Alex Thompson

Three people were shot on Hollywood Boulevard tonight as crowds gathered for Halloween celebrations, bringing the LAPD out en masse.

According to City News Service two of the victims were male teens and one was an adult in his twenties: All three were expected to survive. [Added at 11:25 p.m.]: Actually one teen was in critical condition.

In the meantime ...

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Ted Soqui

Will Sacramento let city transportation officials go rogue?

Although they're hard to hear over the impassioned roar of cycling advocates at L.A. City Hall, some local homeowners and car drivers are freaking out over AB 2245, a feel-good state bill pitched by Assemblyman Cameron Smyth (R-Santa Clarita) as a fast track to a greener Los Angeles County.

Jim O'Sullivan, president of the Miracle Mile Residential Association, says of the moment he accidentally discovered the bill: "I just went ballistic."

That's because, if approved by Governor Jerry Brown, it will exempt any new bike lane that doesn't interfere with street parking...

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Erin Galligan via Facebook

The victim in Bali last year.

A 30-year-old bicyclist who lived in Venice and worked at Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood was killed by a hit-and-run driver late Tuesday night.

Erin Galligan was riding southbound along the right side PCH around 11:15 p.m. when -- according to Santa Monica police -- she swerved into the middle of the nearest lane, where she was struck by a huge white pickup truck. Galligan was thrown so far that investigators reportedly had to search for her body along the side of the highway.

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ridesouthla.com

Whatever, hipsters. You can have your flirty World Naked Bike Ride through Silver Lake and Echo Park this Saturday.

(Including, via the official event page, a pre-party stocked with "body art" and "liquid courage." Really.)

But the group of cycling organizations behind "Ride South L.A." -- a mapping project that hopes to achieve "social justice" for L.A.'s poorest hood by raising street-level awareness of its particular routes and landmarks -- has bigger plans for the weekend. Here's where to meet, and when, and why:

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Kam Redlawsk has become a global face for the terrible disease.

By Andra Lim

The odds never stood in Kam Redlawsk's favor.

Redlawsk, 34, is one in a million people affected by a genetic disorder that has wasted and weakened her muscles, to the point where she now uses a wheelchair.

And because the condition -- hereditary inclusion body myopathy -- is so rare, the chances that somebody will allocate research funds to developing a treatment can seem like a million to one. The government and Big Pharma have little incentive to produce drugs only a few in the world will use, only a few in the world will pay for.

What's there to do when cold, hard statistics and industrial cost-benefit analysis are stacked against you?

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Timothy Rebudal

Closed road = open road

Earlier this week, we were shaking in our seldom-used rain boots at the prospect of showers and wind this weekend. Good news! By CicLAvia Sunday the chance of precipitation drops to zero. The National Weather Service predicts it will be sunny with a high near 70 degrees. Bad news (for drivers, anyway)! Ten miles of road--from Melrose all the way to Boyle Heights, through downtown--will be closed on Sunday to accomodate the bicycling event.

The following roads will be closed:

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Portocala Mecanica

By Andra Lim

What arouses a woman's libi-don't?

Riding a bike, especially one with low-set handlebars, according to a new study from Yale University.

Anyone who's been on a bike knows that your body weight rests heavily on the seat, which puts pressure on the genital area. So it's not too shocking that female cyclists have decreased sensation in the pelvis area, as the study reports.

The study also notes:

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Wolfpack Hustle

Make way for the bike mob.

Bikes versus cars is a classic transportation battle in traffic-clogged Los Angeles. But bikes versus runners? Now there's a showdown we could get behind.

Wolfpack Hustle, the uber-enthused cycling group most famous for racing an airplane across L.A. County during Carmageddon, has another sort-of surprise planned for the L.A. Marathon this weekend.

Beginning at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, "a cyclists dream will become a reality" ...

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LADOT Bike Blog via Flickr

Hollywood is not impressed.

Updated below: The bike lanes pose larger problems than their fugliness, says Hollywood.

Originally posted at 9:30 a.m.

Every good L.A. citywatcher knows: What cyclists want in this city, they get.

And props to them for the dedication. Our avid bike army has proven that by rushing City Hall en (loud, angry) masse and not leaving until elected officials have accepted your every demand, you can mold them into personal putty -- even in times of budget crisis. (Intimidating spandex uniforms don't hurt. Nor does a politically vogue "green" angle.)

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L.A. County Sheriff's Department

Perhaps the L.A. County Sheriff's Department is looking to offset a more unflattering video currently making the rounds on the Internet?

This morning, in wake of the controversy, the department's (quite excellently maintained) Facebook account was playing up the January 8 rescue of a fallen cyclist on the Marshall Canyon County Park trail. And though it's basically just a promo trailer for one agency's own awesomeness, so is every flash-mob video we've ever posted, and this one's just as cool, so whatever. We'll bite.

Thank heaven for helmet cams:

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@AntonioNBCLA via Twitter

"Pomona family puts cross at site of where Gabriel Perez died."

Updated at the bottom: Suspected hit-and-run driver turns himself in -- likely due to "large amount of media coverage" surrounding Facio's death.

Originally posted December 29 at 2:15 p.m.

In one of the most horrific hit-and-runs of the year, Pomona resident Gabriel Perez Facio was killed by an SUV that dragged him half a block before fleeing the scene.

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LADOT Bike Blog via Flickr

Second time's a charm. (We hope.)

Mixed feelings, these past few weeks, about L.A.'s quickly expanding arsenal of green bike lanes -- part of an adorable national trend.

The new lanes are, literally, neon green. Though some grumpy drivers see it as yet another blight on their crappy commute, as traffic lanes must be narrowed and/or removed, the very vocal biking community in L.A. has applauded City Hall's dedication to alternative transportation and the safety of those who use it.

So important is this biker-advocate support to L.A. officials...

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bugamerica.com

Hollywood and Western: Enter if you dare.

Update: A man dressed in a clown suit came to the couple's rescue this morning, sheriff's investigators tell KTLA. (At least someone was on duty.)

The billions that L.A. has pumped into redeveloping Hollywood over the last couple decades -- mostly blown on high-rises and hip watering holes -- has done little to abate its serious state of ghetto-ness.

And no spot in the city has become more of a cesspool for grime and crime than the Metro Red Line station(s) in Hollywood. Well, except maybe Skid Row. But at least permanent bum camps have a bit of a homey feel -- the Hollywood and Western station is no one's home. It's a place you throw your gum and spit your lougie and puke your sorrows for someone else to clean up. (Read: no one.) And, apparently, a place to stab your victims in cold blood:

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CicLAvia

The third CicLAvia public bike tour to hit L.A. happens Oct. 9 and will take over 10 miles of closed streets from East Hollywood to the Eastside.

Organizers are inviting folks to stop and smell the architecture and culture along the way too, with focal points including "historic downtown," Boyle Heights, the African American Firefighter Museum on Central Avenue, and El Pueblo de Los Angeles and adjacent Olvera Street.

You can even walk it if you want.

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ladotbikeblog

L.A. City Hall loves bicyclists -- but is the feeling mutual?

Los Angeles politicians have a history of bending over backward for the city's strong, united group of bike activists.

Over the last year, faced with an unusually large heap of transportation problems amid the budget crisis, even for L.A. -- potholes, bus cuts, parking, freeways are all at their worst -- the City Council jumped to support and approve everything cyclists asked for, with gusto.

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Santa Monica PD

Jeffrey Ray Adams, road rager

In a confrontation that very much represents a larger struggle going down on SoCal's harsh, wide web of roadways -- car versus bike -- L.A. resident Jeffrey Ray Adams ran, head-on, into a cyclist last Thursday along the Santa Monica boardwalk. On purpose. Then, in a fit of rage, he had the balls to tell the felled biker: "I'll beat your ass. You're lucky that you're alive right now."

Oh, also: "He didn't get run over. He ran into me."

Ha! As if the wobbly stick-and-wheel contraption stood a chance against Adams' beast of a sports car. Fortunately, the injured cyclist had a video camera on hand (posted on bikesidela.org), so we get to watch the driver make a complete ass of himself:

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KTLA

The victim's crumpled bicycle

In what is being called the possible result of two drivers feuding their way down 8th Street in downtown L.A., an unidentified bicyclist, age 62, was killed last night.

LAPD Officer Karen Rayner told the Los Angeles Times that "the drivers apparently had some dispute while heading north on Figueroa Street."

From there, they both turned left on 8th Street, and as they neared Francisco Street...

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The good old days

Hilarious L.A. oxymoron o' the day: bike traffic!

L.A. County lifeguards, bless their hearts, were faced with said phenomenon while regulating a packed Santa Monica coastline this Fourth of July. Forget Carmageddon, people -- we just survived the Bike-ocalypse.

Apparently, a few thousand jolly Angelenos all got the (same exact) bright idea to take a nice breezy bike ride by the bay on their 78-degree day off. The priceless, all-American result, via City News Service:

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Facebook via LA Streetsblog

A witness photo from the scene.

One thing we've learned from living in L.A.: Don't mess with bikers. (We don't mean biker bikers -- we know those greasy, ear-splitting "fags" are really just big softies beneath all that passive-aggressive lane changing.) No, we're talking cyclists: Critical Mass, known by night as the Midnight Ridazz. Sometimes naked, always pumped.

They may be outnumbered by soccer moms in minivans (or, in this case, drunk chicks in sedans), but L.A. cyclists make their presence known. We've never seen a group of lobbyists win over the City Council as completely they did back in March, securing 1,680 miles of new bike lanes by about 2020.

Now, they're telling 27-year-old DUI convict Christine Dahab:

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Midnight Ridazz

From a past Koreatown Wednesday

Update: "Christine Dahab, Drunk Driver Who Plowed Through Group of 'Midnight Ridazz,' Gets off With Misdemeanor."

Updated after the jump: Christine Elizabeth Dahab, 27, was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence. One Midnight Rida calls her a "drunk bitch." Originally posted at 8:50 a.m.

The famed Midnight Ridazz took a hard hit in the wee hours this morning.

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