Tag Archive for West Hollywood

Another mass casualty crash by elderly driver, WeHo denies all blame in Ackerman death, and more on Forest Lawn backdoor deal

September 4, 2026 / / No comments

It’s happened again.

A 90-something driver was involved in a mass casualty crash, this time right here in Los Angeles. And in a Trader Joe’s parking lot, no less.

The 91-year old driver reportedly drove into a group of pedestrians at a high rate of speed, killing one person and injuring four others.

The crash occurred in the parking lot of the Trader Joe’s on Fairfax and Third, directly across from The Original Farmer’s Market and The Grove.

According to KTLA-5,

Witnesses said that for some reason, the driver lost control as she was entering the parking lot, sped up, slammed into a parked car, then veered into a group of people near a parking attendant stand before her car crashed into the (parking attendant) stand.

It’s unknown at this point exactly what caused the elderly driver to crash. Investigators at this time do not believe this was an intentional act of violence, but rather a horrible accident.

A “horrible accident.” You know, just another “oopsie.”

KABC-7 reports the crash occurred about 1:30 pm Thursday.

One victim, described only as a woman in her 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene, while four others were taken to a hospital, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Those injured included a 19-year-old man who suffered serious injuries and two women ages 30 and 57 with minor injuries, according to the fire department.

The driver, a 91-year-old woman, was also hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, the LAFD said. No arrest was announced.

Then there was this, also from KABC.

“[The driver] was pretty shell shocked, and she got out she didn’t realize what was happening. She said she tried to stop the Tesla, it was accelerating and she couldn’t stop it,” said Drake Piscione.

“She said her foot was on the brake, but it kept going. She got out and couldn’t believe what happened and didn’t realize she had killed someone”.

Yes, it’s possible that the Tesla malfunctioned, particularly if it was in a self-driving or assisted driving mode. But it’s far more likely that she was stomping on the accelerator, thinking she was hitting the brake, as has happened in countless crashes across the country involving elderly drivers.

You only have to think back to the 99 Ranch Market crash on Westwood Blvd this past February, when a 92-year old driver hit a bicyclist, then continued down the sidewalk on the wrong side of the street for a full block before she crashed through the side of the market, killing three people.

Because this, or some other similar incident, was the entirely predictable outcome of allowing someone that age to keep her license and continue driving.

It’s not being ageist to recognize that mental and physical abilities decline with advanced age. It is easier for someone that age to lose control of a vehicle, and become confused about how to respond afterwards.

There are rare exceptions, as there are with any other generalities. But most people reach a point where they simply should not be allowed to keep driving.

There was a huge outcry from older drivers when the California DMV reinstated a requirement for drivers over 70 to pass a written test, as well as an eye exam. The requirement had been suspended during the Covid pandemic, and the state was simply going back to the policy that had been in place since the ’70s.

Needless to say, the requirement was suspended. You don’t fuck with the Geritol generation.

I say this as someone who will be 70 later this month, and gave up driving several years ago, in part due to medications I was, and am, taking that inhibited my ability to drive safely.

And just like the vast majority of elderly drivers, I also don’t see as well as I did even five years ago.

We’ve got to find a way to weed out people who can no longer drive safely as they age. Because not everyone will willingly give up their keys.

And things like this will continue to happen until we do.

………

No surprise here, either.

We said yesterday it wasn’t surprising that the family of fallen bicyclist Blake Ackerman would file a lawsuit against the hit-and-run driver who killed him, as well as West Hollywood for maintaining a roadway known to be dangerous.

It’s also not surprising that WeHo denies any liability.

According to WeHo Times,

The City of West Hollywood is pushing back against a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the mother of a 27-year-old cyclist who was killed in a hit-and-run crash on Fountain Avenue, denying allegations that the city’s roadway design contributed to his death.

Court documents reveal the city’s answer filed March 23 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, where the city denied “generally and specifically each and every allegation” in the complaint brought by Robin L. Ackerman, the mother of Blake Adam Ackerman and successor-in-interest to his estate. The city also denied that Ackerman was damaged as alleged or “at all.”

The city also blames the victim, alleging that Ackerman was “careless, reckless and negligent” and that his conduct somehow contributed to any injuries or damages.

You know, like death.

From what I’ve heard, however, Ackerman was doing everything right when the driver slammed into him from behind, then kept going without stopping. The only mistake anyone has charged him with was simply riding on Fountain to begin with.

It goes on, of course. The city’s attorneys throw everything they can at the wall, hoping that something sticks.

It may be enough. But chances are, the city will end up settling for something in the low seven figures to keep from having the case go in front of a jury, where the damages could be a lot steeper.

………

Streets For All is urging you to tell Governor Newsom to veto the Forest Lawn loophole.

TELL GOVERNOR NEWSOM:
VETO THE FOREST LAWN LOOPHOLE

The legislature and cemetery lobbyists inserted language at the 11th hour into the California state budget to make it harder for LA to implement the Forest Lawn Safety and Mobility Project. This is a dangerous precedent that, if allowed to become law, would entice any wealthy Californian to create their own law.

We need Governor Gavin Newsom to veto SB 194.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Email to request a VETO from Gavin Newsom

EMAIL GAVIN NEWSOM TO STOP THIS BILL

ICYMI – Context on What Happened:

The cemetery has enough customers.

Just 16 days ago, another horrific crash killed someone on Forest Lawn Drive.

This is a road where 95 crashes occurred between 2013 and 2023, three people were severely injured or killed, and nearly 3 in 4 drivers drive at a deadly speed in the event of a crash.

After years of work, LA finally has a plan to make Forest Lawn Drive safer. Mayor Bass paused it in May.

Now Sacramento is threatening it.

SEC. 2. Section 1811 is added to the Streets and Highways Code, to read:
1811. (a) A city with a population of 2,000,000 or more shall not reduce the number of vehicle travel lanes on a street that provides the only access to two or more adjacent cemeteries without prior approval of the governing body and the concurrence of the mayor of the city.
(b) Prior to approval of a reduction in the number of vehicle travel lanes pursuant to subdivision (a), the governing body of the city shall do both of the following:
(1) Conduct a duly noticed public hearing regarding the proposed vehicle travel lane reduction.
(2) Consider and make written findings regarding all of the following:
(A) Whether there are alternatives that would allow for proposed street modification without a vehicle travel lane reduction.
(B) The impact of the vehicle travel lane reduction on emergency access to the cemeteries and the surrounding community.
(C) The impact of the vehicle travel lane reduction on emergency response to very high and high fire hazard severity zones
Text from SB 194 that threatens the Forest Lawn Safety project, ok’d by Assemblymember Zbur and Senator Durazo

Friday night, two hours before the deadline to amend bills, lawmakers introduced SB 194—language threatening the long-planned safety project after opposition from cemeteries along the route.

Yes, they’re really trying to put this into state law. And they could send it to the Governor by Monday.

This is what it looks like when politics and powerful interests are put ahead of human lives.

We have 48 hours to kill this disastrous precedent and misguided, last minute back room deal. Read our full statement here.

Forest Lawn Drive should be a road that passes a cemetery—not one that sends people to it.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Email to request a VETO from Gavin Newsom

EMAIL GAVIN NEWSOM TO STOP THIS BILL

………

On a related subject, Streets Are for Everyone sent out this notice yesterday.

This Saturday, we’re asking you to stand with us on Forest Lawn Drive.

On August 13, 2026, a single-vehicle crash on Forest Lawn Drive ended with a vehicle engulfed in flames, killing one person. Details about the crash are unknown, but we know this is not the first deadly crash on Forest Lawn Drive, and without meaningful safety improvements, it won’t be the last.

SAFE recently released a report detailing the urgent need for these safety improvements, after documenting that more than half of drivers regularly exceed the speed limit. The report highlights how a fully funded safety project designed to reduce known dangers on the 1.1-mile road was indefinitely paused by Mayor Karen Bass after nearby cemeteries successfully lobbied to stop the safety improvements.

Streets Are For Everyone, People’s Vision Zero, and Streets For All will be hosting a Ghost Tire Memorial on September 5th, 2026, at 10:00 AM to honor 70-year-old Bijan Yousefian, a victim of traffic violence who died in a fiery crash on Forest Lawn Drive.

Please join us this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. as we remember a life lost and demand that our local leaders stop killing road safety improvements at Forest Lawn Dr and across Los Angeles.

Event Details:
Date:

September 5th, 2026

Time:

10:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Location:

Forest Lawn Drive (across the street from Malinow and Silverman Mortuary) click here for the exact meeting location and see image below:

………

Evidently, the bike leg of a triathlon is your only chance to beat a hungry, hungry hippo.

Twitter post

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going. 

No bias here. A Berkeley neighborhood group is suing to prevent the city from installing protected bike lanes on Hopkins Street, accusing it of violating the city’s bike plan. Which is kind of funny, considering Los Angeles has done nothing but violate its bike plan.

No bias here. A pro-driving group is accusing the Bristol, England city council of “ignoring road safety” with its so-called “cycling propaganda” — for the crime of showing someone riding a bicycle without a helmet.

………

Local 

Um, okay. A writer for The Argonaut calls ebikes a menace on the Marvin Braude Bike Trail, complaining about “30–60-year olds clocking more than 25 mph without head gear on the narrow path;” however, he’s no fan of pedestrians, either, griping about “clueless and inconsiderate pedestrians” annoying bicyclists by walking on the bike path instead of the walkway. No offense, but he comes off like an old man yelling for kids to get off his lawn.

Streetsblog reports sections of the popular San Gabriel and Rio Hondo river path will be closed for several years starting October 1st, as the Army Corps of Engineers begins a “high urgency” $735 million project to repair the Whittier Narrows Dam.

 

State

Encinitas is urging Governor Gavin Newsom to veto a budget measure that will keep them from ripping out a new protected bike lane on Santa Fe Drive.

Axios San Diego suggests beating the heat with a bike ride on the Solana Beach Rail Trail, a fully protected bike path located between Highway 101 and the Coaster train tracks. Although this weekend, wind and rain from a rare Pacific coast hurricane could be more of a problem.

The carnage continues in Northern California, as a man in San Jose was killed by the driver of a dump truck while riding an ebike in the bike lane. And yes, what’s left of the bike looks like an actual ped-assist ebike.

The NorCal news gets worse, after a Sacramento woman was killed by a hit-and-run driver as she tried to her bicycle on the side of the road.

 

National

Cycling Electric says that studies from around the world prove that ebikes are not cheating, and the workout they provide is similar to the effects of a regular  bike.

A Seattle podcaster says bicycles are medical devices, after he took up bicycling to treat his type 2 diabetes and get in shape, losing 30 pounds, and improving his health and wellbeing. On the other hand, bicycling and a healthy diet hid the most of the effects of my type 2 diabetes, causing me to go undiagnosed for more than 20 years, and doing major damage to my health. 

Kentucky’s governor announced plans for a new pedestrian and bicycling bridge to provide better access to a Civil War battlefield.

This is the cost of traffic violence. An MIT professor described as “an expert in ancient metallurgy” died two weeks after he was was struck by a driver while riding his bicycle.

Atlanta is rolling out another round of the city’s ebike rebate program, with $1 million in funding to offer rebates up to $1,600. Which compares favorably to LA’s zero dollars in funding, with rebates up to not a damn thing.

 

International

Road.cc offer bicycling hacks to provide cheap alternatives to expensive products to keep you riding this winter.

The Times of London dropped their paywall to say that gravel biking will be the next great MAMIL-ian obsession. And here I thought it was pickleball. Although the cheapest of the three gravel bikes they recommend retails for the equivalent of $13,500, which makes pickleball look a lot better. 

An English hotel manager raised the equivalent of over $5,400 for a Welsh children’s hospice with a 180-mile ride between all nine of the company’s hotels in England and Wales, completing the ride in under 12 hours.

That suddenly shuttered bike shop in the UK is promising that everyone who left a bike to be repaired will get it back, even as someone reported the shop for stealing his bike — but if you put down a deposit on a new bicycle, you’re screwed.

Tragic news from Australia, where a second person has died following last week’s mass casualty crash in Canberra, Australia, when a 40-year old woman plowed into a group of bicyclists; a 39-year old man died in the hospital this week, after a 32-year old woman died at the scene.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cal State Dominguez Hills has founded what officials there say is the only varsity collegiate cycling team in California, one of just 20 other varsity collegiate cycling teams in the US; so far, it seems to have just one member, student-cyclist Alejandro Che.

Enric Mas strengthened his hold on the Vuelta’s red leader’s jersey, gaining nearly 30 seconds on second-place Primož Roglič.

The BBC is covering everything but the actual Tour of Britain, showing far more interest in flower-covered bikes and Spitfire flybys.

A writer for PeopleForBikes says that when the Philadelphia Cycling Classic returned to the city for the first time in ten years, it found a new cycling team and bike club from his own neighborhood.

 

Finally…

Your next cargo bike could have just a basket upfront, and no battery anywhere. Riding a bicycle to map the city’s crappy sidewalks.

And more proof that trees are out to get us.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Failed bike bill wins in principle, Trump’s war on DEI bike lanes mirrors state’s attack on Forest Lawn Dr, and WeHo sued over Ackerman death

September 3, 2026 / / No comments

Calbike writes that there is victory in defeat for Encinitas State Senator Catherine Blakespear’s SB 569.

The bill would have prohibited the removal of any bike lane without ensuring that whatever follows provides a safe and accessible environment for bicyclists.

Yet the legislature affirmed the general principle behind the bill by adding a budget amendment limiting the application to the Santa Fe Drive project in Encinitas, which motivated SB 569 in the first place.

The budget bill prevents Encinitas from removing the bike lane on Santa Fe Drive, which was built using state General Fund money, unless the city can ensure that bike riders will be as safe without the bike lane as they are with it.

According to Calbike,

In doing so, the underlying principle behind the bill has now been validated by the Legislature: public investment in safe bikeways should have the same presumption of durability we expect from other roadway investments, especially if we expect people to shift how they travel.

The concept underlying SB 569 is bigger than protecting any particular strip of pavement. At CalBike, we see it as protecting the integrity of public investment. A bikeway is part of a network, so removing one segment can cause damage well beyond that block: a comfortable route to a school can suddenly have a dangerous gap, a connection to transit can become inaccessible to many riders, and a network that took years to assemble is often only as strong as its weakest link. When faced with such gaps, many would-be bike riders find the risk intolerable and opt into more car trips.

Which is a lot of words to say that bicyclists rely on an entire bike network to get where they’re going safely, and removing any one segment can make the entire network less safe, and less practical to use.

So even though the larger bill lost in this session, at least the legislature seems to get that bike networks need to be maintained in their entirety. And that losing one link degrades the whole damn thing.

Then again, the same could be said of not building promised bike lanes, which is what Metro is being sued over on the Vermont corridor.

And what the legislature actively prevented on Forest Lawn Drive.

………

Even People magazine has picked up the story of the Trump Administration’s bizarre war on “DEI” bike lanes, as if bikes were part of a secret commie plot to disadvantage white male drivers in favor of trans nonwhite women on bicycles.

The story includes this gem —

In an email statement to NPR, a DOT spokesperson said it “continuously reviews its policies to ensure each promotes safety, efficiency, and common sense.”

“Since nearly 80% of the population uses cars to get to work and their important medical appointments, we are taking a closer look at federal guidance to ensure American families have the infrastructure they need,” the statement said, per the outlet. “This is a common sense approach despite the Left’s belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda.”

I would like it on the record that I, for one, have never knowingly eaten a single cricket, though I do sometimes sleep with my mouth open, so who knows.

Then again, our own state legislature has joined in that same war on bike lanes, DEI or otherwise, by passing legislation at the financial behest of Forest Lawn and Mt. Sinai cemeteries, that will make it difficult, if not impossible, to improve the bike lanes and traffic safety on Forest Lawn Drive.

So it’s not just the right making bizarre decisions to block bike lanes and keep our streets and highways dangerous.

And yes, this tweet from Elmo — no, not that one — pretty well sums it up.

Twitter post

Or this, for that matter.

Twitter post

………

No surprise here, as the family of fallen bike rider Blake Ackerman has filed a lawsuit against the city of West Hollywood, as well as the alleged hit-and-run driver who killed him.

WeHo Times writes,

According to court records obtained by WEHO TIMES, Robin L. Ackerman filed the lawsuit individually and as successor-in-interest to the estate of her son, Blake Adam Ackerman. The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, names Douglas Morton Adams, the driver accused of striking Ackerman, along with several unidentified government entities and other defendants.

The lawsuit alleges negligence, a dangerous condition of public property and wrongful death. It seeks damages to be determined at trial and requests a jury trial.

The family could have a good case, considering the city’s dithering over building the long-promised protected bike lanes on Fountain Ave that might have prevented his death.

As the lawsuit alleges, the city knew the roadway was dangerous for bicyclists but failed to make the necessary safety improvements.

West Hollywood is moving forward with the project now, although with the usual glacial speed. But as usual, the decision to move forward comes too late for Ackerman.

………

I recently received a request to add a specialized mountain bike suspension shop in Irvine to our list of bike shops on the Resources page.

However, I’m planning to remove that page, because it’s nearly impossible to keep it current the way bike shops come and go these days. So I responded with a counter offer to allow them to introduce themselves to you.

And yes, I’m open to any other bike shops who want to send me a similar description.

ST Tuned is a mountain bike suspension shop based in Irvine, CA, specializing exclusively in suspension service, tuning, and setup for Fox, RockShox, Öhlins, Cane Creek and DVO. We’re not a general bike shop — suspension is the only thing we do, which means every rebuild, tune, and setup gets the kind of dedicated attention a shop juggling a dozen other services simply can’t offer.

Owner Mike Boon brings over 20 years of experience to every bike that comes through the shop, with a factory-level approach to rebuilds, custom valving, and bushing work. Whether a rider needs a full damper rebuild, a simple sag and setup session, or help troubleshooting a fork or shock that just doesn’t feel right anymore, the goal is always the same: get the suspension performing the way it was actually designed to.

One of the things that sets us apart is our on-trail suspension setup service. Rather than just dialing in numbers in a parking lot, we’ll go out on the actual trail with a rider and fine-tune sag, rebound, and compression based on how the bike feels over real terrain — roots, chunk, drops & jumps, whatever that rider actually rides. It’s a level of setup that’s hard to get anywhere else, and it usually ends with a rider feeling a difference they can’t believe they’d been riding without.

While ST Tuned is based in Irvine, we work with riders throughout Southern California — not just Orange County — and also offer mail-in suspension service for riders further out who want the same level of service without the drive.

Riders can find more information & book a service at sttuned.com or call the shop at (714)213-3083.

………

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Murrieta is taking the fight against reckless teen ebike riders a step further, with a new ordinance that penalizes not only the rider, but also the parents of kids who ride recklessly on electric bicycles — even though the problem isn’t actually ebikes, but illegal e-motos and dirt bikes that are inexplicably mistaken for bicycles.

………

Local 

Something to look forward to, as you could be banned from using certain streets during the ’28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with a travel network set aside for the exclusive use of Olympic traffic.

As the late, great John Prine said, your flag decal may not get you into heaven anymore, but your Santa Monica library card could get you discounts are local shops, including Bike Attack Electric and Road Runner Sports, among others.

 

State

Something called Fast Food Club lists ten California towns that are “perfect for a long, happy retirement,” many of which are bike friendly. And none of which are Los Angeles. 

Sad news from Kern County, where an ebike rider was killed in Taft on Wednesday when he was right hooked by the driver of a utility truck while riding against traffic on the sidewalk. And yes, sidewalks are bidirectional, and there’s no restriction on which way you can ride, but drivers too often won’t be looking for you as they look the other way for oncoming traffic. 

Police in Redwood City busted a serial bike thief for the second time, after receiving 10 separate reports of bicycle thefts from the Caltrain commuter line, one year after arresting the same man for the same crime.

Sad news from Auburn, where a 41-year old man was killed Monday when he was struck by three separate drivers as he tried to cross a highway on his bicycle.

Still more sad news from Northern California, where a 62-year old man was killed by a driver while riding a bicycle in Hayward on Monday.

 

National

A writer for Cycling West says local bike shops are fighting for their lives amid Trump’s up-and-down tariffs, and competition from direct sales, big box stores and online retailers. Which is why you should ride to your favorite LBS today and buy something. Anything. 

Portland, Oregon is about to experience its own Carmageddon, encouraging motorists to ride their bikes, while at the same time warning bike riders about increased dangers on the streets when the southbound portion of I-5 shuts down for five weeks.

Unlike the Pennsylvania story a little further down, police in Utah got it right, citing a driver for failure to yield after right-hooking a 14-year old kid riding a bike in the same direction as the driver.

New York bike riders now have a new 5.5-mile protected bike lane between Sunset Park and Dumbo. Insert elephant joke here.

Bystanders in Prospect Park, Pennsylvania came to the rescue when a woman riding an ebike was pinned under a VW bug after she was right hooked, lifting the car off her to free her. Although the local TV station bizarrely framed it as demonstrating the dangers of ebikes and not wearing a helmet, rather than drivers not using their damn mirrors before making a turn. 

She gets it. A North Carolina YMCA cycling instructor talks bike safety in the wake of the recent Milligan University massacre, reminding drivers that the speed limit is the maximum speed allowed, not how fast they have to go, and end with this — “Our roads belong to all of us. Every person using them has responsibilities, and every person using them deserves to get home safely.”

 

International

A bicycling club in Ontario, Canada celebrates their last tandnnmnnffffffsk            em ride of the season for visually impaired bicyclists. Okay, that’s where I fell asleep while typing. Well, one of the places. 

As we mentioned the other day — no, not that one, the other one — a British bike shop specializing in ebikes left customers hanging when they abruptly closed after 34 years, including one customer who paid the equivalent of more than $14,000 for two ebikes that were never delivered.

A writer for France Today invites readers to explore the country’s roads and bicycle routes — and asks French drivers to show a little understanding.

 

Competitive Cycling

Twenty-one-year old British “super-sprinter” Matthew Brennan won his third stage of the Vuelta on Wednesday’s stage 11, as race leader Enric Mas retained his 1:18 lead over Primož Roglič.

British cyclist Lewis Askey won the opening stage of the men’s Tour of Britain yesterday, finishing two seconds ahead of Italian Fillipo Ganna in a sprint finish.

Even Geraint the dog, named for British cycling great Geraint Thomas, turned out to line the course for the first stage of the Tour of Britain.

Nineteen-year old Ezra Caudell of the Modern Adventure Pro Cycling team remains hospitalized with what’s described as “multi-system trauma” after crashing hard with Lotto-Intermarché rider Milan Menten at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic; there’s no word yet on Menten’s condition.

 

Finally…

That feeling when the city paints a bike lane on the sidewalk, even though the same city bans bikes on sidewalks. Or when it’s harder to pedal your bike in rent-burdened neighborhoods.

And seriously, if you’re riding a bicycle after dark with coke hidden in your sock, put a damn light on it, already.

The bike, that is, not the sock. Or the coke.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

San Diego completes 75% of bike plan, stoned double killer appeals murder convictions, and WeHo opens ebike voucher portal

August 6, 2026 / / No comments

San Diego, you’re looking good.

In a story hidden behind their usual draconian paywall, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that a new study from San Diego State University shows the city has completed 75% of the bike infrastructure called for in the city’s 2013 bicycle master plan.

Which compares favorably to Los Angeles, which has completed somewhere south of 5% of its plan adopted a few years earlier.

In addition, just over 80% of the city’s major streets have some sort of bikeway, even if most have disconnected sections forcing riders to fight their way through traffic, and only 8% of that is protected.

According to the paper,

The report also pointed to the need for more low-stress biking options, such as designated bikeways or multi-use paths dedicated to cyclists and pedestrians — types of infrastructure where riders face less traffic stress. While 63% of the network is considered low-stress, over 30% of the network is considered high-stress, the study found.

“While a majority of the network is technically bikeable, a substantial portion consists of high stress segments that may discourage use, particularly among the ‘interested but concerned’ population,” the authors wrote.

Still, it seems like they’re doing a lot more, and a lot better, than their much larger neighbor to the north, even if the city is experiencing some bikelash right now.

Meanwhile, another report shows that despite a recent dip on eight monitored corridors, San Diego bike ridership is still up 17% since 2019.

While San Diego makes progress, today’s image offers the view from Los Angeles. 

………

Once again, most of the story is hidden behind a paywall.

But there’s enough left uncovered to know that Mandy Marie Benn, the now 46-year old woman who was (allegedly) stoned out of her mind on prescription drugs and participating in a live Facebook chat when she killed two men taking part in a 300-mile Michigan Make-A-Wish fundraising ride in 2022, is appealing the murder convictions that resulted in a minimum 70-years behind bars, alleging prosecutors failed to prove a required element of the crime.

Benn was sentenced to two consecutive 35-to-60 year terms, which would make her about 160-some years old if she served her full terms. Which somehow seems a little unlikely.

So I’ll settle for her getting out at a tad over 112 years old even if she serves the minimum. Because that’s someone who should never see the light of day again, but you never know what the courts will do.

………

West Hollywood is accepting applications for their new ebike incentive program, offering up to 50 vouchers covering the full cost of purchase, plus maintenance.

That compares favorably with Los Angeles, which instead is considering cracking down on ebikes, seeing ebikes as a problem to be squashed, rather than an asset to encourage.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles teenager warns about the dangers of ebikes after she was severely injured going over the handlebars “at a really high speed” last year.

Which is a pretty good indication that she was probably riding an illegal e-moto, or at least an illegally hacked ebike, rather than an electric bicycle.

Thanks to Andrew for the heads-up. 

………

Local 

WeHo will new require dockless ebike and e-scooter users to park in mandatory designated areas.

 

State

Irvine has officially been crowned as the least-stressed city in Southern California, and the 7th in the nation by WalletHub, and oddly, scored exactly the same rankings as SoCal’s fittest city and the 7th in the US, according to the American Fitness Index.

Australian bike retailer BikesOnline has opened their first physical US location in San Clemente.

A new report shows San Francisco is experiencing a higher number of severe crashes now than when the city adopted Vision Zero in 2014. Or as we say here in LA, welcome to the club.  

 

National

Triathlon site Slowtwitch discusses the most common mistakes new cyclists make. Actually, the most common mistake new cyclists make is trying to become cyclists, instead of just learning to enjoy riding a bicycle before trying to win a Grand Tour.

A pair of college students rode across the US, raising $15,000 for lone soldiers in Israel. Although maybe someone can explain what the hell a lone soldier is, and why they need our financial support.

A Cedar Rapids, Iowa nonprofit is working with the city to refurbish bicycles and distribute them to people who lack reliable transportation.

A Michigan woman is impressed by a young man she saw riding a bicycle on the gravel shoulder of the road as she drove by, assuming from his fast food uniform that he must be a dedicated worker riding to and/or from work dressed like that. If she’s that impressed, maybe she should leave her car at home and try it herself next time. 

New York’s city council is considering at least 17 bills cracking down on ebikes and e-motos, which is like comparing apples and IndyCars; meanwhile, New York Mayor Mamdani orders 42 makes of illegal ebikes to stop selling in the city.

 

International

The CBC talks with the first “excited” bicyclists and pedestrians to cross the newly opened multi-use path on the newly opened Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan.

Talk about not getting it. The UK is closing a number of shared-use paths located near major roadways, because the nearby traffic makes them too heavily polluted.

Shocking, I know. But despite the 134 “cycle streets” in Brussels, Belgium, where drivers are limited to 19 mph and not allowed to overtake bicyclists, bike riders still worry about their safety because too many drivers refuse to follow the rules.

The 18-year old grandson of legendary Australian ultracyclist Bob Montgomery remembers his 82-year old grandfather and riding companion, who died suddenly just one day after completing a ride across the continent to raise funds for a Motor Neurone Disease charity.

 

Competitive Cycling

For the first time in four days, the yellow jersey remained on the same shoulders as Marlen Reusser defended her narrow 12 second lead, while Demi Vollering outsprinted Kasia Niewiadoma and Reusser to win the 5th stage of the Tour de France Femmes.

Former Swiss champ Noemi Rüegg was knocked off her bike when a race moto clipped her handlebars in the “chaos” of the Tour’s 5th stage; she got back on her bike and finished the stage, but it was unclear if she was injured.

Aussie triathlete Tilly Offord is working her way back to competing in the LA Olympics in two years, after her road to the ’24 Paris Games was derailed by a near-fatal distracted driver while on a training ride in 2022.

 

Finally…

It took a bicycling food vendor for us to discover there’s a California in Trinidad & Tobago. Your next bike could be a sit-down electric scooter with pedals.

And your next cup of Joe could help fund safer streets.

………

One last note.

I just got my first order of these T-shirts, and even I have to admit they look damn good, and even better in person. So order one, already.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

LA media claims opposition is growing to planned Overland Ave bike lanes, and 3 LA area open streets events compete on Sunday

July 15, 2026 / / One comment

No bias here.

According to Fox-11, opposition is growing to bike lanes on Overland Ave in Culver City, as some residents claim to represent all, or at least most residents, in opposing the Better Overland plan.

And as usual, they brought out the standard list of objections, claiming we’re taking space away from cars, and that protected bike lanes — which have repeatedly been proven to improve traffic safety for all road users — would somehow make the street more dangerous.

Never mind that it’s already dangerous, with speeding drivers zooming past a couple schools, two cemeteries and a library.

Naturally, they complain, like locals everywhere who haven’t been paying attention, that the city hasn’t done enough outreach. Because apparently, more than two years of outreach just isn’t enough.

One man even claimed that he drove both directions on Overland and didn’t see a single bike rider at the exact time and locations he happened to be passing by. And bringing to mind the old saying that just because you don’t see anyone swimming across the river, that doesn’t mean you don’t need a bridge.

Honestly, it would be funny if it wasn’t just so damn sad. Because you can hear exactly the same comments at any public meeting for any traffic safety project, in every neighborhood of every city.

And I have.

Wash, rinse and repeat.

I used to think the loudest voices, voicing the most complaints, represented the majority of people. Until Measure HLA passed by an overwhelming two-thirds majority. Which told anyone paying attention that most people — or at least, most people who bother to vote — want safer, more livable streets.

Unfortunately, that message seems to have somehow bypassed LA’s mayor and city council.

Let’s hope Culver City’s leaders get the message, anyway.

………

It’s going to be a very busy weekend.

Because not one, not two, but three open streets events will take place on the same day this Sunday.

The list starts with the very popular Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia connecting Hollywood with West Hollywood along Hollywood Blvd, Highland Ave and Santa Monica Blvd, from 9 am to 4 pm.

Then there’s Beach Streets in Downtown Long Beach, offering four hubs along Cherry, Broadway and Pine from 11 am to 4 pm, with the added bonus of the World Cup finale on a 16-foot LED TV, featuring Spain and a team to be determined at the North Pine hub.

Finally, there’s the COAST 2026 open streets festival in Santa Monica from 10 am to 6 pm, extending more than a mile in downtown on Ocean, Colorado, and Arizona aves, Third Street Promenade, and the Santa Monica Pier; they will also have a World Cup watch party, along with music and entertainment on four stages.

Which means if you plan it right, you could theoretically ride CicLAvia from WeHo to Hollywood in the morning, catch a train to Long Beach to watch the World Cup, then hurry your ass up to Santa Monica before they roll up the streets at 6.

I said it’s possible, not plausible.

Unfortunately, I’m going to miss all three, as well as the World Cup finale, because I have been told that celebrating my wife’s birthday with my in-laws trumps any and all other plans.

I just wish they were at least soccer fans.

………

Apparently, scientists still can’t figure out why a bicycle works.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

As if it wasn’t bad enough competing for space on the streets, San Jose bicyclists had to cope with three people illegally riding their motorcycles on a local bike path; one person who was arrested, and had his motorcycle impounded, had covered his license plate in an attempt to avoid getting caught.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Sacramento CBS station is stoking the flames of panic after a large bicycle group accused of swarming cars and appearing to strike them announced plans for another ride in the area. Although it’s not clear if they meant a large group of bicyclists, or a group that rides large bicycles.

Um, okay. A bike-riding Dublin, Ireland city councilor says it was “really lovely” to see a city-sponsored campaign depicting bicyclists riding through red lights, because no one else is documenting how ofter bike riders do it. Other than virtually every TV station and newspaper, anyway.

……….

Local 

Next time you ride the LA River bike path, keep your eyes and ears peeled for musicians, including renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Streetsblog says LADOT is making progress on a $7 million, 3-mile extension of the popular Chandler bikeway.

Culver City Walk ‘n Rollers is hosting a family friendly Sweet Streets Ride this Saturday to sample some of the tastiest treats the city has to offer.

 

State

Three people were hospitalized when someone on an ebike allegedly crashed into the side of an SUV in Fullerton late Monday night, although there’s no word on how badly anyone was injured, only that the ebike rider and two people in the SUV suffered “injuries of varying severity.” There’s also no word on what type of ebike it was, since the cops seem to lump anything with a battery together as ebikes, whether legal or otherwise. 

In yet another story hidden behind their draconian paywall, the San Diego Union Tribune explains what it means when federal authorities, aka ICE, say a car is weaponized. Something that virtually every bike rider is clear on, even if the feds aren’t.

Sad news from San Mateo County, where a 34-year old bike rider was killed in a head-on collision when the driver of a Porsche crossed onto the wrong side of the road; the CHP said speed was definitely a factor.

More sad news from San Francisco, where a man who appeared to be in his 50s was killed when he was struck by a driver while riding his bike early Tuesday.

San Francisco is considering a nearly $2 million settlement with the family of a 70-year old man who died 12 days after he was doored by a city worker while riding his bike.

A San Francisco writer says “It’s a short path from winning on bike lanes to becoming social-justice scolds,” arguing that the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition now considers it a racist act to report a bike theft.

A 71-year old man will face multiple charges, including murder, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run causing death, for killing two 17-year old girls riding their bicycles in West Sacramento last year; the defense claims he wasn’t really drunk, just bipolar.

 

National

A slide show curated by AI highlights 13 US cities that excel at carfree living. Because really, who knows more about living carfree than some lifeless, legless artificial intelligence program? 

Velo recommends the year’s best road bikes, which actually might be, for a change.

Cycling West offers a beautiful bicycle watercolor by artist Moh’d Bilbeisi.

No bias here. A Bend, Oregon paper examines whether the city should ban right turns on red lights, making an effective case for the increased risk they pose — then concludes that the city’s current policy of making a case-by-case determination works just fine, thank you.

Good news from Kansas City, Kansas, after an eight-year old boy who disappeared while riding his bicycle was found safe, and apparently unharmed.

We can add Somerville, Massachusetts to the very short list of towns that have made Vision Zero work; the town credits “tried-and-true best practices for traffic safety” for why they’ve now gone three years without a traffic death. Although having a population under 85,000 doesn’t hurt.

New York Streetsblog says 16,000 fewer daily car trip on the Queensboro Bridge means it’s time to convert a traffic lane into a bikeway to accommodate the increasing number of bike riders.

While we’re on the subject of New York, the Department of Transportation is phasing out the traditional “Mushroom Head” stencil of a helmeted, stick-figure riding a bicycle in favor of a plain bicycle stencil.

A Philadelphia driver was charged with attempted murder for nearly killing a man riding a bicycle, in what reportedly began as a dispute over a stolen BMX bike.

Atlanta residents are calling for changes to a protected bike lane, after discovering the city’s drivers apparently lack the necessary skill to avoid crashing into the barrier protecting the bike lane. Although it’s better to crash into the barrier than the people riding on the other side.

 

International

Road.cc rounds up 14 of the best bike-related TED talks from around the interwebs. Every time I open my mouth is a Ted talk.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 83-year old man just set a new record for riding the full length of Great Britain, covering over 1,000 miles in under 11 days.

Good idea. The UK’s largest bicycle trade group is launching a campaign to tag actual ebikes so customers can distinguish road legal ebikes and from illegal electric motorbikes.

Momentum says US cities should pay attention to Paris, which grew bicycling rates by 240% in just five years. To which every American city responded, “But we’re not Paris!”

Instead of just dropping a couple new ebikes into the marketplace, Volkswagen developed an entire automotive-inspired ecosystem around the bikes, “which riders can call upon to ride safer, faster, and more connected.”

The New Indian Express says ultracycling is “the new vogue” in Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore, drawing bicyclists who see it as a test of endurance.

China Daily says Chinese bicyclists are making a beeline to Shenzhen in Guangdong province for new bicycling facilities, including a 125-mile bike trail connecting “more than 10 of the city’s major peaks, 17 nature parks, eight large reservoirs, over a dozen historical and cultural sites and nine key urban development areas,” as well as a coastal bikeway linking parks, fishing harbors, docks and ancient villages.

 

Competitive Cycling

Four-time Tour de France champ Tadej Pogačar feasted on the tears of his enemies with another crushing victory in yesterday’s hilly 10th stage, for his third stage win in this year’s Tour, and a lead of more than three-and-a-half minutes after just a week and a half of racing.

Fans have taken to booing Pogačar, apparently because of his dominance in the race, although maybe it was just because he shamed the French riders on Bastille Day.

Cyclist takes a look at the books to see who and what the WorldTour team sponsors really are, while Bike Radar considers how much Tour de France bikes have changed in 124 years.

Thirty-three-year old South African cyclist Willie Smit was booted from the China’s Tour of Magnificent Qinghai after just one stage for recording the race on his AI-enabled Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses; UCI rules only allow cameras to be mounted directly on a bicycle, not the rider.

Philadelphia Magazine profiles the hairstylist and bicyclist responsible for reviving the Philadelphia Cycling Classic after a ten-year absence.

Keep your eye on nine-year old Nino O’Connell, who found out this weekend’s single-speed race for his age group had been dropped, so he’ll be lining up against the grownups, with every intention of winning.

 

Finally…

Like they say, a friend will help you move, but a real friend will help you move a body on a bicycle in the heavy rain. No, the bike rack on the front of a Metro bus is not intended for temporary seating.

And that feeling when the damn rules get in the way of the really cool stuff.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s not even safe to have lunch anymore, fleeing a crash is no big deal anymore, and the Hollywoods won’t be separate much longer

July 8, 2026 / / One comment

This is who we share the road with.

Even people dining on a restaurant patio aren’t safe from cars, after a driver plowed into tables on the sidewalk outside a Boyle Heights restaurant.

At least two three people were injured when a motorist somehow lost control of their SUV and drove onto the sidewalk at Los 5 Puntos near Lorena Street and Cesar Chavez Ave around 3 pm Tuesday.

A woman dining at the restaurant suffered severe leg injuries, while her daughter was shaken but not seriously hurt; a passerby was also injured when the SUV shoved a trash can into him.

Local residents said the intersection is prone to crashes, yet, typically for Los Angeles, nothing seems to have been done about it.

………

Apparently, fleeing the scene of a fatal crash is just no big deal anymore.

Consider Kansas, where a 21-year old man walked without a day behind bars for killing a 57-year old man riding a bicycle, after a judge sentenced him to a lousy 36 months probation.

Then there’s Minnesota, where the 70-year old former owner of a popular Minneapolis area restaurant walked without a day behind bars for killing a bike rider with his catering truck, despite getting out to check on the victim, then getting back in his SUV and driving away, leaving his dying victim in the middle of the road.

Which raises the question of why wouldn’t you just drive off after a crash, if the worst you’re going to face isn’t even a slap on the wrist?

Especially here in Los Angeles, where you have a 99% chance of getting away with it, and most non-fatal hit-and-runs don’t even get investigated.

………

West Hollywood offers a reminder about next weekend’s Meet the Hollywoods CicLAvia on Sunday, the 19th.

………

Encinitas State Senator Catherine Blakespear has posted video of her recent webinar examining the challenges and solutions for ebike safety — which starts with her bill to clearly define ebikes, and prohibits the wink-wink selling of electric motorbikes mislabeled as ebikes.

………

Now you, too, can get a real, honest-to-gosh Tour de France bicycle at a discount.

Maybe.

………

Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

Lime has refused to take any responsibility after an underaged boy illegally riding one of their dockless ebikes crashed into a woman in her 60s walking in a pedestrianized London square, resulting in 36 days in a hospital and 18 months learning how to walk again.

………

Local 

The Southern California Association of Governments, aka SCAG, invites public feedback on the six-county regional transportation plan. That’s easy. Stop wasting taxpayer money on highways, and invest it all in transit, biking and walking projects that will do more good. 

Los Angeles DA Nathan Hochman warns parents that Orange County isn’t the only place where they could face criminal charges for knowingly allowing their kids to ride an ebike in an unsafe or illegal way that leads to a serious crash.

LA drivers could now get fined a whopping $63 for violating the state’s daylighting law by parking too close to the corner.

Streetsblog’s Joe Linton examines the nearly completed La Crescenta Ave. Bikeway in Glendale. Which looks good, although those white plastic bollards won’t keep anyone or anything out.

Burbank lawyer Adrianos Facchetti is once again asking for nominations for his law firm’s Kids for Bikes program, looking ten local kids between the ages of 6 and 17 who deserved to be honored with a new bicycle, helmet and a t-shirt; they must live within ten miles of the firm’s office at 4444 W Riverside Drive in Burbank.

A South Pas website examines the city’s popular bike bus.

CBS LA, nee KCBS-2, says Santa Clarita’s new $7 million Haskell Canyon Bike Park is already becoming one of the leading mountain bike destinations in Southern California.

 

State

The family of 6-year old fallen bicyclist Hudson O’Laughlin has filed a claim against San Diego, arguing the city should have known that the Pacific Beach sidewalk and street where he was killed by a hit-and-run driver was dangerous.

Bad news from Hesperia, where a 67-year-old man suffered major injuries when he allegedly swerved his bicycle into the side of a pickup driven by an 84-year old Apple Valley man. As usual, a lot depends on whether there were any independent witnesses who observed the crash, because “bicyclists swerving into vehicles” usually means the elderly driver drifted into the bike rider.  

Albany approved an active transportation plan Monday evening, featuring a protected bike lane on one side of the city’s main merchant corridor.

The Napa Valley Register explains when and why bicyclists can take the lane, which even the DMV recognizes is often the safest thing for riders to do. And it’s legal to do in any lane that’s a substandard width, which is most of the right traffic lanes in Southern California, particularly when they allow parking on the right side. 

A Reno TV station reports an ebike rider is in critical condition after a crash in Mammoth Lakes, even though the victim was struck by a driver, and what kind of bicycle they were on didn’t seem to have anything to do with it.

 

National

The American Discovery 250 Relay kicked off on July 4th, with hikers and bike riders passing batons containing a copy of the Declaration of Independence as they traverse the 6,800-mile American Discovery Trail from Point Reyes, California to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware.

Members of my college fraternity are biking across the US in both directions for the 33rd straight year to call attention to people with disabilities, with separate teams riding east to west and west to east. Although not my chapter, which was dissolved by the Supreme Chapter a few years after I left, for reasons that were never publicly explained, and which I hopefully had nothing to do with.

Apparently, platinum level status is not guarantee of safety, as a woman riding a bicycle was killed by the driver of a semi while she was trying to get around a street repaving project, on a street in my bicycle friendly Colorado hometown where I used to walk, bike and drive on a regular basis.

A pair of Texas teens have now been arrested for the hit-and-run crash that killed a 43-year old man riding a bicycle — one for fleeing the scene, and the other for lying to the cops to protect the kid behind the wheel.

San Antonio, Texas will open a second round of $1,000 ebike vouchers for lower-income residents. Which compares favorably to LA’s voucher program, which doesn’t exist.

Northwest Arkansas’ Tri-Region E-Bike Incentive Program intends to distribute 5,800 vouchers worth up to $1,200 off the price of an ebike. Which compares favorably to California’s Ebike Incentive Program, which no longer exists because electric cars are more important. 

Sad news from St. Paul, Minnesota where a 67-year old man riding a bicycle was killed in a dooring, yet the driver wasn’t ticketed or arrested. No matter what state you’re in, drivers are required to make sure there’s no one in their way before opening a car door, yet police too often treat it as just another “oopsie.”

There’s a special place in hell for whoever shot a five-year old Detroit boy as he rode his bicycle outside his home.

Anne Hathaway’s production company plans to flip the script, and produce a movie about four young women competing in Indiana University’s famed Little 500 bike race, made famous in Breaking Away, and still the best bike movie of all time. Go ahead. Take my money now.

Vermont mountain bikers are building an ambitious 485-mile multi-use trail known as the Velomont that will span the entire length of the state, and is designed to be accessible to anyone, regardless of disabilities.

A Washington DC website looks back at the cross-country Bikecentennial bike rides in 1976, as several hundred small groups rode across the US in both directions to mark the nation’s bicentennial.

A Virginia news anchor rode his bike across the state to mark the country’s 250th birthday.

 

International

In kind of a strange move, bicyclists and local residents in Edmonton, Alberta came together to protest a plan for a road diet and protected bike lanes, in favor of retaining street parking and settling for painted bike lanes.

Residents of Exeter, England want to reopen a road that was closed to vehicular traffic six years ago, while continuing to retain a “low speed environment” that prioritizes “walking, wheeling and cycling whilst retaining access for two way traffic.” Which could be difficult considering how narrow the street is. 

Wales intends to become a bicycling destination, a goal they think will be helped by hosting the final leg of next year’s UK Grand Depart for the Tour de France. Although it would help if anyone could pronounce the names of the local towns.

An Irish man is on a 2,200-mile fundraising ride around Ireland, in hopes of raising £2,200 — the equivalent of $2938 — or a pound a mile.

A Wisconsin man is riding 8,000 miles across Asia to raise awareness for cancer and transplant treatments.

 

Competitive Cycling

It looks like you’ll see the Russian cycling team compete in the ’28 LA Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee lifted the country’s suspension for invading Ukraine, even though they’re still bombarding Ukraine on a daily basis. Russia, that is. Not the IOC.

Mads Pedersen sprinted to victory on stage 4 of the Tour de France, leading a strong breakaway that survived to the finish line, and put Norway’s Torstein Træen into the yellow jersey with a nearly eight-minute margin over previous leaders Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, four years after Træen was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Road.cc examines how Tour de France bikes have changed over the past 32 years. I’ll take that steel frame ’94 Pinarello, thank you.

Visma-Lease a Bike’s black kits demonstrate that fabric matters more than color when it comes to keeping riders cooler in Europe’s excessive heat.

Twenty-two-year old Mexican star Isaac del Toro’s win in stage two of the Tour has his fellow countrymen continuing to think “¿Y si sí?”, or “What if he did?” win the entire race. Although the chances of that happening this year aren’t much better than their World Cup team, unless something drastic happens to team leader Pogačar.

Cycling News considers the eternal question of why do cyclists shave their legs. Maybe they’re all secretly sponsored by Gillette.

 

Finally…

Yellow cards aren’t just for soccer players anymore. Your next ebike could actually be one.

And how to breathe life into a formerly fucked-up bike.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin.

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

West Hollywood named one of 8 to Watch, fallen Ventura County bicyclists ID’d on Instagram, and Macron gives Trump a bike

June 17, 2026 / / Comments Off on West Hollywood named one of 8 to Watch, fallen Ventura County bicyclists ID’d on Instagram, and Macron gives Trump a bike

Just a quick update today. 

I have an early commitment in the morning, and I’m still having trouble seeing after having my eyes dilated yesterday. 

On the plus side, though, I haven’t had to get a shot for retinal bleeding for over two years now. 

Photo from PeopleForBikes.

……….

So much for that embargo.

For more than a week, PeopleForBikes has provided me with information on the release of their new 2026 City Ratings, particularly West Hollywood being named one of their Eight Cities to Watch, on the condition that I keep it quiet until after 7 am today.

Then they posted it online themselves yesterday afternoon.

Go figure.

And yes, I would have held it if they did. But they didn’t, so let’s start with the good news.

While WeHo only rated a 37 out of a possible 100, ranking 1022 out of 3019 American cities, they think it’s worth keeping an eye on as the city continues to improve.

West Hollywood has been making big moves for better biking in recent years. In April 2025, the city council unanimously committed to building only protected bike infrastructure on future street projects — the first city in the Los Angeles area to do so — and followed it up by painting all existing bike lanes green on Fairfax Avenue, San Vicente Boulevard, and Santa Monica Boulevard for improved visibility. With the 2028 LA Olympics on the horizon, West Hollywood’s premier location in LA positions it as a key corridor for the broader active transportation push underway across Los Angeles ahead of the Games.

One reason they give is the future extension of the K Line, nee Crenshaw Line, into the city. Another will be the Complete Streets remake of Fountain Ave, although it’s questionable which of those will actually be completed first, given a lack of federal funding and the inevitable lawsuits.

On the other hand, WeHo compared very favorably to LA’s subpar rating of 32 compared to the national average of 36, ranking us 1350th in the US, and barely in the top 200 California cities at 195.

And no, Los Angeles is not a city to watch. Even if we have climbed from the nadir of 2023, when we scored a whopping 19.

Among other cities in LA County,

I guess Culver City shouldn’t have ripped out the MOVE Culver City protected bike lanes, after all.

There’s a lot I could quibble with on that list, but you can check out their methodology in the video below and decide for yourself.

And if your city isn’t on that list, you can click here for more California cities.

………

In response to yesterday’s post, thanks to David for pointing me to an Instagram post identifying the two victims killed by an alleged speeding, drunken driver in Ventura County last Thursday.

However, they still haven’t been publicly identified by any official source, so I won’t name them here. But reading what others had to say about them, it sounds like we lost some very exceptional people.

Then again, we’re all exceptional in some way, to someone.

There’s also no word yet on the name of the accused driver, who should have appeared in court by now, which raises the question of why they’re holding back his identification.

………

Finally, someone in France must have a hell of a sense of humor.

To promote the 2027 UCI Cycling World Championships, which will be held in France’s Haute Savoie region, French President Emmanuel Macron gave every leader attending the G7 conference at Lake Geneva a personalized Look bicycle.

Yes, even Donald Trump.

As Fortune wryly observed,

There was no hot mic moment to detect the reaction of Trump, who is not known to bike and has joked about doing minimal exercise beyond regular golf outings.

Despite being called — or calling himself — the fittest, healthiest president in recent history, Trump has said he will never, ever ride a bicycle, and has mocked Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and John Kerry for their two wheeled exploits.

Although I’d pay good money to see him try.

Maybe they didn’t have enough FIFA Peace Prizes for everyone.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Ackerman ghost bike returned, Long Beach 2nd on CA bike-friendly list and 10th is US, and educating LA bicyclists and drivers

June 3, 2026 / / One comment

Happy World Bicycle Day!

Or as it’s known in Los Angeles, Wednesday.

It’s also the day after Election Day. And if past is prologue, it could be a week or more before we know who actually won and lost, despite last night’s breathless news reports.

So take a breath, go for a bike ride, and pretend the past several weeks never happened for a few hours.

………

Blake Ackerman’s ghost bike is back.

The memorial to Ackerman, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding home from work at a downtown law firm last July, bizarrely disappeared without a trace from its location at Fountain and Gardner over the weekend.

However, WeHo Times reports it was returned after being discovered inside the garage of a nearby building, with no explanation of how it got there.

It’s possible that it was removed by someone who wanted to get rid of it. But it’s equally possible that it was taken in a misguided attempt to protect it, or by someone who didn’t understand its significance.

Meanwhile, 73-year old Douglas Morton Adams is still awaiting trial for fleeing the scene after killing Ackerman. He faces a maximum of just four years behind bars under California’s lenient hit-and-run laws

………

Long Beach is number two.

As opposed to Los Angeles, which only feels like it these days.

According to a new study from Holland Bikes, the beachfront city is the tenth most bike-friendly city in the US, and the second in California, behind only San Francisco.

The City by the Bay also ranked number one nationally, followed by Minneapolis, Seattle, Washington DC, New York City, Portland, Denver, Philadelphia, Boston and Long Beach.

As nice as the recognition is, however, and deserved though it may be, it’s important to remember that we see rankings like this at least every other month, and they all come up with different results.

So take it with a grain of salt.

Or maybe a bag, since decidedly bike-unfriendly Los Angeles is ranked as a country’s 22nd most bike friendly city, just four notches behind San Diego; Bakersfield just barely made the list at number 50.

Meanwhile, my platinum-level bike-friendly Colorado hometown is nowhere to be seen, along with a number of other notably bike-friendly cities, like Boulder, Colorado and Davis, California.

………

According to LA Weekly, what we have in Los Angeles isn’t a lack of safe bicycling infrastructure, but a lack of bicycling education, as more people continue to ride after the Covid bike boom.

Still, Andrea Aponte of CycleSafeLA believes the city has not fully caught up to this shift.

A League of American Bicyclists-certified cycling instructor, Aponte has spent more than a decade teaching riders how to safely navigate city streets. According to her, LA has embraced the conversation around bike infrastructure while overlooking the equally critical need for public education.

She points to Los Angeles’s Vision Zero initiative, launched in 2015 with a goal of eliminating traffic fatalities. Yet, she cites recent city data that shows roadway deaths continue to rise. With that context in mind, Aponte believes the conversation has become too heavily centered on physical infrastructure without enough attention placed on the human element of transportation safety.

She’s got a point.

Not that we shouldn’t focus on safer streets, but that we should also focus on surviving the streets we have. And too many people riding bikes today have no real concept of how to do that, simply because no one has taught them.

Although it can’t stop there.

Because every day, I read about experienced, if not expert, bicyclists who became the victims of people who apparently didn’t know how to share the road with them.

Or, perhaps, care.

Aponte also believes the responsibility for coexistence cannot rest entirely on cyclists themselves. “We need to start teaching drivers those same things,” she explains. “Sharing the road with micromobility users should be a much bigger part of driver education.” At the same time, she notes that pedestrians, wheelchair users, scooter riders, and anyone outside a vehicle occupy a vulnerable position within LA traffic systems. Keeping that in mind, Aponte argues that a safer transportation culture depends on recognizing those road users as active participants instead of hindrances.

“We are traffic, in fact, an active part of the traffic. A delay for a driver is an annoyance that can be simply fixed with a lane change, but for the cyclist, that can be a matter of survival,” she states, noting that this perspective often gets lost in public discourse surrounding cyclists. She believes misconceptions around riders tend to shape hostile attitudes on the road.

Aponte explains, “People think cyclists don’t belong there, but we absolutely do, based on the vehicle code. Many of us own cars too, we’re paying our taxes, we’re still contributing to the system, and we have our rights in it.”

It’s relatively easy to educate beginning drivers, since they’re required to take a test on their knowledge of traffic laws.

The problem is educating the great mass of motorists who took their tests long ago, and promptly forgot much of what they learned. And many whom learned the rules of the road when bikes were expected to stick to the gutter, if not the sidewalk.

The greater problem is how to educate bike riders, whose only barrier to using the streets is having a bike, and knowing how to pedal it without falling off.

We assume they know the rules of the road because they also learned to drive. Except roughly a third of Angelenos don’t drive, for whatever reason. And those that do may fall into the same problem we just discussed above.

I don’t have an easy answer to the problem. Or even a hard one, for that matter.

We’ve relied on educating bicyclists, in place of building safe bike infrastructure, since Forester wrote Effective Cycling back in the ’70s. And even before that, for those of us who remember the simplistic children’s bike safety books of the ’50s and ’60s.

All that got us was a small core of highly educated cyclists, and an ever-rising casualty rate.

Paris has shown us what can be done, virtually overnight, to turn a city from a series of traffic-choked car sewers to a bikeable, walkable 15-minute city.

But unless and until that happens here — which seems highly unlikely in the current environment — we’ve got to find another answer.

Because our lives literally depend on it.

……….

The next time someone insists roads were built for cars, point them to this piece from the History Channel.

The site explains that America’s first highways were built by The Good Roads Movement, a group of wealthy bicyclists on Penny-Farthings who were tired of riding in the mud.

And points back to our old friend Carlton Reid, who reminds us that the freedom promised by car ads was originally delivered by bicycles long before cars existed.

The first vehicle to deliver that sense of freedom was the bicycle, says Carlton Reid, a cycling journalist and historian whose book Roads Were Not Built for Cars traces the overlooked origins of America’s highway system. Before cars, before timetables-be-damned road trips, the bicycle was the first machine that let ordinary people go where they wanted, when they wanted, under their own power. No rail schedule, no horse to feed. Just themselves and the road. The winged logo of the League of American Wheelmen, the cycling organization that helped reshape American infrastructure in the 19th century, wasn’t decorative. It meant exactly what it looked like: flight.

When automobiles eventually promised this same unencumbered movement, much of the infrastructure they required already existed. Between 1880 and 1900, the Good Roads Movement, led by an unlikely coalition of urban cyclists and rural postal workers, overhauled the country’s abysmal dirt paths into a coordinated network of paved streets. By the time motorists claimed the movement as their own, cyclists had already established the Office of Road Inquiry and laid important legislative groundwork for the National Highway System we use today.

But as Reid notes, those highways carried the seeds of their own gridlock: “Cars are only useful when there’s a few of them. When there are millions and millions of them, their utility shrinks.” The open road, it turns out, was never meant for everyone.

Yet somehow, all those drivers never wrote to thank us for the roads they use every day.

Although as anyone who has ever ridden their bike past a long line of cars can tell you, that sense of freedom still exists. But only for those of us on two wheels.

No wonder they hate us.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

Toronto police are claiming a man rode his bicycle through a stop sign at a high rate of speed and shouted a profanity at officers before they tackled him to the ground, after twice shouting at him to stop; however, a bike lawyer says it reflects excessive force and a deeper anti-cyclist bias.

………

Local 

The Venice Neighborhood Council’s Parking, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee heard options for improving safety on the west end of Washington Blvd, including survey results calling for protected bike lanes.

 

State

Over 150 bicyclists turned out to remember a 7th grade Grass Valley, California student who died weeks after he was struck by a driver last month, and to call for drivers to watch for bikes.

 

National

Cycling Weekly offers more information about the America Bikes Act, a bipartisan effort to expand bicycling in the US, while improving safety and re-shoring bicycle manufacturing. Although its chances in the current political climate compare somewhat unfavorably to a snowball in hell.

A 66-year old ultra-endurance cyclist is attempting to become the first person to ride the entire 2,448-mile length of US Route 66 without stopping; Joe Barr left from Santa Monica Tuesday morning in his attempt to set a new Guinness World Record.

Hats off to an 11-year old Washington State girl, who built a bicycle repair station on a local bike path for her Girl Scout service project.

A man in Kent, Washington got his purloined pooch back when an enterprising cop tracked down the man’s stolen adult tricycle, complete with dognapped dog ensconced in a carrier on the back.

Colorado opened a new $1 million bike park between the towns of frostbitten Fraser, which is often the coldest spot in the continental US, and the Winter Park ski area, where I learned to ski, badly.

Ebikes of all kinds are even invading Iowa.

Three men from Argentina completed their 10,500-mile bicycle trip through a 17 countries by arriving in Kansas City to see their home country represented in the World Cup.

Thirty-nine bicyclists from the University of Texas are two weeks into a 4,000-mile ride from Texas to Alaska to raise funds for cancer research; one of the two teams has made it to Mesquite, Nevada.

Sad news from Indiana, where a 68-year old retired pastor was killed by a driver while riding his bike last month.

Kim Kardashian and F1 star Lewis Hamilton are officially a thing, outing their relationship while riding bikes together in New York.

Tiny Punta Gorda, Florida represents a bike-friendly dot in the country’s deadliest state for people on bicycles.

 

International

If you were riding your bike in Cambridgeshire, England on January 24th with your butt crack showing, police want to talk with you about a murder.

Your money at work. A London borough is promising to move a digital ad screen from the middle of a bike lane, after admitting the city built the bike lane around the digital sign, which has been at that location for four years.

London’s edition of the World Naked Bike Ride expects to draw more than 1,000 nude and partially dressed riders to the city’s streets to promote bicycling safety, environmental awareness and body positivity. And yes, as an American, I reject the yoke of oppression represented by the Oxford comma.

Forget Kenny, they killed Santa Claus. A 77-year old British bicycling instructor, known for portraying Father Christmas for local kids, was killed by a driver while on 24-hour, 240-mile fundraising ride in support of Motor Neuron Disease.

A Malaysian man continues to ride his bike, despite losing the use of his right hand in a motorcycle crash a dozen years ago.

 

Competitive Cycling

Your favorite cycling team could look a lot different next year, and some pros could end up on the outside looking for a team to ride with, in pro cycling’s annual game of contract musical chairs.

 

Finally…

Evidently, if you carry a surfboard on an ebike, you’re one of “the kookiest people on earth.” Wind tunnel tests prove tying long hair into a bun is more aerodynamic than a ponytail.

And a pub can somehow survive two world wars, a flood and a pair of pandemics, but can’t make it with a new bike path.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Bike to Work Day (not you LA), Reseda hit-and-run critically injures e-scooter user, and USDOT takes credit for Biden funding

May 14, 2026 / / One comment

Happy Bike to Work Day, or wherever the hell you want to ride.

Just get on your bike, and ride somewhere.

Unfortunately, Bike to Work Day seems to be a bust here in Los Angeles. Instead of the dozens of Pit Stops we enjoyed back in those heady pre-pandemic days, Metro is observing Bike Day with free Metro bus, bike and train rides.

But they’re doing it next Thursday, rather than today, for reasons known only to them. And the link for more information on their site was dead when I tried it last night.

Although it will be interesting to see if any of mayoral candidates or city council candidates rides a bike today, or even makes note of the day. So far, if any of the leading mayoral candidates other than Nithya Raman has even mentioned bicycles, I haven’t heard it.

But all is not lost.

A handful of other cities in the LA area still observe Bike to Work Day, to wit:

Look, I’m not saying I’m old. But I remember when Bike to Work Day used to be, you know, fun.

………

A man riding an e-scooter — or “e-shooter,” as KABC-7 called it — was critically injured in a Reseda hit-and-run last week, suffering what was described as “severe injuries.”

Although why we’re just learning about it now is anyone’s guess.

According to KABC-7,

The hit-and-run crash happened the morning of May 7. A dark-colored SUV traveling east on Strathern Street hit the victim who was riding an e-schooter in the bike lane along Reseda Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD detectives at 818/644-8025. Never mind that they might have gotten more help if they’d asked sooner.

………

Seriously?

The good news is the US Department of Transportation is releasing nearly $1 billion in Safe Streets and Roads for All grants, funding a total of 521 projects nationwide.

But they’re also making a point of putting President Trump’s and USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy’s names all over it. And taking an uncalled for swipe at their predecessors while they’re at it.

In April, Secretary Duffy announced the program had been retooled to remove DEI and environmental justice requirements installed by the last administration. These absurd requirements were bogging down the system and making it harder for dollars to flow to critical safety projects across the country.

“Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg inserted radical DEI and Green New Scam requirements into these safety grant programs – making it harder for communities to apply for these funds and delaying critical projects. Under President Trump’s leadership, we’ve put aside the woke nonsense and focused on one goal: safety,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “We’re moving these investments at the speed of Trump to save lives and deliver infrastructure upgrades that will benefit the American people for generations.” 

It continues funding at about the same level as under Biden, who established the program under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, providing $5 billion in competitive grants from 2022–2026.

I really don’t care if Trump and Duffy want to take credit for a program Biden created and funded.

But seriously, come on, already.

………

Streetsblog is sponsoring a three-way race from Beverly Hills to DTLA next week, according to their Headlines yesterday.

Next Tuesday May 19 is Streetsblog L.A.’s D Line Dash commuter race: a cyclist vs. a driver vs. a subway rider – all racing from Beverly Hills to Downtown Los Angeles. Watch this week’s short videos introducing the racers:bicyclist Michelle Moro and driver Rachel Reyes! Subway rider Kalayaan Mendoza will be featured tomorrow.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. Reuters writes that 50,000 people turned out for the opening of a new 1.2-mile bike and pedestrian bridge in Helsinki, Finland, yet focuses on the lack of car lanes and money the city has invested on public transport and bike lanes. Even though lumping the two together makes no sense, since public transport is a hell of a lot more expensive than bike lanes, and virtually any American city would kill for the cold and windy city’s 9%–11% bicycling rate.

Road.cc says viral video of “hated” bicyclists legally riding two abreast actually makes a better argument for protected bike lanes.

Twitter post

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

No bias here, either. A Milwaukee letter writer confuses free bike licenses with the kind drivers get after passing a test, saying those darn dangerous bike riders have to obey the law or be held accountable and fined. For anyone unclear on the concept, bicycles are licensed so they can be recovered and returned to the owner if they’re stolen, while driver’s licenses are intended to ensure people are capable of safely and legally operating their big, dangerous machines, even if they don’t actually do it in practice.

………

Local 

LAPD traffic detectives are still looking for the hit-and-run driver who severely injured a man in his 60s riding a bicycle at 20th and Hoover streets last May, although the “new video” cited in the story is nine months old.

Streets For All wants you to tell the City Council Rules Committee to fix the Public Works Department at this afternoon’s meeting. Because the way it works now, Public Works doesn’t. 

 

State

The Orange County DA’s office is opening a special unit to prosecute illegal ebike and e-motorcycle use, with a focus on potential criminal cases involving juveniles, adults and parents who knowingly allow children to ride illegal e-motos.

San Diego Mayor Gloria released his revised budget, which restores some funding for libraries and a dog park, but does nothing to reverse bike and traffic safety cuts.

The La Mesa City Council voted 4 to 1 to approve a new ebike ordinance, prohibiting children under 12 from riding any kind of ebikes.

San Francisco officially opened a new bikeway that closes a gap along the waterfront, providing a continuous route through Mission Bay.

Caltrans joined with a hundred or so Sacramento bicyclists to mark Bike Month last week.

 

National

A Reno, Nevada driver rolled the dice by fleeing the scene after killing a bike rider, running the victim down from behind while they were riding in a bike lane.

New York Mayor Mamdani is adding funding for additional bike and bus lanes to the city budget, and will extend an Astoria bike boulevard by installing a traffic circle to divert drivers from continuing forward.

Philadelphia advocates are marking Bike to Work or Bike to Anywhere Day by demanding safer streets for bike riders and pedestrians.

A Pennsylvania paper reminds us of next week’s Ride of Silence. Which LA Metro will probably ignore, too. 

The DC area is celebrating Bike to Work Day tomorrow, with over one hundred actual pit stops. Unlike a certain SoCal megalopolis I could name.

 

International

A writer for Cycling Weekly says he won’t ride without his rear-facing bike radar, calling it an essential safety device, despite initially dismissing it as “an expensive gimmick, a rich boy’s toy.”

Google Maps will now show bikeshare locations and how many bikes are available in ten cities around the world, including four in the US. And no, Los Angeles is not one of them. 

Momentum highlights the top 12 Canadian rail trails.

Speaking of commuter challenges, bicyclists dominated a series of bike versus car races in Victoria, British Columbia, with just a single driver winning their race, compared to 16 bike riders. Even though the the story mistakenly flips the numbers. 

 

Competitive Cycling

Thirty-two-year old Dutch sprinter Arvid de Kleijn is returning to the peloton after a turbulent off-season that included the birth of his first child, the death of his father, and a violent, unprovoked attack by a group of teens during a training ride that left him with a broken nose.

Spanish pro Igor Arrieta came back for a last-gasp win in stage 5 of the Giro, despite a fall, and taking a wrong turn near the end of the race.

 

Finally…

Crossing guards here, lollipop ladies there.

And that feeling when you want to float above your handlebars.

Reddit post

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Arrest in knife attack on WeHo bike rider, cemeteries still fighting Forest Lawn Drive project, and maybe there’s hope for LA yet

May 8, 2026 / / Comments Off on Arrest in knife attack on WeHo bike rider, cemeteries still fighting Forest Lawn Drive project, and maybe there’s hope for LA yet

Damn.

West Hollywood Sheriff’s detectives finally made an arrest in an attack on a bicyclist last August.

According to the Canyon News, a man was riding a bicycle near Westmount Drive and Rosewood Ave when someone threw a knife at him from a passing car, hitting him in the neck.

There’s no word on whether the rider was injured by the knife or how the suspect was located, nor is there any mention of possible charges.

But the suspect should be charged with attempted murder, because the knife assault could have been fatal if the attacker had better aim.

Image by Walter Bichler from Pixabay. 

………

Evidently, a group opposed to red light cameras has a lot more sway with local leaders than we do.

And oddly, they seem to be on our side.

According to the Jewish Journal, Mt. Sinai and Forest Lawn cemeteries are once again complaining about plans to improve safety on Forest Lawn Drive.

After talking with Mayor Karen Bass and CD4 Councilmember Nithya Raman, they thought the project had been put on hold, only to see it revived in response to pressure from Safer Streets LA.

Which, according to their website, exists to “Stop red light camera rip-offs,” and “Stop the plan to impose speed cameras on California.”

Nowhere on their site can I find any support for bike lanes or lane reductions on Forest Lawn. Or anywhere else, for that matter.

Yet, written in black and white on the walls of cyberspace.

Two years ago, in 2024, (Mount Sinai General Manager Randy) Schwab met with Councilmember Nithya Raman to explain the potential impact on the two cemeteries and the traffic congestion the plan could create. “At the time she promised not to do it, but then I think Safer Streets LA got in touch with her and convinced her that it should be brought back.”

So we apparently owe them our thanks for their hard work and dedication to improve safety for us all, even as they try to make the streets more dangerous.

In fact, the plan has long been in the works due to the inherent dangers of the street, as anyone who has tried to use the painted lanes could testify.

The Journal contacted Councilmember Raman’s office and received the following response: “Forest Lawn Drive provides Angelenos access to key destinations, like Griffith Park and the LA Zoo, and is used by people driving, biking and running. About half of all drivers on Forest Lawn are speeding above the 45 mph legal limit, and at those speeds, a pedestrian or bicyclist struck by a car has a 50% chance of being killed. That is not acceptable, and we have been working to change it.”

Her office said the Forest Lawn Drive Safety & Mobility Project is intended to address these safety concerns by reducing vehicle speeds, adding physical protection for cyclists, and improving conditions for all users of the corridor. It also said the plan includes improved turns for both cemeteries and the Junior Achievement Center. A Raman spokesperson said issues raised by cemetery representatives were taken into account during the design process, and LADOT’s proposal includes expanded turn lanes.

Let that first paragraph sink in.

On a roadway commonly used by bike riders, as well as mourners on their way to visit or say farewell to loved ones, more than half of all drivers exceed the already too high 45 mph speed limit, turning the curving street in their own personal speedway.

Yet the cemeteries continue to fight changes that would benefit their own visitors, in what can only be seen as an apparent attempt to drive up business.

So, thanks Safer Streets LA.

We owe you one, apparently.

………

Let’s consider this statement from New York’s former DOT Commissioner, as Gothamist wonders whether Mayor Zohran Mamdani is the city’s first real Bike Mayor.

“I think it’s taken a long time, but I think the politics have really caught up with the people,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, the transportation commissioner under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “Not so long ago, a lot of these ideas seemed like they were crazy, and today, a mayor who rides a bike for fun and for transportation is just another part of New York.”

So there may be hope for us yet.

………

The rescheduled memorial for three people killed when an elderly driver crashed through the 99 Ranch Market on Westwood Blvd in February will be held this Saturday.

Here’s a press release from Streets Are For Everyone announcing the event. And if you haven’t signed the letter demanding a Traffic Violence State of Emergency in the City of Los Angeles, there’s still time before it’s released at the event.

THREE GHOST TIRES TO BE PLACED BY THE COMMUNITY
HONORING VICTIMS OF 99 RANCH MARKET MASS TRAFFIC FATALITY EVENT,
CALLS FOR STATE OF EMERGENCY

LOS ANGELES, CA – On Saturday, May 9th, Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE), People’s Vision Zero, family members of those lost, and community members will be holding a press conference and placing three Ghost Tires to honor the three lives lost and six people seriously injured in the mass traffic fatality event outside 99 Ranch Market on February 5th, 2026. They will also be addressing a second mass traffic fatality near Vista Del Mar on May 3rd, 2026, which killed two more people, including a one-year-old child, and left two others seriously injured. Speakers will call on the LA Mayor and City Council to declare a state of emergency due to traffic violence in Los Angeles.

Ghost tires will be decorated and placed at the site as a memorial to those killed. Victim family members and their legal representatives will address the press, followed by advocates and community leaders.

WHAT:   Ghost Tire Memorial and Press Conference honoring victims of the 99 Ranch Market mass traffic fatality and calling for emergency action on traffic violence in Los Angeles.

WHEN:   Saturday, May 9, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 11:20 AM

WHERE:  1360 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024

WHO:

  • Family members of those lost
  • Damian Kevitt, Founder and Executive Director of SAFE
  • Jonny Hale, People’s Vision Zero
  • Phoebe Kiekhofer, SAFE Families

………

As long as we’re doing press releases, the Orange County Transportation Authority, aka OCTA, is holding a Bike Month Ride Along next week. And yes, I could write about it instead of just reposting the press release, but I’m getting lazy and fond of sleep in my old age.

OCTA Rolls out Bike Month 2026, Ride Along May 13
Annual Bike Rally features a 4-mile ride and prize opportunities, and pledge to bike during May for a chance to win an e-bike while staying active

ORANGE – OCTA is celebrating Bike Month this May by encouraging people across Orange County to get out and ride, whether for commuting, recreation or short everyday trips. The monthlong campaign highlights the benefits of biking as a convenient, healthy and sustainable way to travel.

As part of the celebration, OCTA will host its annual Bike Rally at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 13, featuring a 4-mile group ride from the Orange Metrolink Station to OCTA headquarters in Orange.

The rally serves as a signature Bike Month event, bringing riders together for a shared experience on city streets while showcasing how easy and accessible biking can be throughout the county. Participants will be entered for a chance to win an Aventon Pace 4 Step-Through e-bike, valued at $1,799, along with other prizes. Riders will also receive free Bike Month T-shirts and light snacks while supplies last.

Those who pledge to ride a bike during May will be entered for a chance to win an Aventon Soltera 2.5 e-bike, valued at $1,199, courtesy of Bike Month sponsors Aventon E-bikes and Spectrumotion.

Beyond Bike Month, OCTA continues to invest in active transportation infrastructure and programs that make it safer and more convenient for people to walk and bike throughout Orange County. Working in partnership with local cities and the county, OCTA helps fund and deliver projects such as protected bike lanes, regional trail connections and first- and last-mile improvements that link neighborhoods to transit.

These efforts are designed to reduce reliance on cars, improve air quality and support healthier, more active communities.

OCTA is also encouraging riders to make safety a priority. An e-bike safety video is available with tips for riding responsibly, and those who watch can be entered for a chance to win a $100 gift card.

Together, these efforts are designed to inspire more people to consider biking as an easy, efficient and environmentally friendly way to get around.

For more information about Bike Month and to participate in the Bike Rally, visit www.octa.net/bikemonth.

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.

No bias here. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers tips to keep bike riders safe on the roadways by offering advice for…bike riders. People in the big, dangerous machines, carry on.

But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.

A Singapore woman was criticized as “irresponsible and brainless” for riding her bike through a busy intersection with her Shiba Inu dog running behind on a leash, despite the hot pavement. I’ve never been a fan of riding with your dog on a leash, which poses too many opportunities for something to go drastically wrong, even if it is an easy way to exercise your dog. Or may over exercise it, because a dog will run itself to death to please you. 

………

Local 

Streetsblog considers how the new extension to the D Line, aka Purple Line, could change the way Angelenos get around.

 

State

A Seal Beach cop responds to a question about ebikes on the sidewalk, reminding readers that ebikes are banned from walkways under city ordinances, and that not everything called an ebike actually is one under California law. Although I’m not sure some of the state ebike requirements he mentions have actually passed the legislature yet, let alone been signed into law. 

Elementary school kids in San Francisco participated in bike buses on this week for Bike and Roll to School Week.

 

National

You know we’re making progress when they’re celebrating Bike Month and Bike to Work Day in the dusty, windswept cowtown college town of Laramie, Wyoming. I say that with all fondness, having grown up in the home of their collegiate arch rivals, about 40 miles away.

Another longtime bike shop is closing its doors, this time in St. Paul, Minnesota; Grand Performance owner and former USA Cycling National Team member Dan Casebeer has owned the shop since setting the US hour record in 1983.

Singer Amy Grant is one of us once again, riding a bicycle for the first time in four years after suffering a severe traumatic brain injury when she hit a pothole while riding her bike in Nashville in 2022. And yes, she was wearing a helmet when she fell.

A Boston bike lawyer and blogger says overall, the city is getting safer for bicyclists, even if dooring remains deadly. While dooring is one of the most common types of bicycling collisions, it’s rarely deadly, amounting to roughly one to 3 percent of bicycling deaths each year. Although one is still one too many. 

A Massachusetts woman has won an international grant competition with her design to put a roof over a local bike co-op, which currently works out of two disconnected shipping containers.

Police in Bay Ridge, New York are looking for the man who pushed a 13-year old boy off his ebike, apparently for the crime of riding on the sidewalk; fortunately, the kid escaped with just minor lacerations. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with some people?

 

International

This is why people keep dying on the roadways. A British pub owner was fined the equivalent of $900 and had his liquor license suspended for a whole three months for knowingly serving a 16-year old kid five pints of a strong lager, before the kid was killed when he drove his four-wheeled farm vehicle off the road on the way home.

A father and son duo from the UK set three world records with their 400-day, 18,600-mile ride around the world — and avoided arrest in a forbidden China county when one of the cops recognized them from their social media posts, sending them on their way after posing for selfies.

They get it. The Irish Examiner says riding a bicycle is one of the best ways for men to maintain their health as they age, from “improving cardiovascular health and muscle strength to boosting testosterone and lowering stress.” Hint: It works for women, too. 

German bike magazine Tour tests out the best bikes for the equivalent of under a grand.

 

Competitive Cycling

Cyclist examines the top contenders for this year’s Giro d’Italia, which kicks off today with a 91-mile stage in Bulgaria. Yes, Bulgaria.

Cycling News does much the same, offering a team-by-team look at the Giro competitors.

Submitted without comment. Much of the planned Lotto-Intermarché risked missing the Giro, including Belgian sprinter Arnaud De Lie, after they fell ill from a cow dung infection — yes, cow dung — during the rain-soaked Famenne Ardenne Classic.

Dutch cyclist Jan-Willem van Schip says he feels unwelcome in road cycling, after he was booted from a race for the second time in eight months, and the fourth time in five years, for an unusual and, by UCI standards, illegal handlebar setup and seat position.

 

Finally…

When you get arrested for bike theft, it’s usually not the best idea to issue death threats to the arresting officers. Probably not the best idea to fire three shots at your girlfriend because her mother won’t help take an ebike out of the trunk, either.

And that feeling when you’re somehow walking while riding.

………

Thanks to someone who prefers not to be named for her very generous annual donation to help support this site, and keep our spokescorgi in kibble. Donations are always welcome and appreciated, for whatever reason might move you. 

And yes, spellcheck, “spokescorgi” is a real word that I made up. 

While we’re at it, let’s all thank Steve for making this site so much more attractive and work a lot better, especially if you’re viewing it on a phone. 

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook group kvetches over Better Overland Project, WeHo approves ebike incentives, and KTLA insists Pomona boy was on an ebike

April 22, 2026 / / 2 comments

I lost my internet connection just as I was getting ready to post this. So I’m going to try to post it using my phone.

Hopefully you’ll get this, but I can’t promise everything will post correctly or no errors will get through.

……….

Evidently, not everyone is in favor of the Better Overland Project.

The plan to build a Complete Street and protected bike lanes on the lower section of Overland Avenue has drawn its share of detractors to a Facebook group calling to “SAVE Overland Ave in Culver CIty.”

Even though that’s exactly what proponents are trying to do. Apparently, they don’t grasp the concept that drivers and local residents, including older people, benefit from safer streets, too.

Then again, the group only has a measly 215 members right now. So maybe instead of torches and pitchforks, it’s just matches and spades this time.

Thanks to Adrian for the heads-up.

………

Thanks to Andrew for forwarding news on Bluesky that West Hollywood will become the latest Southern California city to offer its own ebike incentive program, with eligible residents able to claim up to $2,000 towards one.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles joins California in continuing to offer eligible residents absolutely nothing.

Unfortunately, Bluesky seems to be having yet another of their recent service outages, so you may have to just take my word for it, unless the post below miraculously shows up, or the above link actually works. Otherwise, I’ll try again tomorrow.

https://bsky.app/profile/solomonweho.bsky.social/post/3mjzewlcrkk2f

………

KTLA-5 continues to insist that Angel Roman Mendoza Lopez, the 13-year old boy killed by a driver in Pomona last week, was riding an ebike, even though other sources say he was riding an e-scooter.

Although it’s possible he was on a sit-down scooter, which would make both kinda right.

Meanwhile, the crowdfunding campaign to benefit his family has now raised over $16,000, while the goal has been increase to $25,000.

………

A Belgian short track skater and amateur cyclist shares video of a 45-minute line waiting to ride up a climb in last weekend’s Amstel Gold sportive, making it look more like an amusement park than a bike race.

But at least you didn’t have to be “this tall to ride this ride.”

Instagram post

………

Local 

Metro is offering free transit and bikeshare ride to mark today’s Earth Day. Or as it’s known in most of Los Angeles, Wednesday. 

LAist looks at the city’s plans for a “low-stress” walking and biking route for Koreatown and Pico Union in time for the ’28 Olympics.

Streetsblog reminds us about Sunday’s West LA CicLAvia, the popular open streets event’s first visit to Westwood.

The Pasadena Transportation Advisory Commission will receive an informational presentation on Pasadena Bike Month at their Thursday meeting, with events ranging from a beginner’s bagel ride to an ebike expo at the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile, that deafening silence you hear is the plans for Bike Month in Los Angeles.

 

State

Singletracks highlights the most amazing and/or weird mountain bike components and accessories from Monterey’s Sea Otter Classic. Including one device that looks like something the bomb squad would disable.

Two people in their late teens suffered non-life threatening injuries when a Daly City cop struck the ebike they were sharing. Although it’s kind of refreshing that the cops didn’t immediately blame the victims, for a change.

 

National

Thanks, Donald. German ebike and cargo bikemaker Riese & Müller announced it’s pulling out of the US due to market volatility caused by the constantly changing tariffs, including a 50% tariff on steel.

Honolulu bicyclists complain that it’s taking too long to replace curbing, bike lane delineators and green paint marking a two-way separated bike lane after the street was repaved.

A review of Seattle’s Vision Zero plan shows the city still isn’t making enough safety improvements, and hasn’t done enough to improve safety on the the streets with the highest rates of serious injuries and deaths for pedestrians and bike riders.

That’s more like it. Sheriff’s deputies made an arrest four-and-a-half years after a 29-year old man riding a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run driver in my bike-friendly Colorado hometown, continuing to investigate until they had enough evidence to get an arrest warrant; the suspect was booked on charges of leaving the scene of an accident involving death and insurance fraud. Seriously, when was the last time you heard of LA cops or sheriff’s deputies arresting a hit-and-run suspect after four-and-a-half months, let alone four-and-a-half years?

An op-ed from a Louisville KY bicyclist and triathlete says that bike riders in the city don’t want “more ill-conceived bike lanes,” insisting that what they really want is for drivers to share the road and pass safely, while bike riders need to obey the law and pull over to let long lines of cars pass them. Except there’s a 100-year plus track record showing too many drivers are incapable of sharing the road safely, which is exactly why we need bike lanes. 

A Pittsburgh bike group tells locals and out-of-towners to forget the car, and ride a bike to this week’s NFL Draft.

DC bike riders will still have a safe route connecting downtown Washington to the Tidal Basin, after a judge issued a 61-page opinion putting a hold on plans to rip out a separated bike lane and require the National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration to conduct a more thorough review of the Trump administration’s plans to make the tourist-heavy area more accommodating to drivers.

Life is cheap in North Carolina, where the grandson of legendary Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was charged with misdemeanor DUI after killing a 15-year old boy riding a bicycle; evidently, drunk driving runs in the family. Something is seriously wrong when killing another human being while drunk, let alone a kid, doesn’t even merit a felony charge. 

 

International

Bike Radar ranks the best bicycles of the 1990s, all of which are road bikes, and most of which even look like one.

No surprise here, as a study in the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation suggests that bicycling is an effective way to cope with fluctuating gas prices.

Londoners will once again turn to their bicycles as Tube drivers go on strike for four days.

A new study from the European Transport Safety Council says too many people are still getting killed on bicycles in the European Union, but that slower streets and protected bike lanes could help lower to toll.

An Indian man spent the last seven years riding across the vast country, planting saplings and trying to connect with everyone he met to call attention to looming threats to the environment.

No bias here. An Australian ad announcing the country is now at Level Two of the ‘National Fuel Security Plan’ due to the fuel crisis fueled by the war in Iran devotes a whole 1.5 seconds to using a bicycle, and the other 28.5 seconds to using your car more wisely, instead of not using it at all.

 

Competitive Cycling

Two-time Belgian Olympic speed skater Sandrine Tas will make her professional cycling debut with the Lotto Intermarché Ladies cycling team at today’s La Flèche Wallonne Femmes.

 

Finally…

That feeling when it costs the equivalent of a 27¢ toll to ride where bikes aren’t even allowed. Your next ebike could have no gears and ride in reverse. Who says you have to carbo load before you ride?

And probably not the best idea to steal a police bike during the Boston Marathon.

………

Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.

Oh, and fuck Putin. 

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Entries  
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee