
Day 106 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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No surprise here.
In a report that really shouldn’t surprise anyone, a new city audit has shown that LA’s Vision Zero program has failed miserably in ending traffic deaths by this year.
A detailed report conducted by consulting company KPMG, along with a separate LADOT analysis from Fehr & Peers, concludes that “the level of enthusiasm at City Hall” for Vision Zero has decreased since the program was launched, according to public radio station and website LAist.
In fact, half of the program’s 56 “actions and strategies” that were supposed to have been completed five years were still unfinished at the start of last year.
And probably still are.
According to LAist,
“Some of the reasons cited include the pandemic, conflicts of personality, lack of total buy-in for implementation, disagreements over how the program should be administered and scaling issues,” the audit said.
Never mind the city council’s failure to adequately fund the program, as well as efforts by councilmembers to block needed projects in their own districts.
Without political support and lack of communication from council members about the program, Vision Zero becomes less effective, the audit said…
The audit also pointed out that the city overly focused on infrastructure and engineering, to the detriment of public education and regular monitoring of the program’s progress.
To put it mildly.
In fact, traffic fatalities jumped 26% in 2024 compared to when then-Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the program sitting outdoors behind his bigass desk.
According to UC Berkeley transportation safety researcher Matthew Raifman, traffic fatalities in Los Angeles have gone up faster than the national average, with more bike and pedestrian deaths than the other four most populated US cities.
And yes, that includes New York, which has over twice the population.
All of which is exactly what we warned about since the inception of Vision Zero in Los Angeles, when the city conducted an extensive round of public meetings to gather input — and proceeded to ignore the findings, coming up with a plan that left nearly all of it out.
Then addressed the program with the previously mentioned lack of funding and a failure of political will, compounded by a lack of buy-in from, and coordination between, the city’s many siloed departments and agencies.
The report calls for a recommitment to Vision Zero in Los Angeles, while offering a long, long list of recommendations to halt injuries and deaths from traffic violence.
But recommitment isn’t necessary. What is necessary is actually committing to it for the first time, because city leaders never did.
The LADOT report from Fehr & Peers includes an updated listing of the city’s High Injury Network, which is now called Priority Intersections and Corridors, for some unknown reason.
At least we know this report was sent directly to Mayor Karen Bass.
Although whether she’ll actually read it and act on it — or whether it will get buried under countless other priorities, from rebuilding after the Palisades Fire to the city’s massive budget shortfall — remains to be determined.
I wouldn’t hold your breath.
But as they say, hope springs eternal.
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The LAPD is looking for a hit-and-run driver who crashed into a 15-year old boy as he rode his bike to school on a South LA sidewalk last week, in a collision caught on video.
Sebastian Carrillo was riding along Nadeau Street near Croesus Ave when the driver made a right turn directly into him, either turning short into a driveway or intentionally hitting him, as his father says it looks like attempted murder to him.
Carrillo was lucky to escape with a concussion, as well as cuts, bumps and bruises that required stitches. And no, he doesn’t appear to have been wearing a helmet, even though that’s required for anyone under 18.
The suspect vehicle is described as a newer black BMW, possibly a 2025, with front end damage from the crash.
The City of Los Angeles offers a standing $5,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting injuries.
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Huntington Beach police are looking for their own felony hit-and-run driver, after a man in a minivan left someone riding a bicycle lying in the roadway with “significant” injuries last month.
The victim was reportedly struck by a Hispanic man between 20 and 30 years old, while riding near Arnett Drive and Irby Lane around 11 pm on Saturday, March 29th.
The suspect vehicle is described as a possible Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey, metallic gray, silver or blue, with likely damage to the bumper, hood and windshield.
The license plate may have the characters 7, T, A and E, though not necessarily in that order.
Anyone was information was urged to call Huntington Beach Traffic Investigator V. Rattanchandani at 714/536-5231, or anonymously to OC Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.
But unlike Los Angeles, Huntington Beach doesn’t offer a standing reward for hit-and-run drivers.
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Today marks the 3rd Anniversary of the hit and run that killed Andrew Jelmert in Griffith Park as he trained for the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride.
Yet three years later, Los Angeles has still not started a series of fully funded and shovel-ready safety improvements in the park, including a massive traffic calming project on Crystal Springs Drive where Jelmert was killed by a speeding driver, even though that construction was supposed to start last summer.
Streets Are For Everyone will be hosting a remembrance event, advocacy ride and protest this Saturday to call attention to the dangers on the road, as well as the needless red tape holding up the desperately needed work.
As we’ve said before, cars don’t belong in parks. And we certainly don’t need a roadway used by drivers traveling at highway speeds to bypass traffic on the nearby freeway.
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Good for him.
A New Jersey judge tossed out a defense argument that the blood alcohol content of the hockey-playing Gaudreau brothers contributed to their own deaths.
The judge agreed the issue was moot under New Jersey criminal law, and upheld all of the charges against “allegedly drunken and enraged driver” Sean Higgins, including two counts each of manslaughter and vehicular homicide.
Witnesses to the crash told police that the brothers were riding their bikes single file on the side of the road when Higgins allegedly passed two other vehicles on the right, with two wheels on the grass verge, and slammed into their bikes from behind, killing them both.
Higgins faces a up to 70 years behind bars if he’s convicted on all counts; his lawyers have already rejected a plea of 35 years.
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Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Authorities in Windsor, Ontario threw the book at a road-raging bike rider, filing a ten-count indictment against the 41-year old man for allegedly following a car full of people after an argument, damaging three vehicles belonging to them, then threatening them with a weapon when they confronted him.
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Local
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton spots a new bike lane on Bonnie Brae Street in Westlake, as well as partially-protected bike lanes being installed on Mission Road in Boyle Heights.
State
Encinitas bicyclists may be breathing a sigh of relief, after the city’s traffic commissioner proposed replacing the concrete barriers protecting a bike lane on the Coast Highway with a wider, painted bike lane, after 19 recorded bicycle crashes from running into the barriers, including one death.
Police in San Diego are asking for the public’s help in identifying the drivers of two cars who struck a man riding an ebike, and left him in the street to die; they’re looking for a white car, possibly a 2015 to 2023 Dodge Charger with black-and-yellow license plates, and another car that could have been a Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan with a black or tinted glass-topped roof.
Forty Ontario kids got new bikes and helmets courtesy of Los Angeles Kings affiliate hockey team The Ontario Reign, as well as other local businesses and organizations.
Riverside County has jumped on the anti-ebike bandwagon, giving preliminary approval to an ordinance restricting where they can be ridden.
Velo looks at all the new and unreleased gravel bikes from last week’s Sea Otter Classic.
San Raphael is beginning the process of developing a new bike and pedestrian plan to cover the next five to ten years. Let’s just hope they don’t have to go to the voters to force the city to implement it, like a certain SoCal megalopolis we could name.
National
Police in Oregon arrested a third suspect in the death of a Hood River man who was run down trying to stop the suspects from stealing his bicycle.
Life is cheap in Idaho, where a gravel truck driver was sentenced to just 150 days behind bars after pleading guilty to vehicular manslaughter, for killing a 14-year old boy as he was standing next to his bicycle on the shoulder of the roadway.
A Wisconsin man is riding his bike from Los Angeles to Denver to promote organ donations, as well as meet the two-and-a-half year old girl who received part of his own liver.
The driver who killed a Philadelphia pediatrician as she rode her bike to work at a children’s hospital pled guilty to vehicular homicide, DUI and involuntary manslaughter, among other charges; he swerved into the bike lane she was riding in while driving at twice the legal alcohol limit.
A Georgia state legislator pled guilty to reduced charges after prosecutors dropped multiple DUI charges for hitting a person riding in a bike lane; he was originally charged with driving under the influence of both alcohol and multiple drugs.
International
Momentum explains what a road diet is, and why cities should embrace it — starting with improving safety for all road users.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a careless driver walked without a day behind bars for breaking a woman’s leg in two places as she rode her bike, after the judge sentenced him to community service and took away his license for a whole year.
Students at a Serbian university formed a bicycle inside a heart using their own bodies to show support for Serbian students who rode their bikes to Strasbourg, France to plead for support from European Union leaders for greater freedom in their country,
Competitive Cycling
Double Olympic champ Remco Evenepoel is returning to racing this Friday at Belgium’s Brabantse Pijl, after he suffered serious injuries when he was doored by a postal worker while on a December training ride.
Cyclist considers which men’s WorldTour teams are in danger of relegation when the current UCI points cycle comes to a close in a few months.
The spectator who hit Mathieu van der Poel with a water bottle during last week’s Paris-Roubaix said he had too much to drink, he’s really sorry and ashamed, and will take full legal responsibility.
Finally…
There may be hope for people who hate presta valves. If at first you do succeed in stealing an ebike from a department store, don’t try, try again.
And if your ex has a new boyfriend, don’t ride your bike over to shoot him. Or maybe don’t shoot him at all, regardless of how you get there.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.