Flooded trails and a roundup

Happy Monday to my readers, both regular and irregular. These two people on bikes were among the seven cyclists I saw this morning trying to work their way across Montague Expressway where the Guadalupe River Trail remained flooded after the the rain this past weekend. Remember, you can see current trail flooding conditions for several Santa Clara Valley trails at this trail conditions web page.


Detour to Montague Expressway

Watch for debris on our area highways and roads, too. Highway 9 in the Santa Cruz Mountains is closed near Skyline and remain so for the next day or so.

Major mudslide blocks both lanes of Hwy 9 S of Skyline in SCruz Mnts. CHP says roadway will be closed 24-to-36 hrs. pic.twitter.com/Hi8iekp0EG

— Matt Bigler (@mattbigler740) February 9, 2015


You might remember the hit-and-run cyclist fatality that occurred the day after Christmas in Santa Cruz, California. 63-year-old Jose Adan Lainez was riding his bicycle to work on Soquel Avenue when a white Ford F-150 struck him from behind. 41 year old Luke Logan of Live Oak did the right thing and gave himself up to police. The Santa Cruz police investigation fascinates me:

In the weeks after the collision, investigators compiled a list of pickups in the area that matched the description of the suspected vehicle in Santa Cruz County, including Logan’s vehicle.

[anta Cruz police Lt. Bernie] Escalante described the process as tedious, with officers cross referencing license plate numbers with addresses before going out to inspect each vehicle.

A fatbike alleycat in Cleveland.


A giant underground bike park opens in Kentucky.

A man with a dead cyclist’s heart becomes an avid cyclist.

Baltimore Sun on the psychology of hit and run killers. Fascinating info there, along with the expected (and still infuriating) statement from AAA that cyclists should be more careful.

Retro-grouchism from Justine Valinotti.

‘Splaining why cyclists ride two abreast.

Interesting lock job seen in San Francisco.

Are the yellow chain locks just for looks?

A photo posted by Bret Lobree (@blobree) on

[Ad] The National Weather Service says our next bout of rain can be expected after Presidents Day. Be sure to buy some fenders for your bike. I really like the SKS Raceblade fenders on my road bike; they mount easily and work well. As of this writing these are ranked #23 in that previous link in terms of sales volume, probably because they’re a little pricey. I haven’t tried the Planet Bike knock-off version but they’re lower priced and seem very similar.

For more, visit bicycle news roundups from Biking In LA and Bike Portland,

2 Comments

  1. Doesn’t the DMR store license plate numbers along with addresses? They make it sound like a month long tedious manual process. I would think they could just pull the list up on their cruisers computer and within say a couple hours have visited all the white F150s in the area. Not sure why it would take one month unless homicide is just super low priority for them.

  2. This was a very high priority for the SCPD. CA DMV uses IBM mainframe technology with database technology dating from the 1960s, so I easily believe a query for a white full-size pickup truck of unknown make, model and year likely involves using old fashioned eyeballs scanning over reams of printouts.

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