Bikeside LA

LAPD released a final version of a report on 2008 collisions involving bikes. 23% of bike involved collisions are hit and run, but 38% of all collisions are hit and run! Hit and run is a city wide epidemic affecting all the citizens of LA – let’s include everyone in the solution.

If you’re dialed into bike blogs, you’ve probably read either Enci Box’s account or Stephen Box’s account of a recent meeting between LAPD and a swath of bike orgs.  For a review of the content of the meeting, I suggest either or both of their pieces.  I just thought I’d share my impression of the [...]

Stephen Box has a whirlwind of a post up in City Watch, permanently hosted at SoapBoxLA.  It lays out the mistakes that were made by LAPD rank and file in handling a recent hit and run.  Ed Magos, a member of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, was hit and left for dead by Porsche driver [...]

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 – Today, I watched a low level LAPD officer throw two bars and one star under a bus.  Specifically, Officer Cho’s prejudiced police work at the scene of the Hummer Hit N Run left Captain Allen (two bars) and freshly minted Commander Mike Williams (one star) flapping in the breeze in [...]

Sparked by the now infamous Hummer incident, cyclists from all over the city will be swarming City Council on Friday, to make their dissatisfaction with LAPD known.  Friday, May 1st, at 10am at Van Nuys City Hall we will submit public comments regarding the anti-cyclist bias of LAPD.  Van Nuys City Hall is located at [...]

Friday I wrote about an incident downtown where a Hummer driver hit a cyclist, and the police let him drive away after pulling him over with a bicycle lodged beneath his car.  Since then additional details have come forward in a witness statement by one of the cyclists: I urged the police officer that this [...]

(update: more details on the incident) Friday morning at approximately 2am in downtown LA:  A black Hummer, bearing no license plates, hits a cyclist, knocking him to the ground.  The Hummer then flees the scene dragging a bike it ran over underneath it, only to be pulled over one block over by LAPD.  After taking [...]

It’s been a month since I broke the news that LAPD is still citing and cuffing of cyclists for not having a bike license.  By pressing from several angles we have achieved partial victory.  Three days after the incident Captain Eric Davis, commander of Wilshire Division (where the incident occured), sent this email to Glenn [...]

You heard it here first – LAPD is still issuing tickets for not having a bike license.