However, no one ordered a similar review when a 32-year old homeless man, identified as Jonathan Valbuena, was killed in a hit-and-run a few miles north on the same deadly corridor.
America’s first congestion pricing plan could get the go ahead now that the former Mayor Pete is heading the Department of Transportation, clearing the way for New York’s proposed program. Which could bode well for Los Angeles — if local leaders have the courage to move forward with Metro’s congestion pricing proposal.
AB 122 would finally legalize what most bike riders — and too many drivers — already do by allowing them to treat stop signs as yields; a similar law in Delaware resulted in a 23% reduction in bike crashes at intersections with stop signs.
AB 117 would allocate $10 million from the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to provide rebates for ebike buyers; combined with a proposed 30% rebate on ebikes from the federal government, it could finally make ebikes affordable for lower income buyers.
Permanent Slow Streets could become a fixture in neighborhood with limited access to parks and high air pollution risk if AB 773 passes both houses.
As currently written, AB 43, sponsored by new Assembly Transportation Committee chair Laura Friedman would only track bike and pedestrian crashes, but the Burbank assemblywoman hopes to rework it to compel cities to redesign streets to lower speeds.
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This is why people keep dying on our streets.
You couldn’t have turned on your TV yesterday without encountering wall-to-wall coverage of Tiger Woods’ high speed rollover crash on Hawthorne Blvd in tony Palos Verdes Estates.
Fortunately, he’s expected to survive, despite major injuries to both legs.
But it raises the question of why nothing has been done to improve safety on the deadly street, where a bike rider died in a hit-and-run a little further down the road a few years ago, and where residents say drivers routinely exceed the 45 mph speed limit.
It nearly took the life of one of the world’s greatest golfers.
“You are not telling me you can’t see or feel a fully grown man on a bike coming in the roundabout. I’m sorry, but that’s just can’t be true.
“I’m really angry, sad and disappointed at the same time. I’m disappointed in the driver, as a human being. One thing is sure that had I done something like that, I would’ve been able to drive away.”
San Diego bike lawyer Richard Duquette examines the ways insurance companies will try to deny a claim by arguing that you assumed the risk of injury when you got on your bicycle. Which is like saying a driver assumed the risk of a wreck by turning the ignition key.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 92-year old Vancouver man is back on a bike, after a bike shop offered him a loaner ebike for 30 days in hopes his own stolen ebike somehow turns up. He’s also had a martini every day for the last 60 years.
Tragic news from the UK, where a three-year old girl accidentally hung herself when she fell from a tree while wearing her unicorn bike helmet. Sadly, it’s not the first time I’ve seen stories like this. It’s just another reminder that children’s bike helmets are for riding bikes, and can be dangerous under other circumstances.
February 23, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Bernie endorses bike-hater Cedillo in LA’s CD1, the role of law enforcement in Vision Zero, and virtual National Bike Summit
Even though many of the immigrant workers Cedillo professes to champion rely on bicycles as their primary — and sometimes only — form of transportation.
And are too often the victims that Vision Zero was supposed to save.
As the 2017 election demonstrated, Cedillo can be beaten, unlike most incumbent councilmembers in the City of Angels.
Kindhearted Fontana police teamed with the Fontana Foundation of Hope to replace a boy’s bicycle after his was stolen; he’ll ride in style with a new Spider-Man bike, complete with matching helmet.
This is why people keep dying on our streets. Bakersfield prosecutors settled for a lousy two years for the hit-and-run death of a bike rider — half the possible jail term — after bargaining away additional charges of destroying evidence and driving despite a license suspension due to DUI.
A Nashville man is looking for his 9-year old daughter’s stolen bike, which was taken before Thanksgiving when the SUV it was inside was stolen as part of a teenage crime spree that ended in the shooting deaths of two of the kids involved; the bike has sentimental value, because it was built by her older brother.
My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence, once again.
The assorted health issues stemming from my diabetes, and the many and varied meds to treat them, conspired to knock me on my ass all Tuesday night and most of the following day.
One more reminder that diabetes sucks.
Virtually all my health problems are the result of doctors who insisted I’d never get diabetes, despite a family history on both sides, allowing it to go undetected for as much as 20 years.
So if you’re at risk, get checked. And don’t believe anyone who insists your bicycling, lean build and/or healthy diet means you won’t get it.
Then do whatever you have to do to avoid it.
Because trust me, you don’t want this shit.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
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Los Angeles TV viewers watched live Tuesday evening as a car theft suspect led police on a high speed chase before briefly driving on the Westside’s Ballona Creek bike path.
He then abandoned the allegedly stolen van to run across the 90 Freeway during rush hour traffic, and apparently made a failed attempt to buy, beg or steal a man’s bicycle back on the path.
All in vain, as it turned out, as the bike rider refused, and police tackled the man in a grassy field shortly later.
Albuquerque Police said Crane allegedly shot the man in the foot, heated a metal pipe and threatened to burn him in the face, and shoved an object up his nose, KRQE reports. Crane allegedly spray-painted a cross on the man’s chest and threatened to shoot him.
They reportedly were looking for someone they said owed them money. But they’re likely to get long prison terms, instead.
And yes, this is why you should always meet prospective bike buyers or sellers in a public place.
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Here’s your chance to weigh in on a safer Glendora Ave.
Learn how to fight for, and implement, effective Vision Zero programs.
The Vision Zero Cities Pop-Up conference provides deep dives into some of the most pressing issues on our streets. Following two tracks and taking place online, attendees will learn both design and advocacy best practices to affect real change. https://t.co/lI3W18PIT3
KCET highlights 12 bikeable spots to explore in WeHo’s Rainbow District, aka Boystown, viewable along the bike lane on Santa Monica Blvd. Some I didn’t even know about, like the Door’s offices and rehearsal space, where Jim Morrison laid tracks for L.A. Woman.
An Ohio bike shop got a stolen BMX bike back when the owner’s mother called the mother of one of the suspected thieves, asking for her son do the right thing. Which in this case, meant buying it back from the person he sold it to before he could return it.
The Virginia Senate approved measures requiring drivers to change lanes to pass bike riders when they can’t give a three-foot passing distance and allow bicyclists to ride two abreast, but punted on adopting the Idaho Stop Law.
About damn time. Thirty-three year old former bike messenger Ayesha McGowan has joined Liv Racing, achieving her high-profile goal of becoming the first Black American woman to compete on the World Tour, just six years after first taking up the sport. Once again, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
And come back after 10:30 this morning for a guest post by Phillip Young that could improve your chances of being seen on the road.
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Unbelievable.
If a proposed Federal Highway Administration rule change goes into effect, you could be banned from riding on any street without bike lanes or signage.
Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland writes that a phrase explicitly stating that the absence of bike infrastructure doesn’t mean bikes aren’t allowed is in danger of being changed to say just the opposite.
He writes that the change is buried in a major update to the massive Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices published by the Federal Highway Administration on Friday and posted to the Federal Register on Monday.
This change, which has proposed under the Trump administration but will be finalized in the Biden administration — has set off shockwaves in the bicycle advocacy world. It was first pointed out on Twitter this afternoon by League of American Bicyclists Policy Director Ken McLeod.
Reached on the phone from his office in Washington D.C. a few minutes ago, McLeod said the change is so surprising it “seems like a mistake”. “But at same time,” he added, “Why we you trust that it’s a typo? I think we need to treat this seriously and as real.”
Even if it were a mistake, if it wasn’t caught by McLeod it would have likely ended up as binding federal law. The MUTCD is supposed to be updated every 3-4 years, but it’s taken 10 years for this update to happen. That led McLeod to say, if this was done in error, “It could take a long time to fix.”
Let’s hope it really is a mistake.
And not one more last-minute rule change slipped in by the outgoing Trump administration.
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It’s going to be a long two years.
That’s how much time is left in LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s final term, after the mayor was apparently snubbed by the Biden administration, despite rumors he was a prime candidate for a cabinet-level position.
Because instead refocusing on the city’s long forgotten Mobility Plan, the failed Vision Zero program or the mayor’s own Green New Deal that promised to change how Angelenos get around, he’s shifted his attention to this shiny object — a proposed flying taxi service, which will benefit only those rich enough to use it.
And allow the wealthy to zoom over LA’s clogged and deadly streets, while the rest of us are forced to slog it out down here on the ground.
The thieves made off with $160,000 dollars worth of prototypes, race-winning bikes and personal bicycles belonging to employees that were on display in the building.
Anyone with information can call Morgan Hill Police Department Cpl. Mindy Zen at 669/253-4917 or the department’s anonymous tip line at 408/947-7867.
It’s free. It lasts a lifetime. It’s transferable. It’s used by the LAPD.
And it works.
* Thanks to the owner's safeguards, PAC Detectives just recovered a "one of a kind", stolen bicycle that was for sale online. The owner had photographs and the serial number handy and, had it registered @BikeIndex.
Moving piece from Singletracks, as an Idaho man takes to his mountain bike to ride through grief over the death of his sister. I did the same thing on my roadie after my dad’s death, and again with my mother and both my in-laws; there’s something about riding that allows you to process loss in ways you can’t otherwise. Or I couldn’t, anyway.
They get it. Missoula, Montana is considering a plan to reduce speed limits on residential streets to 20 mph to prevent crashes and reduce their severity. Meanwhile, Los Angeles and other California cities continue to let drivers push speed limits ever higher thanks to the deadly 85th Percentile Law.
November 16, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Remembering traffic victims and the failure of Vision Zero in LA, fatal hit-and-run in DTLA, and Joe Biden is one of us
Members of SAFE — Streets Are For Everyone — turned out in South LA yesterday to mark the World Day of Remembrance for traffic victims.
The group demonstrated at the intersection of Slauson and Western, one of the deadliest locations in all of Los Angeles, according to the city’s High Injury Network.
And one that has yet to see any significant attempt to make it safer.
In other words, pretty much like the rest of LA’s seemingly forgotten Vision Zero program.
…police say there has been a staggering 29% increase in traffic-caused fatalities and injuries in South L.A. this year so far in 2020 compared to 2019.
Additionally, there have been close to 5,000 hit-and-run collisions in 2020, police said.
There are few people who haven’t been touched by traffic violence in some way.
I’ve lost two people close to me, both at the hands of drunk drivers.
A friend I’d known since kindergarten was killed just weeks before our senior year of high school when a drunk woman somehow jumped the wide median on an interstate highway, and hit his car head-on, killing him and a friend instantly.
She walked away unharmed, with just a slap on the wrist for murdering two strangers.
The other was my cousin, who was killed when she was thrown from her own father’s car, and was run over by him.
And once again, there were no real consequences. Unless you consider the guilt and self-loathing he lived with for the rest of his life.
That’s not counting the hundred of people I’ve written about here who have needlessly lost their lives on the mean streets of Southern California — most at the hands and on the bumpers of drivers.
But then it got hard when the city ran into resistance from auto-centric NIMBYs. And LA’s mayor got distracted by the shiny object of national ambitions, with far too many Wormtongues whispering in his ear.
And so Vision Zero was shoved onto a cold back burner, just another page on the LADOT website, with a handful of piecemeal projects here and there, rather than the massive road safety overhaul we were promised.
Never mind the now laughable goal of eliminating traffic deaths in the city by 2025.
Less than five years from now.
Which leaves us waiting for the mayor and the city’s recalcitrant councilmembers to be termed out, so we can finally replace them with leaders who will hopefully have the courage and political will to make the hard decisions necessary to save lives.
And not just talk about it, for a change.
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LA Bike Dad offers photos from the demonstration at Slauson and Western.
The LAPD’s looking for the heartless coward who ran down a pedestrian in DTLA while driving on the wrong side of the road, then got out to check his own car for damage before driving away, ignoring the victim.
There’s a $25,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Warning — The video is graphic, so be sure you really want to see it before you click the link because you can’t unsee it.
President Elect Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden take a bike ride in Rehoboth Beach, DE. He told us he’s closer to selecting a cabinet. pic.twitter.com/J9f0z0MrKe
A pedestrian was killed last night on Pasadena's Orange Grove Blvd. An effort to create a traffic-calming road diet there was killed by NIMBYs aligned with Keep LA Moving. This death is on John Russo and his team. https://t.co/NxsoJ9HZ8Xpic.twitter.com/36o3F9np5c
CALLING ALL LOS ANGELES AREA BIKE SHOPS! Did you know we are now partnering with LAPD? You can provide your customers the extra security of a bike registration in case of theft. And it's free. https://t.co/3FcwQjvDr3
Dallas-area residents mourn yet another victim of traffic violence after a paletero was killed by a driver as he pedaled his cart, following two decades of selling ice cream and chicharrones. Thanks to John Clary for the link.
This is who we share the road with. An Oklahoma state senator faces a first-degree manslaughter charge after she skidded off a rain-slicked road while driving nearly 100 mph, and killed a man whose car was stalled on the side of the road. Thanks to Robert Leone for the tip.
Life is cheap in Ohio, where a 73-year old woman got a whole 30 days behind bars for killing a local Teacher of the Year as he was riding his bike. But at least she’ll lose her license for five years. Although at her age, that should be permanently.
Happy Diwali to everyone celebrating this year. May the divine light spread into your life and bring peace, prosperity, happiness, good health and grand success.
Be safe, and stay healthy. And wear a mask, already.
October 20, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Ped superhero Peatónito studies LA Vision Zero fail; Slow Streets win at LA Council, and bike rider busted for Metro murder
I’ve never been one for the whole superhero genre, preferring to find heroes in real life.
But I make an exception for Mexico City’s caped protector of pedestrians, the legendary Peatónito.
Nowadays it feels like we can all use a hero or shero. So we’re happy to introduce Peatónito! He comes to us from Mexico City, where he began his masked work saving lives and slowing traffic. And Peatónito has traveled beyond, from NYC to Los Angeles, fighting against the crime of poorly designed streets & sidewalks and reckless driving through creative public demonstrations and street theater.
This summer, Los Angeles Walks partnered with the crime fighter as we trained future generations of peatónitos and organized for safe street changes. He finished his training at UCLA’s Institute of Transportaiton Studies, where he penned a pedestrian manifesto (or his graduate capstone paper) titled The Pedestrian Battle of Los Angeles: How to Empower Communities to Plan and Implement Pedestrian Road Safety Infrastructure.
• Walking in a non-white census tract increases the probability of being killed or severely injured by a motor vehicle in Los Angeles (Figure 1). Black people are only 8% of the population, but 20% of all pedestrian fatalities. Meanwhile, median income, vulnerable age (children and older adults), and the number of cars in a household do not have a statistically significant relationship with pedestrian road safety.
• City council members are responsive to residents’ demands and threats opposing pedestrian-focused traffic safety. Even when other city agencies and LADOT support these improvements, the city council has more power over deciding the outcome of road safety infrastructure plans. Consequently, there is a need to balance this power dynamic.
• Affluent, car-oriented residents tend to have stronger influence over council members, who prioritize their concerns over those of underserved people. This power dynamic in LA permits small groups of noisy stakeholders to hijack a conversation; they manipulate the narrative to make it seem convenient for everyone. It is vital to give more power to the people that fight for safe streets, whose voices
“The pedestrian is nobody in this city, he has been forgotten by authorities and our own citizenry. The curious and paradoxical thing is that we are all pedestrians at some moment. As such, we have forgotten ourselves.” – Peatónito
Here’s how Los Angeles Walks succinctly sums up Peatónito’s recommendations.
• The City must recommit and strengthen the Vision Zero program, a city-wide initiative to reduce traffic fatalities to ZERO by 2025.
• The City budget should adequately fund and staff all of Vision Zero’s goals, including the Dignity Infused Community Engagement (DICE) project.
• The state should get rid of the 85th percentile rule, a state rule that requires speed to be set at the average of ongoing traffic, which has led to what many call “speed creep.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Let’s hope he sticks around. LA pedestrians — and bike riders — could really use our own superhero.
Speaking of which, it looks like people won out over cars in the City of Angels for a change.
The City of LA Transportation Committee just approved a motion to make current slow streets more permanent using better materials (metal posts/signs) and limiting speeds to 15mph or less. Thank you @MikeBoninLA for your leadership on this issue. Now let’s find $ to make new ones!
BIKE RECOVERY: "We found a post on OfferUp selling the bike and went and retrieved it using the original receipt and serial number. Individuals using Bike Index alerted me that it was for sale." pic.twitter.com/RGKAN40tt1
Meanwhile, it’s nice to see a community organization pressing the candidates for LA’s 10th Council District about their stands on active transportation.
A Toronto letter writer complains that few of the city’s bike riders wear helmets, despite a mandatory helmet law. Although the headline writer deserves to get their knuckles rapped for saying “Bike lanes are only good if cyclists wear a helmet,” which is factually incorrect, and has nothing to do with what the writer wrote.
The race moto rider Julian Alaphilippe crashed into in the Tour of Flanders says he can’t help feeling guilty about the crash. Although the people who really deserve the blame are the ones who allow motorcycles near cyclists in the peloton to begin with.
The city had the perfect opportunity to respond to community demands and build a pedestrian plaza around the All Black Lives Matter mural at Hollywood & Highland.
So yes, all Black lives will still matter on the streets of Hollywood.
They just seem to matter more if they’re in a car.
………
This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work.
Boston suburb Cambridge, Massachusetts is installing a quick-build separated bike lane, just weeks after a man was killed in a collision with a semi driver while riding his bike.
Needless to say, this is the exact opposite of what usually happens in Los Angeles.
Over 100 New Yorkers are riding south to Washington DC to raise awareness about the dangers of Biking while Black, while advocating for “safer cycling opportunities for all people of color;” the group plans to arrive in time for Friday’s March on Washington.
Staffers for Britain’s Cyclist magazine offer their picks for the Tour de France, going well beyond the yellow jersey to categories like most stage wins and biggest surprise. Although I’d have to agree with the guy who doesn’t think the race will actually happen. Or finish, anyway.
July 10, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Hard-hitting Vision Zero ad, foldie-riding VeloBarber, and your own personal helmet-mounted air scoop air filter
Thanks for your patience with yesterday’s diabetes issues, which resulted in a somewhat truncated Morning Links.
We’re back today to catch up on what we missed, as well as today’s news. And a whole lot of videos.
For those keeping score at home, my bout with low blood sugar was followed by a spike in morning, followed by high blood sugar all day.
Which I suppose means it all evened out in the long run.
Road.ccrecommends the year’s best bicycling sunglasses (multiply the UK price by 1.26 to get an approximate US price); some form of eye protection is vital to keep your eyes safe from rocks, flies and other road debris, as well as harmful UV light.
After losing his leadership position with Team Ineos — aka the former Team Sky — after eleven years, former Tour de France winner Chris Froome is jumping to the Israel Start Up Nation team for a shot at a record-tying fifth Tour win. Even though Lance won seven, but, you know.
A special thanks to Los Angeles Bicycle Attorneys Josh and Paul Cohen of Cohen Law Partners for renewing their sponsorship for the coming year.
They join title sponsors Pocrass & De Los Reyes in renewing their support, despite these troubling economic times.
It’s their sponsorship that allows me to do what I do, and bring you the latest and best bike news on a daily basis.
Without their support — and yes, yours — this site would not be possible, at least in its present form.
Now saddle up, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
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Let’s start in Santa Monica, where good things are happening.
And not so good.
On the plus side, David Drexler sends word that the city has taken advantage of the slow traffic during the coronavirus shutdown to install parking protected bike lanes on a short section of Broadway.
Look at this, a gift to cyclists from Santa Monica. They took advantage of the low corona traffic to redo Broadway thus far from 20th Street west a few blocks. They moved the parking away from the curb and replaced it with a very protected bike lane on both sides. These photos were a taken at 19th and Broadway. Not sure how far they will extend it. It goes from 20th to the Santa Monica food coop right now, then the old green lane picks up there.
The picture of the G on the ground is probably where they will pain green.
It makes cycling much safer in those lanes than the ones next to traffic, I feel. Hope they do more.
Advocacy group Santa Monica Spoke joins with other organizations to warn that excessive cuts to the transportation department could imperil the safety of vulnerable road users, as well as any post-pandemic economic recovery.
Santa Monica’s economy depends on a functioning transportation network that safely moves people, goods and services. Current proposed budget cuts will be destructive to transportation work, will disable basic functions, and slow our safe recovery from this pandemic. Transportation staff, infrastructure and services are classified as essential government functions* and perform vital functions that literally keep our community running safely. These cuts will damage safety and the very fabric of services and programs that we depend on living in Santa Monica…
These essential life saving functions are under threat with extreme plans to cut over half of the City Transportation and Mobility Division compared to 20-40% across other departments. While we can only imagine the stress and burden of decisions weighing on City Council, this level of cuts would severely impact basic public safety and infrastructure operation functions, wounding our city’s ability to rebound fiscally from the COVID-19 crisis. It is imperative to be strategic. We must consider the holistic dynamic relationships, dependencies and functions that contribute to safety, economic stability and regrowth. While the City suffers catastrophic shortfalls, we should not use a sledgehammer where a scalpel is needed to balance new budgets. Council needs to take time to cut costs strategically, while maintaining essential staff that would facilitate a safe and secure path to economic recovery and resilience.
As part of the cutbacks, Santa Monica plans to cut all bike, pedestrian and Vision Zero funding for the next year.
Which means those Broadway protected bike lanes may be the last we’ll see for awhile.
And the proposed cuts are more than just a scratch.
………
Evidently, Vision Zero isn’t completely dead in the City of Angels.
Just badly wounded.
7th street is getting some new and exciting safety and mobility improvements. Come learn more at a virtual workshop on May 6 at 5:30 pm. Register here: https://t.co/J0AFy1URcqpic.twitter.com/oRun0D1gbJ
— LADOT Livable Streets (@LADOTlivable) May 2, 2020
And about damn time, since the existing bike lane is largely unrideable much of the time, and usually serves as nothing more than free parking in front of the Bloc shopping mall.
And the only rule governing traffic on 7th seems to be to aim for the soft, squishy people instead of the cold, hard cars.
Anyone who’s ridden for awhile can tell you it’s not always the bike rider’s fault in a situation like that; people are unpredictable, and can step out into the street without looking for someone on a bicycle.
But it’s always our obligation to ride carefully around pedestrians, because they’re the only ones more vulnerable than we are. And be prepared to stop or swerve to avoid crashing into someone.
Especially if you’re riding on a sidewalk.
………
This working from home thing might just catch on after all.
Yes, May is Bike Month, even if everything has been cancelled and too many cities won’t give an inch on the streets during the coronavirus pandemic. Including Los Angeles.
When a Nova Scotia nursing home worker went to pick up her bike after having it repaired, the shop surprised her with a new bicycle to thank her for her work on the frontlines of the Covid-19 battle.
Tragic news from India, where a couple were killed in a collision along with two other people, after a kindhearted truck driver offered them a lift after riding 250 miles because they couldn’t find any other form of transportation.
