Open thread

No city council meetings until August 13.

What's going on?

ICE raid at Home Depot

On X:

I was driving home from Trader Joe's this morning after I dropped my son off at summer camp and saw ICE tying these people up at Home Depot.

I watched as these two people were disappeared into unmarked vehicles, with one of the ICE vehicles trying to back into me when I wasn't looking.

Another woman tried to help. An ICE agent tried to slap her phone down when she tried to get a phone number to call this man's family. They wouldn't let her. Instead, they whisked him away and accused her of obstructing justice.

City staff withdraws $3 million grant application without council’s approval

 Coast News:

Former city management quietly withdrew a nearly $3 million state grant application to address local homeless encampments late last year, failing to notify the newly seated City Council despite prior council approval, public records show.

The Encinitas City Council, then led by former Mayor Tony Kranz, unanimously approved the grant application on June 12, 2024. The city applied later that month, seeking $2.9 million from California’s Encampment Resolution Funding Program (ERF-3-R), pledging more than $5 million in additional resources.

Blakespear bike obstacles cause another crash

 Facebook:

True crime podcast covers case of Encinitas veterinarian Dr. Robert Stonebreaker

 Generation Why Podcast:

Coast News background here.

Another serious accident at Blakespear cycle trap

Facebook:

Horrible accident just now on the 101 at the Pipe's parking lot entrance... A surfer told me that 2 pedestrians where hit by a car that jumped BOTH curbs - at least one was taken by ambulance. I saw the car driver being arrested, but don't know the charges. Note the damage done to his car. So devastating to see this on a busy summer evening with walkers, joggers, and cyclists everywhere 🙁 Would love an update on the injured - sending up prayers that they will be ok.

Studies supporting Blakespear's fatal cycle tracks were flawed?

Facebook:

The Federal Highway Administration study and marketing claiming that cycle tracks reduce bicycle crashes by 53% is based only on vehicle-bicycle crashes that occur more than 250 feet from intersections--with most of the data coming from San Francisco, and some from Seattle and Cambridge, Massachusetts. No crashes that did not involve motor vehicles were included in the study, and the safety findings found with vehicle-involved crashes failed when intersections or the full corridors were studied.

I was finally able to find a series of published studies showing how police reports/vehicle-bicycle-only crashes vastly under-report bicyclist crashes and injuries/hospital visits/admissions. One of them that included data from the main trauma center in San Francisco shows: (1) 41.5% of injuries were cyclist-only (did not involve a motor vehicle), (2) cyclist-only injuries were four times more likely to require hospital admission than vehicle-bicycle injuries, and (3) there was no police report associated with 54.5% of all bicyclist injuries. This raises even more questions about the FHWA study claims.

Also, it seems that the right-hook problem at cycle-track junctions has also been a problem in Cambridge (two fatalities) and Seattle (traumatic brain injury)--all in 2024. The circumstances are eerily similar to the fatality on Leucadia Boulevard--truck or large vehicle turning right at junctions where the cycle-track vertical components are installed right up to the turning area. Then there are subsequent lawsuits for poor design due to lack of sight distance.

https://mass.streetsblog.org/.../truck-drivers-have...

https://komonews.com/.../cyclist-green-lake-neighborhood...

Van life enforcement begins

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