The fingers
10 TW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqBBVHzHV0c 
Another reason not to ride on the Freeway.
Another reason not to ride on the Freeway.
Bike Friendly City?
- Thread starter The fingers
- Start date
The fingers
10 TW
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/loc...-7237204.php?t=e735add0f9&cmpid=email-premium :x
Every year more than 200 people die in murders in Houston — a sad statistic known to the people of Sunnyside, just south of the 610 Loop. Many hope Mayor Sylvester Turner's recent efforts will begin to turn this tide and make Sunnyside's streets safe from gun deaths.
Every year about the same number of people die in traffic crashes in the City of Houston, a sad statistic also known to the people of Sunnyside. There, on April 3, Wilma Montgomery, a 67-year-old grandmother, died trying to cross Cullen at Wenda Street. It's a dangerous intersection designed with one misguided goal: speeding up cars.
According to a KHOU story this week, residents of Sunnyside are tired of people being hit trying to cross Cullen: "This is like the Indianapolis 500 during the day," resident Terry Duhon said. "Like a race track."
Crossing that street is dangerous and difficult even for the able-bodied.
"We observed a group of kids crossing Cullen after waiting around 15 minutes," said KHOU reporter John Littleberry. "Then we watched as two small children showed up. About 20 minutes went by before one of them darted across. The other one continued to wait until we stopped traffic and guided her across."
A community activist has collected dozens of signatures on a petition calling for a stoplight.
Nowhere in the city's PlanHouston do you find a goal of encouraging people to drive faster through our neighborhoods. On no recent Sunday did you hear the preacher wish that it took 45 seconds less to drive through Sunnyside.
Yet the design of our streets and the allocation of our funding continues to prioritize the speed of driving over safety, health, commerce, development, and the basic comfort of walking and biking in the neighborhoods of Houston.
Following Mayor Annise Parker's Complete Streets executive order, her administration made significant progress. Two significant departments — Public Works and Engineering; and Planning and Development — changed processes, codes, and design guidelines with the intention of making streets safer.
Sunnyside, though, has not seen these improvements, and people keep dying. If the ReBuild Houston program is allowed to continue, the money available for street repair will begin growing substantially over the next couple of years. But unless we change our priorities, these funds will not be focused on saving lives.
SUNNYSIDE IS hardly the only Houston neighborhood with dangerous streets. People here are three times more likely to die in traffic than people in New York City and 40 percent more likely than in Los Angeles. It doesn't have to be that way.
Admittedly, we still have a long way to go. In a presentation about Taft and West Gray just this week, the city proposal prioritized pavement, parking, and movement of traffic before mentioning safety — and even then only mentioned pedestrians. The vast majority of our traffic deaths are people who die in cars — often cars that are traveling too fast, as the road design encourages
We need a comprehensive Vision Zero approach, a citywide goal of bringing traffic deaths on our streets from the 2014 shame of 227 people dead to zero preventable deaths.
Our design guidelines, our development codes, our bar parking policies, our police efforts, our traffic management, our massive public spending on transportation, our public and private fleet policies, and our sidewalks and bikeways can be improved to provide safe, healthy neighborhoods for all.
This January, Houston Tomorrow released a report explaining the path to a Vision Zero Action Plan for Houston. (San Antonio and Austin are already well along their ways.)
Mayor Turner and Council should optimize ReBuild Houston to serve the people of Houston, not the cars of Houston. We should identify problem intersections like Cullen at Wenda, and prioritize making them safe for all users, as soon as possible.
We should use some portion of our annual funding to do quick fixes all over town. We should provide safe crossings at schools and do pop-up community-based safety projects. We should re-stripe streets in simple ways that improve safety — while also making them more pleasant to drive, and encouraging modes of transport such as buses, bikes, and walking.
Neighborhood residents, like the people of Sunnyside, know where the danger spots are and should have a say where the money goes. We should set aside a portion of ReBuild funds for neighborhood safety improvements, and allow the residents of SuperNeighborhoods or Council Districts to choose and target the projects that will best build up their communities.
And let's not forget bike safety. City Council should pass the Bike Plan immediately and move forward with creative ideas to fund its short-term implementation. That would improve the safety and comfort of more than half a million bike riders.
And let's not forget bike safety. City Council should pass the Bike Plan immediately and move forward with creative ideas to fund its short-term implementation. That would expand the safe and comfortable bicycling network to another half a million Houstonians.
Everything listed above can be done in two years. But we also need to think long-term. We need comprehensive, multi-modal transportation planning integrated with growth and development policies, as called for in PlanHouston and approved by City Council last year.The Planning Department needs to be given the power to implement the Complete Streets and Transportation Plan — which was required by Mayor Parker's 2013 executive order, and still hasn't been done.
THE PEOPLE of Sunnyside are right. They deserve safe streets.
And they're not alone in that.
Gulfton deserves safe streets.
Montrose deserves safe streets.
Friendswood deserves safe streets.
And so on, and so on, and so on.
Every year more than 200 people die in murders in Houston — a sad statistic known to the people of Sunnyside, just south of the 610 Loop. Many hope Mayor Sylvester Turner's recent efforts will begin to turn this tide and make Sunnyside's streets safe from gun deaths.
Every year about the same number of people die in traffic crashes in the City of Houston, a sad statistic also known to the people of Sunnyside. There, on April 3, Wilma Montgomery, a 67-year-old grandmother, died trying to cross Cullen at Wenda Street. It's a dangerous intersection designed with one misguided goal: speeding up cars.
According to a KHOU story this week, residents of Sunnyside are tired of people being hit trying to cross Cullen: "This is like the Indianapolis 500 during the day," resident Terry Duhon said. "Like a race track."
Crossing that street is dangerous and difficult even for the able-bodied.
"We observed a group of kids crossing Cullen after waiting around 15 minutes," said KHOU reporter John Littleberry. "Then we watched as two small children showed up. About 20 minutes went by before one of them darted across. The other one continued to wait until we stopped traffic and guided her across."
A community activist has collected dozens of signatures on a petition calling for a stoplight.
Nowhere in the city's PlanHouston do you find a goal of encouraging people to drive faster through our neighborhoods. On no recent Sunday did you hear the preacher wish that it took 45 seconds less to drive through Sunnyside.
Yet the design of our streets and the allocation of our funding continues to prioritize the speed of driving over safety, health, commerce, development, and the basic comfort of walking and biking in the neighborhoods of Houston.
Following Mayor Annise Parker's Complete Streets executive order, her administration made significant progress. Two significant departments — Public Works and Engineering; and Planning and Development — changed processes, codes, and design guidelines with the intention of making streets safer.
Sunnyside, though, has not seen these improvements, and people keep dying. If the ReBuild Houston program is allowed to continue, the money available for street repair will begin growing substantially over the next couple of years. But unless we change our priorities, these funds will not be focused on saving lives.
SUNNYSIDE IS hardly the only Houston neighborhood with dangerous streets. People here are three times more likely to die in traffic than people in New York City and 40 percent more likely than in Los Angeles. It doesn't have to be that way.
Admittedly, we still have a long way to go. In a presentation about Taft and West Gray just this week, the city proposal prioritized pavement, parking, and movement of traffic before mentioning safety — and even then only mentioned pedestrians. The vast majority of our traffic deaths are people who die in cars — often cars that are traveling too fast, as the road design encourages
We need a comprehensive Vision Zero approach, a citywide goal of bringing traffic deaths on our streets from the 2014 shame of 227 people dead to zero preventable deaths.
Our design guidelines, our development codes, our bar parking policies, our police efforts, our traffic management, our massive public spending on transportation, our public and private fleet policies, and our sidewalks and bikeways can be improved to provide safe, healthy neighborhoods for all.
This January, Houston Tomorrow released a report explaining the path to a Vision Zero Action Plan for Houston. (San Antonio and Austin are already well along their ways.)
Mayor Turner and Council should optimize ReBuild Houston to serve the people of Houston, not the cars of Houston. We should identify problem intersections like Cullen at Wenda, and prioritize making them safe for all users, as soon as possible.
We should use some portion of our annual funding to do quick fixes all over town. We should provide safe crossings at schools and do pop-up community-based safety projects. We should re-stripe streets in simple ways that improve safety — while also making them more pleasant to drive, and encouraging modes of transport such as buses, bikes, and walking.
Neighborhood residents, like the people of Sunnyside, know where the danger spots are and should have a say where the money goes. We should set aside a portion of ReBuild funds for neighborhood safety improvements, and allow the residents of SuperNeighborhoods or Council Districts to choose and target the projects that will best build up their communities.
And let's not forget bike safety. City Council should pass the Bike Plan immediately and move forward with creative ideas to fund its short-term implementation. That would improve the safety and comfort of more than half a million bike riders.
And let's not forget bike safety. City Council should pass the Bike Plan immediately and move forward with creative ideas to fund its short-term implementation. That would expand the safe and comfortable bicycling network to another half a million Houstonians.
Everything listed above can be done in two years. But we also need to think long-term. We need comprehensive, multi-modal transportation planning integrated with growth and development policies, as called for in PlanHouston and approved by City Council last year.The Planning Department needs to be given the power to implement the Complete Streets and Transportation Plan — which was required by Mayor Parker's 2013 executive order, and still hasn't been done.
THE PEOPLE of Sunnyside are right. They deserve safe streets.
And they're not alone in that.
Gulfton deserves safe streets.
Montrose deserves safe streets.
Friendswood deserves safe streets.
And so on, and so on, and so on.
The fingers
10 TW
http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2016-04-17/dui-charge-cyclist-death 
A North Augusta woman has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Saturday night’s fatal wreck involving a cyclist on U.S. Highway 25.
A North Augusta woman has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Saturday night’s fatal wreck involving a cyclist on U.S. Highway 25.
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/watch-angry-car-driver-chases-11193562 :x
Footage has emerged of a shocking road rage incident involving a cyclist on his journey home from work and an impatient driver.
The cyclist, who works as a product developer in North Birmingham , captured the entire ordeal on his helmet camera and uploaded the footage to his YouTube channel BrumCommuter.
The video shows the car driver pursuing the cyclist, who wishes to remain anonymous, before dangerously swerving into the bicycle lane and repeatedly shouting verbal abuse.
Towards the end of the video, the cyclist tricks the car into heading in a different direction, which results in the car driver throwing an object at the man on the bicycle.
The cyclist, aged 48, said: "I Couldn't hear everything, what I did hear was just swearing, insults, threats and demands for me to stop and fight him.
"Incidents like this are very worrying as you never know if this particular idiot is going to drive into you or not. If they do decide to make contact, then it would definitely cause serious injury.
"Aggression from drivers is far too common in Birmingham and usually for some slight mistake or in this case no reason at all."
Footage has emerged of a shocking road rage incident involving a cyclist on his journey home from work and an impatient driver.
The cyclist, who works as a product developer in North Birmingham , captured the entire ordeal on his helmet camera and uploaded the footage to his YouTube channel BrumCommuter.
The video shows the car driver pursuing the cyclist, who wishes to remain anonymous, before dangerously swerving into the bicycle lane and repeatedly shouting verbal abuse.
Towards the end of the video, the cyclist tricks the car into heading in a different direction, which results in the car driver throwing an object at the man on the bicycle.
The cyclist, aged 48, said: "I Couldn't hear everything, what I did hear was just swearing, insults, threats and demands for me to stop and fight him.
"Incidents like this are very worrying as you never know if this particular idiot is going to drive into you or not. If they do decide to make contact, then it would definitely cause serious injury.
"Aggression from drivers is far too common in Birmingham and usually for some slight mistake or in this case no reason at all."
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Video-brazen-thief-wielding-power-tool-cuts-bike-7255798.php :x
A man who stole a woman’s bicycle using a power tool, setting off an eruption of sparks and plenty of noise, apparently wasn’t concerned about the numerous onlookers on a busy stretch of Valencia Street in San Francisco or the fact that he was stealing it in broad daylight.
The entire incident Friday evening was caught on two Nest cameras that belong to Stage Werx, a theater in the Mission District, according to the theater’s owner, Ty Mckenzie. The bicycle belonged to a woman who had gone to see a show at the theater, Mckenzie said.
In the footage, a man walking with a cane approached the bicycle, which was locked to a sidewalk bike rack. The video shows him digging through his backpack and pulling out a handheld tool to cut through the lock, creating a burst of sparks, as several people passed by.
“Is that your bike?” a bicyclist asks as he finishes up, according to the footage. The man tells her, yes, it is his bike.
After the thief walked away, the woman turned to another witness and said, “Well, it looks like he just stole that bike.”
The bike’s owner filed a police report online, but her property has yet to be recovered, said Officer Carlos Manfredi, a police spokesman. He added that he had never seen someone brazenly steal a bike in front of witnesses with a tool like that.
“Oh my goodness, did you see those sparks flying?” he said. “It’s still daylight and he didn’t seem to care one bit. It’s very sad.”
A man who stole a woman’s bicycle using a power tool, setting off an eruption of sparks and plenty of noise, apparently wasn’t concerned about the numerous onlookers on a busy stretch of Valencia Street in San Francisco or the fact that he was stealing it in broad daylight.
The entire incident Friday evening was caught on two Nest cameras that belong to Stage Werx, a theater in the Mission District, according to the theater’s owner, Ty Mckenzie. The bicycle belonged to a woman who had gone to see a show at the theater, Mckenzie said.
In the footage, a man walking with a cane approached the bicycle, which was locked to a sidewalk bike rack. The video shows him digging through his backpack and pulling out a handheld tool to cut through the lock, creating a burst of sparks, as several people passed by.
“Is that your bike?” a bicyclist asks as he finishes up, according to the footage. The man tells her, yes, it is his bike.
After the thief walked away, the woman turned to another witness and said, “Well, it looks like he just stole that bike.”
The bike’s owner filed a police report online, but her property has yet to be recovered, said Officer Carlos Manfredi, a police spokesman. He added that he had never seen someone brazenly steal a bike in front of witnesses with a tool like that.
“Oh my goodness, did you see those sparks flying?” he said. “It’s still daylight and he didn’t seem to care one bit. It’s very sad.”
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/soci...iends-ended-worst-possible-way-9-year-old-boy
A nine-year-old boy has died after he and two other boys were hit by a car while riding their bikes in Atlanta.
Isaiah Ward has died after being on life support following the car accident.
Isaiah was riding his bike with his older brother Roland, 11, and their friend Timothy Hood, 12, when all three were struck by a car.
According to WSBTV, Ryan Lisabeth was driving along when he crashed into another car, then drove onto the sidewalk, hitting the three boys.
Police discovered that Lisabeth was under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash and found drugs in his car. According to WTVM, he has been arrested and is expected in court April 18.
On April 17, roughly 100 people gathered at the site of the accident for a prayer vigil for the three victims. It was there they learned Isaiah had passed away.
"Isaiah, he fought a long fight but at the end of the day God had a final say, so he said he want his baby, he want his baby back," Isaiah's uncle, Lafreddie Smith said to the group of mourners.
Isaiah was put on life support after suffering fatal brain damage in the accident. On April 17, his parents made the difficult decision to take him off of the respirator.
Roland and Timothy are still in recovery in the hospital, both in critical condition. The boys have not yet been told that Isaiah passed away.
A nine-year-old boy has died after he and two other boys were hit by a car while riding their bikes in Atlanta.
Isaiah Ward has died after being on life support following the car accident.
Isaiah was riding his bike with his older brother Roland, 11, and their friend Timothy Hood, 12, when all three were struck by a car.
According to WSBTV, Ryan Lisabeth was driving along when he crashed into another car, then drove onto the sidewalk, hitting the three boys.
Police discovered that Lisabeth was under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash and found drugs in his car. According to WTVM, he has been arrested and is expected in court April 18.
On April 17, roughly 100 people gathered at the site of the accident for a prayer vigil for the three victims. It was there they learned Isaiah had passed away.
"Isaiah, he fought a long fight but at the end of the day God had a final say, so he said he want his baby, he want his baby back," Isaiah's uncle, Lafreddie Smith said to the group of mourners.
Isaiah was put on life support after suffering fatal brain damage in the accident. On April 17, his parents made the difficult decision to take him off of the respirator.
Roland and Timothy are still in recovery in the hospital, both in critical condition. The boys have not yet been told that Isaiah passed away.
The fingers
10 TW
http://road.cc/content/news/186686-office-expert-business-should-invest-cycling-facilities 
An expert on office space and productivity says companies need to prioritise walking and cycling facilities and “forget about cars” in order to maintain a productive workforce.
Darren Bilsborough, CEO of Consultancy Office Space Matters, and author on office space and productivity, says in his research the top concerns of businesses looking for new premises, below size and cost, were concerns around commuting.
However, in an article in Workplace Insight(link is external) he estimates the productivity gains of an active workforce, who use their commutes for exercise, or alternatively as downtime or to do extra work, can outweigh higher costs of being near good public transport links.
Cycle infrastructure helps companies attract "top talent"
Bilsborough’s research suggested a 6% productivity gain when people participated in active travel modes (defined as thirty minutes of walking or cycling per day).
He said: “The main reason for this productivity improvement was due to a reduction in obesity and health risks for those undertaking ‘active’ commuting. Active travel is of course enabled by making use of effective and efficient public transport systems, but what’s really interesting is that that workplace productivity improvements as little as 6-10 percent may be sufficient to completely offset office rental costs.”
He said: “Forget about cars and non-essential car-parking, as this should only be required for ‘on the road’ salespeople or pool cars. Concentrate instead on how you can encourage staff to participate in cycling, walking and public transport use.”
He adds businesses should choose their offices, to “seriously consider the opportunities associated via either ‘active’, ‘restful’ or in some ways ‘gratifying’ use of public transport”.
An expert on office space and productivity says companies need to prioritise walking and cycling facilities and “forget about cars” in order to maintain a productive workforce.
Darren Bilsborough, CEO of Consultancy Office Space Matters, and author on office space and productivity, says in his research the top concerns of businesses looking for new premises, below size and cost, were concerns around commuting.
However, in an article in Workplace Insight(link is external) he estimates the productivity gains of an active workforce, who use their commutes for exercise, or alternatively as downtime or to do extra work, can outweigh higher costs of being near good public transport links.
Cycle infrastructure helps companies attract "top talent"
Bilsborough’s research suggested a 6% productivity gain when people participated in active travel modes (defined as thirty minutes of walking or cycling per day).
He said: “The main reason for this productivity improvement was due to a reduction in obesity and health risks for those undertaking ‘active’ commuting. Active travel is of course enabled by making use of effective and efficient public transport systems, but what’s really interesting is that that workplace productivity improvements as little as 6-10 percent may be sufficient to completely offset office rental costs.”
He said: “Forget about cars and non-essential car-parking, as this should only be required for ‘on the road’ salespeople or pool cars. Concentrate instead on how you can encourage staff to participate in cycling, walking and public transport use.”
He adds businesses should choose their offices, to “seriously consider the opportunities associated via either ‘active’, ‘restful’ or in some ways ‘gratifying’ use of public transport”.
The fingers
10 TW
http://gothamist.com/2016/04/19/bike_commute_video_nyc.php :x
Bicycling is a wonderful way to commute to and from work in New York City. You save a ton of money on MetroCards, and you get so much exercise that you don't have to join a gym. There's really only one problem: dangerous drivers. You know, the ones that kill over 200 people a year on our streets, and are a particular danger to cyclists. Their bad behavior—ignoring bike lanes, running lights, making illegal turns—scares many people off bicycling.
The city's Vision Zero initiative has made some progress by improving the design of many dangerous streets and intersections, and adding miles of new, protected bike lanes each year, but until driver behavior changes, people will still be maimed and killed. To shed some light on the dangerous conditions bicyclists still face every day, several Gothamist staffers have volunteered to film their daily commutes over the next few months.
Our first clip comes from me, Jake Dobkin—a regular bike commuter between Park Slope and DUMBO. Going home from work I bike through Brooklyn Bridge Park, and then cut up Union Street, to avoid having to ride along Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, which continues to be one of the worst bike lanes in the entire city. This adds about a mile to my ride each way, and as you can see from the video above, it is still not an entirely safe trip.
If your ride to or from work is worse, and want to contribute to this series, please send in your video. Some rules: you must film your entire ride with no cuts, so we can verify it's a real commute with no special effects. Please obey all pertinent laws, including red lights and stop signs, as we know you normally would!
NB.: To automobile commuters: before you write a long comment about how it's really the bicyclists killing people, not the cars, and how we wouldn't believe the bad behavior you see during your daily drive, take a deep breath, and meditate on the fact that a bicycle weighs about 25 pounds, and your car weighs something like 4000 pounds. Yes, pedestrians and cyclists sometimes break the law, and they should never do that, but simple physics dictates that we must hold automobiles to a much higher standard, and that is why we are not soliciting clips from drivers.
Bicycling is a wonderful way to commute to and from work in New York City. You save a ton of money on MetroCards, and you get so much exercise that you don't have to join a gym. There's really only one problem: dangerous drivers. You know, the ones that kill over 200 people a year on our streets, and are a particular danger to cyclists. Their bad behavior—ignoring bike lanes, running lights, making illegal turns—scares many people off bicycling.
The city's Vision Zero initiative has made some progress by improving the design of many dangerous streets and intersections, and adding miles of new, protected bike lanes each year, but until driver behavior changes, people will still be maimed and killed. To shed some light on the dangerous conditions bicyclists still face every day, several Gothamist staffers have volunteered to film their daily commutes over the next few months.
Our first clip comes from me, Jake Dobkin—a regular bike commuter between Park Slope and DUMBO. Going home from work I bike through Brooklyn Bridge Park, and then cut up Union Street, to avoid having to ride along Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn, which continues to be one of the worst bike lanes in the entire city. This adds about a mile to my ride each way, and as you can see from the video above, it is still not an entirely safe trip.
If your ride to or from work is worse, and want to contribute to this series, please send in your video. Some rules: you must film your entire ride with no cuts, so we can verify it's a real commute with no special effects. Please obey all pertinent laws, including red lights and stop signs, as we know you normally would!
NB.: To automobile commuters: before you write a long comment about how it's really the bicyclists killing people, not the cars, and how we wouldn't believe the bad behavior you see during your daily drive, take a deep breath, and meditate on the fact that a bicycle weighs about 25 pounds, and your car weighs something like 4000 pounds. Yes, pedestrians and cyclists sometimes break the law, and they should never do that, but simple physics dictates that we must hold automobiles to a much higher standard, and that is why we are not soliciting clips from drivers.
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cab-attack-cyclist-furious-road-rage-row.html :x
Shocking helmet-cam footage shows a taxi driver attacking a cyclist on the side of a busy road.
The motorist was filmed apparently trying to cut off the cyclist as they pulled into the same lane in Edinburgh city centre, prompting a foul-mouthed argument between the pair.
The taxi driver pulled off and continued on his journey. But several minutes later the cyclist turned a corner to find the motorist standing in the middle of the road waiting for him to pass.
The motorist, who has not been named, flagged down the cyclist before apparently punching him in the view of other road users. The clip ends with the cyclist phoning the police.
According to information posted online, the taxi driver was arrested and has since admitted to careless driving and assault.
The four-minute clip starts with the cyclist driving along Princes Street in Edinburgh.
When his lane merges with the one on the right, a taxi driver passes within inches of his right-hand side, prompting a furious response.
The cyclist slams on his brakes and the taxi driver stops next to him in the middle of the busy road, where they launch into an expletive-ridden argument over who was in the wrong.
The cyclist, who is filming the entire incident on his helmet-cam, continues to shout at the taxi as it pulls off and drives into the distance.
Several minutes later, the cyclist pulls on to another major road and finds the same taxi driver in the middle lane and flags him down.
The men exchange insults before the driver appears to throw a punch at the cyclist, trying to push him off his bicycle.
Shocking helmet-cam footage shows a taxi driver attacking a cyclist on the side of a busy road.
The motorist was filmed apparently trying to cut off the cyclist as they pulled into the same lane in Edinburgh city centre, prompting a foul-mouthed argument between the pair.
The taxi driver pulled off and continued on his journey. But several minutes later the cyclist turned a corner to find the motorist standing in the middle of the road waiting for him to pass.
The motorist, who has not been named, flagged down the cyclist before apparently punching him in the view of other road users. The clip ends with the cyclist phoning the police.
According to information posted online, the taxi driver was arrested and has since admitted to careless driving and assault.
The four-minute clip starts with the cyclist driving along Princes Street in Edinburgh.
When his lane merges with the one on the right, a taxi driver passes within inches of his right-hand side, prompting a furious response.
The cyclist slams on his brakes and the taxi driver stops next to him in the middle of the busy road, where they launch into an expletive-ridden argument over who was in the wrong.
The cyclist, who is filming the entire incident on his helmet-cam, continues to shout at the taxi as it pulls off and drives into the distance.
Several minutes later, the cyclist pulls on to another major road and finds the same taxi driver in the middle lane and flags him down.
The men exchange insults before the driver appears to throw a punch at the cyclist, trying to push him off his bicycle.
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.pe.com/articles/street-800585-bicyclist-perris.html
A fatal traffic accident killed a 54-year-old Perris bicyclist and closed a major street in that city until well after dark, sheriff's officials say.
That crash was reported at 4:43 p.m. Wednesday, April 20, along the 300 block of Fourth Street. Also known as Highway 74, the street was shut down for a third of a mile between A and D Streets during the investigation.
According to the preliminary findings, the cyclist was riding on the wrong side of the road and collided with a work truck.
The rider died at a hospital. His name was not released.
Anyone with additional information may call deputies at 951-210-1000.
And from the San Joaquin Valley:http://abc30.com/traffic/man-riding-a-bike-killed-in-clovis/1300561/
A fatal traffic accident killed a 54-year-old Perris bicyclist and closed a major street in that city until well after dark, sheriff's officials say.
That crash was reported at 4:43 p.m. Wednesday, April 20, along the 300 block of Fourth Street. Also known as Highway 74, the street was shut down for a third of a mile between A and D Streets during the investigation.
According to the preliminary findings, the cyclist was riding on the wrong side of the road and collided with a work truck.
The rider died at a hospital. His name was not released.
Anyone with additional information may call deputies at 951-210-1000.
And from the San Joaquin Valley:http://abc30.com/traffic/man-riding-a-bike-killed-in-clovis/1300561/
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/apr/20/maruta-gardner-preliminary-hearing-garcia/ 
San Diego — For many who were out enjoying a late winter afternoon in Mission Beach, the first indication something was wrong was the vision of gray paint flying into the air.
It soon became clear that the paint belonged to Maruta Gardner, a neighborhood activist who was out documenting and covering up graffiti when she was struck by a hit-and-run driver’s car.
Numerous witnesses testified Wednesday about the horror of the crash and recalled how the driver of the black Toyota Corolla drove past the injured woman at the southern foot of Mission Boulevard twice without stopping. Gardner, 69, later died.
The testimony was heard in a day-long preliminary hearing, which is expected to conclude Thursday. San Diego Superior Court Judge David Rubin will then decide if there is enough evidence for the suspect, Jonathan Domingo Garcia, 23, to stand trial on several charges that include gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run driving.
Moments before the crash, Elsy Iriarte was driving her white Ford Mustang on San Diego Place at Mission Boulevard around dusk on Feb. 12 when she was rear-ended by a black Corolla, she testified. The car didn’t stop, and she followed it as it U-turned back to a stop sign at North Jetty Road and Mission.
She said the driver didn’t acknowledge her as she tried to get his attention, and he sped off. (Iriarte, who admitted she was driving on a suspended license at the time, said she was given immunity to testify against Garcia.)
Sharon Fulton was riding her bicycle with her husband when she said she saw the suspect’s black car and a white car “jockeying” for position.
Both cars stopped at the stop sign at Mission Boulevard, and the black car accelerated, she said. She saw Gardner standing near the curb.
“I screamed to my husband ‘He’s going to hit somebody!’” Fulton testified.
She heard the crash of metal and saw gray paint fly into the air.
The victim’s husband, William Gardner, was with her and said his wife had just taken a photo of graffiti on the jersey wall and was putting the Kindle in the basket of her tricycle, parked in the road at the curb, when she was struck.
The driver didn’t stop, he said.
“If (he) did, it was only for a second, then he went around her body,” Gardner testified.
The car kept driving down San Diego Place, which dead-ends into a parking lot.
A physician, Kenneth Romero, who was out riding his bike, followed the car to the parking lot. Romero watched the black car, now covered with gray paint splatter, sit in the lot for several minutes, he said.
He said the driver then got out, walked around the front of his car as if checking for damage, and got back in. With no other way to go, the driver drove again past the crash scene.
Several witnesses spotted the black car as it passed, yelling and pointing for the driver to stop, according to testimony. A police officer followed and stopped Garcia about a block away.
Davis said Garcia and his passenger were suspected of vandalizing cars a few blocks away earlier in the afternoon.
A police officer testified that a breath test revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.06 percent, about three hours after the crash. A detective said Garcia admitted to drinking beers and smoking marijuana that day.
San Diego — For many who were out enjoying a late winter afternoon in Mission Beach, the first indication something was wrong was the vision of gray paint flying into the air.
It soon became clear that the paint belonged to Maruta Gardner, a neighborhood activist who was out documenting and covering up graffiti when she was struck by a hit-and-run driver’s car.
Numerous witnesses testified Wednesday about the horror of the crash and recalled how the driver of the black Toyota Corolla drove past the injured woman at the southern foot of Mission Boulevard twice without stopping. Gardner, 69, later died.
The testimony was heard in a day-long preliminary hearing, which is expected to conclude Thursday. San Diego Superior Court Judge David Rubin will then decide if there is enough evidence for the suspect, Jonathan Domingo Garcia, 23, to stand trial on several charges that include gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run driving.
Moments before the crash, Elsy Iriarte was driving her white Ford Mustang on San Diego Place at Mission Boulevard around dusk on Feb. 12 when she was rear-ended by a black Corolla, she testified. The car didn’t stop, and she followed it as it U-turned back to a stop sign at North Jetty Road and Mission.
She said the driver didn’t acknowledge her as she tried to get his attention, and he sped off. (Iriarte, who admitted she was driving on a suspended license at the time, said she was given immunity to testify against Garcia.)
Sharon Fulton was riding her bicycle with her husband when she said she saw the suspect’s black car and a white car “jockeying” for position.
Both cars stopped at the stop sign at Mission Boulevard, and the black car accelerated, she said. She saw Gardner standing near the curb.
“I screamed to my husband ‘He’s going to hit somebody!’” Fulton testified.
She heard the crash of metal and saw gray paint fly into the air.
The victim’s husband, William Gardner, was with her and said his wife had just taken a photo of graffiti on the jersey wall and was putting the Kindle in the basket of her tricycle, parked in the road at the curb, when she was struck.
The driver didn’t stop, he said.
“If (he) did, it was only for a second, then he went around her body,” Gardner testified.
The car kept driving down San Diego Place, which dead-ends into a parking lot.
A physician, Kenneth Romero, who was out riding his bike, followed the car to the parking lot. Romero watched the black car, now covered with gray paint splatter, sit in the lot for several minutes, he said.
He said the driver then got out, walked around the front of his car as if checking for damage, and got back in. With no other way to go, the driver drove again past the crash scene.
Several witnesses spotted the black car as it passed, yelling and pointing for the driver to stop, according to testimony. A police officer followed and stopped Garcia about a block away.
Davis said Garcia and his passenger were suspected of vandalizing cars a few blocks away earlier in the afternoon.
A police officer testified that a breath test revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.06 percent, about three hours after the crash. A detective said Garcia admitted to drinking beers and smoking marijuana that day.
Hwy89
10 kW
Article from treehugger.com
Not a single American has died using a bike share. Why not?
When the CitiBike was proposed for New York City, it was predicted that there would be blood in the streets as all those inexperienced and tourist cyclists got mixed up in New York traffic. In fact, even though there are now bike share systems in 94 cities, not a single person has been killed in the USA using a bike share in more than 35 million trips. (There have been two deaths in Canada and one in Mexico.) Why is this?
Researchers at the Mineta Transportation Institute had a look at the question, using statistics, expert interviews and focus groups, and came up with a number of reasons.
It certainly isn’t the helmets; very few bike share riders use them. “Low levels of helmet use were attributed partly to the spontaneous nature of bikesharing trips, which are often unplanned. Respondents also reported that the awkwardness of carrying helmets and lack of helmet ownership were two other factors limiting helmet use.”
typical bike© Bay Area Bike Share via study
It might be the bike design; they are generally heavy, solid, slower, and often covered with lights. “Differences in bicycle design tend to encourage a slower, more conservative riding behavior among bikesharing users.”
It might be the location of bikeshares, usually in denser downtown areas where the traffic is slower. “Because most public bikesharing kiosks are located in dense urban environments with lower roadway speeds and higher levels of pedestrian activity, motorists are more readily looking out for pedestrians and bicyclists.”
It might be that cyclists on bike share bikes are more cautious: “While some experts believed casual users were more error prone because of less familiarity cycling with traffic, they believed this inexperience was compensated for by greater attention, defensive cycling, and motorists who were more forgiving of bikesharing riders.”
Interestingly, the researchers could find no evidence for the “safety in numbers” theory, which suggests that the more cyclists there are, the more visible they are and the lower the rate of accidents. It may just be too soon: “the presence of bikesharing activity at its current scale may not be large enough effect to have any impact on the broader bicycling safety of the general population.” Or as Brad Plumer notes in Vox, “Maybe we haven't hit the tipping point just yet.”
comparative risks© Mineta Transportation Institute
In the conclusions, it appears that the design of the bikes is far more important than one might have thought. But they also point out the demographic differences among the riders:
Bikesharing bicyclists may be inherently more cautious while riding such bicycles given the more limited familiarity. Demographics could also play a role. Surveys of bikesharing users consistently suggest that they do not reflect the general population, but among other characteristics, they are younger and more educated.
Whatever the reasons, it is all good news for those cities that have implemented bike share systems and for those that are considering them.
Not a single American has died using a bike share. Why not?
When the CitiBike was proposed for New York City, it was predicted that there would be blood in the streets as all those inexperienced and tourist cyclists got mixed up in New York traffic. In fact, even though there are now bike share systems in 94 cities, not a single person has been killed in the USA using a bike share in more than 35 million trips. (There have been two deaths in Canada and one in Mexico.) Why is this?
Researchers at the Mineta Transportation Institute had a look at the question, using statistics, expert interviews and focus groups, and came up with a number of reasons.
It certainly isn’t the helmets; very few bike share riders use them. “Low levels of helmet use were attributed partly to the spontaneous nature of bikesharing trips, which are often unplanned. Respondents also reported that the awkwardness of carrying helmets and lack of helmet ownership were two other factors limiting helmet use.”
typical bike© Bay Area Bike Share via study
It might be the bike design; they are generally heavy, solid, slower, and often covered with lights. “Differences in bicycle design tend to encourage a slower, more conservative riding behavior among bikesharing users.”
It might be the location of bikeshares, usually in denser downtown areas where the traffic is slower. “Because most public bikesharing kiosks are located in dense urban environments with lower roadway speeds and higher levels of pedestrian activity, motorists are more readily looking out for pedestrians and bicyclists.”
It might be that cyclists on bike share bikes are more cautious: “While some experts believed casual users were more error prone because of less familiarity cycling with traffic, they believed this inexperience was compensated for by greater attention, defensive cycling, and motorists who were more forgiving of bikesharing riders.”
Interestingly, the researchers could find no evidence for the “safety in numbers” theory, which suggests that the more cyclists there are, the more visible they are and the lower the rate of accidents. It may just be too soon: “the presence of bikesharing activity at its current scale may not be large enough effect to have any impact on the broader bicycling safety of the general population.” Or as Brad Plumer notes in Vox, “Maybe we haven't hit the tipping point just yet.”
comparative risks© Mineta Transportation Institute
In the conclusions, it appears that the design of the bikes is far more important than one might have thought. But they also point out the demographic differences among the riders:
Bikesharing bicyclists may be inherently more cautious while riding such bicycles given the more limited familiarity. Demographics could also play a role. Surveys of bikesharing users consistently suggest that they do not reflect the general population, but among other characteristics, they are younger and more educated.
Whatever the reasons, it is all good news for those cities that have implemented bike share systems and for those that are considering them.
The fingers
10 TW
PS. some real police BS.The fingers said:And from the San Joaquin Valley:http://abc30.com/traffic/man-riding-a-bike-killed-in-clovis/1300561/
Patrick TeNyenhuis was remembered Thursday as a devoted husband and father with varied talents who died while pursuing one of his chief loves – cycling.
The Clovis man was hit and killed at Shaw Avenue east of Leonard Avenue in Clovis on Wednesday while on an early-morning ride.
Clovis police received a report shortly after 6 a.m. that a Toyota sedan rear-ended a cyclist, who was knocked down onto the side of the road along Shaw Avenue. The vehicle’s driver, who stopped on the south side of Shaw Avenue, was later released without charges after cooperating with police. The driver has not been identified by authorities.
The investigation into the collision will continue for another month or so, police said.
Clovis police Cpl. John Weaver said TeNyenhuis was wearing a helmet and was riding in a quasi bike lane – the space between the white line that divides the car lane from the edge of the road. When the Toyota struck him, TeNyenhuis hit the front bumper, windshield and hood of the car.
Weaver said bystanders, and later emergency personnel, performed CPR, but TeNyenhuis was pronounced dead at the scene. Weaver said there were no witnesses to the collision.
“Given the circumstances, it’s kind of a complicated puzzle to put together because we don’t have those eyewitnesses who can tell us what happened,” he said.
Weaver said there were no skid marks and no evidence of the vehicle braking before the crash. He said police did not conduct a field sobriety test at the scene,
but as part of the investigation will look into other distractions such as texting.In a posting on Facebook, TeNyenhuis’ wife Danell Boyles TeNyenhuis expressed appreciation for those who have reached out and said she feels “surrounded by love.”
“Patrick was the love of my life,” she wrote. “We had a wonderful life together and two beautiful daughters.”
Brother-in-law Denny Boyles remembered TeNyenhuis as an amazing man.
“We appreciate the kind thoughts and prayers of the Clovis community,” Boyles said. “Patrick touched many lives through his work, his music, and his eccentric and wonderful personality. We know that we are not alone in our grief.”
The fingers
10 TW
http://road.cc/content/news/187364-nsw-tough-new-fines-inspire-people-stop-cycling 
City, County, State, Country, all of the above?
NSW: tough new fines inspire people to stop cycling
by Laura Laker April 24 2016
People are selling their bikes and advising visitors not to cycle after fines for cyclists breaking the law increased by up to 500% last month
Some residents of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, are selling their bikes and telling visitors not to cycle because “if it’s not the abuse from drivers it’s the fines” that make cycling too risky a prospect.
Fines for cyclists increased by up to 500% on 2 March, for misdemeanours such as not wearing a helmet (A$319), not carrying a bell (A$100), and ‘dangerous driving’ in a bid by Minister for Roads, Duncan Gay, to crack down on supposed dangerous cycling among anyone aged 12 and over.
Although the fines were, according to Gay, supposed to improve safety of people on bikes, academics believe it will make NSW the “worst state in the world” for cyclists.
New South Wales set to be "worst state in world" for cyclists
One Sydney student who decided to sell her bike, told ABC(link is external) she couldn’t afford the risk of a fine, which would force her to choose between eating and paying up.
Natalie Synnott told ABC she preferred to ride on footpaths for safety reasons but was afraid of getting caught and fined, which would be a financial disaster for her: "I just know that I will get fined because I have terrible luck," she said.
"It would f*** me up... I actually live week to week. For the most part, I have $100 bucks a week to live and then the rest just goes to rent... I would just be f***ed".
Adrian Plius, a Sydney bar manager, sold his bike because he didn’t want to risk a $300-$500 fine for a 10 minute commute. He walks now instead.
He said: "A 10 minute ride has turned into a 40 minute walk so it definitely has changed my lifestyle.
“I don't mind walking but it is a bit sad not to have the option in a major international metropolitan city, to be scared to ride your bike for both financial and safety reasons”.
The first person to have been fined under new laws, which came into force on 2 March, was restaurant manager, Ben Ackerley, who recently moved from New York, and was returning from the bike shop where his bike was repaired following a crash with a taxi.
He told the Daily Telegraph(link is external): “I knew about the no helmet laws but I was just riding about a mile and a half home.
“I’ve just come from living in New York City. The cops there have got better things to do than worry about this sort of stuff.”
Two Sydney cyclists were reportedly fined a combined A$425 last month for track standing. The laws have, in many cases, been the tipping point that means they no longer see cycling as a viable option in New South Wales, and warn others against doing so.
In a recent Guardian(link is external) article one Sydney resident, Gianni Wise, said: “Our city is becoming a total joke. People stay here with me in Sydney - they are from all over Europe. What do I tell them? Forget riding. If its not the abuse from drivers its the fines.”
At the same time as fines increased, a minimum one metre passing distance was made law in the state, though some cyclists believe cyclists will continue to be targeted, rather than motorists. Shocking dashcam footage(link is external) of a cyclist sent flying after being clipped by a driver at speed in a Sydney suburb last month has only heightened concerns.
Another Sydney cyclist was quoted by Guardian Witness as saying: “A lot of the joy has gone out of cycling with this punitive anti-cycling legislation. Now, even to go to the shops 200 metres up the road, I have to put on an annoying helmet. Only Australia and NZ have compulsory helmet laws, and NSW's new fines are so ridiculous as to make the Government's anti-cycling agenda obvious. Helmets laws discourage cycling. It should be a cyclist's choice.”
City, County, State, Country, all of the above?NSW: tough new fines inspire people to stop cycling
by Laura Laker April 24 2016
People are selling their bikes and advising visitors not to cycle after fines for cyclists breaking the law increased by up to 500% last month
Some residents of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, are selling their bikes and telling visitors not to cycle because “if it’s not the abuse from drivers it’s the fines” that make cycling too risky a prospect.
Fines for cyclists increased by up to 500% on 2 March, for misdemeanours such as not wearing a helmet (A$319), not carrying a bell (A$100), and ‘dangerous driving’ in a bid by Minister for Roads, Duncan Gay, to crack down on supposed dangerous cycling among anyone aged 12 and over.
Although the fines were, according to Gay, supposed to improve safety of people on bikes, academics believe it will make NSW the “worst state in the world” for cyclists.
New South Wales set to be "worst state in world" for cyclists
One Sydney student who decided to sell her bike, told ABC(link is external) she couldn’t afford the risk of a fine, which would force her to choose between eating and paying up.
Natalie Synnott told ABC she preferred to ride on footpaths for safety reasons but was afraid of getting caught and fined, which would be a financial disaster for her: "I just know that I will get fined because I have terrible luck," she said.
"It would f*** me up... I actually live week to week. For the most part, I have $100 bucks a week to live and then the rest just goes to rent... I would just be f***ed".
Adrian Plius, a Sydney bar manager, sold his bike because he didn’t want to risk a $300-$500 fine for a 10 minute commute. He walks now instead.
He said: "A 10 minute ride has turned into a 40 minute walk so it definitely has changed my lifestyle.
“I don't mind walking but it is a bit sad not to have the option in a major international metropolitan city, to be scared to ride your bike for both financial and safety reasons”.
The first person to have been fined under new laws, which came into force on 2 March, was restaurant manager, Ben Ackerley, who recently moved from New York, and was returning from the bike shop where his bike was repaired following a crash with a taxi.
He told the Daily Telegraph(link is external): “I knew about the no helmet laws but I was just riding about a mile and a half home.
“I’ve just come from living in New York City. The cops there have got better things to do than worry about this sort of stuff.”
Two Sydney cyclists were reportedly fined a combined A$425 last month for track standing. The laws have, in many cases, been the tipping point that means they no longer see cycling as a viable option in New South Wales, and warn others against doing so.
In a recent Guardian(link is external) article one Sydney resident, Gianni Wise, said: “Our city is becoming a total joke. People stay here with me in Sydney - they are from all over Europe. What do I tell them? Forget riding. If its not the abuse from drivers its the fines.”
At the same time as fines increased, a minimum one metre passing distance was made law in the state, though some cyclists believe cyclists will continue to be targeted, rather than motorists. Shocking dashcam footage(link is external) of a cyclist sent flying after being clipped by a driver at speed in a Sydney suburb last month has only heightened concerns.
Another Sydney cyclist was quoted by Guardian Witness as saying: “A lot of the joy has gone out of cycling with this punitive anti-cycling legislation. Now, even to go to the shops 200 metres up the road, I have to put on an annoying helmet. Only Australia and NZ have compulsory helmet laws, and NSW's new fines are so ridiculous as to make the Government's anti-cycling agenda obvious. Helmets laws discourage cycling. It should be a cyclist's choice.”
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.lapdonline.org/home/news_view/60567
News Release
Monday, April 25, 2016
Media Relations
Bicyclist Struck and Killed by Drunk Driver NR16135ne
Los Angeles: On Saturday, April 23, 2016, at around 6:15 p.m., a fatal vehicle verses bicyclist traffic collision occurred at the intersection of Burlington Avenue and Temple Street in Rampart Area.
The collision occurred when Cruz Tzoc, 22 years of age and a resident of Los Angeles was driving northbound on Burlington Avenue at an estimated speed of 60 miles per hour. As Tzoc approached Temple Street, he lost control of his vehicle, struck a vehicle parked on Burlington Avenue, and continued northbound into the intersection at Temple Street. Just as Tzoc entered the intersection, he struck a bicyclist traveling eastbound on Temple Street.
Prior to the collision, Tzoc was seen driving at a high rate of speed just two blocks from the collision scene by an on-duty sergeant assigned to the Rampart Area. The sergeant attempted to catch up to Tzoc and momentarily lost sight of the vehicle. Shortly after, the sergeant heard the collision and saw the aftermath of the collision. At that point, the sergeant took Tzoc in custody.
Tzoc was found to be under the influence of alcohol at a level over twice the legal limit. He was booked for murder at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
The victim, a 27-year-old male, was pronounced dead at the scene. His name has not been released pending notification of next of kin.
The investigation is being conducted by Central Traffic Division Detectives. Anyone with information is asked to contact the LAPD Central Traffic Division Detectives at (213) 833-3713 or Detective Felix Padilla at (213) 833-3713 or the Central Traffic Division Watch Commander at (213) 833-3746. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may also contact Crime Stoppers by texting to phone number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. All text messages should begin with the letters "LAPD." Tipsters may also go to LAPDOnline.org, click on "webtips" and follow the prompts.
And:http://fox40.com/2016/04/25/bicyclist-hurt-in-hit-and-run-crash-in-sacramento/
A female bicyclist has died from injuries sustained in a hit-and-run crash in Sacramento on Monday night.
The crash happened on El Camino Avenue and Albatross Way.
Sacramento police are on the scene investigating. El Camino Avenue is closed in both directions near the crash.
A woman has been taken into custody in connection to the crash. Witnesses who saw the accident were able to provide police with a suspect description, and they were able to track down the car involved in the crash.
Stay with FOX40 and FOX40.com for updates on this developing story.
News Release
Monday, April 25, 2016
Media Relations
Bicyclist Struck and Killed by Drunk Driver NR16135ne
Los Angeles: On Saturday, April 23, 2016, at around 6:15 p.m., a fatal vehicle verses bicyclist traffic collision occurred at the intersection of Burlington Avenue and Temple Street in Rampart Area.
The collision occurred when Cruz Tzoc, 22 years of age and a resident of Los Angeles was driving northbound on Burlington Avenue at an estimated speed of 60 miles per hour. As Tzoc approached Temple Street, he lost control of his vehicle, struck a vehicle parked on Burlington Avenue, and continued northbound into the intersection at Temple Street. Just as Tzoc entered the intersection, he struck a bicyclist traveling eastbound on Temple Street.
Prior to the collision, Tzoc was seen driving at a high rate of speed just two blocks from the collision scene by an on-duty sergeant assigned to the Rampart Area. The sergeant attempted to catch up to Tzoc and momentarily lost sight of the vehicle. Shortly after, the sergeant heard the collision and saw the aftermath of the collision. At that point, the sergeant took Tzoc in custody.
Tzoc was found to be under the influence of alcohol at a level over twice the legal limit. He was booked for murder at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
The victim, a 27-year-old male, was pronounced dead at the scene. His name has not been released pending notification of next of kin.
The investigation is being conducted by Central Traffic Division Detectives. Anyone with information is asked to contact the LAPD Central Traffic Division Detectives at (213) 833-3713 or Detective Felix Padilla at (213) 833-3713 or the Central Traffic Division Watch Commander at (213) 833-3746. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may also contact Crime Stoppers by texting to phone number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. All text messages should begin with the letters "LAPD." Tipsters may also go to LAPDOnline.org, click on "webtips" and follow the prompts.
And:http://fox40.com/2016/04/25/bicyclist-hurt-in-hit-and-run-crash-in-sacramento/
A female bicyclist has died from injuries sustained in a hit-and-run crash in Sacramento on Monday night.
The crash happened on El Camino Avenue and Albatross Way.
Sacramento police are on the scene investigating. El Camino Avenue is closed in both directions near the crash.
A woman has been taken into custody in connection to the crash. Witnesses who saw the accident were able to provide police with a suspect description, and they were able to track down the car involved in the crash.
Stay with FOX40 and FOX40.com for updates on this developing story.
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/story/news/2016/04/27/tulare-bike-rider-dies-crash/83613980/
A bicyclist died after he collided with a big rig early Wednesday in southeast Tulare.
Roy Justus, 44, died at the scene, South Blackstone Street and East Bardsley Avenue, just south of the Tulare Fire Department's headquarters.
According to police, officers responded at 12:13 a.m. to the area for reports of an injury crash involving the bike rider and big rig.
Police said a big rig tractor trailer was traveling north on Blackstone, using the slow lane and approaching Bardsley.
Police said the bike rider collided into the trailer. The cause of the crash is undetermined.
Police identified the truck driver as Louie Godoy, 28, of Tulare.
"The traffic collision is under investigation and there is no additional information to provide at this time," said Sgt. Andrew Garcia in an email. "When further information develops, I will provide an additional press release. I have no further information to provide."
This is the first fatal crash this year in Tulare.
A bicyclist died after he collided with a big rig early Wednesday in southeast Tulare.
Roy Justus, 44, died at the scene, South Blackstone Street and East Bardsley Avenue, just south of the Tulare Fire Department's headquarters.
According to police, officers responded at 12:13 a.m. to the area for reports of an injury crash involving the bike rider and big rig.
Police said a big rig tractor trailer was traveling north on Blackstone, using the slow lane and approaching Bardsley.
Police said the bike rider collided into the trailer. The cause of the crash is undetermined.
Police identified the truck driver as Louie Godoy, 28, of Tulare.
"The traffic collision is under investigation and there is no additional information to provide at this time," said Sgt. Andrew Garcia in an email. "When further information develops, I will provide an additional press release. I have no further information to provide."
This is the first fatal crash this year in Tulare.
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-n...clist-killed-in-collision-near-south-el-monte
Home News AccidentsAuthorities name bicyclist killed in collision near South El Monte
SOUTH EL MONTE — A coroner’s official on Friday identified the bicyclist who was fatally struck by a car earlier this week.
Ed Winter, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, said paramedics pronounced Jose Antonio Resendez dead at the scene about 15 minutes after the incident. The autopsy on the 39-year-old South El Monte man is pending, he said.
The fatal collision occurred on Rosemead Boulevard, south of Rush Street, at 9:35 p.m. on Wednesday. The area is located in the unincorporated county area near South El Monte.
California Highway Patrol Officer Gina Jojola said a Lexus RX 300 heading north on Rosemead Boulevard hit a bicyclist crossing the street.
She said the driver, a 50-year-old Alhambra man, remained at the scene. She didn’t know how fast the car was traveling before the collision.
Both the bicycle and the car sustained moderate damage, Jojola said.
The driver was not arrested. The crash is still under investigation.
Home News AccidentsAuthorities name bicyclist killed in collision near South El Monte
SOUTH EL MONTE — A coroner’s official on Friday identified the bicyclist who was fatally struck by a car earlier this week.
Ed Winter, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, said paramedics pronounced Jose Antonio Resendez dead at the scene about 15 minutes after the incident. The autopsy on the 39-year-old South El Monte man is pending, he said.
The fatal collision occurred on Rosemead Boulevard, south of Rush Street, at 9:35 p.m. on Wednesday. The area is located in the unincorporated county area near South El Monte.
California Highway Patrol Officer Gina Jojola said a Lexus RX 300 heading north on Rosemead Boulevard hit a bicyclist crossing the street.
She said the driver, a 50-year-old Alhambra man, remained at the scene. She didn’t know how fast the car was traveling before the collision.
Both the bicycle and the car sustained moderate damage, Jojola said.
The driver was not arrested. The crash is still under investigation.
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.sixthtone.com/news/china-says-no-‘silent-killer’-e-bikesThe "Silent Killer"; carried by "little locusts" poised and ready to strike near you! And I thought traffic was bad around here. :lol:
Electric bikes drive bus driver Chen Honglian crazy.
The 40-something Chen has spent a good chunk of her almost two decades behind the wheel of public buses swerving to avoid the thousands of e-bikes that clog the streets of Hefei, capital of the eastern Chinese province of Anhui.
“These little locusts are such a pain for bus drivers,” Chen said, referring to e-bike riders. “All too suddenly and often, they appear out of nowhere, fly across the street, and cut in line, regardless of how close they are to my bus.”
E-bikes are lean, silent machines that in recent years have sparked controversy all over China. Whether they are “green” is debatable. They may not add fumes to China’s already-polluted air, but there’s also the question of what happens to them and their batteries when it’s time to send them to the scrap heap.
So why all the fuss? The overwhelming issue is one of road safety. Users of e-bikes have a reputation — sometimes well-deserved — for violating the rules of the road at will, often resulting in injury or death. Shenzhen police announced in April that 431 people died of road accidents in the city last year, and just over a quarter of these accidents involved e-bikes.
But there’s more to China’s e-bike storm than the locking of horns between disgruntled drivers, frustrated e-bike riders, and government officials.
The current situation is the product of the country’s wild growth, its traffic woes, and a widening socioeconomic gap.
It also touches on freedom of mobility. Because an e-bike can usually be bought for around 2,000 yuan (just under $310), it represents an inexpensive way for hundreds of millions of China’s less well-off people to move around, transporting them to schools, workplaces, and possibly even helping to deliver a better quality of life.
When e-bikes first appeared in China, no one anticipated the controversies that would accompany them. Seventeen years ago, in 1999, an industry panel suggested that e-bikes should be limited to a maximum load capacity of 40 kilograms and a speed of 20 kph. These seemingly arbitrary specifications have been met with fierce resistance from consumers ever since.
Though the first e-bikes were invented in the United States in the 1890s, Professor Ma Guilong is widely believed to be the first man to introduce them to China, from his lab at Tsinghua University in 1989. He said he originally thought it sufficient to replace manual bikes with electric versions able to travel at 10 kph without pedaling.
Ma was featured in an episode of a China Central Television documentary series commemorating top industrial innovators in 2009, largely because he gave up his claim to nearly 100 patents so manufacturers could share the technology freely.
This move catapulted China to the top buyer and seller of e-bikes in the world. The country is the world’s number-one producer and consumer of e-bikes. The debate over whether to continue using them is significant because Chinese manufacturers have big ambitions to export their bikes around the world — but what is a Chinese problem today could affect the rest of the world in a few years.
Mixed Feelings
Many Chinese, Chen included, have a love-hate relationship with this affordable mode of transportation.
The “hate” side was most recently on display in Beijing earlier this month, when a 20-something-year-old deliveryman, surnamed Feng, was slapped six times in the face by a 57-year-old driver, surnamed Li, after Feng’s electric delivery tricycle scraped Li’s car in a crowded residential block. A video recording of the incident quickly went viral on Chinese social media.
That incident came a week after a decree from Beijing police banned e-bikes from several major thoroughfares in the downtown area. Prior to that, the city of Shenzhen, in South China’s Guangdong province, swooped in to confiscate tens of thousands of illegal e-bikes in the city. Authorities there even detained hundreds of offenders.
Cities have sprawled at an unprecedented pace to house the 1.4 billion people living in China. The United Nations Development Programme estimates that 700 million people will be crowded into a total urban landscape of just 41,000 square kilometers — less than half of one percent of China’s land area — by 2030, so regardless of how much longer the Chinese economy booms, citizens of its cities are bound to have to face the daily challenge of how to move around.
Drawing on its past as a “kingdom of bicycles,” China’s 300 million commuters and migrants still rely on two- and three-wheelers — not the formerly ubiquitous pedal-powered bikes, but rather the quiet and highly contentious battery-powered e-bikes.
Chen, the bus driver, depends on an e-bike to go to and from work, but she dislikes them in general because of the dangers they pose to bus drivers like her.
Last year, an apprentice bus driver on Chen’s team rammed into an e-bike rider and had to pay for repairs and medical expenses out of his own pocket. Most bus drivers choose not to report accidents to management unless they are serious. “You may ask for reimbursements, but the company will deduct more than the reimbursed amount from our wages,” said Chen.
Chen said that while a car offers better protection from the elements, finding parking can be difficult, and tickets are a common and frustrating reality for automobile drivers.
In an effort to curb the number of e-bikes taking shortcuts across the campus of Tongling University, in Anhui province, the school announced in mid-April that it would ban all e-bikes from campus.
Mao Lamei, an associate professor of accounting, said an outcry from faculty and students forced the school to quickly amend its plan, adding an e-bike shelter outside the east gate.
E-bikes hold a particularly special place for migrant workers. Such workers account for up to 40 percent of the population of Beijing — about 8.2 million out of 21.7 million, according to the city’s 2015 census report.
In Shenzhen, too, migrants form an important part of the population, making up half of the 17 million people who live there. The city is also home to 4 million e-bike owners, who use them for their daily commutes, for taking their kids to school, and for hauling personal goods and express deliveries.
After making gas-powered motorcycles totally illegal in 2003, Shenzhen began restricting the use of e-bikes in 2012 and has made 90 percent of city roads off-limits, on the grounds that riders often compete with cars and run red lights.
For the last four years, police have pulled 400,000 e-bikes off the streets and heaped them high in massive dumps, according to a report in local media.
Police squads confiscated nearly 18,000 e-bikes and detained more than 800 riders during the first 10 days of their 100-day campaign that kicked off in late March to eradicate the “silent killers” from the city’s streets.
Owners — at least those willing to walk through the bureaucratic red tape, produce official invoices, and pay fines nearly equal the value of the bikes — manage to redeem about 5 percent of them. The majority will lie rusting in massive scrapyards under city flyovers or get resold by secondhand dealers.
In a phone interview with Sixth Tone, China Bicycle Association Vice Chairman Lu Jinlong, who disputes claims that e-bikes are silent killers, said of city traffic: “E-bikes themselves don’t make trouble. Accidents happen because riders break traffic rules.”
Commenting on the e-bike ban, Lu said that on the surface it’s a discriminatory policy against migrant workers. But deep down, he added, it’s about competition between cars, bikes, and trucks for limited parking and space on congested roads.
Last year alone, nearly 24 million new cars took to China’s roads. By comparison, roughly as many — 24.5 million — new e-bikes joined the daily snarl of traffic. However, according to deputies at an industry conference, the domestic e-bike market shrank for the first time in 2014, ending 16 years of robust growth.
Police estimated in 2015 that mainland Chinese owned 172 million private cars, as well as 100 million motorcycles. But the mid-1990s policies restricting the use of — or completely banning — motorcycles in big cities set the stage for the e-bike boom.
Years passed, and of the current 300 million riders of two-wheeled vehicles, users of foot-powered bikes account for just 20 million — down from 110 million during the peak years of the 80s and 90s. Over the same span, e-bikes have risen to cover 60 percent of the two-wheeler market, or more than bicycles and motorcycles combined.
Ni Jie, founder and chairman of Zhejiang Luyuan Electric Vehicle Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of e-bikes, told Sixth Tone it was unfair and illogical for the Shenzhen municipal government to restrict the use of e-bikes in favor of buses and private cars.
“I’m opposed to it and I’ve said so repeatedly,” said Ni. “I don’t know what the Shenzhen police are really after, but it’s like climbing a tree for fish if you attack traffic woes with a simple ban on e-bikes. What’s wrong with e-bikes? Are you saying hundreds of millions of consumers are wrong too?"
“Whether the ban is lifted will depend on how vocal we are,” said Ni. “And even if it doesn’t go, market demand for an indispensable means of transport among 200 million people will stay.”
Ni believes such a clash between private demand and government policy in its present form is inevitable — and if this is the case, why not look toward a compromise now?
In such a policy-driven economy, the e-bike industry, since its infancy, has been one of the few to see success without tax incentives or state grants for design and research. Two decades largely exempt from government interference have witnessed e-bikes evolving into a 200-billion-yuan industry in terms of annual gross revenue, with millions of jobs created across industry hubs like the northern city of Tianjin into the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu.
The domestic market for e-bikes is gradually becoming saturated, and more players are pinning their hopes overseas. China sells e-bikes to more than 100 countries across the world, with shipments of 1.38 million units last year, according to data from Chinese customs.
Lu of the bicycle association said the average unit price of 3,000 euros (22,000 yuan) among competitors in the U.S. and Europe, compared with an average of 2,000 yuan in China, gives ample leeway for Chinese manufacturers to shift their emphasis from the mass production of relatively primitive bikes to sophisticated models sought by consumers in developed countries.
“We’ll be on top of the world in no time,” said Lu.
And I thought traffic was bad around here. :lol: Electric bikes drive bus driver Chen Honglian crazy.
The 40-something Chen has spent a good chunk of her almost two decades behind the wheel of public buses swerving to avoid the thousands of e-bikes that clog the streets of Hefei, capital of the eastern Chinese province of Anhui.
“These little locusts are such a pain for bus drivers,” Chen said, referring to e-bike riders. “All too suddenly and often, they appear out of nowhere, fly across the street, and cut in line, regardless of how close they are to my bus.”
E-bikes are lean, silent machines that in recent years have sparked controversy all over China. Whether they are “green” is debatable. They may not add fumes to China’s already-polluted air, but there’s also the question of what happens to them and their batteries when it’s time to send them to the scrap heap.
So why all the fuss? The overwhelming issue is one of road safety. Users of e-bikes have a reputation — sometimes well-deserved — for violating the rules of the road at will, often resulting in injury or death. Shenzhen police announced in April that 431 people died of road accidents in the city last year, and just over a quarter of these accidents involved e-bikes.
But there’s more to China’s e-bike storm than the locking of horns between disgruntled drivers, frustrated e-bike riders, and government officials.
The current situation is the product of the country’s wild growth, its traffic woes, and a widening socioeconomic gap.
It also touches on freedom of mobility. Because an e-bike can usually be bought for around 2,000 yuan (just under $310), it represents an inexpensive way for hundreds of millions of China’s less well-off people to move around, transporting them to schools, workplaces, and possibly even helping to deliver a better quality of life.
When e-bikes first appeared in China, no one anticipated the controversies that would accompany them. Seventeen years ago, in 1999, an industry panel suggested that e-bikes should be limited to a maximum load capacity of 40 kilograms and a speed of 20 kph. These seemingly arbitrary specifications have been met with fierce resistance from consumers ever since.
Though the first e-bikes were invented in the United States in the 1890s, Professor Ma Guilong is widely believed to be the first man to introduce them to China, from his lab at Tsinghua University in 1989. He said he originally thought it sufficient to replace manual bikes with electric versions able to travel at 10 kph without pedaling.
Ma was featured in an episode of a China Central Television documentary series commemorating top industrial innovators in 2009, largely because he gave up his claim to nearly 100 patents so manufacturers could share the technology freely.
This move catapulted China to the top buyer and seller of e-bikes in the world. The country is the world’s number-one producer and consumer of e-bikes. The debate over whether to continue using them is significant because Chinese manufacturers have big ambitions to export their bikes around the world — but what is a Chinese problem today could affect the rest of the world in a few years.
Mixed Feelings
Many Chinese, Chen included, have a love-hate relationship with this affordable mode of transportation.
The “hate” side was most recently on display in Beijing earlier this month, when a 20-something-year-old deliveryman, surnamed Feng, was slapped six times in the face by a 57-year-old driver, surnamed Li, after Feng’s electric delivery tricycle scraped Li’s car in a crowded residential block. A video recording of the incident quickly went viral on Chinese social media.
That incident came a week after a decree from Beijing police banned e-bikes from several major thoroughfares in the downtown area. Prior to that, the city of Shenzhen, in South China’s Guangdong province, swooped in to confiscate tens of thousands of illegal e-bikes in the city. Authorities there even detained hundreds of offenders.
Cities have sprawled at an unprecedented pace to house the 1.4 billion people living in China. The United Nations Development Programme estimates that 700 million people will be crowded into a total urban landscape of just 41,000 square kilometers — less than half of one percent of China’s land area — by 2030, so regardless of how much longer the Chinese economy booms, citizens of its cities are bound to have to face the daily challenge of how to move around.
Drawing on its past as a “kingdom of bicycles,” China’s 300 million commuters and migrants still rely on two- and three-wheelers — not the formerly ubiquitous pedal-powered bikes, but rather the quiet and highly contentious battery-powered e-bikes.
Chen, the bus driver, depends on an e-bike to go to and from work, but she dislikes them in general because of the dangers they pose to bus drivers like her.
Last year, an apprentice bus driver on Chen’s team rammed into an e-bike rider and had to pay for repairs and medical expenses out of his own pocket. Most bus drivers choose not to report accidents to management unless they are serious. “You may ask for reimbursements, but the company will deduct more than the reimbursed amount from our wages,” said Chen.
Chen said that while a car offers better protection from the elements, finding parking can be difficult, and tickets are a common and frustrating reality for automobile drivers.
In an effort to curb the number of e-bikes taking shortcuts across the campus of Tongling University, in Anhui province, the school announced in mid-April that it would ban all e-bikes from campus.
Mao Lamei, an associate professor of accounting, said an outcry from faculty and students forced the school to quickly amend its plan, adding an e-bike shelter outside the east gate.
E-bikes hold a particularly special place for migrant workers. Such workers account for up to 40 percent of the population of Beijing — about 8.2 million out of 21.7 million, according to the city’s 2015 census report.
In Shenzhen, too, migrants form an important part of the population, making up half of the 17 million people who live there. The city is also home to 4 million e-bike owners, who use them for their daily commutes, for taking their kids to school, and for hauling personal goods and express deliveries.
After making gas-powered motorcycles totally illegal in 2003, Shenzhen began restricting the use of e-bikes in 2012 and has made 90 percent of city roads off-limits, on the grounds that riders often compete with cars and run red lights.
For the last four years, police have pulled 400,000 e-bikes off the streets and heaped them high in massive dumps, according to a report in local media.
Police squads confiscated nearly 18,000 e-bikes and detained more than 800 riders during the first 10 days of their 100-day campaign that kicked off in late March to eradicate the “silent killers” from the city’s streets.
Owners — at least those willing to walk through the bureaucratic red tape, produce official invoices, and pay fines nearly equal the value of the bikes — manage to redeem about 5 percent of them. The majority will lie rusting in massive scrapyards under city flyovers or get resold by secondhand dealers.
In a phone interview with Sixth Tone, China Bicycle Association Vice Chairman Lu Jinlong, who disputes claims that e-bikes are silent killers, said of city traffic: “E-bikes themselves don’t make trouble. Accidents happen because riders break traffic rules.”
Commenting on the e-bike ban, Lu said that on the surface it’s a discriminatory policy against migrant workers. But deep down, he added, it’s about competition between cars, bikes, and trucks for limited parking and space on congested roads.
Last year alone, nearly 24 million new cars took to China’s roads. By comparison, roughly as many — 24.5 million — new e-bikes joined the daily snarl of traffic. However, according to deputies at an industry conference, the domestic e-bike market shrank for the first time in 2014, ending 16 years of robust growth.
Police estimated in 2015 that mainland Chinese owned 172 million private cars, as well as 100 million motorcycles. But the mid-1990s policies restricting the use of — or completely banning — motorcycles in big cities set the stage for the e-bike boom.
Years passed, and of the current 300 million riders of two-wheeled vehicles, users of foot-powered bikes account for just 20 million — down from 110 million during the peak years of the 80s and 90s. Over the same span, e-bikes have risen to cover 60 percent of the two-wheeler market, or more than bicycles and motorcycles combined.
Ni Jie, founder and chairman of Zhejiang Luyuan Electric Vehicle Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of e-bikes, told Sixth Tone it was unfair and illogical for the Shenzhen municipal government to restrict the use of e-bikes in favor of buses and private cars.
“I’m opposed to it and I’ve said so repeatedly,” said Ni. “I don’t know what the Shenzhen police are really after, but it’s like climbing a tree for fish if you attack traffic woes with a simple ban on e-bikes. What’s wrong with e-bikes? Are you saying hundreds of millions of consumers are wrong too?"
“Whether the ban is lifted will depend on how vocal we are,” said Ni. “And even if it doesn’t go, market demand for an indispensable means of transport among 200 million people will stay.”
Ni believes such a clash between private demand and government policy in its present form is inevitable — and if this is the case, why not look toward a compromise now?
In such a policy-driven economy, the e-bike industry, since its infancy, has been one of the few to see success without tax incentives or state grants for design and research. Two decades largely exempt from government interference have witnessed e-bikes evolving into a 200-billion-yuan industry in terms of annual gross revenue, with millions of jobs created across industry hubs like the northern city of Tianjin into the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu.
The domestic market for e-bikes is gradually becoming saturated, and more players are pinning their hopes overseas. China sells e-bikes to more than 100 countries across the world, with shipments of 1.38 million units last year, according to data from Chinese customs.
Lu of the bicycle association said the average unit price of 3,000 euros (22,000 yuan) among competitors in the U.S. and Europe, compared with an average of 2,000 yuan in China, gives ample leeway for Chinese manufacturers to shift their emphasis from the mass production of relatively primitive bikes to sophisticated models sought by consumers in developed countries.
“We’ll be on top of the world in no time,” said Lu.
The fingers
10 TW
https://www.theeastsiderla.com/2016/05/cyclist-killed-in-lincoln-heights-collision/
By LUCY GUANUNA
LINCOLN HEIGHTS — A cyclist riding on the wrong side of the street was killed in a traffic collision in Lincoln Heights early this morning.
The collision happened at the intersection of Humboldt Street and Avenue 26 at about 1:30 a.m., said Officer Robert Palma with LAPD’s Central Traffic Division. The cyclist was riding on the wrong side of the street as he traveled southbound on Humboldt before colliding with a vehicle driving westbound on Avenue 26
The cyclist, a Latino male in his early 30s, was pronounced dead on the scene, Palma said.
The investigation is ongoing.
Updated @ 11:57 a.m.: The LAPD Central Traffic Division identified the victim as 22-year-old Giovanni Cali of Los Angeles. More details of the incident were also released:
“The collision occured when Giovanni Cali, 22 years old and a resident of Los Angeles, and his companion, Esteban Ruiz, were riding their bicycles southbound on Humboldt Street. As they entered the intersection at Avenue 26, Ruiz saw a vehicle traveling westbound on Avenue 26 and was able to avoid being struck. Mr. Cali, however, did not see the vehicle and was struck by the oncoming vehicle. The driver of the vehicle, Kazem Samadi, 49 years old, also a resident of Los Angeles, was interviewed and released at the scene. He was not under the influence of drugs or narcotics.”
Lucy Guanuna is a freelance reporter who has covered a variety of issues, including business, education and social justice movements in her native Los Angeles. Her work has been published in the Daily Sundial, L.A. Activist, and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.
By LUCY GUANUNA
LINCOLN HEIGHTS — A cyclist riding on the wrong side of the street was killed in a traffic collision in Lincoln Heights early this morning.
The collision happened at the intersection of Humboldt Street and Avenue 26 at about 1:30 a.m., said Officer Robert Palma with LAPD’s Central Traffic Division. The cyclist was riding on the wrong side of the street as he traveled southbound on Humboldt before colliding with a vehicle driving westbound on Avenue 26
The cyclist, a Latino male in his early 30s, was pronounced dead on the scene, Palma said.
The investigation is ongoing.
Updated @ 11:57 a.m.: The LAPD Central Traffic Division identified the victim as 22-year-old Giovanni Cali of Los Angeles. More details of the incident were also released:
“The collision occured when Giovanni Cali, 22 years old and a resident of Los Angeles, and his companion, Esteban Ruiz, were riding their bicycles southbound on Humboldt Street. As they entered the intersection at Avenue 26, Ruiz saw a vehicle traveling westbound on Avenue 26 and was able to avoid being struck. Mr. Cali, however, did not see the vehicle and was struck by the oncoming vehicle. The driver of the vehicle, Kazem Samadi, 49 years old, also a resident of Los Angeles, was interviewed and released at the scene. He was not under the influence of drugs or narcotics.”
Lucy Guanuna is a freelance reporter who has covered a variety of issues, including business, education and social justice movements in her native Los Angeles. Her work has been published in the Daily Sundial, L.A. Activist, and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.
The fingers
10 TW
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/rtd-bus-door-closes-on-cracks-bike-helmet I smell an accident claim waiting to happen.
I smell an accident claim waiting to happen.
The fingers
10 TW
The fingers
10 TW
http://ciclavalley.org/cyclist-nearly-taken-down-in-bike-lane/ "Smile, you're on Candid Camera!"
This is becoming my Shark Week.
Yesterday, started out weird with my tire exploding on the way to work in Griffith Park. Somehow my tube leaked just enough to get me to the Hollywood/Western Station, so I knew that was going to be it for the day.
Plus, in the back of my mind, I remembered to heed Ted Rogers’ annual tweet:
Like St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo is amateur hour for drunks. Assume every driver you see on the road today has had a few. Or more.
— Ted Rogers (@bikinginla) May 5, 2016
There were new tires waiting for me at home, so I stopped into NoHo Cycles to pick up some tubes on the way back.
I was speaking with the owner, Craig, about some of these incidents on the road and he started talking about nearly being taken down on Moorpark in Studio City.
Around that time, I heard my phone ring with a call from my friend DJ. Everytime I don’t pick up his call, it seems like I’m missing out on some cool news, like a secret cask opening of Pliny the Younger, but I knew I could check my messages in a few minutes.
Yeah, there was news, but not the type I wanted to hear. Just a block away from his home on Moorpark, he nearly got taken down by an overzealous driver that used the bike lane to pass the car ahead.
There’s no doubt about this. The driver went a whole block in the bike lane just to pass ONE car!
That’s how much a life means to this person!
You want to know what’s scarier? I looked deeper into the video and the driver covered 1/16 of a mile in exactly four seconds.
That’s over 55mph in a 35mph zone!
And just a side note, right as the driver made his move, there’s a library and a very popular kids park off to the side.
If you think this is just a one off, look at this video I took from about a block away two years ago on the Milt Olin ride:
Speaking with DJ, I knew he was still buzzing from all this. I would be too.
He immediately forwarded the video to a lawyer, so we’ll keep it at that for now.
Once again, I don’t know how many times I have to state getting a camera, because the more drivers know they’re being recorded, the less likely they are going to risk maneuvers like these.
"Smile, you're on Candid Camera!" This is becoming my Shark Week.
Yesterday, started out weird with my tire exploding on the way to work in Griffith Park. Somehow my tube leaked just enough to get me to the Hollywood/Western Station, so I knew that was going to be it for the day.
Plus, in the back of my mind, I remembered to heed Ted Rogers’ annual tweet:
Like St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo is amateur hour for drunks. Assume every driver you see on the road today has had a few. Or more.
— Ted Rogers (@bikinginla) May 5, 2016
There were new tires waiting for me at home, so I stopped into NoHo Cycles to pick up some tubes on the way back.
I was speaking with the owner, Craig, about some of these incidents on the road and he started talking about nearly being taken down on Moorpark in Studio City.
Around that time, I heard my phone ring with a call from my friend DJ. Everytime I don’t pick up his call, it seems like I’m missing out on some cool news, like a secret cask opening of Pliny the Younger, but I knew I could check my messages in a few minutes.
Yeah, there was news, but not the type I wanted to hear. Just a block away from his home on Moorpark, he nearly got taken down by an overzealous driver that used the bike lane to pass the car ahead.
There’s no doubt about this. The driver went a whole block in the bike lane just to pass ONE car!
That’s how much a life means to this person!
You want to know what’s scarier? I looked deeper into the video and the driver covered 1/16 of a mile in exactly four seconds.
That’s over 55mph in a 35mph zone!
And just a side note, right as the driver made his move, there’s a library and a very popular kids park off to the side.
If you think this is just a one off, look at this video I took from about a block away two years ago on the Milt Olin ride:
Speaking with DJ, I knew he was still buzzing from all this. I would be too.
He immediately forwarded the video to a lawyer, so we’ll keep it at that for now.
Once again, I don’t know how many times I have to state getting a camera, because the more drivers know they’re being recorded, the less likely they are going to risk maneuvers like these.
The fingers
10 TW
http://ktla.com/2016/05/11/man-dies-in-alley-following-exchange-of-gunfire-in-bell/
A man who died in an alleyway in Bell Tuesday night was involved in an exchange of gunfire with a person who fled the scene, officials said Wednesday.
The shooting occurred in the 6200 block of Orchard Avenue at about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department stated in a news release.
Bell police officers initially responded to a “shots fired” call and discovered a man in a rear alley who was suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper torso.
The man, who was not identified, was pronounced dead at the scene.
"Our victim and another individual were exchanging gunfire," said Lt. Steve Jauch with the Sheriff’s Department.
A woman who lives near the shooting site told KTLA she heard seven or eight gunshots.
Video from the scene showed two bicycles were left in the street following the shooting.
Investigators were searching for witnesses to the shooting, but had yet to find any details about the other person involved, Jauch said.
Anyone with information was asked to contact the Sheriff’s Department at 323-890-5500.
Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
A man who died in an alleyway in Bell Tuesday night was involved in an exchange of gunfire with a person who fled the scene, officials said Wednesday.
The shooting occurred in the 6200 block of Orchard Avenue at about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department stated in a news release.
Bell police officers initially responded to a “shots fired” call and discovered a man in a rear alley who was suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper torso.
The man, who was not identified, was pronounced dead at the scene.
"Our victim and another individual were exchanging gunfire," said Lt. Steve Jauch with the Sheriff’s Department.
A woman who lives near the shooting site told KTLA she heard seven or eight gunshots.
Video from the scene showed two bicycles were left in the street following the shooting.
Investigators were searching for witnesses to the shooting, but had yet to find any details about the other person involved, Jauch said.
Anyone with information was asked to contact the Sheriff’s Department at 323-890-5500.
Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
