen, New Mexico is still missing, 37 years after she disappeared while on her daily 36-mile bike ride — and two years after police said they had made substantial progress in the case.
A four-person team of Wichita, Kansas bicyclists rode across the entire state in 24 hours, from Colorado to Missouri, raising $4,000 for refugees.
An Austin, Texas ebike rider is suing an autonomous vehicle company, alleging one of their delivery robots rolled out in front of him in a bike lane when he had the right-of-way.
It’s happened again. An alleged drunk driver slammed into a 38-year old woman riding an ebike in Gulfport, Florida, then drove eight blocks with her body lodged in his windshield; police arrested a 22-year old man a few miles away.
International
London is considering increasing the fines for scofflaw bicyclists who commit “dangerous, antisocial and nuisance cycling behaviors,” like repeatedly running red lights.
Momentum says London deliveries are getting a two-wheeled makeover from a massive cargo bike boom.
The infrastructure minister for my ancestral home says there are no plans “at this time” to require bike riders to wear helmets on the Isle of Man, just months after a failed proposal to ban bikes from a crowded mountain road.
A bicycle website takes the Irish Times newspaper to task for “stoking hostility between road users” as bicycling deaths reached a ten-year high, by publishing a letter reading “Sir, – on a recent visit to Dublin I saw a cyclist stopped at a red light. Is this a record?”
Grenoble, Strasbourg and Rennes have topped the list of bike friendly French cities since 2021, for your next trip to the land of wine and cheese.
Competitive Cycling
The Road Cycling World Championships are under way in Rwanda, with Remco Evenepoel winning his third consecutive time trial; Jay Vine finished second and Ilan van Wilder third, while Tadej Pogačar just missed the podium in fourth.
Swiss cyclist Marlen Reusser won the women’s time trial, with Anna van der Breggen second and her Dutch teammate Demi Vollering third.
Everyone competing in this year’s worlds will be required to carry a GPS tracker following the death last year of 18-year-old Swiss cyclist Muriel Furrer, who lay unnoticed on the side of the road for an hour-and-a-half after falling in the junior women’s road race.
A Rwandan website says the story of Jean-Marie Vianney Gahemba, father of the country’s most decorated cyclist, shows just how far they have come.
A writer for Bike Radar found the “mismatched, beat-up” bike Tadej Pogačar rode to his first Continental victory, bearing “all the hallmarks of a U23 racer on a budget,” while demonstrating his talent was forged the hard way.
Finally…
Who needs pedals for a world biking championship? That feeling when a Nobel Laureate tells you to drink pickle juice to avoid cramps (scroll down), when he could have just recommended rotted herring.
And if you’re riding your bike with nearly 26 grams of coke, 8 grams of meth, and 2 grams of fentanyl stashed in your wallet, hatband and underwear, just obey the damn traffic laws, already.
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L’shana tovah to everyone celebrating tonight.
Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
