Tag:

Los Angeles

Lyft Proposal Would Slash Congestion In Los Angeles

Los Angeles is ground zero for car culture in America. Its streets are choked with automobiles at all hours of the day. The freeways that lead to and away from it are more like parking lots than highways. For 50 years or more, the response to Los Angeles’ traffic woes has been to add more roads with more lanes.

The problem is so bad, it inspired Elon Musk to dream up the Hyperloop one day while sitting in traffic on the way to the airport. Musk has since amended that vision somewhat. Now he wants to build a multi-tiered system of tunnels underground so some lucky motorists will be able to speed along beneath the vehicular chaos going on above.

September 19, 2017 0 comment

SleepBus Offers Overnight Service Between LA and SF

written by Steve Hanley

The SleepBus is a new way to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back again quickly and painlessly. Lots of people have a plan for making that journey easier. Elon Musk is proposing a high tech system called the Hyperloop to move people quickly and efficiently between the two cities. California is moving ahead with plans for a high speed rail corridor. Both are projected to cost billions. Fares will be commensurate.

May 10, 2016 8 comments

Los Angeles Adds 288 Electric & Plug-In Hybrid Electric Cars To Fleet

written by Steve Hanley

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on September 11 that the city will lease 160 electric cars for use by the city’s police, fire, and general services departments and the Department of Water and Power. Garcetti said the move will give LA the largest pure EV fleet in the nation, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In addition, the Department of Water and Power and the General Services Department will lease 128 plug-in hybrids. Garcetti said the 288 cars would save taxpayers money and advance sustainability goals. Earlier this year, Garcetti released the Sustainable City pLAn designed to make the city more sustainable and deliver environmental and economic benefits. The announcement comes on the eve of the US-China Climate Leaders Summit to be hosted in LA on September 15–16.

“When we laid out our sustainable city plan … we promised that 50% of new city fleet vehicles purchased each year would be EV by 2017,” Garcetti said. “Now we’re fulfilling that promise ahead of schedule.”

A hundred of the battery-electric vehicles will be dedicated to the LAPD and will be used by detectives, investigators, and administrative employees. The LAPD is also being loaned a Tesla Model S P85D and a BMW i3, which were on display outside police headquarters on Friday. Those vehicles will be used for testing and research by LAPD technical experts to determine how the technology can support future needs.

“You can see right here behind me, the future,” Garcetti said, gesturing toward the Tesla and BMW. “Our goal is to one day go from gas-powered to battery electric in our squad cars. And if we do that, the impact could be national in scale. LA could once again the lead the way to help transform not just our department, but other departments and cities around the country.”

“I think that today, this announcement, will trickle across the nation as a challenge to other cities, other police departments, other fire departments to look at what you’re doing and to take a step that makes a change for the positive,” Chief Beck said. “Great day for policing, great day for the city. Proud to be an Angeleno.”

September 12, 2015 0 comment

Los Angeles Carsharing Program For Low-Income Neighborhoods

written by Steve Hanley

A Los Angeles carsharing program will target low-income neighborhoods. The program will begin with 100 new cars, 80 of them electric. It will also install charging stations to support the carsharing plan, which is funded by a $1.6 million dollar grant from the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

Studies by the Shared Use Mobility Center (SUMC) in Chicago show that one shared car can replace as many as 70 conventional cars in urban environments. That means the LA carsharing program may remove as up to 7,000 old, high-emissions cars from the city’s streets. Cars also have a disproportionate impact on the finances of low-income families. Eliminating car payments, fuel costs, and expenses for insurance and maintenance can leave such families with far more disposable income.

Sharon Feigon, executive director of SUMC, says it is possible “to live well without owning a car.” She has more than a decade of experience setting up and running carsharing services in cities around the country. She says introducing an affordable carsharing program in a disadvantaged neighborhood is like opening a grocery store in a food desert: It taps into underserved demand.

“Our experience is doing something like this can work really well,” says Feigon. “Take really good electric cars and make them affordable and accessible to people who don’t have a lot of money for transportation—of course that can work.”

According to The National Journal, California Senate president pro tem Kevin de León, who represents LA,has nothing but praise for policies that “democratize” climate-change progress. “All individuals deserve access to electrical vehicles,” he said in a speech on June 24.

Community groups will play a key role in shaping the on-the-ground details of the carsharing program because local knowledge will be vital to the program’s success. Unlike wealthier neighborhoods where carsharing already thrives, the new program operator (who has not been chosen yet) cannot assume that everyone in the target area has a bank account, a cell phone, or an internet connection.

That’s quite different from the typical carsharing system where users sign up online, then locate and book cars on their phones. The new program might need to include a multi-lingual call center to help people reserve cars.

Grassroots participation can be attractive to carsharing companies because it helps them ease into a new market, says Feigon. “Part of what I think makes it interesting to the operators is that these community groups will be involved, so they’ll have support,” she says. “From the company’s point of view, it’s all about utilization: if the cars are used in the right numbers, then it works for these companies.”

In a recent article, the Wall Street Journal has blasted state policies in California, Oregon and Washington that allow utilities to install chargers in upscale neighborhoods but include the costs in their rate base so all customers are forced to pay for them. The LA carsharing program should at least meet that objection, since the new charging infrastructure will be installed exclusively in low-income neighborhoods.

August 12, 2015 0 comment

10 Charts Explore Top Electric Car Cities In US

written by James Ayre

Originally published on EV Obsession.

Some of the factors contributing to the relatively fast adoption of electric vehicles (EV) in some American metropolitan markets have been identified and characterized by a new study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).

The dominant ones, according to the new report, are: stronger consumer incentives, a broader range of offerings, stronger promotional activities, and a more developed charging infrastructure.

The new findings are the result of an analysis of actions taken by various state + local governments and utility companies to spur EV adoption in the 25 most populous American metropolitan areas. These 25 areas represent roughly 42% of the total population, 67% of new EV registrations, 46% of vehicle sales, and 53% of the total EV charging infrastructure in the country.

The report also analyzes the various benefits to end users of EVs in specific cities — as well as aiming to differentiate the causes of market uptake in different cities.

The 25 cities in question altogether possessed an average of 1.1% of total vehicle sales being electric — roughly 40% higher than the nationwide average. The 7 top cities — San Diego, Seattle, Portland, LA, Riverside, San Francisco, and Atlanta — have an EV uptake between 2 and 7 times higher than the countrywide average.

The 4 primary conclusions of the study are that: 1) policy is actively driving EV adoption in many cities (manufacturers are specifically targeting these cities); 2) different cities have used different approaches to boosting sales (all of which seem to have been effective to some degree); 3) best practices are beginning to emerge, it seems (which appear to support the “ecosystem approach”); and 4) cities are the focal points of cooperation between the various actors (auto manufacturers, governments, utility companies, businesses, and EV advocates).

“The roles of automaker marketing efforts, dealer actions, and utility action to promote electric vehicles seem clearly important and deserve greater study. Cases like Atlanta, where there has been success that is built almost exclusively upon one particular model (ie, the Nissan LEAF), point to the need for further analysis of the underlying causes. Also, smaller and mid-sized cities that are outside this study’s scope are innovating with electric-drive policies and have greater electric vehicle shares; these cities could be an important source of further lessons.”

To learn more, check out the full report.

Images via ICCT

August 9, 2015 2 comments

BYD Electric Buses Keep Air Clean For 2015 Special Olympics

written by Zachary Shahan

Originally published on CleanTechnica.

A large number of BYD’s all-electric, zero-emission buses were used during the recent 2015 Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles as athlete transportation, according to a recent press release.

Considering that this recent event was the biggest Special Olympics yet hosted, with 6,500 different athletes competing and requiring transportation, the participation by BYD Motors is well worth noting. It’s also complete common sense.

“World Games Host Town and the City of Long Beach is grateful for the buses and drivers that BYD provided to transport our athletes while touring Long Beach,” stated Long Beach Community Foundation President & CEO, and 2015 Host Town Transportation Coordinator Marcelle Epley. “BYD stepped up majorly as one of our key supporters and their tremendous efforts made our athletes feel welcomed. We depended on them, and they came through 100%.”

BYD Motors President and CEO, Stella Li, commented at the opening ceremonies (which were attended by First Lady Michelle Obama and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti) last Saturday: “BYD could not be more proud to be a transportation provider for the 2015 World Games. With athletes competing tomorrow we are happy to see our Zero-Emissions electric buses operating both here and now in service at LA Metro hopefully providing a cleaner environment for these magnificent athletes to compete in.”

The move accompanies recent ones by the cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach to buy BYD’s all-electric offerings in their recent procurement rounds — representing what is, presumably, a growing move towards zero-emissions public transportation.

“Los Angeles led the way years ago with the mass adoption of clean-air natural gas transit buses, and we are excited to again be the first large American city taking this final step to Zero-Emissions transportation by electrifying our fleet,” commented LA County Supervisor Michael Antonovich back in May.

As it stands, as of April 1, BYD has sold more than 5,000 electric buses worldwide; and its buses have seen more than 38 million miles “in revenue service” to date.

London To Get Its 1st Large-Scale Electric Bus Fleet, Thanks To BYD + Alexander Dennis Limited Partnership

London Getting 50 More Electric Buses

Image Credit: BYD

August 5, 2015 0 comment

Low-Income Electric Carsharing Coming To Los Angeles

written by James Ayre

Originally published on EV Obsession.

Low-income communities in Los Angeles will likely soon have access to a pilot program for electric vehicle carsharing thanks to the provision of $1.6 million for just such a project by the California Air Resources Board.

The $1.6 million grant was announced at a recent event in an affordable housing complex in the MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles — which will be one of the areas that have access to the soon-to-be-created pilot program. The current aim, reportedly, is for up to 7,000 residents to be served by the pilot.

Worth noting up front is that (as can probably be guessed based on the source), the grant money is coming via funds collected as part of California’s “climate change law” (AB 32). An accompanying law (SB 535) actually specifies that a quarter of these gathered funds should go towards the benefit of disadvantaged/polluted neighborhoods.

Green Car Congress provides a bit more information:

The grant will fulfill a key mandate of SB 1275, the Charge Ahead California Initiative, enacted last year to make clean transportation more widely available, particularly in low and moderate-income neighborhoods.

SB 1275 directs the Air Resources Board to establish a suite of equity programs aimed at making clean cars and trucks accessible to low- and moderate-income Californians. These include electric vehicle carsharing programs in disadvantaged communities; financing options that would lower combined monthly car payments and fuel costs; and incentives for the replacement of gas-guzzling “clunkers” with new or used electric cars or vouchers for transit and car-sharing.

One of the main drivers behind this legislation — the Charge Ahead California campaign — released a statement applauding the move to create the new pilot.

Image Credit: Nissan

July 27, 2015 0 comment

Los Angeles Mayor Gets Serious About Public Transit

written by Susanna Schick

Last week, Move LA invited Mayor Eric Garcetti and many other esteemed guests to discuss the potential for Measure R2, the next step in funding (fixing) Los Angeles’ transportation woes. Measure R is a half percent sales tax approved in 2008, slated to bring in as much as $40 billion over 30 years. Since 2008, it has helped rapidly increase LA’s metro system.

First let’s talk about where this $90 billion is supposed to come from. In the most unaffordable city in America, where most residents spend over half their income on rent or mortgage, few have any left over to spend on anything else. This is reflected in the BEA’s data for Los Angeles’ GDP. 17.8% comes from real estate transactions, 5% from retail sales. All the while the real estate boom in Los Angeles continues to draw foreign and corporate investors, forcing Angelenos further afield to find affordable housing, thus exacerbating the traffic problems and the need for more rail lines.

So yeah, let’s tax something that will make it take longer to pay for the massive rail system Metro plans to build with this money. Let’s tax the people who can barely afford to pay rent instead of the investors holding the LA economy ransom. Perhaps instead of half a percent on retail sales, how about 10% on real estate sales to investors, and on AirBnB income, but 0% to people buying their primary residence?* That would build us the best Metro system in the world, in probably a fraction of the time it’d take to get the money from .05% of retail sales. Well, unless that was from the sales of marijuana, the fastest growing industry in Los Angeles.

If Measure R2 passes, the good news is Garcetti and others swear it won’t be used to build more freeways. They’ve finally learned their lesson after the 405 widening debacle. The billion dollar (plus!) project took years to complete. And now that it’s done, it has slowed average commute times by one minute. Because as everyone knows, if you build it, they will come. So Measure R2 is all about the rail lines and great streets they want to build to help LA toward a car-free future.

As recently as 2008, they were talking about silliness like tunnels for cars under the 405 and finishing the 710. Now that talk has finally evolved to speak solely of underground rail lines through these routes. Metro is currently tunneling underneath Wilshire Blvd, the busiest bus route in the county, to extend a subway line to the sea, despite Beverly Hills’ best attempts to stop it.

Mayor Eric Garcetti gave us some great nuggets in his presentation:

The average car in Los Angeles carries 1.1 people. If it went to 1.6 people, there would be no traffic.

The separated busway they’re planning for Wilshire will also be open to automated cars.

Waze and ATSAC are now partnering to help find hit & run perpetrators. Considering most of those victims are pedestrians and cyclists, this is a huge step toward making those modes safer.
Parking signs will be easier to interpret than this. Supposedly.

Garcetti’s speech from the event, part 1 and part 2.

Installing a thorough county-wide rail system and a network of streets that are safe and pleasant for cyclists and pedestrians will accomplish the goal of eliminating traffic without trying to crowd all your co-workers into your Fiat500e.

As Garcetti’s DOT General Manager pointed out here, certain LA streets are like that creepy, bad Uncle who everyone hates and avoids. But he’s family, so we let him be. Well, LA is finally ready to send all those dysfunctional streets to rehab. Many have already gone and are all the better for it. Move LA posted a link of all the tweets with the hashtag #TranspoConvoLA for a more intimate look at what the conversation was all about.

* Yes, landlords could pass this on to their renters, but with the glut of new apartment buildings about to come on to the market, all vying for those tech workers, it will soon be hard for them to raise rents any higher.

April 29, 2015 2 comments

The Rockstars of Urban Planning On Walking In LA

written by Susanna Schick

Janette Sadik-Khan and Seleta Reynolds discuss the myths around sustainable transportation design.

The Hammer Museum at UCLA hosts weekly talks on hot topics. Being a huge fan of turning Los Angeles into a car-free city, I was eager to hear Seleta Reynolds, our new General Manager at the Department of Transportation. Mayor Garcetti stole her from San Francisco after she helped turn that city into a cyclists’ paradise while also shortening car commute times. Seleta and Janette are those smart chicks with an awesome sense of humor and wit you look forward to sitting with at parties. I could listen to them talk about transportation planning all day.

These rockstars of urban planning spoke openly and with great passion and humor about how to change the way a city gets around. This is crucial to Los Angeles, as weather refugees continue to pour into the Golden State, flooding our streets with cars. As more people choose to live in cities, primarily for their walkability and short commutes, more people are choosing to go car-free. Downtown Los Angeles has had an astounding turnaround in the past decade, going from a terrifying slum people couldn’t leave fast enough to an exciting and vibrant city core most of us can’t afford to live in. A huge draw for people is the ability to walk or bike to work, dinner, errands, etc.

Yes, people do walk in LA. And they ride public transit, and bicycles, too, in growing numbers. While the city is rapidly expanding its cycling infrastructure, neighboring cities still have a long way to go. This is a ghost bike on Glendale Blvd in Glendale, the city whose drivers are the most dangerous in the entire state. Los Angeles County is in the midst of a massive transformation, a transformation that could make it eclipse both Minneapolis and Portland as America’s #1 cycling city. It’s not like we have to ride in snow or rain. Ever. Having two cyclists as Mayors back to back certainly helps.

March 31, 2015 0 comment

Air Force Base Using 42 EVs For V2G Demonstration

written by Christopher DeMorro

Los Angeles Air Force Base has the distinction of being the first federal facility to replace its whole general-purpose fleet with electric vehicles as part of a larger vehicle-to-grid demonstration project.

Among the 42 vehicles being used are 13 Nissan LEAFs, a VIA Motors 12-passenger plug-in van, and an EVAOS plug-in Ford pickup trucks that will plug back into the base to provide a huge bank of battery back-up power. Over 700 kWh in fact, which can be powered by local renewable sources and doled back out to the grid as demand grows. This increases grid reliability and provides enough power to 140 average American homes to continue operating for 24 hours in the event of an outage. This necessitated the use of a whole new charging setup that allows power to be fed into, and drawn out of the EV’s battery pack.

This is the first part of a broader plan that will see similar projects in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The program will also look into using the EVs as a means of on-base storage that can keep the facility operating using local power sources like solar panels or wind turbines.

The U.S. Military has had a few small-scale rollouts of electric vehicles in the past few years, but this latest effort is one of the largest vehicle-to-grid demonstration projects in the world. Automakers like Nissan believe this is one of the extra benefits to electric vehicles, as well as making solar and wind power more viable for homeowners. On-site batteries can be an expensive additional cost to a PV solar system, but rolling the cost into the cost of an electric car makes a ton of sense.

The Air Force can see that, as can the Department of Defense, which has yet again said that climate change is a grave threat to national security. That’s why every branch of the military is pursuing some form of alternative-fuel projects, with the hope of some kind of breakthrough enabling the armed forces to wean itself off of fossil fuels. As one of our nation’s largest energy consumers, setting the military on the path to sustainable energy is an important part of securing America’s future as a world power.

If we can’t fly our jets or move our tanks, what good are they?

via

November 17, 2014 0 comment

Henrik Fisker To Debut “Ultimate American Muscle Car”

written by Christopher DeMorro

The L.A. Auto Show is less than a month away, and Henrik Fisker is scheduled to return to the automotive world with Galpin Auto Sports at his side. According to Autoblog, Fisker may be debuting two new vehicles, including one dubbed the “Ultimate American Muscle Car”. You had my interest; now you have my attention.

Galpin Auto Sports and Galpin Motors form the basis of America’s largest Ford dealership, so there’s a pretty good chance whatever it is will probably use Ford parts. The most obvious possibility is a fresh take on the all-new 2015 Ford Mustang, which is both a Ford and a muscle car. But why include Henrik Fisker then if you’re just going to end up using an existing vehicle?

That opens the possibility of a completely new vehicle, perhaps in the same vein as the GTR1, a unique homage to the Ford GT supercar. Interestingly enough, Fisker is scheduled to speak at both the Galpin Auto Sport and Galpin Motors press conferences, which could indicate two vehicle debuts, rather than one. To be honest, my first thought was a reference to the Fisker Karma, rather than Henrik Fisker himself. Fisker (the company) is under new ownership, and Bob Lutz has talked at length about dropping supercharged V8s into leftover Fisker Karmas. That’s a far cry from the 150 MPG Fisker owners averaged during the days when the company still seemed viable.

Fisker (the designer) has kept himself busy since his billion-dollar automaker went bust, designing motorcycles among other things. Now that Henrik is supposedly working on muscle cars, it seems like he may have given up on his dream of building beautiful green cars. Until the official reveal though, I’ll hold out hope that perhaps Galpin and Fisker have something more than just another muscle car to add to the fray.

October 23, 2014 0 comment

The Potential Future Of Four Cities With Autonomous Cars

written by Christopher DeMorro

By some estimates, autonomous cars will become a part of daily life as soon as 2030, especially around major urban areas where this technology holds the most promise. But not every city may benefit in the same way, with one study suggesting several scenarios where autonomous cars either alleviate traffic congestion, or make it many times worse.

Fast Company reports that the study, entitled Reprogramming Mobility, takes a look at four major urban areas and what impact autonomous cars might have on the citizenry. Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, and New Jersey were the focus of the study, though the scenarios presented are more a “What if” than a “This is what’s gonna happen” sort of situation. With that said, let’s start with the utopian scenario set in the gem of the South.

Atlanta: A Driverless Utopia

With a major Google outpost and few natural barriers to expansion, Atlanta presents the perfect autonomous scenario. Google aims to be a major player in self-driving vehicles, and Atlanta could end up being a test bed of self-driving technology wherein all autonomous vehicles are speaking the same language. This will lead to the development of public-private “G-roads” for self-driving vehicles only, and residents will be able to hail an autonomous car to their destination and ride it home without ever putting their hands on the wheel.

Georgia is also a major hotbed of solar power adoption, and Google’s integration with many smarthome features mean automated vehicles could easily be worked into the search giant’s technology ecosystem. Google will also attempt to develop autonomous public transit and freight solutions around it’s Atlanta base, and could even make the case for a complete rework of the national infrastructure around autonomous cars. This is the ideal scenario, and could change the way we approach transportation completely.

Boston: Walking Beats Driving Anyday

But while Atlanta has basically unlimited room to grow and a major private driver of technology, Boston is an old city crammed on the coast with a well-defined downtown. Bringing autonomous driving technology to these streets isn’t like, though the city could become a hotbed for the young and the restless who want to live in a thriving downtown setting.

This will lead to a rise in walking and bike-sharing, with public transit picking up the slack. Meanwhile deliveries are made in the dead of night when most of the city is asleep to keep congestion levels to a minimum during rush hour. Some people may commit to buying small urban EVs for personal transportation, though car-sharing and light rail becomes the default means of taking longer trips outside the metro area.

New Jersey: Bad Weather and Smart Buses

Here is where things start to get messy, as the Garden State is predicted to take several blows to the chin from major hurricanes and other storms over the next decade and a half. This will cripple Jersey’s infrastructure initially, but could convince the government it’s time to invest more heavily in public transportation. Smart, possibly fully-automated transit buses and dedicated busways will join existing rail services to give commuters a wider variety of options for getting into and out of the New York metro area.

The system is paid for by an algorithm that predicts demand and sets seat pricing accordingly and leads many young people to skip over car ownership in favor of the shiny new transit system. That said, it will come at the cost of billions in property damage and destroyed lives as the Jersey coast is pounded by one devastating superstorm after another. Things will get worse before they get better in this scenario.

Los Angeles: Driving Hell Just Gets Hotter

Finally we get to the doomsday scenario which takes place in America’s most-congested city, Los Angeles. Despite the rise of autonomous cars, many older drivers refuse to be driven by robots, and automakers develop different vehicle languages that lead to an incomplete and imperfect system of self-driving vehicles. Instead of cooperating, automakers compete to become the autonomous driving standard, leaving the transition to autonomous cars hanging in limbo.

Furthermore, increased reliance on self-driving cars could lead to increased pollution and urban sprawl as people think less of living an hour or more from their place of employment. It’s basically a worst-case scenario, though one that is easily avoidable with a little cooperation and smart public policy. Keep in mind these are merely proposed scenarios, and the future of self-driving vehicles is still wide open.

But it does give one something to think about.

October 10, 2014 0 comment

Formula E Races Will Also Host EV Test Drives

written by Christopher DeMorro

The Formula E series will bring more than just a new breed of quiet-but-powerful racing to the streets of ten world-class cities. Last week the electric racing series announced that in addition to the one-day races, Formula E would bring a four-day EV car show and test drive event to at least five cities on its schedule.

Formula E has partnered with a number of big name companies including official shipping company DHL and the official car of Formula E, BMW, both of which are trying promote sustainable transportation within motorsports. A variety of manufacturers will be on hand with their products to offer test drives to Formula E fans and potential customers, as will the Rimac Concept_One. You can bet that the BMW i3 will be on hand, though the i8 will probably be reserved for just show status. As of right now, Miami, Long Beach, Berlin, London, and Monaco are all slated to get these unique motor shows, which are likely to feature other EVs and hybrids to test drive as well.

Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E, said: “We are excited to announce this new and important development for Formula E. The Formula E Motor Shows will play an important part in removing the barriers to the electric vehicle market and helping change perceptions to make people believe in electric car ownership. The future of modern, mass transport, particular in cities and urban areas, lies in electric vehicles. The Formula E Motor Shows will help to accelerate the interest and adoption of sustainable and clean air motoring solutions in-line with our objectives for the championship.”

In addition to the motor shows and high-tech cars, Formula E races will introduce audiences to the concept of wireless charging, swapping race cars, and even a unique Tweet-to-boost feature aimed at improving fan engagement. In just three days time, the first Formula E race ever will kick off in Beijing, launching a new era of sustainable motorsports.

September 9, 2014 0 comment

Outrage: Cop Who Killed Cyclist Not Facing Charges

written by Jo Borrás

An LA County Sheriff’s Deputy won’t face charges for the death of ex-Napster COO Milton Olin, Jr., who was struck and killed by Deputy Anthony Wood’s patrol car as it drifted into the protected bicycle lane. The distracted Deputy took his eyes off the road in order to answer an email on his laptop, according to reports from CBS Los Angeles and the UK’s Daily Mail.

Despite the aggressively enforced “distracted driving laws” in place in Los Angeles, however, Woods is getting a pass because the letter of those laws states that law enforcement officials are “allowed to use electronic wireless devices while carrying out their duties,” and Deputy Wood was responding to a work-related email.

So, basically, it’s OK for the police to run you down like a squirrel, so long as they’re checking their email or texting someone about police matters. Which, if it doesn’t remind of that time Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back …

… it like, totally should.

“It is difficult to get any sense of closure,” said Milton’s son, in the face of the outrage. Chris and his family have started an online petition on Change.org demanding that charges be brought against the deputy. So far, more than 70,000 people have signed.

Milton Olin was 65 at the time of the accident, and was believed to be obeying all traffic laws. He was a prominent entertainment attorney and former Napster executive, as well as an avid cyclist. Olin is survived by his wife and their two children, and serves as a vivid reminder that even rich, prominent, and law-abiding white guys can’t always find justice in matters dealing with police policing police.

#Ferguson #MichaelBrown

Milton Olin’s Shoe, at the Scene

Source | Photos: CBS Los Angeles, via Daily Mail.

August 31, 2014 9 comments