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People are dying to stop people from dying on the mean streets of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Figuratively, anyway.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Times reports on Saturday\u2019s die-in on the steps of LA City Hall<\/a>, saying dozens feigned their deaths to protest the 290 traffic deaths last year in the City of Angels, and the adjective failure of Vision Zero.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re out here today because the city of Los Angeles signed Vision Zero as a directive in August 2015 to prioritize saving lives on our roads \u2014 to achieve zero traffic fatalities by 2025,\u201d said SAFE founder and executive director Damian Kevitt, who lost his right leg in a violent traffic incident in 2013. \u201cNot manage or reduce [them] but eliminate traffic fatalities. We are a decade later and we are at 290 traffic fatalities. \u2026 It\u2019s a 26% increase in traffic fatalities since the start of Vision Zero\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe city has tools, it\u2019s just not using them,\u201d Kevitt told The Times. \u201cIn 2024, voters approved measure HLA<\/a> by a two-thirds margin. It requires the city must follow its own mobility plan \u2026 to make roads safer for cyclists, for pedestrians, for better transit.\u201d He also cited state measure AB 645, which in 2023 authorized a pilot program for speed cameras in a handful of California cities including Los Angeles, as \u201ca tool the city could be implementing \u2014 it\u2019s speed safety systems.\u201d<\/p>\n In a perfect illustration of just how unserious the city is about ending traffic deaths, CD 13 Councilmember Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez was the only member of the city government who bothered to show up.<\/p>\n But hey, Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement.<\/p>\n No, wait. Her office did.<\/p>\n Apparently Mayor Bass had better things to do.<\/p>\n Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 office said in a statement that Bass, who took office in December 2022, \u201chas made street safety a priority by accelerating the implementation of hundreds of new speed humps, signage and intersection treatments which help ensure drivers are traveling slowly and with control near schools. Vision Zero started in 2015 and requires intensive coordination across departments.\u201d<\/p>\n The office pointed to Bass\u2019 October 2024 executive directive<\/a> to facilitate street repairs, clean parks and infrastructure and city services enhancements ahead of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympic Games in L.A.<\/p>\n So, evidently, we need a World Cup or Olympic Games to justify saving human lives.<\/p>\n Oh, and clean parks.<\/p>\n Got it.<\/p>\n Kevitt had one parting comment for The Times: \u201cDon\u2019t use the word traffic \u2018accident\u2019 when writing about this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the road safety arena, it\u2019s \u2018crash\u2019 or \u2018collision,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201c \u2018Accident\u2019 implies non-responsibility. It\u2019s just an \u2018oops.\u2019 But when you\u2019re driving drunk or distracted, that\u2019s a choice. If you hit and kill or severely injure someone, it\u2019s not an \u2018oops.\u2019 We\u2019re trying to say: This is preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot more to the article, and it\u2019s worth a few minutes to read the other comments from people who have lost loved ones. Or fear exactly that.<\/p>\n Particularly since the Times appears to be the only media source that even bothered to cover it.<\/p>\n Evidently, our deadly streets are no more important to the people who report on them than they are to the people we elect to fix them.<\/p>\n Looks like the joke\u2019s on us.<\/p>\n Because nothing will ever change until city leaders care enough to do something about it.<\/p>\n And the media, and the people, care enough to hold them to it.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Good question.<\/p>\n Circling the News asks how LA County expects to build a subway under the Sepulveda Pass if it takes three years to even repair a washed out bridge on the beach bike path<\/a>.<\/p>\n Or fix the noxious \u201cpoop spray\u201d fouling it, for that matter.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Former NFL star Marshawn Lynch is one of us, riding a Lime ebike across Seattle for Sunday\u2019s game<\/a> between the Rams and the Seahawks.<\/p>\n Which did not end well for the Rams.<\/p>\n Just got this photo from a friend of mine: #Seahawks<\/a> legend Marshawn Lynch casually riding a bike en route to Lumen Field for today\u2019s NFC Championship Game.<\/p>\n He was seen eating Skittles. \ud83d\ude02 pic.twitter.com\/IdxsO1MWAI<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) January 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Then again, my beloved Broncos finished a broken ankle and a snow storm short of the Super Bowl, too.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.<\/p>\n No bias here. A Scottish city lived up \u2014 or maybe down \u2014 to its reputation as \u201chostile to anyone outside of a car\u201d by scrapping plans for a bike lane through the town center<\/a> because it would put the \u201ceconomic vitality\u201d of the town \u201cat serious risk\u201d due to the loss of six whole parking spaces. Yes, six. Never mind that studies have repeatedly shown sales go up when protected bike lanes go down.<\/p>\n An Irish writer says anyone who thinks bikes should be registered is \u201cdeeply unserious or misguided.\u201d<\/a> No, seriously. Tell us what you really think.\u00a0<\/p>\n But sometimes, it\u2019s the people on two wheels behaving badly.<\/p>\n A British man is charged with careless bicycling after crashing into a woman<\/a> when he tried to pass her on a pathway, but he says it was the woman who stepped into his path.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Local\u00a0<\/p>\n Bike lanes on Santa Monica Blvd, Fairfax Ave and San Vicente Blvd in West Hollywood<\/a> are getting a fresh coat of Kermit, with a shade of green specially formulated to enhance safety without overly annoying Hollywood filmmakers.<\/p>\n LAist examines Long Beach\u2019s Vision Zero failure<\/a>, as traffic deaths in the beachside city climb to their highest level in a decade. Although the public radio website may require your email address to read it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n State<\/p>\n Solana Beach will use a $300,000 state grant to help fund a $1.075 million extension of San Diego County\u2019s Coastal Rail Trail<\/a> to the Encinitas border.<\/p>\n Megan forwards news that a UC Santa Barbara student bike committee has secured $1.4 million<\/a> to build a new bike path on campus.<\/p>\n In a surprising example of rationality, researchers at San Jos\u00e9 State University say the state\u2019s ebike problem may actually be an e-motorbike problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n What a long, strange trip it wasn\u2019t. A local leader of San Francisco\u2019s World Naked Bike Ride was arrested<\/a> when he and several other people showed up naked for a tribute to the Grateful Dead\u2019s Bob Weir, in the mistaken assumption their bare bodies would be seen as a tribute to the band.<\/p>\n A Manteca resident claims the honor of being the only person to ever kick Greg LeMond out of a bike race<\/a> \u2014 when America\u2019s last remaining Tour de France winner was 14.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n National<\/p>\n Your next ebike could get a whopping 600 mile range on a single charge<\/a>.<\/p>\n A homeless man in Florida was been convicted of 2nd degree murder<\/a> in the death of a 14-year old boy who disappeared while on a bike ride in 2021<\/a> \u2014 even though the judge had ordered an emergency mental health evaluation days earlier after a bizarre, rambling statement on the stand by the man, who had been ruled competent to stand trial despite a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n International<\/p>\n Cycling Weekly talks with a woman who used riding her bike through the Scottish Highlands as an escape from a difficult marriage<\/a>, then rode through her bereavement, and used riding to recover from an illness that cost her 60% of her lung function.<\/p>\n A new study shows that Britain\u2019s \u201ctransformational\u201d Place to Ride program has saved the country\u2019s National Health Service the equivalent of nearly $18 million<\/a>, while resulting in $136 million in \u2018social value\u2019 across the UK.<\/p>\n The Republic of Ireland is considering a proposal to mandate compulsory bike helmet use<\/a> and hi-viz clothing for all bicyclists and e-scooter users<\/a>. Even though other helmet mandates have been show to reduce head injuries mainly by reducing riding rates, while preventing children from even learning how to ride. And if hi-viz was the answer, no one would ever crash into a fire hydrant, road sign or emergency vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Parts of the Netherlands are banning the heavy, fat-tired electric bikes they call fat bikes<\/a>, and we would call electric motorbikes.<\/p>\n A team of British club riders are following the route taken by the Prophet Muhammad<\/a> from Makkah to Madinah in Saudi Arabia over 1,400 years ago to raise funds to fight pediatric heart defects.<\/p>\n I want to be like him when I grow up. A 94-year New Zealand man who survived the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Holland will attempt to set a new age-group hour record<\/a>, after already exceeding the record time on his own.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Competitive Cycling<\/p>\n In what has to be one of the most bizarre endings ever to a WorldTour race, Aussie Jay Vine won the Tour Down Under<\/a> stage rage on Sunday \u2014 but only after getting knocked down<\/a> when a pair of kangaroos hopped through the peloton<\/a>, crashing into several cyclists, and forcing three riders out of the race<\/a>; Vine rejoined the stage after switching bikes<\/a>, but one of the kangaroos had to be put down<\/a>.<\/p>\n \ud83e\udd98 A ‘hopping’ mad situation!<\/p>\n \ud83d\udeb4 Jay Vine was unfortunate to hit a rogue Kangaroo that was attempting to cross the track during the Tour Down Under! pic.twitter.com\/6F5Jdd0Fed<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 SBS Sport (@SBSSportau) January 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Finally\u2026<\/p>\n That feeling when a self-driving car parks in a bike lane<\/a>, and the company tries to blame the driver. Or when an F1 star takes part in a gravel ride<\/a> wearing only a banana hammock.<\/p>\n And of course a certain Pasadena kid grew up to be one of us.<\/p>\n Rocker Eddie Van Halen takes a spin on a mountain bike in 1989#BicycleBirthdayJanuary 26 (1955-2020)<\/p>\n \u2014 Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-01-26T05:22:46.323Z<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.<\/p>\n Oh, and fuck Putin.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Like this:<\/p>\n Like Loading…<\/p>\n