The legs sticking out from under that circus tent are me, on Bike To Work Day

The folks over at Bike Friendly Garland helped run the Commuter Energizer Station at Downtown Garland Station for DART, and they had a photographer.

This picture was taken just before the lady tried to dump the case of bottles in my left pannier, and right after I got a cup of coffee. You can see Blue to my left, behind me in the picture.

PSA, Opus

Trying to figure it out, and the Feed

The Feed is still wonky in that what few actual bicycle reports I get are mostly from the UK, and the rest are not actually about bicycles but almost everything else, including a link to an article about women’s monthly cycles. I was getting too little a few months ago, now I’m getting too much, but I’m still not getting bicycles. Well, that’s why I put a human being in the loop to filter out the non-pertinent items.

Up first is a CA wreck that authorities are calling a single vehicle wreck. Cyclist Injured in Ralston Ave. Crash Given the evidence if there is a second vehicle involved it would be a Jerry Brown wreck, a car passing so close that it causes a cyclist to lose control without actually touching the cyclist. If the second vehicle managed to get that close without the cyclist knowing it was there (electric car or cyclist not exercising good situational awareness) then the startle reaction can cause a wreck all on its own. The other reasonable explanation is something on the road knocked the front tire out from under the cyclist, another good reason to exercise good situational awareness.

Also from CA a BMW makes a U-turn and cuts off a cyclist. Bicyclist injured after crashing into car Of course the person writing the article doesn’t subscribe to that hypothesis. Any way, about the only way to avoid a wreck like this is to use heightened situational awareness so that you are aware of the idiot turning in front of you and have time to react. Infrastructure that prevents idiots making U-turns from interfering with cyclists would be the only way to prevent this.

From NJ a sidewalk cyclist narrowly escapes serious injury or death. Bicycle rider escapes injury in Red Bank after brush with truck Truck driver is backing out blind over the sidewalk, sidewalk rider can’t see the truck. Truck driver leaves scene without leaving contact information. Every driveway is an intersection, use intersection protocols to avoid. Since this appears to be in a residential area the only infrastructure change to make would be making hitting a cyclist or pedestrian a crime, but hit-and-run is already a crime so I don’t know what making hitting a cyclist a crime would have done to prevent this wreck.

From West Canuckistan comes their annual warning that people will soon be changing from cars and buses to bicycles. Warming weather means more cyclists and a renewed focus on safety The sad part is people don’t notice that there are fewer cars on the roads, just more bicycles and they hate bicycles.

More about the idiot in the UK who hit a cyclist and then bragged about it on Twitter. Emma Way Arrested For Hit-And-Run After She Brags About It On Twitter Yep, stupidity can be painful, usually when stupid people are in cars around cyclists it’s painful for the cyclist, but this time the pain was shared. And with any luck the sharing can be more painful for the driver.

Also from the UK is a story about a wreck caused by the infrastructure. Injured cyclist’s warning over road pothole danger As I posted in the first paragraph road defects can cause wrecks which heightens the need to be totally aware of your surroundings.

A South African hit-and-run is solved. Hit-and-run driver held for cyclist’s death The cyclists were hit in an area of the road that cars were not supposed to be on, then the car left the scene. Not something a cyclist can prepare for except or that old standby situational awareness and hit-from-behind protocols.

A late RoS link. Local Cyclists Silently Commemorate A LIfe Lost on Rockland Roads

And those were all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

A very late severe weather season, and what happened to my Feed?

I can not recall a severe weather season that got as late a stat as this one. Here it is almost June and we are just now getting those severe thunderstorms and tornadoes that would be almost finished by now if not long gone. Weather patterns for this state have been bolluxed for several years and people are just now starting to notice by going over the recent records that we have been breaking year after year. We had hottest year, earliest recorded 100°F day, most 100°F days in a year and in a row, latest frost, latest low below 40°F, all in the last 3 years. I’m not going to fall into the fallacy of weather vs climate, but something is wrong. You don’t get so many records broken in so short a time without something being wrong. And that’s all I have to say about the subject.

On the subject of my Feed, well it’s full of motorcycles and motorcycle wrecks. Either there aren’t that many bicycle wrecks or the keywords I used to craft the search are being used differently by the people writing the news now, and terms that were once exclusively used for bicycle wrecks are getting used for any kind of wreck not involving a car or pedestrian. I mean seriously what do ATV wrecks have to do with bicycles? But I get at least one a week, sometimes more than one a day, right in my Feed.

First up is another link about the stupid driver that committed hit-and-run and then bragged about it on Twitter. Girl Brags About A Hit And Run On Twitter, Justice Is Swiftly Delivered Can I say that this is the link that REALLY earns the “Stupid drivers” tag for my blog? Because, stupid driver. Seriously stupid driver, as in “How do you remember to breathe?” stupid driver. And did I mention this driver was stupid? because she is. More “I knocked a cyclist off his bike. I have right of way, he doesn’t even pay road tax”

A single bike wreck in CT. Bicyclist Injured In New Canaan Accident I don’t actually “like” single bike wrecks, but as they are almost always non-fatal I like them a heckuva lot more than wrecks involving motor vehicles.

An ID cyclist looks to get some justice in a hit-and-run. Caldwell man charged in suspected hit-and-run The location of the wreck indicates that intersection protocols may have helped avoid the wreck, infrastructure may have prevented it, but some way to keep unlicensed driver from the controls of a rolling WMD would have definitely prevented the wreck.

A cyclist wreck in the Great White North has been solved. SIU clears Windsor police in case of injured cyclist Whodathunkit that hitting car mirrors with your hand until they break could cause hand and shoulder injury. Or that you could get hurt falling from your bike in a drunken heap…

A wreck in South Africa results in a criminal investigation. Police open case after cyclist killed by bus Hit-from-behind wreck, protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent. In this case the infrastructure includes criminal charges against the driver for failing to pass safely.

Last link is to an article about why has the word “bicycle” become a dirty word for conservatives? 7 Reasons Conservatives Should Embrace Bikes I’m still trying to figure out why “bicycle” became a political word.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today, from only one posting to my Feed.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Narrowly avoiding being drenched, and the Feed

I’m running late today because I’m back to the gig visiting the widow woman and letting her cry on my shoulder and fix me breakfast. I was out of that gig for a while because they were adjusting her anti-anxiety meds to control side effects and they went too low and she got all “I hate the world and everybody in it!” for a month and stopped seeing me. Now her meds have been adjusted back up and she’s back to liking the world again and needing to talk to someone about how she feels and all, so I’m back to getting a weird breakfast once a week. Anyway, the avoiding being drenched part of the headline alludes to the bands of thunderstorms we had pass through the area just as I got home. When I got the mail it was just spitting rain, but by the time I got in the house it was pouring buckets. No tornadoes, just some hurricane level gusts and elsewhere they had some hail but no chunky style precipitation here. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees when the storm blew through because of the cold upper altitude air pulled down by the rain and the sudden rise in the humidity chilling things down also. And I just got a news item that says Senators from the east coast are getting ready to vote against disaster aid to OK because both of OK Senators voting against disaster aid for the people ruined by Sandy. I think OK just got run over by a Karma Ghia.

A NM cyclist’s death appears to have been in vain. Woman who killed cyclist in court again She drove off the road and killed a cyclist on an adjacent bike path and got the maximum sentence of… 90 days. Now she’s caught driving drunk again. Lifetime ban from driving (and I don’t understand why this didn’t happen for the fatal wreck) added to her sentence for repeat DUI. More Woman who killed cyclist now in court for DWI

More on the cyclist killed in MA over the weekend. Cyclist Killed Sunday Was MIT Scientist Nothing about the wreck. Lots about the victim. RIP. Another link Visiting MIT scientist killed while riding bike

Still in MA a child riding a bicycle is run over by a dump truck. Police: Child riding bicycle with mother dies in Westfield accident This link had nothing on the mode. 7-year-old boy killed in Mass. road accident also Memorial grows for boy killed on bike and Westfield child killed in accident with dump truck identified as Michael Ryan, 7 even Westfield boy killed in traffic accident identified OK a day later and LEO are still not reporting how this kid got hit beyond “hit by the front of the truck” and ending up under the rear wheels.

A WI cyclist is killed with LEO also sitting on the report. Girl struck, killed on bicycle in New Berlin is identified Nothing about the mode or anything beyond identifying the victim and the age of the driver. You would think this was a UK media outlet…

A young CA cyclist is killed riding to school. Teenage bike rider killed in San Jose traffic accident I hate it when media uses the term “accident” instead of “wreck”. More San Jose: Silver Creek High sophomore killed in bicycle crash remembered as classroom leader At this point LEO are not saying anything, but the driver says he “thinks” he had the green when he hit the cyclist in a crosswalk.

A fatal wreck in DC. Cyclist Killed in U Street Collision With Car Last Thursday The report said the cyclist was making a turn and that the light was green for the driver at the time of the wreck, what the phase was when the cyclist entered the intersection is unknown. Intersection wreck implies that intersection protocols might have helped avoid the wreck. Infrastructure would have prevented the wreck had the bicycle been separated from the motor vehicle traffic in both time and space.

From the UK a stupid driver gets caught after bragging about her wreck. Woman Brags About Hitting Cyclist, Discovers Police Also Use Twitter The mode of wreck is highly unusual in that the driver was on the wrong side of the road. Not much that a human cyclist can do about drivers being on the wrong side of the road, but getting the infrastructure right would keep the driver away from the cyclists. More Driver ‘admits’ knocking down cyclist on Twitter and Twitter hit-and-run boast shows dangers of ‘road tax’ entitlement

Last link is a “Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot?” moment. Cyclist Killed Duckling

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

It’s another Monday, and the Feed

I’m not cooking beans today because we had so much left over from last week. For some reason I just didn’t feel like my usual 3 bowls last week for dinner (I actually had about half that) and nobody had more than a single bowl during the week. So, we have lots that can be put in a 210°F oven in a casserole dish with a dash of soy sauce to spark up the flavor and add a bit of liquid while the mix slowly reheats. Any dangerous microbes don’t stand a chance when I cook because I cook a just enough heat to keep the cooking process going until the food is cooked, thus also killing anything that might be living in the food before I eat it. This also preserves the flavor of my food by not over-cooking it.

Also I have to make a quick run to the local Best Buy to put more minutes on my phone. Apparently the concept of “annual activation” does not mean the same thing to Virgin Mobile as it does to me. To me it means leave my phone turned on for an entire year or until my minutes run out. But to VM it means keep plugging in monthly payment cards or we turn your phone off anyway… I will have to discuss the matter with the VM representative when I get to Best Buy.

I’m not sure if this was a bicycle or motorcycle wreck at this point. Minor Injuries Reported Following Bike Vs. Car Accident The weapon vehicle was reportedly moving at a very slow speed and the bike hit the back of the car which really confuses me as to what happened. And since the video shown with the link never showed the back of the weapon vehicle to have any impact marks (although the right side was never shown) I can only speculate. LEO have not released anything more about the wreck and the reported mode and location (cyclist hit the back of the vehicle mid-block in front of a church) makes me think that this might have been a right hook the cyclist never saw coming. You can see in the video that every space in that parking lot could be reached from the street by making a right turn. But this is just guesswork on my part.

A wreck report that has changed considerably since I first saw it last night in pre-filter. MIT scientist riding bicycle struck, killed in crash The original headline when I first saw the link was “Pedestrian struck by truck in hit-and-run crash” with the existence of a bicycle at the scene mentioned in the second paragraph. Now it’s all MIT Scientist visiting from Japan hit on a bicycle, with nothing about the actual wreck. The pictures indicate an intersection wreck, so maybe intersection protocols to avoid, and get that abysmal infrastructure fixed to prevent future wrecks. Boston streets were never intended for motor vehicle travel, I still say that motor vehicles should be forced to use pilots on foot with waving red flags front and back when driving in the old part of Boston. At the very least it would do something about the unemployment problem in MA.

Another dead cyclist in NYC, at least they aren’t using the “no criminality suspected” line (yet). Cyclist Killed By Livery Cab In Prospect Heights You would think Gothamist would have figured out by now that the driver hit the cyclist with the cab instead of apportioning all the blame to the vehicle… SWSS hit-from-behind wreck, use the protocols to avoid. There was supposedly a center bike lane in the median but I’m still trying to find out how a cyclist was supposed to get to those bike lanes other than at the beginning or end of the lanes. So bad infrastructure may have had a role to play also. More links Cyclist struck and killed near Brooklyn Museum and Fatal bicycle accident in Brooklyn The pictures from that link showed the weapon vehicle was nearly dead-center on the bike when impact occurred, which kinda places the SWSS story in jeopardy. Cyclist struck and killed by livery cab driver in Prospect Heights At least that one managed to mention the weapon vehicle had a driver. The NY Post blames the cyclist for existing Bicyclist stuck and killed after swerving in front of livery cab in Crown Heights At least in that link you get a better look at the impact site just to the left of the license plate with the skid mark from the tire lined up perfectly with the broken grill, and the tail light or rear reflector visible under the seat. Cyclist Struck, Killed By Livery Cab In Brooklyn and Bike Rider Fatally Struck by Livery Cab in Brooklyn last link Taxi Hits, Kills Bicyclist on Eastern Parkway

Salmon cyclist killed in CA. Bicyclist dies in collision with big rig in Industry There’s just not much surviving a head-on wreck with a semi. Don’t salmon to avoid, and it looks like there isn’t much bicycle infrastructure where the cyclist was hit.

The TX fund that’s supposed to take care of people injured in hit-and-run wrecks is depleted less than 5 months into the year. Injured cyclist’s family seeking donations for medical expenses

Another hit-and-run, in VT. 2 cyclists injured in Burlington hit-and-run This one appears to be caused by a driver that did not know where the edges of the vehicle extended possibly combined with under-estimating the speed of the cyclists he was passing. Other than hit-from-behind protocols there ain’t much a human cyclist can do in a wreck like this, but getting the infrastructure right would have prevented the wreck.

A MD wreck that sounds an awful lot like a hit-and-run. Carroll County Man Injured While Riding Bicycle Yeah that hitting the mailbox hard enough to knock it out of the ground doesn’t sound like a single-bike wreck. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @€, Opus

I <3 cars when they aren't on the roads, Wreck-Free Sunday

I was up past midnight watching the Sprint All-Star Race last night. I was slightly disappointed in who won as I am most emphatically NOT a Jimmy Johnson fan, but I really liked the way the race ran. There were very few wrecks, which is a testimony to the skills of the drivers involved when running for a first prize of over $1M. There was the comment made during the race that under the special rules for the race NASCAR would run as many green-white-checkers as it took to get a winner under green, or until they ran out of cars, but it didn’t get anywhere near that heated between drivers this year. The new car is very racy, but also very easy to race without running into the other driver and taking both out. Count me as happy with the new Cup car.

I was mentioning the discussion Mrs. the Poet and I were having about getting a car vs making a car. I’m on the side of the fence that you I get a better car for your my purposes if I build my own, Mrs. the Poet prefers to go to a dealer and plunk down some $$ and drive away, but she has already said that she isn’t driving no matter what kind of car we get. Also she has this fixed belief that cars “have” to have a roof and windshield. I’m not so fixated on creature comforts, but I do agree that you need to be able to bring everyone home from the grocery store with all the groceries, which the Speedway ’27 T Roadster can’t quite do. So I have been pondering a redesign of the back end of the body to provide more trunk space and also reduce the amount of lift and drag. Basically the redesign would raise the trunk lid and make the run from the opening of the cockpit to the back of the car making the back end a box with slightly rounded corners and then adding what is called a shovel spoiler to kill the lift. This also has the slight benefit of a tiny bit lower drag compared to the 1927 T turtledeck, so it’s all good, except for the additional work on the back of the body.

I currently have the Australian V8 Supercars on the tube from Austin, another highly enjoyable form of motor sport.

And my allergy pill just kicked in and I’m having tons of trouble keeping my eyes open. I’m going to stop here and take a nap…

PSA, Opus

Preparing to veg the afternoon/night away, and the Feed

And if you think that’s bad, wait until you see my TV schedule for Sunday next week. Today I just have the Sprint All Star race with all the pre-race festivities and qualifying races and hoopla starting at 1530 and running past 2200. Sunday next week we get the Grand Prix of Monaco at 0630 (ugh!!), with an hour break between the end of that race and the pre-race program for the Indianapolis 500 at 1000, then maybe an hour before the hoopla surrounding the longest race on the Sprint Cup schedule, the Coca Cola World 600 that starts (pre-race programming) at 1600. It’s an orgy of internal combustion and burnt rubber that lasts long into the night. This is where I like cars, driving in circles behind walls and sturdy fences away from pedestrians and cyclists. In fact it would be safe to say I LOVE cars under these conditions. Beyond the competition there is the engineering challenge to perform the best, using a rather rigidly enforced parameter of what constitutes “best”, under what is a tightly-controlled limit of parameters (rules). I just had a long “discussion” with Mrs. the Poet about what car I would drive on the street, and I showed her a Smart Fourtwo Passion Coupe, and the Speedway Motors ’27 T roadster kit. She has this “thing” about cars having to have a windshield and a roof, me, not so much. But this is not a car blog.

More on the anti-bike activist who killed a cyclist by driving against the flow of traffic in a bike lane, drunk. Colorado driver accused of killing cyclist had railed against them: ‘These people don’t belong’ Note to self, now that I have said that drunk drivers need to die chained to the wheel of their cars as the cars are recycled into bicycle parts I need to stop hanging out in junkyards… And Man charged with hitting, killing cyclist while driving drunk

Update on the RI cyclist killed riding in a residential area. North Providence ninth-grader killed while riding bicycle Details are still sketchy as of this posting. At this point they aren’t even saying if the cyclist was hit on the road as he was traveling along or that he just entered, so intersection protocols because it was in or near the intersection to avoid, and fix the infrastructure so you don’t have vehicles moving at deadly speeds in a residential area. That is the thing I can’t state firmly enough, this was a residential area, had been a residential area for many years (some of those houses dated back to the post-WWII era), there was no need to travel at fatal speeds except that drivers are callous and don’t care if they kill so long as they are not inconvenienced until they do kill.

More Ride of Silence links. Cyclists at Temecula Ride of Silence and Cyclist’s death sparks memorial ride safety message

A compendium of links to stories about e-assist bikes. E-Bike News: Portable Solar Charger, New Stealth E-Bikes, NYC Ban, & More [VIDEO] On the NYC e-bike ban, nobody has been killed with a bicycle or e-scooter since 2009 in the city, while 152 people died while walking or riding a bike and getting hit by a motor vehicle with a license and (supposedly) a licensed driver. Maybe they should ban the thing that actually killed more than 100 people last year instead of the thing that might, maybe some time in the future kill someone but hasn’t yet…

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus