LA City Council seeks to impose speed limit, traffic rules on skateboarders

[sluggers]

http://www.scpr.org/news/2012/04/30/32251/la-fire-back-skateboard-bombing/

This week, the L.A. City Council could put an end to an extreme style of skateboarding called ?bombing.?

Bombing is when a skateboarder shoots down a hill at high speed. The practice is thrilling, but dangerous; in January, a 15-year old boy was killed in a collision with another skateboarder during a ?bombing? run down a hill in San Pedro.

Kevin Rodriguez ? who?s 17 - says he doesn?t wear a helmet when he bombs, even though the law says he should. But he says he?s careful not to skateboard downhill into traffic.

?Sometimes we do it in the night time," says Rodriguez, before adding, "There?s no cars. Or we do in parking lots or private downhills.?

But when you?re bombing down a steep hill a 40 miles an hour, you don?t need another car to wipe out.

?[Y]ou get speed wobbles," Rodriguez explains. "That means that your board wiggles too much and you can?t have control so you just? you just eat [it] on the floor.?

On Wednesday, the L.A. City Council will talk about putting an end to bombing. There?s a proposed ordinance to require skateboarders to obey the same rules that bicyclists do ? like stop for stop signs and stay on the right side of the road.

Skateboarders would also have to obey a speed limit: 25 miles per hour, whether you?re ?bombing? downhill or not.

[finknoos]

so youre cyclists actually stop for signs and obey speed limits?

[sluggers]

No, but I suspect they just want to be able to fine skaters too when they find them disobeying the rules.

The police department is a revenue generator and are not there to serve nor protect.

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

I think I might go tonight and rip them a new asshole for doing nothing to improve public transit and simultaneously creating unnecessary rules about alternative transportation as being anti-green, anti-environment, pro-DUI, and pro-segregation.
This city needs to learn to stop limiting transit to cars.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

sounds like an episode of its always sunny in philadelphia.

"the gipper solves the public transport problem."

[sluggers]

I think I might go tonight and rip them a new asshole for doing nothing to improve public transit and simultaneously creating unnecessary rules about alternative transportation as being anti-green, anti-environment, pro-DUI, and pro-segregation.
This city needs to learn to stop limiting transit to cars.

[fulfillthedream]

I think I might go tonight and rip them a new asshole for doing nothing to improve public transit and simultaneously creating unnecessary rules about alternative transportation as being anti-green, anti-environment, pro-DUI, and pro-segregation.
This city needs to learn to stop limiting transit to cars.

the concept/idea of alternative transit in LA area barley exist. when you tell people you ride the bus they look at you like you're insane. for a major city la sucks horribly when it comes to transit. it is also so far spread out that you have to use a car and be stuck in traffic.

[ChronicBluntSlider]

so youre cyclists actually stop for signs and obey speed limits?

Yes, many of them actually do.  They will also merge into traffic with a ballsiness thats like bombing hills in brightly colored spandex.

[Big Skatefase]

damn, aint no more important crimes they can try to improve?

[Tarela]

I dont know why people talk to news reporters...

[TwisT]

"bombing"

i love buzzwords...

[tkp]

I think I might go tonight and rip them a new asshole for doing nothing to improve public transit and simultaneously creating unnecessary rules about alternative transportation as being anti-green, anti-environment, pro-DUI, and pro-segregation.
This city needs to learn to stop limiting transit to cars.

the concept/idea of alternative transit in LA area barley exist. when you tell people you ride the bus they look at you like you're insane. for a major city la sucks horribly when it comes to transit. it is also so far spread out that you have to use a car and be stuck in traffic.

i feared for every bicyclists life when i visited la. homies need some bike lanes.

[happenstance]

I have said this here before - I got a speeding ticket skating in the bay. So it isn't like this is a new thing. Then again, I fought the thing and won.

[victor333]

[Y]ou get speed wobbles," Rodriguez explains. "That means that your board wiggles too much and you can?t have control so you just? you just eat sh[it] on the floor.?

I'm positive that's what he said

[oneshovel]

So a 15 year old kid, an old lady, and possibly others have died in the past year because of hill bombers.. and some of you idiots are complaining about getting fined for obviously reckless behavior?  I like bombing hills too but grow up.  If you can't do the time don't do the crime.  Hell, I've had to pay $140 just for slowly riding on the sidewalk without a helmet.  And you guys act like you're being all oppressed by a perfectly reasonable law. 

[sluggers]

So a 15 year old kid, an old lady, and possibly others have died in the past year because of hill bombers.. and some of you idiots are complaining about getting fined for obviously reckless behavior?  I like bombing hills too but grow up.  If you can't do the time don't do the crime.  Hell, I've had to pay $140 just for slowly riding on the sidewalk without a helmet.  And you guys act like you're being all oppressed by a perfectly reasonable law. 

I've paid fines as well.

The point is that one should be free to do as one wishes until there is a victim involved. Then you can be brought to provide compensation to the injured party.

This is just another way for the city to extort money from everything that moves.

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

So a 15 year old kid, an old lady, and possibly others have died in the past year because of hill bombers.. and some of you idiots are complaining about getting fined for obviously reckless behavior?  I like bombing hills too but grow up.  If you can't do the time don't do the crime.  Hell, I've had to pay $140 just for slowly riding on the sidewalk without a helmet.  And you guys act like you're being all oppressed by a perfectly reasonable law. 

Hey! Go fuck yourself! The old lady probably wasn't looking where she was walking and walked into the path of a skateboarder going 40 mph. There is plenty of dangerous shit in this world, and regulating alternative transit in LA should be LAST on the list.

I think I might go tonight and rip them a new asshole for doing nothing to improve public transit and simultaneously creating unnecessary rules about alternative transportation as being anti-green, anti-environment, pro-DUI, and pro-segregation.
This city needs to learn to stop limiting transit to cars.

the concept/idea of alternative transit in LA area barley exist. when you tell people you ride the bus they look at you like you're insane. for a major city la sucks horribly when it comes to transit. it is also so far spread out that you have to use a car and be stuck in traffic.

Its part of the reason I don't just hate LA, I hate ANGELINOS specfically. Such trashy human beings. I've gotten shit for saying I was going to ride the bus to a place 5 miles away from me to get drunk.  I think the words were something that was supposed to be a truism along the lines of "good party nights can't start on the bus!"  These were teachers too. Even teachers in LA think its a better idea to DUI than to take a bus to drink.

[managuense]

i know a guy who used to race downhill back in the day, and he told me about this hill they used to practice for races on out on some country road. the cops used to pull into the bushes at the bottom so they couldnt see them, then once they started going too fast to jump off they would pull out and block the fuckin road

[Yushin Okami]

So a 15 year old kid, an old lady, and possibly others have died in the past year because of hill bombers.. and some of you idiots are complaining about getting fined for obviously reckless behavior?  I like bombing hills too but grow up.  If you can't do the time don't do the crime.  Hell, I've had to pay $140 just for slowly riding on the sidewalk without a helmet.  And you guys act like you're being all oppressed by a perfectly reasonable law. 

Hey! Go fuck yourself! The old lady probably wasn't looking where she was walking and walked into the path of a skateboarder going 40 mph. There is plenty of dangerous shit in this world, and regulating alternative transit in LA should be LAST on the list.

Living in Los Angeles myself I agree that they really don't need to be spending time on regulating alternative transit, but shut the fuck up about the "old lady". Where do you get she wasn't looking where she was going and he was doing anything close to 40mph? First, she was walking in a fucking crosswalk. Second, she was almost across the street... meaning she had been crossing the street for some time already and didn't just step out in front of somebody. Third, the kid bombing the hill passed several cars who were waiting for her to finish crossing the street.

But I agree with you on one thing... making sure skateboarders stay under 25mph is totally pro-DUI

[Dirty Sprite]

i know a guy who used to race downhill back in the day, and he told me about this hill they used to practice for races on out on some country road. the cops used to pull into the bushes at the bottom so they couldnt see them, then once they started going too fast to jump off they would pull out and block the fuckin road

Man if someone would have ate shit and got seriously injured I wonder what those assholes would have done.

[managuense]

i know a guy who used to race downhill back in the day, and he told me about this hill they used to practice for races on out on some country road. the cops used to pull into the bushes at the bottom so they couldnt see them, then once they started going too fast to jump off they would pull out and block the fuckin road

Man if someone would have ate shit and got seriously injured I wonder what those assholes would have done.

i guess it did happen, not seriously injured like paralyzed but you eat shit going 40+ youre fucked up even in full leathers

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

So a 15 year old kid, an old lady, and possibly others have died in the past year because of hill bombers.. and some of you idiots are complaining about getting fined for obviously reckless behavior?  I like bombing hills too but grow up.  If you can't do the time don't do the crime.  Hell, I've had to pay $140 just for slowly riding on the sidewalk without a helmet.  And you guys act like you're being all oppressed by a perfectly reasonable law. 

Hey! Go fuck yourself! The old lady probably wasn't looking where she was walking and walked into the path of a skateboarder going 40 mph. There is plenty of dangerous shit in this world, and regulating alternative transit in LA should be LAST on the list.

Living in Los Angeles myself I agree that they really don't need to be spending time on regulating alternative transit, but shut the fuck up about the "old lady". Where do you get she wasn't looking where she was going and he was doing anything close to 40mph? First, she was walking in a fucking crosswalk. Second, she was almost across the street... meaning she had been crossing the street for some time already and didn't just step out in front of somebody. Third, the kid bombing the hill passed several cars who were waiting for her to finish crossing the street.

But I agree with you on one thing... making sure skateboarders stay under 25mph is totally pro-DUI

What were you there? I'm still not buying it. Besides, the California crosswalk laws are fucking stupid too. Laws that encourage people to walk into dangerous roads without looking because they have right of way, despite being outweighed 10-20:1 is retarded. That law, what I like to call the "lets hope people get hit by cars law" probably gets far more people killed than anything.
on top of that, how many people have been killed by cars? The idea that nobody knows how to powerslide or stay in control down a hill is fucking stupid. If you are too shitty of a skateboarder to know how to slide out down a hill, you shouldn't be bombing hills, but why ban it for the rest of us? What if I ride my skateboard to work and have to go down a hill? I'm expected to drive now I guess. Way to go Retard City! God I can't wait to move back to the bay in 2 months and get out of this shit town.


Its a damn shame they hold city hall meetings at noon, when normal people are at work...hopefully it failed.

[bandini]

Ah, good old California. They have to outlaw something every few weeks or they just go nuts. Next it'll be violent video games or smoking in your own bathroom.

[baconeggandcheese]

Shit like this pisses me off so much.  Don't really need to say why as most everyone else in this thread summed it up.  However, two words: Dip set.  Fuck the police, dip-set on those motherfuckers, you can outrun 'em.  I've done this many times on a skateboards and bikes.

[apad88]

Vincent Alveraz isn't gonna like this

[Tardvark]

man im gunna get a ticket every day. i skate FAST brah   real FAST

[hime]

Fuck. The news just teased this. "They call it hill bombing..."

[victor333]

"Tonight at 7: the new sport the kids are calling 'skateboarding', and why it puts everyone at risk"

[iwshilvdnfinland]

ave's fucked

[sluggers]

Ah, good old California. They have to outlaw something every few weeks or they just go nuts. Next it'll be violent video games or smoking in your own bathroom.

No doubt, they already banned footballs, frisbees, and sand digging from the beach

http://news.yahoo.com/no-fun-allowed-l-beaches-ban-footballs-frisbees-212100718.html