Getting an early start, the Feed

I’m up early today, not because of the heat but because I have a meeting early this evening and I need several hours of decompression between composing the blog post and the meeting. I’m a member of the Faith Development Council at my church, which develops the calendar, creates themes for services and assigns ritualists to services. We do this because as Pagans many of us walk spiritual paths that dictate everyone is a priest or priestess, and depending on that path either can or must lead public services. To enable that we have a program that trains people in how to perform public rituals and services, and provides tools and templates to create sermons and homilies. Some of our ritualists are improvisationalists, making a broad outline of their service that they refer to from time to time but then let the service take them where it goes, others write out every word and gesture ahead of time and rehearse until it goes like clockwork. I’m in between the two, I work with a script but I have had to create a service from scratch as I went because Coyote blew all my plans to Niffleheim. My last April Fools’ service was an example of that, I was using children in the service and at the last minute all the children decided they didn’t want to do anything remotely like what I had planned (all-clown circus). I had a service that depended on a video tape to set the scene of the service (I was planning on the classic Daffy Duck short “Duck Amuck”) when the VCR decided it was through talking to the TV… well you get the idea. Anyway, this meeting is very important to the proper administration of the church and I need to be in the proper frame of mind to perform my duties, so I got the early start for this post.

Up first is a wreck where a driver hit 3 cyclists from behind outside Portland OR. Cyclist dies, 2 others injured after struck by pickup in rural Washington County and One bicyclist dead, two injured in North Plains crash more Cyclist hit, killed in accident was expecting first child, family says also Cyclist struck in Washington County dies Good Samaritan helps injured cyclists after crash another one Washington County Sheriff’s Office urges bicyclists and motorists to use caution following fatal crash near North Plains and BikePortland.org’s report Serious injuries in bike/truck crash on West Union near North Plains – Updated Of the pictures I saw of bikes at the scene only one picture showed a bike front-lighted instead of back-lighted, the picture of the bike trapped upright under the front bumper of the truck directly in front of the driver. I didn’t see any headlights but headlights would have had no bearing on this wreck, rear reflectors or lights might have, but I couldn’t tell if there were any rear lights or reflectors installed on the bikes I could see. Those bikes that were lighted properly in the pictures were too badly damaged to know if there was a light or reflector installed, and the bikes that were not so badly damaged were not lighted to be able to tell if they had a reflector or light prior to the wreck. This is one of the issues with bike wrecks, because of the many different ways and locations where lights and reflectors are mounted it is hard to tell if a bike was equipped with a tail light or reflector prior to a wreck when the bike is in tiny pieces over a large area after the wreck. In my wreck the headlight went sailing off into the countryside, the tail light was smashed but the bracket was still there where it had been installed. In other wrecks I have seen that it was known the bicycle was equipped with both lights and reflectors you couldn’t have proved it with a post-wreck analysis of the debris. At any rate when a driver hits 3 vehicles from behind at the same time the driver was not watching where he was going or driving too fast for his headlights, reaction time and brakes. Hit-from-behind protocols apply in this wreck, with emphasis on making the bikes visible from behind. I know not everyone wants to sport the 18 LED Honkin’ Huge Tailight, but there are smaller versions, and the Planet Bike 1W rear light is a daylight-visible rear light solution for 95% of the bikes out on the roads. I have seen a 3W version of that light that is painfully bright even in daylight, a driver would have to be blind to miss that.

More on the wreck in the previous paragraph plus another wreck that happened the day earlier. Rash Of Motor Vehicle, Bicycle Collisions Hit Oregon I still don’t know what happened in the logging truck wreck, with the directions of travel or the lane positions of either vehicle, all I know is the truck and the bike came together and the cyclist was killed.

Closer to home a cyclist in Beaumont is killed by a drunk driver. Update: Cyclist dead after wreck; driver arrested on intoxication manslaughter charge As near as I can tell from the two reports on this link the cyclist was either hit from behind by the drunk driver which would imply that hit-from-behind protocols might have helped, or the drunk driver hit the cyclist head on in the cyclist’s lane of travel which would not have been a wreck that a cyclist could avoid. I’m going to go with hit-from-behind as the higher probability scenario in this case.

Another wreck in the Pacific Northwest, this time a SWCC. Cyclist badly hurt after being struck by vehicle in Renton Another case where a LEO hears hoofbeats and thinks zebras instead of horses. Mid-block wreck and the LEO assumes the cyclist was crossing either because of bias or because the driver that hit the cyclist told him he was “crossing”. It may have happened that way, but I don’t put high probability on it.

And that is actually all the useful bicycle links I have for today…

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Well, this more than makes up for the small Feeds

I opened the Feed folder in my e-mail to a deluge of links. Granted not all of them are links to bicycle stories, but I have to read the link to make sure it isn’t about bicycles and that takes time. Frequently even on links that have nothing to do with bicycles or cycling, the writer uses the words “bicycle” or “cycling” or “cyclist” as a metaphor to describe something else, and I have to read the link to figure out what the connection is when there isn’t any.

Up first is an update on the cyclist hit by a teen-ager driving her truck on the wrong side of the road. Charges filed against teen in fatal bike accident from last year and Teen who hit and killed bicyclist in Magna charged Yes, hit and kill a cyclist riding legally on the opposite side of the road and you could be facing a serious misdemeanor charge and facing a large fine.

While we are on the subject of really old stories getting updated, they finally got around to taking care of the driver that hit a FL cyclist from behind on the shoulder of the road. Police Beat: License suspended for man in cross-country cyclist’s death They took his license for 6 months for killing a cyclist that wasn’t on the road. And people wonder why FL is the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bicycle? (And for new readers, I know “most deadliest” is redundant. I just needed something more for a state that has 8% of the total bike fatalities in the entire country within just 3 counties, with 16% of the US total in that single state.)

In WI a Green Bay cyclist is hit mid-block (presumably from behind) and left for dead. Police report cyclist killed in Green Bay I have a solution for this, treat hit-and-run as a crime instead of as an “accident”. In TX hit-and-run is a felony, albeit the most minor form of felony, but a death that happens as a result of a felony can be treated as Capital Murder (1^st degree Murder in most other states) and the driver would then be eligible for the death penalty. I have only seen this used once, in a case where a repeat DUI Hispanic hit a church bus full of white people and killed several (not everybody, but more than one person in the van) and left the scene in his vehicle only to pass out and ground the car on a curb a few hundred yards up the road. That driver is currently serving consecutive life terms, but I have seen similar wrecks where the drunk driver was either white or rich that much more lenient charges were filed, where a casual observer could not discern a difference in the mechanics of the wrecks other than the race or financial status of the perpetrators. We have the tools in place in TX, getting prosecutors to actually use those tools every time they apply is the next step.

From our nation’s capitol, a cyclist gets the “door prize” and survives, only to get a run-around when trying to get the driver’s insurance information from the cop that handled the report. Morning Notes You might want to click on the links in the report.

Speaking of the “door prize” former framebuilder Dave Moulton comments on placing bike lanes in the danger zone of parked cars. Re: “Cyclists getting a bike lane along Chapel Street”

From West Canuckistan comes more information on that cyclist hit from behind on Canada 1. Cyclist dies riding in middle of road Interesting that all those other drivers could clearly see the cyclist and change lanes to avoid hitting him, but they blame the cyclist when the guy that didn’t see him ran him over. It is also noted in the article that it is in fact legal to ride on the shoulder on that stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway, but nothing on the condition of that shoulder. I’m not condoning riding in the middle of a freeway except to avoid debris in the shoulder that makes the shoulder unsafe to ride a bicycle, and as I posted yesterday on this story, when you ride on a major highway at night you need to have really bright lights that cover a large area, and reflectors are not sufficient on high-speed highways. The TX legal minimum is visible in low-beams at a distance of 300 feet, at 60 MPH (88 fps) it normally takes a car about 250 feet to stop, leaving 50 feet to identify and react to needing to stop or about a half a second. The problem is identifying a red light as an immobile or slow-moving object that needs to be avoided takes about 3 seconds at night which uses up 264 feet of that 300 leaving a minus 200 feet of clearance after stopping. The TX 300 foot visibility standard works for urban environments where travel speeds are more in the 30-35 MPH range. I’ll put a paragraph at the bottom of my blog post that will expound upon this issue.

From NYC infrastructure news that NYPD is writing tickets for minor technical violations while ignoring the riders everyone is complaining about that are actually dangerous to themselves and pedestrians. NYPD Bicyclist Crackdown Hits Wrong Target, Critics Say They ticket the guys riding without helmets (not illegal for adults), they ticket people riding during the day without reflectors (not illegal during daylight hours), they ticket people riding bicycles turning right on red, but they ignore drivers turning right on red, they ignore people riding on the siedwalks, they ignore people riding the wrong way on the street… in other words they go after the easy to catch people and ignore the ones that are being a danger to the public.

Reflectors and taillights, what is “enough” and what should the legal minimums be? As long-time readers know I used to build and sell a modified LED car taillight called the “Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm” until the light I started from went out of production. This light had 18 LEDs in an elliptical array that put out light over a broad area and was as legally bright as a motor vehicle taillight could be without brakes being applied, and there was a high-power setting I could have used that was as bright as legally permitted for brake lights. I did sell one light that used the high-power option, but the burn time at that setting was too low for my tastes for a system that only had room for a 1.3Ah SLA battery. If I had used this light with a separate battery with a larger capacity for a longer burn time I might have been more amenable to using the high-power setting, bt I didn’t have that option. Now, as I posted in the paragraph about the Canadian rider getting hit from behind what is legal may not be what is safe. And a major portion of the problem is that bike lights and reflectors are regulated at the federal level but enforced at the state and (mostly) local level, and that enforcement varies from state to state. In TX you need a reflector that can be seen at 300 feet in low-beams, but you are allowed a light that has the same visibility. Some states don’t allow the light, but in the real world will not prosecute if that is all you have (except for LEO that are assholes, unfortunately). There are no states at the time of this posting that have a maximum light output or visibility limit on taillights, so long as there is a reflector that meets the minimum requirement, which opens up the use of bike lights that would be too bright to use as motor vehicle lighting. The problem then becomes how much is “enough” light? One of my early experiments had lights that could be seen for more than 1/4 mile behind me, but were very directional in that if you were outside the beam cast by the taillight you could only see the light about 100 feet away or less, if the LED was not in direct line of sight and you had to depend on the scatter from the optics of the light to be able to see it. But because this light used so little power and you could (literally) stick them anywhere on the bike this was a very popular light. Can’t see the light from the side? Stick another one on the side! I had 12 of these units on various parts of my bike running off a single switched battery with a burn time of about 14 hours with everything running at full power, and about 20 hours with the side markers run at half power to conserve juice. What made this system impractical was the amount of wiring needed to get power to all those sealed units. I literally ran about a pound of copper getting current to all the lights on the bike, plus the weight of the battery and switches. And what did I get? At 1300 feet a driver doing 60 MPH would have just enough time to see and identify my bike as a slow-moving object on the road and come to a stop if there wasn’t enough room to pass safely, or a bare minimum system for riding at night in the country. There are reflectors for big rigs that have that kind of performance, but they aren’t being sold for bicycle mounting yet and you need to be talented to mount one on a bike. Kinda like what I had to do to make the Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm.

And that’s all the news that gave me fits.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

I feel like the proverbial decapitated chicken, and the Feed

Yesterday was a busy one for me, what with 2 services to give at church, Father’s Day greeting to call, basking in the adulation of my adoring children (snort), and just the regular day-to-day needs to sustain life. About the only thing I didn’t do yesterday was to spend hours pouring over the Feed to find stories and filter out reports that had nothing to do with bicycles. That I saved until this morning.

Up first because something had to be is a report from Hawaii about a cyclist that got hit twice just crossing the road with the light. Double Collision Kills Cyclist The first collision was with someone that didn’t pass with enough clearance and them left the scene. From the report it is very hard to determine what the mode of wreck was in the first wreck, the second was the kind that can’t be avoided by a cyclist. Once you get knocked off the bike, the only way to avoid additional collisions is to get out of the road, if possible. Because of the injuries suffered in the second collision it was impossible to determine if the cyclist could have gotten off the road had there been enough time after the first wreck. The question in this case would have been, “Had the cyclist been conscious, could he have removed himself from the road?”

Moving east, a cyclist in Lodi CA is hit by a motorcyclist. Unidentified cyclist dies; congregation prays as pastor remains hospitalized Lights and reflectors, people, if you’re going to ride Ninja, then you have to act like you’re invisible and avoid placing yourself in conflict with other road users, otherwise you have to ride with lights and reflectors and make yourself as conspicuous as possible at night. Insert the usual plug for the Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm. Also insert plug for RoadID from the bikejournal.com store, or a set of dogtags from your local Army surplus store if you don’t have the $$ for RoadID.

From Jolly Olde, the relatives of a dead cyclist are denied justice because the driver of a bus claimed to be checking his mirrors to pull over when he hit the cyclist. Family of cyclist killed by bus driver’s carelessness see him walk free That’s right, there is a loophole in the law big enough to drive a semi through, or in this case a city bus. All you have to do is claim you were looking some other place to which you wanted to go instead of where you were actually going to escape punishment for killing a cyclist. Well not completely escape punishment, in this case the bus driver lost his job as a driver, and also faces 18 months without a license.

And our last report is from Israel. Cyclist, son of retired supreme court justice, killed in hit-and-run accident He wasn’t just the son of a SC Justice, he was also the grandson of a SC Justice. The mode of wreck was hit-from-behind, with a car failing to move far enough over to clear the cyclist when passing, the cyclist being on the back side of a group that some members did not know he had been hit until other cars were honking at them about the cyclist in the road behind them. The driver was careless and criminal. I only hope that Israeli courts are less car-head than US or UK courts.

And that’s it for today, no lifestyle or infrastructure reports or anything else decipherable about cyclists in the Feed. There was one report from Kenya that used some English words and proper grammar, but their vocabulary and mine did not mesh enough that I could figure out what was going on except that something hit someone riding some kind of 2-wheeled conveyance. DC, cyclists killed in road accidents At first I thought the comma was a typo, but I have no idea what a DC is in Kenya.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Working my Father’s Day wish list

I’ll be lucky to get lunch for Father’s Day, but should any of my children be interested in getting me something I need (really) there are a few things from a few web sites I could use.

From the top, the free flashlight I got burns through AAA batteries at an alarming rate, I need to get some rechargeables or something. The unit was designed originally to use a 18500 lithium cell but to do that I’ll need a compatible charger that won’t burn up the cell. Now if that’s too much $$ for you kids, then I guess this charger and batteries set might be more palatable for you, plus it’s available locally, pre-pay and I can pick it up on the bike.

Speaking of picking up stuff on the bike, I’m sorely lacking in cargo capacity with the Blue Bike. a set of panniers that can carry a gallon of milk in a single jug without needing 2 people to close them would be very handy come grocery shopping day, and will take the load off Mom’s back. If you remember that was Gigi’s original purpose (as well as the source of her name). These are also locally sourced and can be picked up with the bike.

For the near ultimate in forward lighting HA-III Cree SSC P7-C (SXO) 3-Mode 900-Lumen LED Headlamp Set (4*18650 included) will keep me from hitting the cracks and potholes, not to mention cars and trucks that “didn’t see me”. If they can’t see 900 lumens, they need to stay off the roads.

It’s not a Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm but it fits the bike and is unmistakable as a taillight .

To unmistakenly signal my intentions after sundown I need to make my hand signals visible with these reflective wrist bands with blinky LEDs.

Speaking of signalling technically you have to install a bell on your bike. It might as well be in a color that’s close to the color of the bike.

I know this list is very heavy on bike stuff, but most of my bike gear was on Gigi when she was stolen, and I need to replace it somehow. So, kids now you know what I need. Not everything that I want, but it covers what I really need the worst.

PSA, Opus

I hate Spribg, and other pollen-addled observations, plus the Feed

I’m just barely functional right now because of pollen counts and composition, but we’re plugging along and giving you the bicycle news that doesn’t give me fits.

Up first because something had to be and I don’t have any other stories from North America, is a SWSS report from Holland MI. Police identify 53-year-old bicyclist critically injured in Holland crash I have a deep distrust of this report because of the driver’s age and the cyclist’s age. The cyclist was old enough to be experienced as a road cyclist, and the driver has less than 2 years driving experience and may have been distracted from the road by something. If some of you are signed in with this website please leave a comment about that. My account with them seems to have evaporated.

From Jolly Olde, police have found the vehicle involved in a hit-and-run assault with a deadly weapon and arrested the driver, but not in that order. Police find car in Leighton cyclist death crash I applaud the LEO who found the killer and the death weapon and are bringing him to justice.

Still in Jolly Olde a cyclist was hit on a main road. Cyclist killed on A55 in Ewloe

More on the bike ninja killed by being run over multiple times after getting hit by a horse carrier. Cyclist killed in collision with horse box Lights people! They don’t cost much to buy, there are many inexpensive ones at your LBS, and if you like the DIY thing there are many instructions at Instructables.com that can give you hours of enjoyment. I built my own from motor vehicle lights and tracklighting and plumbing supplies that work quite well, if they look a little kludgy that is just part of their appeal.

In Guyana a cyclist is killed on the roads. Cyclist killed in accident with vehicle Not much to say here, similar laws to the UK, but from what they could say it appears the cyclist violated the right of way by leaving a restaurant without waiting for traffic to clear.

First of several reports from Oz, a cyclist is hit from behind on a high speed road. Cyclist killed after colliding with a car in Wallasey I sharply disagree with the headline, the bicycle did not collide with the car it was struck from behind by the car, get the facts straight.

More on the multiple bikes-hit-by-truck wreck near (in?) Sydney. Cyclist killed on the M4 and Group calls for motorway barrier after cyclist killed aslo Truck company probed over Sydney cyclist deaths From the article this isn’t the first time this particular company has had problems with other road users, and there is a question of practices at the company that compromise safety.

And that’s it for the wrecks. From Portland we have another story on the moving of the Tracey Sparling ghost bike to a permanent bicycle shrine. Ghost Bike Memorial The service for her and the rest of the cyclists killed in Portland is scheduled to begin shortly after this post gets published, if you’re local you can probably just make it if you get off the computer now.

And that’s all I have today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

What a wretched mess, the Feed

I hope you’ll pardon the florid language of the headline, but I did use to be a poet before the wreck and I still like to turn the artistic phrase now and then. I drive the proofreader crazy with my sentence construction sometimes, but hang in there, it will all make sense in the end.

Speaking of making sense, it wasn’t until I read the article that I could make sense of the headline for this report. Bicyclist collides with student leaving Spanish Springs High and is seriously injured From the headline you would think that the cyclist hit a pedestrian leaving the school and was at fault, but when you get down into the meat of the article you find the student was driving his car leaving the parking lot and violated the cyclist’s right of way causing the cyclist to hit the car. This is an example of bias in the media.

Down the road a bit from WoaB World Headquarters there was a wreck just north of Waco. Man hit by car, smashes into windshield Not enough details in this report to say what happened beyond the collision and the parts of the car the cyclist damaged with his body.

Updating a wreck reported on here earlier in the week, the driver was on 3 different prescription narcotics when he hit a cyclist from behind. Largo man charged with DUI in accident that injured bicyclist As reported in the article, the man had just been released from jail on burglary charges when he hit the cyclist. In my book that makes the guy a sociopath, but I’m not qualified to diagnose mental illness… As for what you can do to avoid the same situation, all I can suggest is to click on the page link at the top of my blog for accident avoidance protocols and read.

A wreck that was the fault of the deceased cyclist but became a criminal case after the driver left the scene. Police look for truck in crash that killed bicyclist and Deadly Hit & Run Note to drivers, STAY AT THE SCENE OF A WRECK! If the driver had remained at the scene this would have been a not-at-fault wreck, but since he (?) left this now becomes a felony case of hit-and-run. He went from something that might have caused his insurance to go up a couple of bucks a year for a couple of years to facing prison time.

Another Mensa candidate fails the test in CT. Bicyclist Killed In Hit-And-Run The driver was found removing his expensive rims from his car prior to it being towed, so I can’t say he was too stupid. He did recognize that his rims would have been stolen from the impound lot so why not take them off first. Now if only he had been so forward-looking before the wreck, there might not have been a wreck.

Another hit-from-behind wreck in MI. Cyclist killed in Monroe County I’m not sure of the type of road on this one, the comments imply that this was a limited access highway that was prohibited to bicycles even though that was not mentioned in the article. What was obvious was the driver did not expect to find a bicycle in front of him, and regardless of the amount of lighting the cyclist did or did not have the driver did not see the cyclist in time to avoid hitting him. That’s why I have the Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm, so that I can be seen as something that would hurt the other vehicle should I get hit. That makes drivers avoid me at night.

Update on the kid that ran into a LANTA bus: the bike was brand-new and the brakes didn’t work. Police checking bike’s brakes It appears the bike was prepped for stunts, not for street riding, or the bike was just not assembled properly at the store. If this was a BSO from a big-box retailer then it could have been just pulled from the box it was shipped from China in and placed on the sales floor without adjustments.

A very drunk driver in Oz awaits his fate. Driver awaits judges ruling I’m sorry but a .12 BAC is Very Drunk, not “mid-range“. The driver deserves a long stretch in the slammer after killing a cyclist. He was still at .12 after sleeping for at least 8 hours since his last drink, can you imagine how sloshed he must have been when he left the party?

More on the person who was killed in the NYC door prize wreck earlier this week. Bronx ‘Mother Teresa’ Megan Charlop, biker killed by city bus, ‘sought to do good’

More on the TK incident. Lance Armstrong angered by Tony Kornheiser’s comments on bikers Substitute the words “Jews” or Black people” for “cyclists” and TK would be under the jail, or on his way to Gitmo. Instead he gets to keep his cushy job without even the 2 weeks suspension he got for insulting a female co-worker’s fashion sense. TANJ!

Costa Rican cyclists call for stricter penalties against drunk drivers after one gets a 3 month sentence for killing a cyclist standing off the side of the road. Vigilia de la Vergüenza Proposes To Shame Costa Rican Legislators To Get Tough On Drunk Drivers If the units of measurement are the same for the Costa Rican DUI law, they have some mighty tough drunks down there. “ Also, legislators voted that 0.75 would the legal limit for violation of the drinking and driving law, from 0.50.” In the US drunk driving in most states is .08% BAC. Death occurs somewhere around .3% but extremely tolerant individuals have tested near 1% and survived. Having looked in Wikipedia, Costa Rica’s standards translate into a .05% BAC currently being used.

The most deadliest state to walk or ride a bike thinks advertising that hitting cyclists and pedestrians is bad might reduce the CARnage. Team zMotion Launches Florida Bicycle Safety Advocacy & Education Effort Well, if you have 20 years or so to wait for results like they did with MADD, advertising will eventually work. Or you could just have a zero tolerance law that takes cars and licenses away permanently when you have an at-fault wreck that kills a cyclist or pedestrian, with lesser prohibitions for just injuring a cyclist or pedestrian. My take? If you kill someone while DUI you lose your driving privileges forever, and for your next life, too. You’re walking or riding a bike until the heat death of the universe… Of course this assumes that there is some reliable way to determine who a person was in a prior lifetime, and that souls are unitary after death and not divied up into multiple bodies during reincarnation, and that I’m actually being serious about that part of the punishments.

And final story today, the Feds have decided that cars are not the be-all and end-all of transportation, bicycles and pedestrians are equal and should get equal consideration. Feds Deem Pedestrians, Cyclists and Motorists Equals I wonder if that will result in equal space and funding for bike/ped projects, or just cosmetic touches that make cyclists and pedestrians feel like their needs are being met with most of the money still going to cars and trucks.

And that’s the Feed today, see you on Monday.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Computer problems, and the Feed

My computer’s power supply is in the process of dying, it stays running if you get it to run, but getting it cranked up is a hit or miss affair. After reading some of the articles in the Feed I almost wish it had stayed busted.

Up first because it’s closest is a kid killed in Edinburg TX. Edinburg teen killed riding bike late at night It took until just before I posted this link for someone to notice that the bike riders were riding the wrong way when they got hit. I know my readers don’t do that, except when they can’t get through otherwise or if they have to backtrack out of a one-way section of road, but how often does something like that happen? Don’t be a salmon.

BikingInLA has a man in the courtroom in the trial of the thing that walks like a man with a medical degree. Evil on trial: UPDATE — Christopher Thompson takes the stand I hope the prosecuting attorney gives him a new one on the stand. Maybe two new ones.

More reports on the man arrested for the death of a Dutch cycle tourist. Man indicted in death of cyclist from Netherlands and Man charged in cyclist’s death Great, stoned on opiates and driving a car. Not any better than drunk, just different impairing substances. Bring on the bicycle chain floggers.

They found the truck in the NC hit-and-run crime, driver to follow. Troopers seize damaged SUV and Editorial: A careless and shameless act And the lawyer’s take on the wreck Hit and Run Driver Kills Bicycle Rider in Guilford County, North Carolina Again I advise against reading the comments unless you already have brain damage and can’t get hurt any worse by stupid people.

Another reason not to run red lights, drivers think they mean “go like hell” instead of “proceed when clear”. Decatur Central Student Killed in Bicycle/Semi Accident But I really can’t blame the truck driver in this wreck, it appears that the truck was already moving well before the cyclist ran the red and ran into the truck. Again, don’t run red lights, unless you think death or serious injury are fun.

And they just don’t take us witches seriously at the ME’s office. Bicyclist died of traumatic head injury, M.E. rules Nobody saw the truck I guess.

Great, the law firm that employed that pedestrian killed by a hit-and-run cyclist is out for blood. Caesar Rivise law firm wants justice in death of beloved longtime employee Why couldn’t they get this worked up over someone getting killed riding a bicycle? And don’t hit the pedestrians, they are on the same side as us cyclists, the bad guys drive cars.

From Jolly Olde, an MP gets a burr up his butt and the police catch a bad case of stupids too. Police launch crackdown on cyclists Just because a cyclist can see where they are going on a well-lit street, does not necessarily mean that they are fully visible to motorists approaching with their headlights on. Yep, car drivers are blind as well as stupid. Just because you’re in the headlights doesn’t mean they will see you. They will run into you but they will claim to never have seen you. That’s why I always use the Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm when I ride at night. Look like a motor vehicle and avoid that “run down” feeling.

Boris makes more noise about making London safer for cyclists. Newton unsure about London Olympics The article about making London safe is down the column from the headline article.

The rest of the post tonight comes from Oz, AKA the Land Down Undah.

And speaking of having a case of the stupids, some cyclists have near fatal cases. Cyclists not given free ride by police Aside from the helmet laws most traffic laws make sense to follow if only because it makes your actions more predictable so that drivers can better avoid hitting you. That’s the main reason why I say to not run red lights, as it makes where you will be on the road unpredictable and drivers don’t expect to see a bicycle crossing their path when they have the green light, as an example.

It appears that Australian cars are even more deadly than US cars as shown by the graph that goes with this article. Cut speed to let our cyclists live Their near-zero survivor speed is 60 km/hr, but the “knee” speed is about the same as US statistics, roughly 30 MPH (50 km/hr) with an initial rise at 20 MPH (30 km/hr). I didn’t even bother to try reading the nearly 500 comments that went with the article at the time I made this post.

And letter to the editor about a proposal to make bicycles have license plates. Identifying cyclists will not cure road rage apparently this was precipitated by a bus driver nearly hitting a cyclist, who then was able to catch the bus in traffic, get on the bus and beat the tar out of the bur driver for nearly killing the cyclist. This is not something I would recommend but it is something I understand. and I bet this was the fastest extended sprint on the part of the cyclist in a long time if not ever.

And that’s all I have today, maybe I can do another one tomorrow, if the power supply holds up and doesn’t die.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Another Feed full of non-bicycle things

Lots of motorcycle wrecks in the Feed today, and lots of just motorcycle racing. That’s one of the big reasons that humans will still be required in the news compiling business for a long time to come, is the lack of discrimination of machine information gathering. It’s real good at what to bring in, not so much at what to leave out.

Up first is more from the trial of the thing that walks like a man with a medical degree. ‘I wanted to teach them a lesson.” — Road rage trial resumes. I told you he freely admitted guilt to the cops, now it’s part of the trial transcript. He deserves to never breathe free air again, but that ain’t gonna happen. I’ll settle for never being allowed to drive a car again, for the rest of his miserable life (and living where he does, not being allowed to drive will make his life miserable).

Up next is a rare kind of wreck, the bike on pedestrian with pedestrian injury. Comatose man apparently had been hit by bike Pedestrians should be wearing helmets to prevent brain injury, see what happened to this guy!?!?! Getting serious, don’t ride on sidewalks, but if you ride on sidewalks don’t hit the pedestrians. If you do ride on sidewalks and hit a pedestrian, stop and make sure he or she is OK before you leave, and leave contact information when you do leave.

A rare and exotic wreck again, the double SWSS. Police release name of Farmington teen struck and killed “The van tried to avoid the first cyclist and he did that very successfully, but it was unable to avoid the second since they both swerved the same way,” Drury said. Umm, yeah, two cyclists swerving the exact same way… That said the report indicates a lack of reflectors and lights on both bikes, so reflectors and taillights. Remove any excuses that drivers use to hide their bad driving skills. Then follow hit-from-behind protocol to avoid the idiots that shouldn’t be on the road in the first place.

Another report on the woman killed by a truck in Chicago. Cyclist Killed After Being Pinned Beneath Truck Interesting choice of words in this article, she wasn’t hit by the truck, she fell underneath it. Whatever it’s still male bovine digestive byproduct. I can no longer tell you how to avoid this wreck, as nobody is giving a straight story. None of the reports are consistent even on the location of the bikes at the time of the wrecks with locations reported from in front of the bus to between the truck and the bus. The only consistent fact besides the dead cyclist is filtering past stopped vehicles. I know breathing bus fumes at a stoplight is unpleasant, but breathing bus exhaust and surviving is preferred to filtering up and getting killed by an irate driver.

Next is a report from a not-so-jolly Jolly Olde. Cyclist injured in car collision Interestingly enough instead of all the anti-cyclist comments, most of the UK comments lately have been about the drivers not paying attention to the roads thereby hitting the vulnerable cyclist. This would not be the case in the US.

Now for my readers that are real infrastructure wonks (like me)… House of Commons Committee Publishes Repot on Road Safety Focuing on Pedestrians and Cyclists The spelling and grammatical errors are in the original, I just used copy and paste. One of the interesting things about the report is the identification of the number of wrecks that caused injury to cyclists and pedestrians but which were not reported to police in spite of requiring more than simple first aid. This tells me that unless you have severe injuries even a hit-and-run isn’t going to be reported, that the rate of hit-and-run has gotten so high in the UK that it just gets ignored in many cases. This is a terrible thing.

Another report for the wonks in the crowd. Which K Street do you prefer? My vote would be the option with bike lanes and fewer car lanes, option 3.

And that’s the whole mess for this morning. Something special is coming up later in the day.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Lots of links today, both updates and new reports

I thought a descriptive if wordy headline best suited today’s Feed. We had several stories that had multiple reports, and some updates reports on old stories as well as new stuff. Hopefully I will get this all straightened out and not put reports in separate paragraphs that belonged together.

Up first is another report on the American Fork canyon incident in UT. Mesa Cyclist Injured In Utah Crash This doesn’t add much to the reason for the crash, but it does tell us more about one of the victims.

There was a bad bike wreck in CO. Madison cyclist killed in Colorado accident and Cyclist crash fatality is first in monument It appears the cyclist hit something in the road that caused a front washout throwing the cyclist to the pavement where he sustained fatal head injuries. There were no other vehicles involved in the wreck. How to avoid: watch for road debris and ride in the clean line even if that requires riding in the lane with cars.

An elderly MI an suffers head injury in a wreck with a slightly less elderly woman driver. Elderly bicyclist injured in crash Not clear here why the cyclist proceeded in front of the car nor why the car failed to stop in time to not hit the cyclist.

A PA cyclist is killed by a UPS truck. Harrisburg bicyclist killed in crash in Swatara Township No verifiable word on the cause but from the comments section I think we can rule out not seeing the cyclist. The bike was reported to have been festooned with reflectors, and the driver reported no trouble seeing the cyclist according to another comment. Why the driver failed to avoid the cyclist he had no trouble seeing is a question best left to the courts.

The other PA wreck was a single vehicle wreck on a bike trail. Maine man killed in W. Pa. mountain bike crash and Maine biker killed in Beaver County accident Another reason to not ride off road without a riding partner. His helmet was not very effective either. Wear a helmet but wear it right to prevent facial injuries. The bottom of the front of the helmet must be no more than a finger width above the brow ridge on your skull.

Another hit-from-behind wreck, this time in MO. Bicyclist injured after being struck by car near LaGrange Usual precautions against being hit from behind, plus because this was a night wreck add a bright taillight to the list. I recommend the Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm. Click the tag to find a list of materials to build your own HHT.

Another drunk hits s cyclist head on, this time with a twist. Joliet bicyclist seriously injured; motorist detained Yes another salmon cyclist gets hit. There was lots of blame to go around in this one starting with the drunk driver and extending to the cyclists riding the wrong way on the street. Hasn’t the news gotten out yet? Ride with traffic on the right side of the street/road. Don’t drink and operate a vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle, bicycle…). Just don’t.

A cyclist in CA gets hit while crossing a road in the crosswalk. Bicyclist struck, injured in College Terrace Since we don’t know which direction the cyclist was traveling in this wreck it’s hard to say who was at fault. Using Google Street View we can see the intersection was between 2 light controlled intersections, so the cyclist may have started crossing the 6 lanes of traffic when the way was clear, but been caught out after the light changed.

LEO aren’t saying much about this wreck in NC. Bicyclist Injured In Greenville Accident About all we know from this report is a cyclist was hit by a motor vehicle and was not killed.

ID LEO are busting speeders that endanger children. Law enforcement cracking down on speeders in school zones As I pointed out in an earlier post, going from 20 MPH (most school zones) to 30 MPH (speed at which cops will ticket you for speeding in a school zone) raises the fatality rate from 5% to 50%, and reduces the walk-away rate from 45% to 5%, not to mention that drivers have 50% less time to react at 30 MPH than they do at 20 which means that hitting those kids is more likely. It’s a bad combination of more likely to hit and more likely to kill if you hit.

It has been a bad year for cyclists (relatively) in HI. Bicycle Riders Face Grim Statistics Of Injury Or Death In Hawaii Notice that the statistics were drawn from a very bad year for cyclist deaths. Lately the numbers have looked much better.

This was just brought to my attention today, even though it’s more than 7 months old. OYO RESTAURANT TREATS CYCLISTS LIKE PESTS Well restaurants have the right to refuse service, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it when they do.

Cyclists ride for a good cause. Riders take to streets for Special Olympics “Shave your legs and saddle up!” We have good deeds to do.

A rather breathless helmet-centric “safety” article from my SF colleague at examiner.com. Save Your Life! Always Wear Your Bike Helmet! Yes, always wear a helmet when you ride, just don’t expect miracles from it. Mine saved my life when I was attacked and left for dead by a pickup truck wielding terrorist back in 2001, but it didn’t prevent my brain damage. I have about 2/3 the mental ability I had pre-wreck, mostly lost in my ability to communicate verbally. I’m alive but no longer able to find work outside of posting to the internet. And if you think posting to the internet will make you money I would like to show you my last paycheck for 5 months of work for examiner.com of just over $26.

And another in a inconsistent series on why I consider motor vehicles to be WMDs. Vehicles crash into buildings Monday and Tuesday I wonder how the reinforced cinderblock garage is doing after getting hit @80MPH or so? And what caused the homeowner to build a reinforced cinderblock garage in the first place, most detached garages are barely enough structure to survive twice the expected snow load in that area.

And that’s all I have for today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Long day, and a big Feed

It was a long day today at the lab rat keeper’s place. Pee in a cup, stand on a scale, take blood pressure, do mad scientist experiments with non-invasive measurement techniques, pee in a cup again, draw 5 tubes of blood, drink orange flavored syrup, take a 20 minute nap, draw more blood, take another 20 minute nap, draw more blood, another nap, more blood, about a 45 minute nap, and the final tube of blood. I had a late lunch, then a psych test to see if I was having sexual performance issues, then a few minutes after 2PM I could go home. I stopped off for a haircut on the way home, and finally unlocked the front door a little before 1730 (5:30 PM).

After coming back from the lab rat keeper I found a more than full Feed, with 5 reports instead of the normal 4, which took a while to filter. But I did it because I know you depend on me to bring you the bicycle news, Non-racing edition.

Up first are updates on the right hook wreck in Baltimore. Bicyclist killed in accident identified and also Bicyclist Killed In LaFayette Street Crash and Spotlight on safety after cyclist killed Some of the comments show a lack of understanding of a right hook or how to avoid one (hint, turn away, don’t try to stop).

A VT cyclist is KO’ed by a backing truck. Bicyclist injured in Colchester This is almost impossible to avoid even if you are hyper-vigilant. The best you can do is leave yourself an escape route, and also not ride next to the curb (no being a gutter-bunny).

Another TX rider is killed by a hit-and-run. Plainview bicyclist killed in hit and run At this point they are saying the rider failed to yield right of way, so it looks like they will try to sweep this under the rug despite the hit-and-run.

FL tallies another dead cyclist in the deadliest state of the Union. Bicyclist Killed In Wellington Crash Hit from behind and they suspect the rider was drunk? That bike in the picture looked like it was pretty squared up before getting hit. As always, watch from behind to avoid getting hit from there, watch where you’re going, and leave yourself an “out”.

More carnage in CO. Bicyclist killed in hit-and-run was Greeley man They have no idea even the basic class of vehicle that hit him, but other reports indicate he was hit from behind. Typical instructions about being hit from behind, see the previous paragraph.

More updates on the cyclist killed in AB. Cyclist killed on Yellowhead and Dead cyclist hit twice, Edmonton police say Witness reports claim the bike had no lights or reflectors, and the victim was wearing dark clothes at night and trying to cross the highway. If true, this was a case of death by stupid, no ill towards the dead intended. Lights, lots of them and pointed over about a 90 degree spread 45 on either side of center are what you need to avoid an accidental hit from behind. This is no guarantee but this will at least allow the drivers that don’t want to hit you (the vast majority, even of the drivers that don’t like bicycles on the roads) to be able to see and avoid you. I recommend the Honking Huge Taillight^tm because it makes your bike look like a motor vehicle from behind which makes drivers avoid you just that much more, because you’ll scratch the paint worse

I don’t know where this happened as I don’t recognize any of the place names, but they have the right idea about Weapons of Mass Destruction. Mob torches four trucks after cyclist killed by truck I mean wow, burn the truck that was used to do the deed plus 3 more just because, that’s hard core.

Infrastructure going in on the ground in Seattle. New ’sharrows’ on 32nd Ave. NW Sharrows are a good idea for an area that sees lots of bike traffic but lacks room for a dedicated bike lane, but they are no substitute for education for drivers and cyclists.

An article that also covers infrastructure and education in SC. Making Roads Safer for Drivers and Bicyclists

Legal infrastructure is as important as concrete and asphalt. The road rift

And another phrase for “car-head”. Bus driver experiences “windshield perspective”

And that’s everything, I’m going to bed.

Billed @$.02, Opus