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If today\u2019s post seems a little jazzier than usual, it was written under the influence of John Coltrane\u2019s A Love Supreme, which is way better than any drug.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s photo of LA City Hall looking like a big dick to represent all the little ones, male and female, inside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n
More on today\u2019s call for the City of Los Angeles to declare a Traffic Violence State of Emergency, as I\u2019ve mashed an email notification and press release together.<\/p>\n
And yes, there\u2019s still time to get to City Hall if you can make it this morning.<\/p>\n
DEMAND A STATE OF EMERGENCY ON TRAFFIC VIOLENCE!<\/p>\n
More than 1,300 people and 40 coalition partners have signed SAFE\u2019s open letter calling on the Mayor and City Council to declare a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence and take immediate action.<\/p>\n
Now, we\u2019re bringing that demand to City Hall. We need you to show up, give public comment, and make your voice heard.<\/p>\n
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
9:30 a.m. Meet at City Hall
10:00 a.m. City Council meeting begins
Press conference following public comment
200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Entrance on Main St.<\/p>\n
Our goal is to have at least 50 people give public comment. If you can speak during public comment or at our press conference, please confirm with me and review the instructions and talking points for public comment.<\/a><\/p>\n We hope to see you at City Hall Tuesday.<\/p>\n WHAT: Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE)<\/a>, People\u2019s Vision Zero<\/a>, and community members will present an open letter<\/a> to Los Angeles City Council signed by more than 1,300 Angelenos and 43 Coalition Partners<\/a> to Los Angeles City Hall, calling on Mayor Karen Bass and the Los Angeles City Council to immediately declare a State of Emergency on traffic violence and implement 5 broad strategies to immediately address and reduce serious injuries and fatalities due to traffic violence.<\/p>\n The stats speak for themselves:<\/p>\n The City of Los Angeles has had more traffic fatalities than homicides for the past 3 years. In 2015, Los Angeles started Vision Zero, LA\u2019s plan to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2025. That plan failed, and traffic fatalities are now 34% higher than they were in 2015 (241 compared to 324). (Source: TIMS<\/a>) Since then, LA has failed to produce a comprehensive plan to reduce traffic violence.<\/p>\n In April 2025, an independent analysis<\/a> of Vision Zero found 13 key points of failure. All of these boil down to poor coordination and prioritization within and across city departments as well as a lack of political will<\/a>. None of this has been fixed.<\/p>\n On 11 May 2026, in an email<\/a>, Ms Tina Backstrom from the LA Mayor\u2019s office stated that Mayor Karen Bass had an Executive Directive on her desk to re-launch Vision Zero and that it would be reviewed and signed within three weeks. This was never done.<\/p>\n Los Angeles has spent more than a decade promising to eliminate traffic deaths. Not only did Vision Zero fail, but things have gotten worse, and now, instead of fixing what continues to fail, the city has chosen to ignore the problem.<\/p>\n I admit, I was unaware of that email stating that Bass would re-launch Vision Zero, which just seems to add to her failings when it comes to traffic safety.<\/p>\n And makes her recent stepped-up support of safety projects \u2014 other than Forest Lawn Drive, of course \u2014 seem more like the flailing actions of someone desperately running for re-election, than any real change of heart.<\/p>\n But maybe that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n No bias here.<\/p>\n A former Los Angeles city planner writes that Los Angeles needs to stop the mythical \u201cwar on cars,\u201d<\/a> spewing a lengthy word salad to say that Los Angeles isn\u2019t Amsterdam, which should come as no surprise to anyone.<\/p>\n For one thing, the people in Amsterdam live in one of the world\u2019s happiest countries, which can hardly be said about Angelenos.<\/p>\n Thomas Glick implicitly criticizes CD 4 Councilmember and LA mayoral challenger Nithya Raman for saying people should drive less, while also driving herself.<\/p>\n Oh, the shame!<\/p>\n That will surely make her hang her head and slink away.<\/p>\n Glick also says that bicycling, and bike lanes, are good things. But, you know, bike lanes can get cluttered with palm fronds and other debris after it rains, making them virtually unusable.<\/p>\n Which seems like a far better argument for bike lane-sized street sweepers, than it is for whatever point Glick is trying to make.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s this.<\/p>\n That is the larger problem. Los Angeles transportation policy increasingly seems designed to satisfy the demands of progressive transportation organizations and advocacy groups such as Streets for All rather than starting with the more basic question: What will actually move the greatest number of Angelenos safely and efficiently?<\/p>\n Mayor Karen Bass, to her credit, has shown that there can be a middle ground. Bass is hardly opposed to public transportation, bike lanes or reducing automobile dependence. But she has also demonstrated a willingness to recognize that transportation policy has to work for the people who actually live here. When faced with significant community opposition to the proposed redesign of Forest Lawn Drive, which would have removed a traffic lane in each direction to create a protected bike lane, Bass ordered the project redesigned rather than simply pushing ahead. Her revised approach calls for protected bike infrastructure while maintaining the existing traffic lanes.<\/p>\n That is the kind of balance Los Angeles needs. The choice shouldn\u2019t be between doing nothing and declaring war on the automobile. We can make streets safer, expand transit and provide better options for bicyclists without pretending that every traffic lane is an obstacle to be eliminated. Bass\u2019s decision on Forest Lawn Drive suggests that even a mayor committed to expanding alternative transportation can recognize that there are limits to how much roadway Los Angeles can take away from the automobile before the cure becomes worse than the disease.<\/p>\n Never mind that the point of the Forest Lawn Drive project wasn\u2019t about building bike lanes, but slowing traffic and saving lives on one of the city\u2019s deadliest corridors.<\/p>\n Which you\u2019d think a former city planner would understand, but apparently not.<\/p>\n And never mind that the project has undergone years of public meetings and revisions to accommodate various competing visions. Or that Bass halted the Forest Lawn project in response to a $300,000 lobbying campaign on behalf of a pair of very wealthy private cemeteries, who are apparently trying to drum up more business at their front step.<\/p>\n So yeah, let\u2019s stop that mythical \u201cwar on cars,\u201d and let the people in them keep killing themselves, and others, to the content of their lil ol\u2019 hearts.<\/p>\n And yeah, stop taking away traffic lanes to build those darn bus lanes, too, even though buses move more people far more efficiently than cars can.<\/p>\n So sure, let\u2019s keep Los Angeles deadly. And car and smog choked. And inefficient. And unaccommodating. And progressively less livable.<\/p>\n But whatever you do, don\u2019t do anything to restrict Angelenos God-given right to drive their cars.<\/p>\n Or even suggest that maybe they should do it just a teeny bit less.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n No bias here, either.<\/p>\n In bicycle-adjacent news, the conservative New York Post writes<\/a> that \u201cA lefty public transport nonprofit that supports socialist Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Nithya Raman<\/a> is coming for the city\u2019s iconic palm trees.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe someone should tell them that their own New York mayor is a loud and proud Democratic socialist. And I didn\u2019t know Streets For All was a \u201clefty\u201d group, unless traffic safety and urban livability are \u201clefty\u201d issues.<\/p>\n Besides, they\u2019re right. The only good thing about LA\u2019s palm trees, which are actually a form of very big grass, is they look kinda cool and give the city an iconic image.<\/p>\n But they take a lot of water, provide virtually no shade, and do nothing to cool our over-baked city. And they go up like a torch in any kind of fire, as we see every 4th of July and most Christmases.<\/p>\n Apparently, pointing that out \u2014 which many others have done before \u2014 is enough to get you labeled a \u201clefty.\u201d And God forbid, a supporter of a (gasp) Nithya Raman.<\/p>\n Palm trees are a scam.<\/p>\n They drink more water and provide less shade than other trees. They’re also highly flammable and dangerous in high wind.<\/p>\n Time for LA to replace Palm Trees with trees that provide actual shade and cool down our city. pic.twitter.com\/3ujKhE82e3<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Streets For All (@streetsforall) September 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n That\u2019s tonight!<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n A multi-agency Orange County police task force cracked down on traffic violations<\/a>, writing 102 citations with an emphasis on motorcycle noise violation and illegal electric motorbikes.<\/p>\n According to New Santa Ana<\/a>, the violations included:<\/p>\n 18 citations for loud exhaust violations Loudest reading: 111 dBA, well above California\u2019s 95 dBA limit for passenger vehicles and 80 dBA limit for motorcycles. Which leaves 41 violations for\u2026something.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Sometimes, it\u2019s the people on two wheels behaving badly acting like total dicks.\u00a0<\/p>\n A 51-year old Eugene, Oregon man faces charges<\/a> for intentionally riding his bike into a 73-year old homeless woman<\/a> \u2014 twice \u2014 after she told him to \u201cwatch out\u201d when he rode close to her and her dog, leaving her with minor injuries.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Local\u00a0<\/p>\n Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass manages to get herself photographed center stage<\/a> at the groundbreaking for the Spring\/Alameda Safety and Mobility Project, making the sort of public appearance she could have, and should have, been making for the past three-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n Good news from Culver City, where the Ballona Creek bike path was reopened on Friday<\/a> after storm damage from the recent hurricane was repaired.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n State<\/p>\n Apparently, riding a motorcycle on the sidewalk with your unsecured, un-helmeted two-year old kid on your lap<\/a> is no big deal in Santa Ana.<\/p>\n Nearly 1,000 ebikes, e-motos and electric scooters were turned in<\/a> during the Orange County DA\u2019s buyback program on Saturday. Although judging by the video clips I saw, many were of the normal, and legal, ped-assist type, which wouldn\u2019t do anything to reduce the number of dangerous and illegal electric vehicles the program was intended to remove from the roadway.\u00a0<\/p>\n San Diego is considering suing bikemakers for deceptive ebike ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why \u2014 okay, one reason \u2014 paywalls don\u2019t make any sense. The San Diego Union-Tribune hid a story about the identity of the 14-year old kid killed riding an ebike<\/a> in Pacific Beach over the weekend behind their draconian paywall, even though the kid\u2019s name and other details were readily available from at least a half dozen other sources.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n National<\/p>\n A website lists five Android apps that are \u201cperfect\u201d for bicyclists<\/a>, even if you do your riding indoors.<\/p>\n Dominos is relaunching the bicycle with a built-in pizza oven<\/a>, which they seem to do every few years, but this time as an ebike, presumably for even faster and hotter deliveries. Or maybe just a reliable PR stunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n A travel lane is being removed from a Eugene, Oregon street<\/a> to make room for bike lanes and a combination bus\/parking lane, in a city where removing a traffic lane doesn\u2019t seem to be the end of the world.<\/p>\n Evidently, the New York Post thinks Seattle is in California, writing that the driver spotted speeding along a Seattle bike lane was driving next to a \u201cmajor California freeway.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Denver Broncos all-pro safety Talanoa Hufanga\u2019s NFL dreams began with a little red bicycle<\/a>, riding to high school football games with his dad when he was just five or six years old.<\/p>\n More than 200 Loyola of Chicago students, faculty and staff took part in the university\u2019s annual midnight bike ride<\/a>, a tradition since 1989.<\/p>\n A 41-year old Louisville, Kentucky man was released on his own recognizance<\/a> and allowed to drive to medical appointments for his Stage IV cancer, despite being charged with the hit-and-run death of a man riding a bicycle. It\u2019s not that he shouldn\u2019t be allowed to get to his medical treatments, it\u2019s that the man he killed didn\u2019t get any say in any of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n An Indiana University researcher uses bikes to develop a heat map<\/a>.<\/p>\n A Maryland bike shop owner explains why he decided \u201cdecades ago\u201d not to sell ebikes to minors, or to parents for their minor kids<\/a>. Because apparently ebikes were a major problem in his shop decades before they became a problem anywhere else.\u00a0<\/p>\n Heartbreaking story from Durham, North Carolina, where a nine-year old boy was killed by a driver on Sunday<\/a> while riding the bicycle he got for his birthday; his mom said \u201cJust hug your babies. Love your babies. And people need to slow down. If you\u2019re in a neighborhood full of kids, slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n International<\/p>\n Travel + Leisure lists ten countries that are made for a two-wheeled vacay<\/a>, only two of which \u2014 Slovenia and Vietnam \u2014 are even kinda surprising.<\/p>\n A story from British Columbia seems to miss the most important part, after a 47-year old man pled guilty to second-degree murder<\/a> in the hit-and-run death of a 54-year old man riding a bicycle, after pleading down from first-degree murder \u2014 yet somehow, fails to mention why he was charged with murder in the first place.<\/p>\n In shocking news, the BBC reveals that reckless ebike users pose a danger to people on bicycles<\/a>. Kinda like reckless people in or on anything, including feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n European cities show how to pay people to bike to work<\/a> \u2014 and make it work.<\/p>\n Protests took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, after a 51-year old suspected bike thief died in police custody<\/a>.<\/p>\n A man riding 500 miles to raise funds for his seriously ill partner was beaten by his fellow Poles<\/a> for wearing a yellow and blue hat, accusing him of being a Ukrainian nationalist, even though the hat was clearly labeled to represent a Polish region.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Competitive Cycling<\/p>\n Five Americans to watch at this year\u2019s Worlds<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Finally\u2026<\/p>\n That feeling when your donut ride across Los Angeles<\/a> is just a slightly veiled ad for an energy drink. This is who we share the boardwalk with<\/a>.<\/p>\n And the latest reason for cops to oppose a new bike lane is because it could become \u201ca highway for illegal ebikes on drug runs.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.<\/p>\n Oh, and fuck Putin.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Related postsEbike rider killed in Arleta crash, and demand a State of Emergency on Traffic Violence at LA council tomorrow<\/a> September 14, 2026Assembly candidate calls for safety on Forest Lawn Drive, whacking out over SaMo bike lanes, and Caltrans talks safety<\/a> September 9, 2026Woman riding ebike killed in Colton, asking Zbur rival for Forest Lawn stance, and body on Ballona bike path<\/a> September 8, 2026Another mass casualty crash by elderly driver, WeHo denies all blame in Ackerman death, and more on Forest Lawn backdoor deal<\/a> September 4, 2026Failed bike bill wins in principle, Trump\u2019s war on DEI bike lanes mirrors state\u2019s attack on Forest Lawn Dr, and WeHo sued over Ackerman death<\/a> September 3, 2026\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t
\nIn 2025, Los Angeles had 324 traffic fatalities and 16,160 people injured; that\u2019s 3.5% higher than in 2024 (313). (Source: TIMS<\/a>)
\nSo far this year, traffic fatalities are already well over 200 and are currently running 8% higher than the same time last year. (Source: LAPD<\/a> as of 22 Aug 2026)<\/p>\n
\n2 citations for emissions violations Referred to the State Referee, where drivers must complete compliance testing and repairs.
\n33 speeding citations Highest recorded speed: 95 MPH in a 50 zone on SR\u20111 near El Morro School.
\n6 drivers cited for unlicensed or suspended license operation
\n1 vehicle impounded
\n1 arrest Charges included open container, DUI, and possession of a concealed firearm.<\/p>\n