Woman Killed on PCH in West Long Beach; Don't Pay Attention Nothing to See!

Yesterday morning, my significant other alerted me to the traffic she experienced on the way to work. 

She'd noted that the traffic going the opposite way towards Wilmington was backed up.  She'd seen someone on the streets bawled up, but she had no clue what had happened.

Turns out a pedestrian was killed on this stretch of PCH.

This as I was reading about the death of a bicyclist on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

First of all, maybe I'm too new to following these bicycling and pedestrian deaths, but it's a really sad event.

Sad that a life has ended because of the careless usage of a high-powered machine, and it appears we may not not know the facts unless someone digs it out.  I wish I could, but I do not have the time or the money to research, just the time to make noise about things that affect me.

Sad because it doesn't appear that anybody will be at fault.

Sad because it doesn't appear that anyone will care. 

Sad that because the victim's death could be easily dismissed she's identified not only as "woman" but with the words "transient" or "homeless."  Somehow its OK and quite "natural" in journalism to mark the victim by their living conditions, especially if they're poor;  conversely it would be 'unnatural' to mark the woman with the car, who hit and killed the victim with "homeful" or "well-monied enough to be driving."

Its a route that I'd taken a few days ago in the wee hours of the morning and have taken it in the dark. I'd taken it just as gas suddenly jumped up 30 cents in So Cal.

This is a super-dangerous part of PCH to bike as I've noted in previous blogs. 

Someone had commented on the Long Beach Post that "I WAS ON A TORRANCE TRANSIST [sic] BUS WHEN THE TRAFFIC WAS PLACED ON DETOUR. YOU WILL ALWAYS SEE PEOPLE WALKING IN THE STREETS OVER THERE FOR SOME REASON."

Based on my informal, completely random observations, people are "walking in the streets over there for some reason" usually are hauling some kind of cargo to trade at the recycling center, though 5:40 AM seems a bit early to be moving towards the center.

Morning time on PCH from Wilmington to East Long Beach is dangerous, but you find lots of pedestrians and bicyclists walking on its sidewalks single-file, barely skipping a beat in their strides as they stroll past 16 wheelers trying to speed onto the 710 freeway on-ramps.  What these pedestrians and bicyclists do, I call persistence bicycling and pedestrianism. 

It appears that their destinations are usually about participating in some kind of economic development and exchange and can be roughly divided into the following:  1) Workers headed for some kind of industry work  2)  People hauling cargo via bicycle, shopping cart to a recycling Center  3)  students bicycling, skateboarding, and walking to Cabrillo High School.  Seems like more attention needs to be foisted upon this area.