bay area cycling news

San Jose Bike Party is looking for eyewitness accounts of a March 19 hit and run. This incident occurred on Race St on Friday, March 19th. The fact that this happened on the ride where we were honoring Joshua Ryan West who was killed by a driver on Feb. 1, 2010 is especially ironic.

Remember the NYC critical mass bodychecking incident last year? Turns out the NYPD officer (who was later fired) is now on trial for assault. The charges against Long were dropped. Pogan, who resigned from the force in February 2009, is charged with offenses including assault and falsifying business records. Read more at NBC26 .

A cyclist in Sacramento was killed Sunday by a vehicle traveling the same direction, who apparently did not see the cyclist. He was peddling north on Howe, by the Highway 50 overpass, when he was hit by a northbound Ford driven by a woman, said police spokesman Konrad von Shoech. Von Shoech said the driver apparently didn't see the cyclist. No charges were filed. Read more at the Sacramento Bee .

An interesting article on the SF StreetsBlog about the San Jose Bike Party . Overall, the Bike Party captured a lot of the magic that Critical Mass does. I found it frustrating and self-defeating to not hold intersections long enough for larger groups of cyclists to pass through, but one of the characteristics of mass bike rides is how they each find their own comfort level and culture. At least a half dozen sound systems were on the ride, pumping funk, hip-hop and other popular tunes.

An arrest was made in last year's hit-and-run accident involving Ashleigh Jackson: The Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff has arrested Saratoga resident Robert Paul Schiro in connection with last year's hit-and-run collision on Highway 9 that left competitive cyclist Ashley [sic] Jackson with permanent brain damage. ... Schiro was arrested at his office in Santa Clara where he runs RPS Properties, a property management business. The arrest comes almost a year to the date when the collision occurred. Read more at the Mercury News article .

San Jose Mercury News reports that Caltrain has almost literally gone broke and could cut service in many areas, including removing weeknight and weekend trains. Caltrain is broke and will almost certainly need to wipe out half its service, leaving no trains on weekends, weeknights or midday and leaving the agency's future in doubt, officials said Thursday. This follows on the heels of another special report by the Merc about Bay Area transit in general being in worlds of financial trouble.