Today’s Headlines
- Lawyers manage to convince a jury that faulty design and “unreasonable” bike rider caused rider’s death, not the drunk driver who hit him (Desert Sun)
- VW: Prioritize those communities most affected by your diesel pollution (Greenlining)
- Cities and states try to crack down on distracted bicycling (Government Tech)
- Woodland recognized as “bicycle friendly” (Daily Democrat)
- Explore downtown L.A.’s underground pedestrian tunnels (CityLab)
- New Kings Stadium in Sacramento plans high-tech solutions for people arriving by car, plus a few crosswalk improvements—no mention of bikes (Government Tech)
- Successful joint cap-and-trade auction nets $900 million in pollution credits (Sacramento Business Journals)
- Analysts predict strong economy, budget surplus in California (Sacramento Bee)
- Report: Investments in climate change huge, but may not be enough (Pacific Standard)
- Super Bowl committee won’t ask Muni to remove its overhead wires after all (Hoodline)
More California headlines at Streetsblog LA and Streetsblog SF
The ruling on the Indian Wells case deserves to be watched very closely. Based on statements from the lawyer for the two boys hit in a crosswalk on Bay Street, it would not surprise me if he sues the city of San Francisco as well as the driver for negligence. Particularly since it was a known bad intersection, they had plans on the books to upgrade it, and have not provided any convincing arguments about why the project was delayed after the initial subsurface work was completed.
One hopes that this forces cities and towns in California to get more serious about maintaining and enhancing their bicycling infrastructure once they have plans and maps that show they exist, but the end result might be that they decide that no infrastructure would protect them from liability instead.