More strange referrals, and a normal Feed

Of course “normal” is subjective, much of the stuff I get in my Feed has little or nothing to do with what is “normal” otherwise it wouldn’t be in my Feed.

Up first because it so definitvely illustrates how not normal “normal” is around here, a man in OR is hit by 2 drunk drivers and there is a possibility he was hit before that by another driver. Fatal Bike Crash in North Portland Last Night and AHS grad killed in Portland Yes, both of the drivers that were seen to have hit him were drunk, and there is some difference of opinion about how he ended up in the road where he got hit. This is another one of those that I can’t tell you what to do to avoid a similar situation because the whole situation is so bizarre as to defy understanding.

Just down the road a bit from that wreck we find this wreck. Bike rider injured in Gresham accident Apparently 3 drivers saw him and stopped while he crossed the street, but one didn’t and hit him. Again this is one of those wrecks that can’t be avoided by the cyclist because it depends on the other driver(s) obeying the law. The cyclist was obeying the law by using a crosswalk as permitted under OR laws, and the other 3 drivers were obeying the laws by yielding to someone in a crosswalk who had waited for traffic to yield, and then comes this last yahoo with no brains at all and just runs over the guy in the crosswalk. I say this calls for at least a one year loss of driver’s privileges with a mandatory written and road test for at least 5 years after the privilege is conditionally restored, with a permanent loss if he fails either test at any time. I would also put a zero wrong limit on the written test, miss any and you fail, forever.

More lawyer blather on the Greenville SC rider killed in vehicular assault. Update: Arrest Made for Greensboro Cyclist’s Hit-and-Run Death Again, why would they catch this person just to let them go? If someone had been shooting people at random on the freeway, would they have just let him go after paying a small bond, or would they lock him up and wait until trial to determine if he was innocent to protect society?

And another pedestrian is injured by a cyclist, fault not determined yet. Pedestrian hospitalized after being struck by bicyclist At this time, the mode of the wreck and even the location of the pedestrian are in dispute. The only thing that isn’t in dispute is the cyclist was not drunk or on drugs at the time of the wreck, which means that the cyclist hung around long enough to get tested.

Treehugger has a report on how cyclists get killed, and amazingly enough 70% of cyclists are following the law when they were hit. How To Get Killed On A Bicycle Of that 30% who were breaking the law, an unknown number would not have made any difference because they were already squarely in front of the driver when they were hit because the driver was looking in another direction than where they were going.

Nothing about the wreck in this update on a report linked here earlier. Burnham-On-Sea cyclist’s injuries more serious than originally thought I’m sorry that the woman was hurt badly (when is it ever good to be hurt?) but I really wish that UK media laws would allow for more information about the actual wreck.

In Portland OR an Episcopal church creates a shrine to a pre-Roman mountain Goddess that was made a Catholic saint of bicyclists, is that ecumenical or what? OREGON: Portland church dedicates shrine, space to Our Lady of the Cyclists The Lady Ghisallo’s original name has been lost to posterity, but Her followers still remember Her Spirit and honor Her.

The LA Times still doesn’t get it. Cyclists and motorists on collision course The majority of traffic laws were written for cars and don’t really apply to bicycles, but the writer expects cyclists to obey them anyway,

Philadelphia is having a hard time getting out of the car-head psychology and into complete streets. Bikers, walkers, drivers: Can’t they all get along? First, do something so that it isn’t like a jungle out there with everybody fighting for space either on the street or on the sidewalk, make a space for everybody somewhere. Then when there are spaces for everybody where those spaces intersect you will get more cooperation between users.

Some concern about the increase in the number of cyclists killed and/or injured in the UK this year. Sharp rise in number of cyclists killed on roads

Some shop owners have a hard time separating problems with infrastructure from the general downturn in the economy. Bike lane’s killed shop, says owner I loved Vancouver BC back in 1968, but I haven’t been back since then but people are people wherever you go, and some are going to blame changes they don’t like on things going wrong even if the two have nothing to do with each other.

And we finish up with a lifestyle report from Philly. Freewheelers Old people on bicycles, you gotta love it, especially since I’m (becoming) an old guy on a bicycle.

And that’s all I got today. Just a note I will not be doing posts for the next 2 Sundays, as I will be doing a non-computer gig Sunday nights. This gig is not open to the public, so don’t be looking for me, or Gigi

Billed @$.02, Opus

Another light Feed today

The conviction of the thing that walks like a man with a medical degree has sucked all the air out of the bicycle stories today. The usual “bicycle hit in middle of street, rider at fault” reporting has lost a lot of its credibility after the conviction on 2 counts of assault with a deadly weapon and many of the reports are coming back with no details aside from the collision.

Getting to the good news first are more reports on the conviction, starting with the USAToday writer eating crow after his diatribe from last week in favor of the TTTWLAMWAMD. Bicycle justice: Doctor convicted of causing road-rage accident that injured two bicyclists Notice it’s still an “accident” not an assault Second Edition Cycling News, Tuesday, November 3, 2009 For these guys the conviction was small potatoes, and placed well down the list of cycling news. I still can’t find any joy that Dr. Thompson is going to prison, I mean I feel some vindication, but I’m not happy about it. You would think that after all the times I got run off the road or hit I would be doing cartwheels over someone getting caught and punished for the deed, but even if I still had the ability to do them I don’t feel like that. The curse of being a thinking being with morals and scruples.

In other convictions, (I love typing that) a MI man that had been putting away a lot of beer gets a minimum of 20 years sentence for killing a cyclist. 20 beers nets 20 years for driver who killed teen cyclist That must have been some really cheap watered down beer for him to consume that much and only have a 0.18% BAC. That might have been a factor in the lack of judgment in getting behind the wheel with a BAC more than twice the legal limit, besides the impaired judgment that comes with BAC over .08%. As for how to avoid this wreck, you can’t and still use the roads. The driver ran a red light and hit the back end of a group ride crossing the road in front of him, making not being there the only way to avoid getting hit by a drunk driver running a red light. If you start to follow that path, you might as well stay in bed with the covers over your head. and that still won’t protect you from drunk drivers as the Queens man who was hit in his 2nd floor bedroom by a drunk driving a Lexus SUV can testify. I’m going to let you Google that one because I don’t have a valid URL for that article.

This must have been the most excitement in Anoka MN in quite a while, here it is over a week later and they’re still talking about it. Bike rider killed in Blaine identified As of this report this is a SWCC wreck, but at least we know the name of the cyclist.

Another hit-from-behind wreck in CA. Truck rear-ends bicycle, kills rider The lack of information forthcoming from LEO is a bad indication to me that something is being covered up.

More lawyer blather about the NC hit-and-run by the woman in the Dodge Durango that killed the cyclist, only this lawyer is still using the story that the cyclist was hit from behind instead of the now known cross the road to hit head on before the U-turn vehicular assault. Guilford County Hit and Run Kills Greensboro, N.C. Man I guess stories like this are the reason I don’t feel happy about TTTWLAMWAMD getting convicted, it was just a drop in a bucket, and a very large bucket at that.

It turns out the cyclist hit by the bus in Hayward was a bike ninja. Two fatalities in separate Hayward accidents Lights might have helped the bus driver see the cyclist, but coming from where he came from there was no way any reflectors would have helped. From the description of the damages to the bus, a helmet would not have helped either. When you ride after dark have lights on front and rear because you won’t always be in the headlights for a motor vehicle to see you before the wreck. And don’t drink and ride.

Another ride for someone hit by a car, but nothing being done about the cars. Ride memorializes bike-car collision victims At least the transportation department is aware of the issues and is part of the ride for the injured cyclist, even if they aren’t doing anything about cyclists getting hit in the bike lanes at the moment. But I’m really being too harsh on the transportation department, as they don’t enforce the laws they just build the roads.

Things weren’t that different at the turn of the 20^th Century. Gossip of the Cyclers, and Other News of the Wheel The big difference was there were no cars killing pedestrians and cyclists wholesale, the main source of traffic fatalities was horse drawn conveyances, and we all know how smart horses are.

Lastly someone has found a good use for bicycle helmets. Bicycle helmet saves the day — on foot My colleague at examiner.com points out that pedestrians are more likely to get head injuries than bicyclists or motorcyclists and nobody makes a fuss that they don’t wear helmets, because pedestrian head injury is rare, almost as rare as bicycle head injury.

And that’s all I got today, more later.

Billed @$.02, Opus

More on the thing that walks like a man with a medical degree, and other news In The Feed

The last 2 days have generated more traffic to this blog than I have ever seen, what with Dr. Christopher Thompson (the thing that walks like a man with a medical degree) being convicted of all 7 counts against him and BikingInLA telling me about it so I could link to their breaking story. Well that wasn’t the only story breaking in LA yesterday about people using their vehicles as weapons against cyclists.

But the big news first (other than the Blog reports) is still the conviction of TTTWLAMWAMD of 6 felonies and one misdemeanor. E.R. Doc Guilty in Road Rage Attack on Cyclists and Physician accused of deliberately injuring two bicyclists is convicted and Dr. Thompson is found guilty of all counts in LA road rage trial. and comments here Mailbag: Road rage, getting along and Floyd Landis I hope that this is just the first of many prosecutions that have previously been ignored by LEO and prosecutors for assault with motor vehicles.

Lost in the hubbub of TTTWLAMWAMD’s conviction was this tidbit. Texting Driver Guilty in Death of 14-year-old Boy He was driving under the influence of 2 powerful prescription drugs, and texting at the time he killed a cyclist, and the defense tried to make this look like an unavoidable accident due to a medical condition. I have heard some mighty weak defenses in my day, but this one is less than a kitten.

They identified the bike ninja that was hit Sunday in Austin TX. Guns, drugs found during arrest; cyclist killed on Texas 71 identified Ignore the comments unless you already have brain damage…

In the other big story of the day they finally arrested and charged the driver of the SUV that hit a cyclist head on and then made a U turn to escape. Woman charged in hit-and-run death of David Sherman and Driver charged in fatal hit-and-run of bicyclist, released on bond I love it when they publish the booking pictures of drivers that hit cyclists, they invariably look like something the cat drug in and the kittens tried to bury. From the description of the wreck released by LEO it seems this was a deliberate action on the part of the driver to try to kill or hurt a cyclist, why was she given a bond at all unless the Durango was the only vehicle she had access to. I also love that the accused’s home address was given in the article. I’m not saying to do anything bad to the person or her home, but if you happen to have a dump truck load of male bovine digestive byproduct and you need a place to get rid of it…

And in what is almost positively a cut and paste from one news source to another we have the same article from 2 very different sources. Bicyclist struck and killed by AC Transit bus in Hayward and Bicyclist Struck And Killed By AC-Transit Bus In Hayward It could be they both did the cut and paste from a press release, not one copying the other. As to the wreck I can’t tell you who was doing what from this article. Or if the cyclist was lighted and reflectorized, but since the only lights mentioned were the defective streetlights I would say the cyclist had all the legally required lights etc.

Last report if from Jolly Olde where news reports are required by law to be missing 2 Ws and the H out of the standard news reporters 5Ws and an H. Cyclist injured after Toxteth collision And people wonder why I have a tag about UK news reports.

That’s all I have tonight.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Out spending my birthday money so I’m late with the Feed

Sorry this is so late today but I had to do some shopping and bus service isn’t all that great out on this side of Dallas County TX on a weekend. As I was shopping with my wife, and she doesn’t ride a bike, we had to use public transit, which even when we caught it right as the bus/train was pulling into the stop/station still took longer to do than it would have had I been riding Gigi to do this. And because of the schedule I couldn’t do the blog post before I left as there just wasn’t the time. So, that’s why I’m late today, that annoying thing called “having a life” so interferes with doing the work

Up first for no particular reason is a report on a serious wreck between a cyclist and a minivan that ended up with the cyclist’s head stuck in the side of the minivan. Bicyclist seriously injured in accident in SW Portland OK not an avoidable wreck on the cyclist’s part from the initial report, and the driver seems to be taking total blame for this one (so far, wait until the morning for an updated report).

The first of our FL reports on a rail trail wreck. Around the Region – Sept. 19 Yeah, stop signs. You have to stop at stop signs and look to make sure your way is clear with stop signs on rail trails, because the sight lines at intersections are frequently very bad.

Another article from FL, the deadliest state in the US to ride a bike. EDITORIAL: End the driver-cyclist wars There was some lies of omission rather than commission, they mentioned the impede traffic law without mentioning the fact that when the lane is sub-standard in width the bicycle gets the lane.

Something someone sent me not in the Feed, about a DUI that hit 3 cyclists while drunk, was arrested and then was caught drunk again. Iraq War Veteran Denied Bail in DUI Bicycle Crash in Baldwin County, Alabama Finally a judge that gets it right. Why does it take so long for LEO and judges to get it?

Another cyclist is hit-and-run. Bicyclist Critically Injured In Hit-And-Run Crash And some people wonder why I have such a deep loathing against hit-and-run drivers. Well let me tell you that being a victim of hit-and-run has very little to do with it, because I hated hit-and-run long before I was a victim of one. Drivers that don’t stop to render aid are selfish, and cowardly, and of generally low intelligence. As for this wreck I’m not sure if it was a hit-from-behind or a buzz job that got too close, but the same protocol applies to either one: mirror(s), escape route, and be ready to use the escape or bail from the bike and let the bike take the hit. Or you can be a real hero and fill the seat tube with C4 and nails and use a contact detonator that requires a shock of getting hit from behind to set it off. If you’re going to die anyway you might as well get a couple licks in in retaliation.

When both the victim and the driver are over twice the BAC levels needed to convict for drunk driving, who’s at fault? The guy that fell down, or the guy that ra him over with a truck? Coroner’s jury rules Champaign jail death a suicide you have to get a ways into the article to find the bike wreck. Bottom line is neither one needed to be out that night, but the guy driving the motor vehicle was still drunk when he ran over and killed the drunk that fell off a bicycle. A sober person would have been able to avoid the cyclist laying in the road, it’s as simple as that. To avoid, don’t ride a bicycle after drinking to excess. The ironic thing is the drunk riding a bicycle would have eventually sobered up faster than the drunk driving the motor vehicle as exercise causes the body to oxidize alcohol faster than just sitting.

From the description of the wreck scene we have another hit-from-behind wreck in AZ just outside Phoenix. Police identify bicyclist hit and killed by car in Phoenix From the pictures and other descriptions of the wreck this proves my theory about the bike disabling the vehicle in a wreck, but the rider never got the chance to bail from the bike. Preliminarily I’m going to say this was not a wreck that the cyclist could have avoided, but I’m also going to say that this was a wreck the driver of the car could have avoided with less speed and more attention. I’m not sure if the driver stopped first and the bike disabled the vehicle before he stopped but not enough to make him stop just then, or if the bike disabled the vehicle enough to make him stop. But the driver did stop for whatever reason.

More on the cyclist hit by a bus in Ottawa. Ottawa Police Want to Speak To Witnesses After Cyclist Killed and a study of the wreck site including some pictures of the sightlines Crossroads where cyclist killed known as puzzling, treacherous One design flaw was a lack of a curb cut where the bike path ended and the bike lane began in the street. Dropping off a curb on a road bike is something that requires attention unless you like buying new forks and rims on a regular basis, which distracts from the job of actually driving the bike without hitting anything or getting hit. Also the sight lines were hampered by trees between the bike path and the road the bike path ended on. Another issue was the “exit ramp” design that brought the bike path parallel to the sidewalk and tapering off to nothing leaving the cyclist to cross the sidewalk before entering the road.

First of our UK reports. Cyclist injured and aside from that we know he was hit on a road…

And the other report. Cyclist killed in lorry crash identified Another possible hit-from-behind or buzz job, but we won’t know until the coroner’s court is adjourned, and unless they send a reporter to the court we still won’t know.

I’ll just let the irony sink in from the headline, I don’t need to say anything else about this. Land Rover Las Vegas to give away free bike helmets Oooohhhh!

And a severe case of blaming the victim in this article, where the deceased cyclists were all in full compliance with the laws while the drivers were drunk, or distracted, or just flat out driving in the bike lane and mowing down whatever rider was there… Bicyclists must obey traffic laws for safety of all If there had been any major wrecks that involved running that particular stop sign I could see the crackdown, but the major cause of cyclists’ deaths in Tucson is passing too close by a motor vehicle…

And that’s it for tonight, time for beddy-bye. >YAWN<

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Someone is paying attention, and the Feed

OK yesterday’s blog post ne’ rant got some interesting visitors from DC, about my suggestion for dealing with hit-and-run drivers I suppose. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t for the quality of my writing I’m still not even nominated for a Bloggy and I wouldn’t even know what category I would fall under, aside from curmudgeon with a computer.

Up first because nobody got killed and also because it had multiple reports, a woman fell off her bike in heavy (bike) traffic during Cycle Oregon. Boise Woman Injured in Bicycle Crash During Cycle Oregon South of Grants Pass and Cycle Oregon rider from Idaho seriously injured in bike crash For those interested Cycle Oregon is a lot like RAGBRAI except without the Pork Chop Man and a lot less pie. And less beer also. I leave if those are good or bad things up to you. As this was a bike v bike wreck in heavy bike traffic the only advice I can give on how to avoid is to slow down in heavy traffic to minimum balance speed, and if you ride clipless have your dominant foot unclipped to be ready to dab.

In the same area of the country comes more reports on the teacher killed in a hit-and-run in Vancouver WA. Bicyclist dead in Vancouver hit-and-run Note the huge difference in the description of the suspect in that early report and the actual perp caught in this report. Vancouver high school mourns loss of popular teacher killed in hit-and-run; suspect arrested Yep he went from his 30s to 18 in one day. I can’t say how outraged I am about this wreck, at least in polite company. To avoid the same fate standard hit-from-behind protocol might help: Mirror(s), escape route, and willingness to either use the escape route or to bail off the bike and let it take the hit. The thing is I don’t know if the cyclist had enough time between the driver moving into the bike lane and the actual collision to do any of those things, as the bike lane was on a steep hill, and the speed limit in the area (35 MPH) is mostly ignored. The speed of the driver’s vehicle in this case is not known to any degree of certainty beyond that it was in excess of the 35 limit.

On the other side of the country a student on a bicycle is killed by a motor vehicle. Student’s Death a Reminder of Need for Caution Around Bicyclists There were apparently several new laws that went into effect as the students were leaving for the summer break that LEO are now enforcing, but that still doesn’t mean that cyclists have to be any less vigilant about their own safety. Making things that are a danger to cyclists against the law will help to get reparation when broken, but unless enforced vigilantly and thoroughly will not do a great deal to protect cyclists. laws are mostly an after the fact thing, like helmets.

Another distracted driver kills a cyclist, this time in OH. Pandora bicyclist killed in crash Dunlap looked away from the roadway momentarily and his vehicle drifted across the white edge line, hitting Watkins’ bicycle. See, even if you aren’t riding on the road, you can be killed by a car. Again standard hit-from-behind protocol might have helped in this case, but I’m not sure the cyclist would have had enough time to react.

Another UK wreck report with typical UK levels of detail as mandated by the government. Cyclist killed in crash with lorry The only thing I can say about this wreck is the description of the directions of travel make me suspect either a hit-from-behind, or a left hook (UK equivalent of the right hook).

Another waste of LEO time and resources to ticket kids not wearing helmets while ignoring driver behavior that kills cyclists. Students receive fines for biking without helmets

And to wrap up a nice story about kids and freedom and growing up. Learning to ride

I might have more later, but that’s all I have now.

Billed @$.02, Opus

A sparse Feed, but it gets me out of the house

And yes I know the headline didn’t make any sense. Life seldom makes sense, but we live it anyway.

Up first today is a stupid article that celebrates a helmet that failed in use preventing the cyclist from serious injury. Helmet protects cyclist in crash from injury A helmet that breaks in 2 did not protect the user, it failed in use. Helmets protect by crushing to absorb impact, when it breaks it has absorbed no impact energy and is no longer in position to provide any protection.

Someone looking at statistics draws a stupid conclusion. Fury over ‘bicycles killed more people than terrorism’ statement in Daily Telegraph Someone looking at bike wreck stats preceding and following the bombing of the London Underground by terrorists concludes that people avoiding the Tube after the bombing died by bicycles more than the number of people killed in the bombings, which was a total fallacy. There were more people injured immediately after the bombing as thousands of people not used to commuting by bicycle suddenly began using bicycles to get around while the Tube was shut down for repairs. Interestingly enough it seems most of the people who couldn’t use the Underground to commute went to surface public transit or they rode bicycles, as the number of car wrecks did not change appreciably after the bombing.

Also from the UK is a hit-and-run against a cyclist by a student driver out without an adult in the car. Cyclist injured in Bounds Green Road crash Not your typical UK wreck story, it actually gave some information about who might be at fault in the wreck, but it still didn’t give any information about how to avoid the wreck.

And the final story for this Saturday is about handcyclists that rode the RAAM and came in under the time limit. Handcycling team completes a record 3,000-mile race across the U.S. My examiner.com colleague from NY wrote a good story about people suffering horribly for their sport. They can suffer all they want, you won’t catch me riding 500 miles in one day

And that’s all I have today. I have a funeral to attend, one of my friends died yesterday and we are going to memorialize him tonight. I will have to help set up the church for the service so I have to leave shortly after lunch to do it.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Late post, but lots in the Feed

I’m sorry this post is so late, I had family matters to tend to before blogging. Things like grocery shopping, co-ed showering, getting my bum leg massaged, silly things like that. But I’m finished with that now, so here’s the Feed.

We got another update on the right hook wreck in Baltimore. Attorney: Video of collision that killed cyclist shows truck at fault The report is that the video (which I can’t see for some technical reason) clearly shows the box van passing the cyclist and then before clearing the cyclist making a right turn without signaling, not that the cyclist could have SEEN the signal. This is one of those wrecks that is totally and utterly impossible to avoid without advanced skills in ESP. You would have to know what the truck was going to do before it got there. Comments section, some people were making comments about a completely different wreck.

While we are in the area, LEO are trying to identify a cyclist. Police seek identity of injured bicyclist If you’re missing a ho’ and your name is Bishop, she be at the hospital cause someone ganked her on her bike. For the rest of you, if this woman’s description is familiar contact LEO using the information from the article.

The condition of the only survivor of that 3 bicycle crash in KY still in the hospital has been upgraded. Toddler’s condition improved since Radcliff collision I’m very happy to see that the young’un will survive and will probably make a full recovery, someday. I’m incensed that the person that killed his uncle and almost killed his father and aunt was simply not paying attention to 3 bicycles on the road in front of him and just plowed them down like they were so many bowling pins.

Another bike wreck in Galloway NJ. Bicyclist, 16, hit by car It turns out the initial report on the previous wreck was inaccurate, the kid in that one did not run the stop sign but was hit by a drunk driver. This one is a SWSS, at least it is now, what the tox screen shows may change that. And also add another charge of lying to the LEO that took the initial report. I would call this another hit-from-behind, and the usual advice for hit-from-behind wrecks applies.

More than one report on this wreck of someone doing tricks on a BMX bike. Police: Bike Trick Rider Hit, Killed By Car and Red Bud bicyclist killed when hit by car Really what can I say about this one? I have nothing against trick riding on a BMX bike, just that there are a time and place for everything.

The most deadly state in the US for cyclists takes another one. Bicyclist Killed In Crash Nothing more to say on this one unless there is an update with more on how the wreck happened.

Another drive-by shooting of a cyclist, this time in Canadia. Low-rider Honda Civic sought in city’s latest murder probe What I don’t understand is why use a gun, when they could just hit the guy with the car and claim he swerved in front of them. Cops believe that kind of “stuff”. I hope they find the shooter and accomplices and leave them in jail until the flesh falls from their bones.

Another cyclist is hit in Jolly Olde. Cyclist seriously injured in collision

And yet another one, and I still can’t tell you what to do to avoid the wreck except not to live in the UK. Cyclist injured in Amersham collision

And even more bicycle bloodshed in the UK. Ware cyclist killed in collision This location (A414) is a common search term for this blog, it is a popular cycling route and frequently shows up in wreck reports.

A very strange story that happened to involve a bicycle. Man arrested after riding bicycle with 3-foot-long alligator on his shoulders What he was planning on doing with a 3 foot ‘gator one can only surmise, perhaps alligator gumbo?

An injured cyclist in CO is not forgotten. Fundraisers planned for injured cyclist If you can make any of these the Poet says “Do it”.

A painfully “fun” time. Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb While this is technically a race, for most of the entrants it’s a test of survival. Thus it still falls under the “non-racing” part of the blog description.

Cycling for another cause. Biking ministers promote personal lifestyle changes While I don’t endorse their religion, I do support their cause.

And finally, my colleague in Tulsa for examiner.com has instructions on how to buy a real bicycle in his city, not a BSO from Wally World or other Big Box retailer. Cycling 101: Where can I buy a bicycle in Tulsa? If you live in OK this guy knows what’s up.

And that’s everything, all done.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Two days of a light Feed at once

For those of you who didn’t read down first, I didn’t do a report yesterday because I was doing some mods to Gigi to enlarge her cargo capacity over her previous water bottle, patch kit, and light lunch, to a pair of motorcycle saddlebags that will carry some groceries, or all the clothing I need for a weekend camping trip plus personal food for 3 days. In the process I had to change the mounting of the Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm from chopper style low on the left side to a high center mount. It was time to change the mount anyway as I discovered when I pulled the old mounting bracket off and found a crack running from one hole to less than a millimeter from the edge of the mount. I don’t think the taillight would have fallen off had the crack continued to propagate, but it might have pointed in the wrong direction. I also had to attend the public meeting of the NCTCOG, the people that decide how state and federal dollars are spent for infrastructure and environmental projects in the area. Public meetings are where we get to have our say in what needs to be done, and my voice is finally being listened to. Persistence pays off in the long run. This really deserves a separate report that I haven’t even finished reading all the data for yet.

Up first from the Feed is a report on some really bad infrastructure that damaged a bike and injured the rider. Cyclist injured in crash at road work site There was a road cut that was not marked and caused an unsuspecting cyclist to blow a front tire and crash. Personal experience tells me that even a low tire will cause a crash if it’s on the front, a front blowout is a crash the first time the rider has to move the handlebars to keep the bike under him or her, like within a few feet of whatever caused the blowout.

Officials have now decided that the man killed Friday at a train crossing was not suicidal but may have thought the crossing gates had malfunctioned. Bicyclist killed by Caltrain identified as 38-year-old San Jose man There were 2 trains crossing the road at nearly the same time on separate tracks, and the rider did not see or hear the second train, the one that hit him, as he was fixated on the first train. The moral here is to wait until the crossing gates go back up before crossing the tracks.

More reports on the man killed in Mankato MN. Prior Lake bicyclist killed when struck by car and Authorities ID bicyclist killed in Mankato Nothing more to add to this that I haven’t posted before.

A cyclist is injured in a possible right hook. Bicyclist injured in accident on Broadway in Saratoga Always be ready to stop when being passed and there is an entrance or intersection coming up, but this wreck is the fault of the driver that failed to complete the pass before making the right turn in front of the cyclist.

An impatient driver hits a cyclist at an intersection. Bicyclist injured at Woodley & Division The cyclist and driver both stopped at their stop signs and then the cyclist proceeded in the crosswalk, when the driver pulled forward and hit the cyclist. And LEO are saying the cyclist was at fault for riding in the crosswalk…

A bike ninja gets hit in the rear wheel. Teen on bicycle hit by car He almost made it. Moral of the story is don’t be a bike ninja unless you have the speed and traffic skills to pull it off, and this guy didn’t have those skills or the speed.

A bike-v-bike wreck in Canuckistan. Cyclists injured in head-on bike path collision The moral here is to slow down to a speed that lets you keep to your side of the bike path around turns, especially turns that you can’t see if there is traffic coming the other way.

A cyclist is injured in a hit-and-run in Jolly Olde. Cyclist injured in hit and run in Hatfield Not much to say here except the driver may not have even known he or she hit someone, this appears to be one of those “soft” wrecks that are very quiet. And because it is a UK report there is nothing on the actual mechanism of the wreck so I can tell you how to not be in a similar wreck.

Infrastructure, we have lots of infrastructure reports. Lots of people are concerned with and about infrastructure. A Safety Move That Cyclists Call a Menace This report details changes made to roads that make them unusable by cyclists, kind of like the boulderseal used in Collin County when a road gets too popular with cyclists. In the NY case it was aggressive rumble strips on the shoulders, in Collin County it’s a chipseal done with excessively large aggregate that makes a road unridable without wide tires, like 4″ wide or wider. The vibration caused by the large aggregate increases rolling resistance and also causes vision issues and mechanical problems. The rumble strips have caused at least one injury crash, and remove a large portion of the shoulder as a safe place to ride, forcing cyclists into the main travel lane where cars travel at speeds in excess of the 55MPH posted limits.

An off-road infrastructure problem is settled between the horsey set and MTB riders. Bike, horse riders agree to share paths at Oconee’s Heritage park The bike riders don’t get much from this “compromise” except the “right” to build their own trails like they already have, but not where the horsey people want to ride.

And a different kind of infrastructure as other media discover that there is a safe passing bill waiting Rick Perry’s signature here in TX. Bill before Gov. Perry aims to help drivers, cyclists share the road The comments section is worth ever penny you pay to read it. XP

And that is everything thus far, more if I feel like posting wrecks, but there will be a report on the NCTCOG meeting last night.

Billed @$.02, Opus

OK I’m awake! Stop sending me articles about dead and injured cyclists

After yesterday’s huge Feed I had another large Feed this morning that had to be waded through and edited for content. Just so you know I don’t edit the web pages, I just choose which ones to link to. At least I don’t have more than 40 links that had to be viewed and either picked or discarded like yesterday. I can actually see a letter in the window labels in the System Tray. One letter per window with only lower case letters completely in view And that was after discarding more than half of the links because they only had a passing relation to bicycles, including a boxer that died from head trauma sustained in a fight who used to be famous for “getting on his bicycle” in the ring. Automated searches of online news reports is very thorough and also very stupid, which is why it requires a human being to make the actual judgment call of what to link in this blog. After all if it was easy then someone else would have been doing it sooner, right?

Up first in no particular order today is a report on a cyclist that tried to left hook a car. Bicyclist injured I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if you’re reading this you probably have a little bit of patience and would wait until oncoming traffic had cleared before making a left turn.

Another report on the Utah man sentenced to only 30 days in jail for assaulting cyclists with a deadly weapon. Kamas man gets 30 days in bicycle case I think I might have mistakenly reported the perp as being from Kansas instead of the UT town of Kamas in yesterday’s post so you can see I was already starting to get a little loopy from all the carnage and mayhem I had seen up to that point.

Another cyclist is hit in Chattanooga, found guilty of riding a bicycle. Chattanooga: Bicycle rider hit by car on Broad Street Right now I wouldn’t believe anything LEO in that city had to say, seriously. After that disgraceful incident where the cyclist was hit from behind and LEO refused to even write a ticket for failing to give 3 foot of clearance as per the law in TN, well Chattanooga PD could claim the sky is blue and the sun rises in the east and I wouldn’t believe them without additional expert witnesses brought in from outside the PD and photographic evidence. But assuming that the report in this case was factual, don’t drink and ride. You really need your wits about you to avoid all the people that turn their brains off when the get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

They found the big rig driver that hit the cyclist in LA and it turns out he did know he hit the cyclist, and also tried to hide the evidence. Truck driver arrested in hit-run fatality OK he’s lost his CDL for life for trying to cover up the wreck, when he would have been absolved of the wreck had he just remained on the scene. This is a clear case of DWS, driving while stupid. The roads will be safer when he is no longer driving a big rig on the highways.

A mountain biker gets injured out in the woods and rescuers have a heck of a time finding him even though he can’t move and is wearing a personal locater beacon. Injured mountain biker rescued from Henry Coe Park OK this is a bad one, the rider was wearing proper protective gear and crashed a little more than 2 miles from the trailhead, had a radio beacon to help people find him, had a buddy to take care of him until trained help arrived, did all the right things and it still took rescuers hours to find them. Sometimes terrain is just too much for your experience level, or for anybody’s experience level.

Another car left hooks a cyclist, cyclist ticketed. Car-bike accident sends boy to hospital I’m not 100% up on all 50 states’ cycling laws, so I can’t say they shouldn’t have ticketed the cyclist. In TX they shouldn’t have, but that wasn’t in TX…

CO appears to be passing a passing law to protect cyclists. Meyer: Bicyclists closer to being protected Hopefully the law will be better enforced in CO than it is in TN.

And in the vein of laws not being enforced we have this report. Hit a cyclist? No problem! What would be a $400 ticket when nobody was there to be hit was no problem when a cyclist is hit and injured (cyclists are almost always injured when hit by motor vehicles, I should have a macro for that ). Once again LEO is disregarding the reason for the no right turn sign at that intersection in the first place. Would it kill them to write a ticket, would it kill us if they don’t? Well so far nobody has died there yet, but given enough time and lax enforcement somebody will die.

And yet another incident where laws were not enforced at the expense of and for cyclists/ SUV + Bicycle Incident Leaves All Parties Not-Guilty Yep the driver ran over bicycles parked in front of his vehicle and left the scene and no charges were filed in spite of the fact that there were people on those bicycles and he was trying to injure them with his vehicle. Assault with a deadly with intent and because he has a car and they were on bicycles he gets a pass. TANJ!

And in some good news someone has invented a scooter for amputees that rides much like a bike and allows more range of motion and better exercise for the patient. The GlideCycle: First Production Run Next Month This is more a scooter with a suspension harness than a bicycle, but having gone through painful rehab when I had both legs to work with anything that makes getting exercise easier for the physically challenged is great in my book, or in this case, blog. The foot hanging backwards on the harness is a little creepy though, you would think they could have found a better place or a better way to store the prosthetic limb during the rehab session. And what happens if there’s a wreck, or the rider just falls down? How does a person with only one leg and strapped into a harness stand the bike back up? Obviously this is not intended for solo rehab but for riding in a group with people that can help in case of incident. I can just see the first one of these that gets hit by an SUV… The first 9 figure personal injury lawsuit…

And I’m done for today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

A huge Feed but not much to show for it

The Feed was huge this morning, and most of the stories were bicycle related, but almost none made this blog. Why? Well, about half were about the Tour of California, and there are blogs that are dedicated to that kind of stuff which makes me including articles about the ToC redundant. There was also an article about a 50 something woman who is still riding BMX competitively, but in age group competition now. This is not that kind of blog either, but if you want to Google the article it’s pretty interesting.

What I do have is a motor vehicle failing to pass a cyclist safely resulting in the cyclist getting side swiped and also blamed for the wreck. Osceola teen bicyclist injured in Ash Road crash Some things just don’t make any sense. Why does the victim’s vehicle being a bicycle suddenly change all the laws regarding safe passing?

And in some nifty infrastructure news, a bike/ped/wheelchair accessible crossing bridge has been placed over an Interstate highway that was basically a wall between two neighborhoods. Classy new crossing Shopping, recreation and jobs on one side of the wall are now connected to residential development on the other side. “And there was great rejoicing!”

Well that’s it. If you still want your ToC news there is always Velonews for live coverage Velonews Interactive or Fat Cyclist Fat Cyclist, Heavyweight Horsepower Drop a few bucks into Fatty’s PayPal for his Livestrong Team Fatty.

Billed @$.02, Opus