Bay Area Bike News

It’s going to be a wonderful weekend in California. Lots going on this week and next in the San Francisco Bay Area and nearby areas.

Bike Party 70s Ride

San Jose Bike Party 70s ride tonight begins 8 PM at Kelley Park, Story Road, San Jose.

Nevada City Classic this weekend in (where else) Nevada City.

Nat Ford, who was forced to resign from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency this week, awarded the “Golden Wheel” by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

Save Oakland Libraries bike ride on Saturday.

Zachary Parke memorial ride Saturday night at the clocktower in Santa Cruz. CHP announced today that they have have arrested Elliott Dess for Parke’s hit and run death.

Hit and run driver pleads guilty in 2008 death of cyclist Mark Pendleton.

You’ve likely heard about the LA massacre down south, when a driver plowed into a group of a hundred cyclists. In spite of a field sobriety check showing 0.08 BAC in the driver and evidence of speeding and other impairment, the initial investigating report lists the “Primary Collision Factor” as Pedestrians In The Roadway. Even if subsequent investigation eventually shows the driver at fault, this initial police report is what eventually ends up in those statistical analyses showing cyclists at fault in the majority of crashes.


Finally, this interesting bit of carnage on Highway 1 in Marina, California was captured by my California Highway Patrol dispatch bot.

You can read the dispatches sequentially bottom to top on that page, but the English language interpretation: An SUV rolled off of Highway 1 near Marina, CA and landed on the nearby Monterey Bay Bike Path. Responding fire units on Highway 1 blocked traffic, which began backing up. The initial tow responder, Matteson & Beers, was unable to get to the crash site because of congested traffic on Hwy 1. USA Towing was called from Salinas with 2 tow trucks and asked if a 3rd is needed, coming via Reservation Road. They apparently had to get through a gate owned by CA state parks, who showed up and said the gates in question actually belong to the city of Marina, so the emergency responders waited for Marina Police to show up with the right keys.

45 minutes after the initial dispatch, the Matteson & Beers tow operators are still stuck in traffic and report they see a lot of U turns on Highway 1 as frustrated drivers try to get around the wreck.

The driver, Richard Haffner, admitted to taking medication that might have impaired his driving. He was airlifted to a trauma center; blood was drawn for evidence of drug and alcohol use.

After about an hour and a half, the midday traffic jam caused by this one man wrecking crew began to clear out, just in time for everybody to get back to the office after missing lunch. And you still have morons who insist on blaming cyclists for traffic delays.

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