The only thing more infuriating than sharing the road with cars is having your bike stolen and being forced to become another car on the road.
Just once, wouldn't it be great to catch those a-holes in the act of cutting your lock and pedaling off with your wheels? The Mission District Police Station has offered up the next best thing to catching the crook in the act: A surveillance video that shows a complete asshole making off with someone's bike from the Walgreens at 30th and Mission streets.
Check it out:
But these facts remain: A tourist from Washington, D.C., Dionette Cherney, is dead; Ang knowingly broke the law, and ultimately that act killed her. In my mind, he needs to do some time if for no reason than to send the message that breaking the law and killing people in San Francisco is not to be tolerated, whether you do it with a bicycle, car, or bus.
(Update 2 p.m.): Officer Albie Esparza informs us that the victim was treated at San Francisco General Hospital and is doing just fine. The woman was not wearing a helmet when the truck driver rolled through a stop sign and hit her.
(Original story 9:10 a.m.) A 39-year-old woman is in critical condition this morning after she was hit by a postal truck while pedaling through the Richmond District yesterday afternoon.
Police say the woman was riding her bike down Clement Street at about 3:48 p.m. when she was hit by the trucker, who was driving northbound on 18th Avenue.
For the most part, San Franciscans look favorably on Critical Mass, the monthly brigade of well-intentioned cyclists pedaling through the streets together. Well, except for this guy below.
Cyclists plagued by ongoing bike theft in the Haight will be happy to know that police have finally busted a man they claim is likely responsible for a rash of bike thefts in the area.
On Jan. 19, officers saw a man casually riding a bike out of a garage on the 300 block of Broderick. According to Park Station police, it was clear the man had just cut the lock off the bike prior to riding off. However, when officers ordered him to stop, the man just continued pedaling.
The cops managed to chase the suspect down; when he finally stopped, his wig fell off, revealing his head of blue hair.
Tara N. built that bicycle himself when he was a teenager. It had sat, dormant, in his parents' garage in San Jose for the better part of 22 years. And, not three weeks after he rescued it and planned to fix it up here in San Francisco -- someone broke in and stole it.
So Tara wants his bike back. But he'd like a little more, too.
"$100 reward for the return or information leading to the ass kicking, I mean arrest, of the scum bag thief," reads Tara's eye-catching posters, which he's affixed near his home on Alamo Square.
Tara notes that, no, he doesn't really want to fund the beating of his victimizers. But it did feel fun to write it that way. "That's in thought only," he says. "But, in theory, I would like to see them in the public stocks out in Union Square. Maybe we could throw tomatoes at them."
San Jose investigators say they have "credible evidence" that Steve Ruiz, the Hells Angel who is suspected of killing a fellow member of the biker gang, was spotted in San Jose over the weekend.
San Jose Officer Jose Garcia told reporters that Ruiz was seen sometime Friday or Saturday and that he is known to have connections in Gilroy, Campbell, and Fremont. "We believe he's in any one of those cities," Garcia said. "If anyone aided him we will arrest those individuals and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law."
Police have been on a widespread manhunt for Ruiz, 38, who is suspected of shooting and killing Steve Tausan during a funeral service for Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew at Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose on Oct. 15.
Randolph Ang, 23, pleaded not guilty today to charges of vehicular manslaughter after he allegedly blew a red light, killing 68-year-old Dionette Cherney this summer.
Update: District Attorney's Office responds. Read after jump.
Four months after a cyclist blew through a red light on the Embarcadero, killing 68-year-old Dionette Cherney as she walked across the street, the District Attorney's Office has brought charges against the biker.
Randolph Ang, 23, has been charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter after he collided with Cherney as she crossed the street on July 15. Cherney, a tourist visiting from Washington, D.C., suffered a serious head injury and was on life support for a month before she died from head trauma.
Ang faces a maximum sentence of a year in jail if convicted, according to the DA's Office.
Daylight savings in fall is a double-edged sword: That extra hour of sleep two Sundays ago was extremely welcome, but now, when commuters leave work, it's dusk -- and darkening fast.
For those who commute on two wheels, that can mean already-treacherous interactions with cars and other vehicles just got even riskier. But one way to ensure you make it home -- and complying with the law while you're at it -- is to get the proper lights on your bike.
From today through Dec. 15, the SFMTA and the SF Bicycle Coalition will be handing out 2,000 bike lights and disseminating bike safety information at pop-up locations around the city, targeting bicycle riders who travel during dark hours as part of their annual "Light up the Night" project.
