The Week the L.A. Times went all BIKE.
Thread started by
ingipet at 07.10.08 - 2:09 pm
July 08, 2008.
For the Record.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bike9-2008jul09,0,6023414.story
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pennywise8-2008jul08,0,6515708.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-transit8-2008jul08,0,7375677.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wehobikes8-2008jul08,0,1225692.story
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/07/another-freeway.html
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Also Steve Lopez wrote on his July 6th column:
But why does a city [Chicago] that's under ice half the year have a better system of bike lanes, not to mention a bike-riding mayor, while Villaraigosa has a deputy mayor for transportation who dopes around L.A. in his Hummer?
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-adme-lopez6-2008jul06,0,1938650.column
(Making the links clickable shows them where they get their readership from.)
marino07.10.08 - 4:49 pm
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i already tried that on another thread. that died.
read all about it!!
(do a keyword search marino)
i usually make my links clickable, but i keep messing it up! you get once chance on this text box! no edits.
:)
WIZZAO!
ingipet07.10.08 - 4:51 pm
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Links get written like this
[a href="http://www.latimes.com"]linked text[/a]
but use <> instead of [ ]
to result
linked text
marino07.10.08 - 5:36 pm
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just found out actually that LA times wont let you view archives for very long. best thing is to make PDF's of those articles while they are still live and then post links to those....
i'll do that now....
ingipet07.10.08 - 8:23 pm
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F this, actually.
i just tried doing PDF's and they look like SUCK.
F the TIMES.
ingipet07.10.08 - 8:35 pm
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I I
I I
I I
vvv
SINK!!!!!!!!!!!
ingipet07.10.08 - 8:37 pm
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Ingipet - Hitting the print button next to the article, and then cutting and pasting it into a word document or an e-mail is another way to do it.
Like so - Article 1.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bike9-2008jul09,0,6023414.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Conflict between bicyclists, motorists boils over in Brentwood
Two experienced riders are hurt on Mandeville Canyon Road in what police describe as a 'road-rage incident.' L.A. councilman calls for a meeting on the issue.
By Martha Groves and Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
July 9, 2008
Bicyclists who crave a steady uphill climb flock to Mandeville Canyon Road and its 5-mile, straight-shot ascent with no traffic lights.
But the route's rising popularity has turned the narrow road into a zone of conflict for Brentwood residents and the hundreds of cyclists who, every weekend, brave its twists, turns and tree-root bumps.
The frustration boiled over on the Fourth of July. In what police describe as a "road-rage incident," two experienced racers on a holiday outing that attracted about 300 cyclists were riding down Mandeville Canyon when a motorist in an Infiniti sedan slammed on his brakes in front of them. Police said the resulting impact propelled one rider through the car's rear window and sent the other to the pavement.
Police arrested the driver, Christopher T. Thompson, 58, on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon -- his automobile. Thompson, who lives on Mandeville Canyon Road and is an owner of a medical documentation company in Woodland Hills, was released on $30,000 bail.
Capt. Bill Eaton of the Los Angeles Police Department said the case could go to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office as early as today.
Peter Swarth, Thompson's attorney, denied that his client had done anything wrong and said the cyclists' account was inaccurate. "This isn't an incident of road rage," Swarth said. "It is a very unfortunate accident. Dr. Thompson hopes for the injured cyclists' recovery."
Cyclist Ron Peterson, 40, whose head crashed through the car window, suffered broken teeth and serious cuts on his face, including one that left his broken nose dangling.
The other cyclist, Christian Stoehr, 29, said he suffered a shoulder separation that would require surgery.
Photos showing a car's shattered window and what appears to be a blood-covered trunk and a cut-up Peterson on a gurney and in a UCLA Medical Center bed were quickly posted on Internet blogs, prompting outraged e-mails among members of Westside riding clubs.
Peterson and Stoehr said they were starting their descent toward Sunset Boulevard when a fellow cyclist crashed into another rider's bike and was injured. The two remained behind to help.
After paramedics arrived and loaded the cyclist into an ambulance, Peterson and Stoehr said they continued to descend, riding side by side at about 30 mph.
Peterson said he pulled in front of Stoehr after a driver behind them honked. The car passed them, missing their handlebars by less than a foot, Peterson said.
The driver "yelled out some profanity and 'Ride single file,' " said Peterson, who works as a cycling coach. Peterson, riding a $5,500 Specialized racing bike, screamed an expletive at the driver. At that point, the driver veered directly in front of the riders and "slammed on his brakes as hard as he could," Peterson said.
Peterson's head slammed through the window. Stoehr, meanwhile, said he tried to steer around the car but clipped it with his bag or a foot. "I ended up being catapulted over my own bike and landed in front of the car," he said.
According to Peterson, the driver emerged from the car and said he was a doctor. But "from that point on, he never offered any help," Peterson said.
Thompson's biography on the website of his company, Touch Medix, says he spent 29 years as an emergency department doctor. He earned his medical degree at the University of Oklahoma and has for years consulted on issues relating to medical documentation.
Wendy-Sue Rosen, president of the Upper Mandeville Canyon Assn., described Thompson as "a great guy who has been active in the community." His wife, Lynne, is on the association's board.
"People here are very, very angry at bicyclists and their disregard for the laws of the road," Rosen said, adding that residents had reported being spat upon by cyclists.
Charles Mostov, a lawyer who lives on Mandeville Canyon Road and is an avid cyclist, said the incident had prompted some much-needed conversation.
Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the area, said he had called for a meeting within the next two weeks of residents, cyclists, traffic engineers and police to discuss the issues and to reinforce the fact that "cyclists have the right to travel safely and free of fear."
Cyclists urged members of their community not to use the incident as an excuse to act aggressively toward motorists.
"As more people take to the road because of gas prices and the economy," Mostov said, "maybe this is an opportunity for some outreach and for dialogue so that we can get along."
martha.groves@latimes.com
richard.winton@latimes.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JB07.10.08 - 8:40 pm
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I got an email back from "Martha" my dear from my email to her giving her the grade of F on that article...
heee heee...
thanks for the tip JB....i'll try that...
ingipet07.10.08 - 8:43 pm
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****" People here are very, very angry at bicyclists and their disregard for the laws of the road," Rosen said, adding that residents had reported being spat upon by cyclists. " ****
is really the only super bad line though.... okay. D minus.
ingipet07.10.08 - 8:46 pm
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Post up that response e-mail if it's worth reading.
JB07.10.08 - 8:46 pm
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Bikes help commuters get around gas prices
Merchants' sales rise as more people trade four wheels for two
By Leslie Earnest
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2008
High gasoline prices are fueling bicycle sales, and on some days Michael Hall's blood pressure.
At least three times a week, Hall pedals to his job in Hollywood from his home in northern Glendale, a 25-mile round-trip commute that is faster on two wheels than four.
"It's definitely saving me money, but may be taking years off my life due to the fact that it's a terrifying experience," said Hall, a 46-year-old television editor. The problems, he said, include the cellphone-using, "coffee-drinking, shaving, makeup-putting-on person who's not paying attention" and the furious motorists who swear at him if he slows them down "for a nanosecond."
For his trouble, Hall saves about $150 a month, which makes it all worthwhile.
Industry sales numbers for the year aren't available yet, but anecdotal evidence is widespread that bicycle companies are benefiting from what's hurting other businesses, said Tim Blumenthal, executive director of Bikes Belong Coalition, an advocacy group.
"Bicycles for transportation has not been a big thing until very recently," he said. "April and particularly May, and now June, have been phenomenal months. This is across the board and across the country."
As the weather has improved -- and pump prices have continued to rise -- merchants have noticed an increase.
"This is the first time we've seen this much growth from the gas problem," said Jim Whitsett, owner of Cynergy Cycles in Santa Monica, where sales are up "a noticeable 20% just in the past 30 days."
Increasingly, people who used to view bicycles as playthings or exercise tools now see them as workhorses. So they're outfitting them with fenders, racks, bags -- anything that will make them more functional.
Burley Design, which makes trailers for bikes, has run out of some models used to haul children and groceries.
"We're definitely ahead of where we thought we would be," said Amanda Schulze, marketing manager for the Eugene, Ore., company, which expects sales to rise 10% this year.
It's too soon, though, to call 2008 a boom year for bikes, said Fred Clements, executive director of the National Bicycle Dealers Assn. in Costa Mesa. People who buy bicycles for fun or fitness still represent the largest chunk of the market, he said, and they may be less willing to spend this year, given the troubled economy.
"We're certainly having an uptick in utility use, but we may have a corresponding decline in recreational purchasing," he said. "You can't underestimate the power of a weak economy to make people rein in some of their spending."
Staying in shape is important to Bryan Martinez, 44, and so is avoiding gas stations. So the Altadena resident has recently upped his cycling to about 250 miles a week, most of it riding back and forth to Comcast Entertainment, where he works as a television editor.
"We only have one income, and it just made more sense for me to ride," he said. "Now I'm kind of addicted to riding to work."
Although his office isn't equipped with showers, Martinez keeps several changes of clothing at his office and uses the sink to rinse off. "Paper towel, sponge bath. It's fine," he said.
Not all two-wheeled sources of transportation require so much energy.
Cannondale Sports Group introduced its line of Schwinn electric bikes last year and was caught off guard in recent months as demand pulled past supply. The bikes sell for $1,500 to $2,500.
"Over the last four months, we've seen significant increase in demand," said spokesman Bruno Maier. "We didn't anticipate the spike that we've seen. Right now we are working to get additional product in to supply our dealers."
Bicycles, of course, aren't the only two-wheeled option. In fact Hall, the TV editor from Glendale, is in the market for a scooter.
"Unfortunately, nobody has any in stock," he said. "They sell them as soon as they come in."
Some who can't afford to invest in a new mode of transportation are dusting the cobwebs off their old bicycles.
Demand is so strong at Rock N' Road Cyclery's service departments that repairs are running a week behind, said Matt Ford, who owns the Lake Forest-based chain of four Orange County stores. Bicycle sales, meanwhile are "up double digits," he said.
"We've really seen a spike," he said. "The gas thing is freaking a lot of people out."
leslie.earnest@latimes.com
ingipet07.10.08 - 8:47 pm
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******
"Dear Ingrid:
Thanks for taking the time to email.
We would be terribly irresponsible as a newspaper to convict the guy in print before he has had a chance to tell his side of the story, whatever that side might be.
The police described it as a "road rage incident." I believe that readers drew the proper conclusion.
Martha"
*****
I think i was just frustrated that she didn't take the time to outline the FACT of the LAW that cyclists have the right to the full use of the lane. CVC 21202.
I know someone who she interviewed for this story clearly explained it to her and yet she didn't quite get it...
I suggested to her that she try riding her bike to work next week and that she would DEFINITELY learn something...
ingipet07.10.08 - 8:50 pm
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-transit8-2008jul08,0,7375677.story
Gas prices nudge Southern California drivers onto mass transit -- slowly
The car habit dies hard, but observers notice train parking lots filling faster and more professionals packing seats for the ride to and from work.
By Joe Mozingo
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2008
She thought about it for four years. She wanted to try it, but kept balking.
"I was scared," says Francine Choi, a Los Angeles County employee who lives in Long Beach. "I was worried I'd get mugged." And then a couple months ago, filling her BMW at a Chevron near work, she gasped when she saw the total pass $60. Then and there, she summoned the courage to do it at last.
Choi rode the Metro Blue Line to work the next day.
"Now I take naps on the way home" says Choi, 45, extolling the light-rail line between downtown L.A. and Long Beach and the $150 or so she saves by riding it every month.
With gas prices shooting into orbit, mass transit ridership is trending upward -- barely.
Car culture has stubborn roots in Southern California. The vast majority of Southern Californians are holding tenaciously to the privacy and convenience of their own cars, over the crush of humanity on the region's trains and buses.
But longtime riders notice more professionals aboard a system that has mostly served low-income workers who don't have the option to drive.
Now the parking structure at the Willow Street stop in Long Beach is full by 8:30 a.m. -- and spaces used to go empty all day. Some of the riders are not so much new to the system as they are nagged by gas prices to take it more often.
Bryanne Sykes, 50, decided six months ago to take it every day. She parks her Volvo S60 in the spillover parking lot at the Willow station, a good quarter-mile walk to the train.
She scrambles to get a seat on the west side, knowing that the sun beats through the windows on the east side during summer. "You ride and you start strategizing," she says.
Sykes, a student advisor at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, has been riding the train periodically for 10 years. But the extra half-hour or so it took her to get to and from work in downtown Los Angeles always put her back in her car. When her children were young, she couldn't spare the time. Now, her youngest is in high school and she doesn't need to race home. As gas prices climbed, her resolve hardened.
She saves about $180 a month in gas, minus the $62 for a monthly Metro pass.
She loves being able to read the paper and doesn't mind having to park farther away, with all the new riders. In fact, she is elated that she lost 10 pounds walking about three miles a day to and from her stations. And the broader spectrum of riders eases what for some is a stigma -- that the train is full of gangbangers and homeless people.
"The good thing with gas getting more expensive is, more and more people are riding it," says Sykes.
In the past, when she got back to Long Beach about 9 p.m., the lonely walk to her car, down a dark street between the tracks and a park, was eerie. "I would stay on the phone with my husband as I walked," she said.
"In the last month, it's me and 10 other people with briefcases and computers," she says.
Ridership on Metro buses and trains has risen steadily since January, but has yet to surpass the ridership before a rate increase cut passenger numbers last July. Average weekday boardings on Metro buses were 1.12 million in January, and 1.26 million in May, when the last available statistics were taken. But May 2006 saw 1.31 million average weekday boardings.
Light-rail ridership has seen roughly the same trend, albeit on a much smaller scale. The Blue Line has gone from 69,731 average weekday riders in January to 79,291 in May, the Red Line from 124,358 to 141,659, the Gold Line from 19,001 to 23,141.
Passenger levels on Metrolink trains, serving the Antelope Valley and Ventura, Riverside, Orange, and San Bernardino counties, jumped nearly 6% from May to June, and 12% over last year. The 48,046 average weekday boardings in June were the highest ever.
Still, up to 97% of trips in Southern California are in cars, according to the Southern California Assn. of Governments. In the Los Angeles Metro area, which includes northern Orange County, there are about 4.3 million lone drivers commuting every week day, and 600,000 carpooling vehicles.
But as the economy sinks and gas prices continue to rise, transit officials expect more refugees, like Steve Sendor, a commercial real estate broker from Venice.
As the real estate business withered, he couldn't justify driving his gas-swilling Jeep Grand Cherokee to work in Century City. With no rail options, he had no choice but to hop on the workhorse of L.A.'s mass transit system, the bus.
"It's not as inconvenient as I thought," he said. "It adds about 45 minutes of productive time to my day."
He reads documents and business news. And he saves about $50 a week, he estimates.
Riders' experiences on the buses, of course, vary widely, depending on the route and time of day.
Attorney Susan Seager started taking mass transit from South Pasadena to Century City. She walks to the Gold Line train, takes it Union Station, where she jumps on LADOT Commuter Express to work. "The seats are cushiony and soft," she says "There are no homeless people. There are no screaming children."
But the last Commuter Express leaves Century City at 5:30, and she often has to take a Metro bus down Olympic Boulevard. "It's very bumpy," she said. "Your teeth practically fall out. The other day a woman was hitting her child. We had to get into it, 'Please, don't hit your child.' It's exhausting to ride the Metro bus."
And even on a good day on her beloved train and Commuter Express, the trip takes an hour and 40 minutes -- to go about 20 miles. "What I really hate about the commute is how I don't see my kids," she says.
That minute-to-mile equation is what keeps many people in their cars. Even with traffic jams, driving is usually faster.
Steve Johnson, 61, waited last week for a train at Union Station after shopping in the Fashion District. He said he would love to take mass transit from Simi Valley to South Gate, where he teaches.
One night in 2005, he planned the trip for the next morning. But he realized that his route looked like a circuit board. He'd be taking Metrolink to Union Station, catching the Red Line to the Blue Line, which he'd ride to the Firestone stop, where he would catch a bus to his school.
He would leave his house at 4:45 a.m. and be lucky to get there when school started at 7:30 a.m. He normally left at 6 a.m. and pulled into the school parking lot just after 7.
He decided to put the trip off a day. The train he had considered boarding on that January morning was involved in a massive pileup near Glendale that killed 11 people and injured about 180.
"Somebody up there was trying to tell me something," he said.
Committed to staying in his car, Johnson picks up a car-pooler to cut the cost.
But others find pleasant surprises when they investigate their mass transit options. Richard Covey, a school teacher as well, discovered an express bus from Laguna Hills to South Coast Plaza that delivers him within walking distance of his middle school in Santa Ana.
He started taking it late March -- and kicks himself for not doing it sooner. The walking invigorates him, and his stress level dropped precipitously. Now he has to set his alarm on his 25-minute ride home so he doesn't sleep right through his stop.
Recently, when he woke up, he looked around at the eight or so other riders.
"I realized that the only ones awake were myself and the bus driver," he said.
joe.mozingo@latimes.com
ingipet07.10.08 - 8:54 pm
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West Hollywood wants cyclists, pedestrians to share the sidewalk
Backpedaling on a ban, the walking-friendly city is preparing to legalize sidewalk bicycling riding along streets that lack marked bike lanes. A survey shows a split on the issue.
By Bob Pool
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2008
As gas prices force some motorists to dust off their bicycles, West Hollywood authorities are backpedaling on a law that bans bike riding on its pedestrian-packed sidewalks.
The compact, walking-friendly city is preparing to legalize sidewalk bike riding along streets that lack marked bicycle lanes.
Bicyclists sharing walkways with pedestrians will be required to be careful -- and courteous to senior citizens and others who have long walked to Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards to shop and dine.
Local traffic laws and the state's vehicle code have traditionally lumped bicycles into the same category as motorized vehicles, meaning they must be ridden on streets, not sidewalks. An exception is Los Angeles, where only willfully careless bike riding is prohibited on sidewalks.
But bicyclists in West Hollywood have complained that traffic congestion and narrow roadways in some areas make it dangerous to ride in the street.
After learning that even some members of the Los Angeles County sheriff's bicycle detail were leery of riding in the street, city leaders spent more than a year studying the issue and polling residents and those who work and shop in the 2-square-mile town.
The survey showed that more than half of respondents ride their bikes on sidewalks, even though it is illegal. The idea of sharing the sidewalk between pedestrians and bicyclists was split, with 43.7% for coexistence and 52.7% against it.
On the street, the bikes-on-the-sidewalk debate continues to roll on.
Outside a Starbucks on Santa Monica Boulevard, lined with bicycles chained to parking meters and lampposts, Sam Lopez, 21, sparred with friends Francesca Consarino, 18, and Chelsea Medwin, 17. All live in next-door Beverly Hills.
Lopez, a talent agency intern, said that as a motorist he believes that bicyclists belong on sidewalks. The young women, both high school students who walk a lot, disagreed.
At a nearby sidewalk table, marketing expert Stephen Bender, 29, of Hollywood said bike riders are safer on the walkway than in the busy boulevard's marked bicycle lane.
Just then, Leonard Donnell pulled up to a stop on the sidewalk on his old cruiser-style bike. He dismissed the painted bicycle lane a few steps away as "too dangerous."
"If we use common sense, we should be able to ride and walk on the sidewalk together," said Donnell, 50, of West Hollywood.
Los Angeles County's bike law, which bans all sidewalk riding, also applied to West Hollywood. Santa Monica prohibits it too. Beverly Hills does not permit bikes on sidewalks in its business district.
Los Angeles, however, prohibits sidewalk riding only when it is done "in a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property." Bikes are banned, however, on Ocean Front Walk between Marine Street and Via Marina in Venice.
Before endorsing the opening of sidewalks to bicyclists on streets with bike lanes, the city's Traffic Commission considered alternatives such as allowing only children under 12 or adults over 60 ride on sidewalks or requiring bicyclists to use horns or bells when approaching pedestrians.
West Hollywood residents took a middle-of-the-road stance on bikes on sidewalks at a June council hearing that set the stage for a ratification vote tentatively scheduled for July 21.
One veteran bicyclist warned that allowing sidewalk bike riding was inviting a lawsuit if a pedestrian was struck and injured. "It will be dangerous . . . especially to older people and people walking dogs on leashes," she said.
A man told of almost running over a bicyclist who sped off a sidewalk and into the intersection at Ogden Drive and Sunset Boulevard. "We can't see these people. It's a bad idea," he warned.
But others favored pedestrians sharing sidewalks with cyclists. One woman asked officials to consider bicyclists as people who are helping the environment and reducing traffic congestion, not as criminals.
Another urged that bikes be outfitted with readable license plates that witnesses can identity in case of hit-and-ride-off collisions with walkers.
City administrators said a relaxation of rules against sidewalk riding would be accompanied by an aggressive safety campaign and strict enforcement of the bike lane rule.
Anyone caught riding recklessly or too fast or on a sidewalk on a street where there already is a designated bike lane would be cited by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and fined. Infractions could be bumped up to misdemeanors if the violation is serious, city staff members said.
Council members cited Sheriff's Department statistics that tallied 41 accidents involving bicycles and moving vehicles over one recent two-year period. There were no reports of bicyclists crashing into pedestrians during that time.
Others suggested that crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians go unreported. Councilman Sal Guarriello revealed that he was a victim of sidewalk collisions with bicyclists.
"Twice I was knocked over by a bicyclist, and he was as nasty as hell," Guarriello said. "We have places here you have to walk single file to walk on the sidewalk. And now we want to put bikes on the sidewalks? I can't buy this no way, no how."
Councilman John Duran questioned how enforcement of risky sidewalk riding could be done. But he said there has been a push to turn West Hollywood into a green city.
"If I was on a bike, I'd much rather collide with a pedestrian than a truck or a car," Duran said.
"We're choking on traffic congestion and getting ready to choke" on $6-a-gallon gasoline prices.
bob.pool@latimes.com
ingipet07.10.08 - 8:54 pm
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UPDATE------ July 11th, 2008.
Brentwood man charged in case of alleged road rage against cyclists
Christopher Thomas Thompson faces six felony counts in connection with an incident on Mandeville Canyon Road in which two bicyclists were injured.
By Joanna Lin
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:15 PM PDT, July 11, 2008
A Brentwood man who allegedly stopped his car suddenly in front of two cyclists, causing one to crash through the rear window, was charged today with felony reckless driving, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.
Christopher Thomas Thompson, who turned 59 today, is charged with two felony counts each of reckless driving causing injury, battery with serious bodily injury and the special allegation of causing great bodily injury, the district attorney's office said.
Thompson allegedly slammed on the brakes of his red Infiniti sedan in front of two cyclists riding downhill on Mandeville Canyon Road. Police said the impact flung one cyclist through the car's rear window and the other to the pavement.
The two cyclists were among about 300 cyclists who gathered for a holiday ride on the narrow, 5-mile route.
Thompson has denied wrongdoing and said he has never been involved in a road rage incident.
"It is a very unfortunate accident," attorney Peter Swarth said of his client, a former emergency room physician, this week. "Dr. Thompson hopes for the injured cyclists' recovery."
Cyclist Ron Peterson, 40, whose head crashed through the car window, suffered broken teeth, a broken nose and serious cuts on his face.
The other cyclist, Christian Stoehr, 29, said he suffered a shoulder separation that would require surgery.
Photos showing a car's shattered window and what appears to be a blood-covered trunk and an injured Peterson on a gurney and in a UCLA Medical Center bed were quickly posted on Internet blogs, prompting outraged e-mails among members of Westside riding clubs.
Peterson and Stoehr said they were starting their descent toward Sunset Boulevard when a fellow cyclist crashed into another rider's bike and was injured. The two remained behind to help. After paramedics arrived and loaded the cyclist into an ambulance, Peterson and Stoehr said, they continued to descend, riding side by side at about 30 mph.
Peterson said he pulled in front of Stoehr after a driver behind them honked. The car passed them, missing their handlebars by less than a foot, Peterson said.
Peterson said after the accident that Thompson had "yelled out some profanity and 'Ride single file!' " Peterson said he then screamed an expletive at Thompson, who veered directly in front of the riders and "slammed on his brakes as hard as he could."
Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the area, said he had called a meeting for residents, cyclists, traffic engineers and police to discuss the issues and to reinforce the idea that "cyclists have the right to travel safely and free of fear."
Thompson lives on Mandeville Canyon Road and is an owner of a medical documentation company in Woodland Hills. He was released on $30,000 bail.
Thompson is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 1 at the LAX branch of Los Angeles County Superior Court. If convicted on all counts, he would face up to seven years eight months in state prison.
joanna.lin@latimes.com
ingipet07.11.08 - 1:16 pm
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