Another cyclist hit in the bike lane, plus more stuff that will make you mad (crazy) and other stuff that will make you mad (angry)

I hate finding out that another cyclist was hit in the bike lane, and I hate having to post about it in my blog, but if people don’t know about it how can change be made? If you don’t know that drivers are killing cyclists where cars and trucks should not be, how can you do anything about it? And what can I do about it except tell you about the carnage?

Getting to that story first, a woman drives into the bike lane and kills a cyclist. Names released in cyclist-vs-car crash and Woman accused of felony hit and run “Authorities said Murphy was following bicycle safety laws and was wearing a helmet as he rode northbound on Jamboree Road along the easterly curb. Izquieta hit him and didn’t stop to help him, police said.” and “Izquieta had made an “unsafe turning maneuver” before hitting Murphy” Now it appears that “unsafe turning maneuver” was driving in the bike lane. The cyclist’s bicycle was dragged over 300 feet according to one report, so there’s no way the driver could not have known they hit something. Mr. Murphy was riding with a group of cyclists when he was hit, so it was probably just chance that he was the one hit instead of someone else. For you to avoid this kind of wreck, use the hit-from-behind protocol I mentioned a couple of months ago in this post .

No bicycles involved in this one, it’s just a demonstration of why I think that large vehicles need to have special permits to be on the roads with much higher standards of licensing. SUV slams into building in Mechanicsburg The SUV in this case had barely 100 feet to reach a speed that almost took out a concrete block building, and would have killed someone had they been inside the blast radius of the debris that sprayed from the wall at impact, or been crushed by the shelving unit that was knocked from the wall.

The rest of the wrecks were outside North America.

From the charges filed it appears that someone drove a bus over a cyclist, literally in this case as the bus had to be lifted off the cyclist. Birmingham city centre bus crash: Cyclist named This makes this report unusual for a UK wreck report, in that the mode of the wreck can be inferred from the report. Using my incredible powers of deduction I can hazard the statement that the cyclist was waiting at the stop light and the bus turned left over him, causing him to be trapped under the bus. Check back in 6-18 months when the court case is concluded and the real story is released, if that ever makes the news.

From Enn Zed comes a story of an injured cyclist whose ID went elsewhere in the wreck. Police Seek To Identify Injured Cyclist If the description of the cyclist, his kit and his bike ring a bell ring up the LEO contact mentioned in the article and let them know who you think it might be. The Witch on a Bicycle says it’s your civic duty.

More lawyer talk about the change in injury severity and type as more commuters go by bike. Can Cars and Bikes Co-Exist?

Infrastructure for pedestrians gets slammed because it’s ugly?! Safety vs. eyesore? Signs at Oceanfront draw complaints

Get a bike fit as a first step in fixing painful cycling. Enjoy the Ride Or you could just get a recumbent.

Aaaannnd, that’s a wrap.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Again few wrecks from the US and Canada, much consternation here and abroad

I’m back from the Lab Rat Keeper, still percolating right along. My BP is better than it has been in decades (since before they lowered the definition of high blood pressure down to 120/80 in fact) my rest pulse is akin to a Zen elephant’s (very slow) and my weight is down, after Thanksgiving no less! They are double-checking the Red Cross on my Hgb levels, the RC had it as 11.8 when I tried to donate a couple weeks ago, but back in the summer when I was testing a new med and getting that stuff tested every couple of weeks my Hgb and Hcrit were both good. But I wasn’t taking Azor during the test, I was on a different med. So, maybe I have found a new side effect for Azor when taken over an extended period of time. On the blood donation front I still haven’t been able to donate since my last donation in 7/2007. I might as well go ahead and get that tattoo now while I work on getting my Hcrit and Hgb levels back up, this looks like it might take a while…

Up first because something has to be, a report on a head-on crash between a cyclist and a cab on the wrong side of the street in DC. Crash Last Night at 31st and M, NW What can I say? The cab was driving on the wrong side of the street. Given that DC streets have danged high curbs to prevent sidewalk flooding (or so I was told back in the dark ages before Clinton, or even Carter) a cyclist doesn’t have any escape route should a motor vehicle do something as stupid as driving on the wrong side of the street unless the cyclist is extremely skilled in the “bunny hop” to clear the curbs and not wreck. The wrong-way vehicle would prevent any escape to the left (where the motor vehicle would be if it was on the correct side of the street), and you can’t hop the curb, the only other option would be to abandon the bike and accept road rash over broken bones and massive internal trauma, and hope the bike does some major damage as it goes under the motor vehicle.

Kill a cyclist, go to jail… Hit-and-Run Driver Sent to Jail “Lipe pleaded no conest to felony hit and run, and a judge ordered him to spend the next year in jail and four years on probation.” But not for very long in jail. From the limited details of the wreck in the article it appears the cyclist could not have avoided this wreck that took him into the canal. I don’t know if the cyclist drowned or was dead prior to being in the canal.

In the City of Brotherly Love there ain’t much love between the various modes of transport: drivers hate pedestrians and especially cyclists, cyclists hate pedestrians and especially drivers, and pedestrians just hate anything that can hit them hard enough to hurt including cars, cyclists, and joggers (other pedestrians). Readers Write: We don’t need your stinking traffic rules And apparently everybody hates the traffic laws…

From my examiner.com colleague in Toronto, jurisprudence reports from the Great White North. Toronto Goes To Court – Bryant and Kenk Trials Both Begin Bryant is scum, but Kenk is in a class by himself. Of course from what I know Kenk never killed anyone to obtain any of the bicycles he had, they were all stolen after the owner had left them to go do something else, much like someone stealing a parked car. Bryant killed a cyclist, that much has been determined, all that’s left is did the cyclist do anything that would warrant a response of deadly force? It is known that Darcy Sheppard had been drinking, but my back-channel report was that toxicology on Sheppard found that he was not drunk, considerably under the legal limit, and that Bryant was never tested for drugs or alcohol.

A huge WMD almost takes out a building and a cyclist nearby as a driver apparently has a seizure at the controls of a large truck. Two hurt as lorry ploughs into pub Fortunately the only injury was to the cyclist, as normally the front of the pub and the sidewalk in front are packed with people during operating hours. This is why there should be a physical exam requirement on a driver’s license, like there is for a pilot’s license. Bi-annual exams would have caught the physical issues that led to the driver having a seizure, and a psych evaluation would prevent people like TTTWLAMWAMD and Bryant from having access to the WMD that motor vehicles have become. Anyway, there was no way for the cyclist to have avoided this wreck except clairvoyance, so just look sharp out there.

And another incident involving a truck in the UK. Cyclist seriously injured after being hit by lorry And in this case they know even less than the typical UK wreck report.

Finally something (slightly) less lethal than a big truck, I hope. Cyclist from Godalming killed in collision with car $&(% no, still lethal, still nothing I can point to and say “Do this, don’t do that” and you can avoid a similar wreck.

I love the UK’s media sometimes, where they can advocate a point of view without fear of court for creating a false impression. Sign of the times: The cycle path with a painted symbol every few feet (and still someone is going the wrong way) so the photographer stands in front of the cyclist, facing away from him and when the cyclist passes in the oncoming lane, the photographer takes his picture to “prove” that cyclists can’t even follow the laws in their own protected places, with markings on the pavement every few feet (probably at every intersection with a driveway).

Another working cyclist in South Africa is hit by a truck. PIC: Cyclist pinned under truck nothing yet known about what caused the wreck, “It is thought that the bicycle delivery man had entered Mitchell Road and the driver of the truck was unable to avoid him.” Typical car-head thinking on display.

A police blotter from a Chinese newspaper reports, you have to scroll down a good bit to find the bicycle wreck. Cyclist killed in hit-and-run

A lawyer tries to explain that cyclists belong on the roads and that people in cars should respect that. Finding equilibrium

The DCist finds lots of interesting infrastructure news. Go Home Already: Making Friends Lots of interesting things in the report.

Among those interesting things was a parking enforcement vehicle parked in a bike lane. Oh Look: A Parking Enforcement Car Blocking a Bike Lane They are allowed to use the bike lane as they write tickets for vehicles parked in the bike lane, but it is still annoying to find a car in the bike lane.

And that’s all I have tonight.

Billed @$.02, Opus

From 2 days’ Feeds with mostly motorcycle wrecks

Well I just went through 2 days’ worth of the Feed, and most of it was motorcycle wrecks. While I feel really bad about people getting hurt and/or killed whatever way they manage to do it, motorcycles are not on the menu here at Witch on a Bicycle. So for 2 days we have exactly 108 links of bicycle-related things. Two of the links turned out to no longer connect to bicycle-related reports.

Up first because it’s the only USA link is a display of just how stupid the guy that proposed the registration of bicycles in Philadelphia really is, in his own words. The Bike Debate: It’s really all about safety Nowhere in that rambling waste of paper (originally posted in the print edition of the news) did he justify registration as a means of actually generating a safety function, the closest he did come was the statement “By requiring that every bike be registered, whether with the Police Department or the Parking Authority, it would create a point of contact to educate all bikers. But nowhere does he state how this education will take place, who will fund or how, or anything else. Also missing are practical points on just how the registration will be mounted and displayed so that people can see it and report it to the police given that bicycle design for the last 100 years or so has made no provision for such, unlike motor vehicle design which is required to have mounts for a standardized license plate.

More proof that lawyers have their morals and ethics removed in law school. Michael Bryant joins prestigious Toronto law firm For those with short memories, Bryant is the sewer scum that ran over a cyclist in the street and when the cyclist got up to discuss the matter used his car as a deadly weapon to smash the cyclist against trees, light poles, and a mailbox that was bolted to the sidewalk, all caught on several surveillance cameras from the initial hit through the final ride on the sidewalk against traffic. If you have need for legal advice I suggest never using the Ogilvy Renault law firm while you are in Ontario.

All I can say on this is the cyclist was either comatose while riding, or the sound of the ambulance siren echoing off nearby buildings gave the cyclist a false impression as to the location of the vehicle. Cyclist seriously injured in collision with ambulance Seriously, when you hear a siren for any emergency vehicle, don’t go until you know the vehicle is not in your area. I have been in urban areas when an emergency vehicle siren was in use and could not tell which direction the vehicle was coming from, and this happened both on foot and in a car (yes, I used to own and drive a car, look at my bio page). Since the consequences can be so dire, a little extra caution is in order. After all it isn’t just you that can be hurt, it’s also the person the emergency vehicle was dispatched for who could suffer as a result of the delay caused by your wreck.

And in jurisprudence news from Jolly Olde, a person that killed a cyclist (who was also a LEO) is charged with multiple offenses in the case. Charges over cyclist death of Jim Fleming on Amersham Road I don’t like for any cyclist to get hit, but I know that when a LEO is hit the driver is more likely to get hit with the hammer of Justice than if a mere citizen is hit.

And to show that anti-bike crazies are not just limited to our shores, London weighs in. Cyclists targeted as Westminster Council goes after ‘lycra louts’

Lots of news from Enn Zed as a stupid driver pleads guilty to hitting 4 cyclists after running a stop sign. Woman pleads guilty after injuring cyclists and Safety Message Repeated As Motorist Admits Injuring Cyclists and Share The Road I only hope that the driver gets a punishment commensurate with the seriousness of the assault with a deadly weapon.

Back into the fray, the Feed

Yes, so soon after doing a 2 part post yesterday/early this morning, I’m back at it again. I must be crazy. At least there weren’t as many wrecks this time.

Up first is the first of 2 wrecks in TX, this one in Waco. Minivan Strikes Bicycle On Busy Waco Street; Rider Seriously Hurt They went to press with this so soon after the wreck that the article reads like a UK wreck story with the lack of information.

Down the I-35 a bit further is this report from Austin. Cyclist injured in campus collision Again nothing on the actual wreck because of deadlines, but plenty of snark in the comments.

What appears to be another bike ninja gets hit from behind. Marshfield man seriously injured in bike-truck accident Seriously people, lights and reflectors aren’t that heavy or expensive and the greatly increase your visibility at night and low light conditions. Just remember that reflectors only work when cars are shining headlights on them.

They are having some difficulty with gas-assisted bikes in CA, as their regs are much more restrictive than other states. Officers upping enforcement on illegal gas-powered bicycles The interesting thing about the wreck reported in the article was entirely independent of the legal operation of the struck vehicle and entirely caused by the driver not watching what was on the road in front of him. As a driver went by one bicyclist, he became distracted, wondering what he had just seen. He then made a left turn and hit the other bicyclist. How is that the fault of the second cyclist? But still, follow the laws about registration and safety equipment.

Another wreck in the UK. Cyclist injured in crash

They are having real problems with construction vehicles in China with bicycles being their favorite victims. Death toll in truck accidents rises to 13 Too many wrecks to tell you about in that article, but in every wreck the truck was at fault and the cyclist died.

Infrastructure analysis from Green And Save News. The Not-So Open Road

And laws don’t mean a thing without LEO that will enforce them. A Troubling Story of SFPD Bias Against Bicycle Riders If you can’t trust the LEO that is investigating your wreck, what good are laws?

And that’s all I have today, remember no post tomorrow because of church and other obligations.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Dec. 4 Feed Pt. 2, the rest of the world

OK I’m back from my church duties and ready to finish this mess and go to bed. I have been at this off and on since 11:45 AM and it is now 2 minutes after midnight. Between baking bread and sustaining the body, and my church duties, and this blog I have been going constantly for over 13 hours now. {yawn}

I think this is supposed to be a hit-and run in Jolly Olde, but it sounds more like a nightmare. Cyclist injured in non-stop crash Yes that does remind me of one of my nightmares, the crash that never ends, bouncing off the cars and the road until I wake up, the sheets a tangle and covered in sweat. But since this is a typical UK media wreck report, aside from that bit of horror poetry there isn’t anything aside from names and places. Well there was the note that the suspect vehicle was a white van and would be missing the passenger side rear view mirror, so be on the lookout for a vehicle fitting that description.

A incident more than a wreck, someone assaulted a cyclist on a bike path. Cyclist is pushed off bike by man PC Ryan Townsend from Bromsgrove Police appealed for any witnesses or anyone with any information to contact him and said: “Fortunately the woman’s injuries were not too serious but we need to identify the male who pushed her from her bike.” So if the person described in the article is familiar, and you’re somewhere near the scene of the crime, call the PC. Just don’t call PC Macintosh, he has some serious identity issues.

Another UK bike wreck that is a bit worse than most. Cyclist critically injured in smash Yowch, a head on crash between a White Van and a cyclist. LEO are looking for witnesses, the van driver was hysterical at the scene and incoherent and of course the cyclist was not doing too well either. Again if you know anything, contact number is in the article. Do your civic duty and get the cyclist off the hook.

Several reports on the critical PR infrastructure building being done by the UK cycling community. Us Cyclists aren’t a menace, we’re freedom fighters and ‘Blinkered motorists make roads unsafe for cyclists’ also UK cyclists in more danger than foreign counterparts Keep up the pressure, people. Illegitimi non carborundum!

Sometimes they can’t even decide who is the intended target of an informational PSA. Highway Code TV ad to target cyclists says Minister… oh no it isn’t says Driver Standards Agency Get back to me when you figure that one out, lads, will you?

In Oz they can’t figure out where to put cyclists… Hidden injury toll sparks call to segregate cyclists And the most infuriating thing about it is the idiots in the comments section that blech and moan about how much of a hazard cyclists are to motor vehicles, and how they should be taxed to construct the bike lanes, and never even realize that if drivers weren’t hitting the cyclists they wouldn’t need segregated infrastructure.

On the same subject but from a different perspective, still in Oz. `Not enough bike paths’ The complaints are typical, drivers expect cyclists to ride in the paths, but the paths don’t go anywhere useful.

Infrastructure in the US is similar to the UK and Oz. Southwest Florida’s Deadly Streets Again drivers complain that cyclists don’t use the paths that don’t go anywhere useful, and cyclists are caught between the rock and the hard place.

So what do the experts (?) recommend? Helmet Use Proven Life-Saver That’s right, don’t do anything about the infrastructure or bad drivers, make people wear helmets instead.

Finally, so I don’t blow a fuse, an article about something to let you get where you need to go without getting all sweaty or driving a car. Currie’s electric beach-cruiser bicycle is priced right, goes the distance I keep telling you guys about my working on e-assist bikes for the “slow”, well here’s one that you can buy without having to tinker on it or weld brackets in or program the uController after you build your own motor and controller (I do that, but then I’m brain damaged, so I think it’s fun). I do this for fun, you can do it for transportation. And you can even get some of that nasty “e” word if you want.

And that’s it, finally.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Road insanity continues unabated, the Feed

The Feed this morning was humongous, with updates from previous reports, and new reports, and a metric buttload of UK reports. Tuesday and Wednesday have been very busy for bicycle wrecks in the UK. We also have reports on studies that have just been released in the UK, and a whole host of other things from North America.

Up first because it just floored me, a pedestrian waylays a cyclist in PA. Bicyclist threatened with bat in Carlisle Apparently the pedestrian was upset the cyclist wasn’t there to buy drugs but was just passing through his “turf”. I have no idea how to avoid a situation like this.

Another in the epidemic of hit-and-run in LA CA. Cyclist critically injured in NoHo hit-and-run The actions of the driver are just inexcusable. The cyclist was crossing legally, other traffic had stopped to allow the cyclist to complete his crossing, and this bozo comes along at between 30 and 40 MPH and never even slows down, running right into the cyclist who was plainly visible crossing from the left. It wasn’t like the driver couldn’t see the cyclist if he looked, if he looked he just didn’t care. He knew he wasn’t going to get hurt.

Another LA hit-and-run, in the state of LA. Cyclist Killed in Hit and Run This is another one that the cyclist didn’t have much chance to avoid, according to police the vehicle left the road to hit the cyclist then proceeded on. The cyclist was knocked into a pole near the road causing massive internal injury leading to death. Police have no clues as to the make and model of the weapon vehicle.

Another UK road incident involving a cyclist. Cyclist injured in collision Other than the cyclist was 22 YO and the driver was 73, that pretty much recaps the entire report except for the geography.

A cyclist is slightly injured, I think. Cyclist injured in Botley Road I hope she recovers. From the description she most likely will.

Another report on the cyclist being injured by a silver Mercedes that was noted here yesterday. Cyclist is injured in hit-and-run A 3 door Mercedes? Must be one that never made it to the US. It figures, they did tend to keep all the really good cars in Europe back then. Anyway it will be scrap soon as the driver will have to either destroy it or face charges.

Another report on the wreck on A16 reported here yesterday. Cyclist killed in A16 crash and a report on the victim Tulips stalwart killed in Spalding A16 crash Apparently the nickname for the local soccer team is the Tulips, but from the report we know the cyclist had no lights or reflectors on the bike, which may have had an effect on the wreck.

More on that debate over the danger posed by cyclists to the community at large. Cyclists aren’t a menace: Spectator debate and Cyclists”not a menace” according to Spectator debate

And a profound reason why cyclists are not the menace. English cyclists 20 times more at risk than motorists I question the methodology of the study a little, but not the results. Given the exposure of a cyclist compared to the amount of protection afforded by a car it’s quite logical that what would be pranged sheet metal would be bruises, scrapes, and broken bones for a cyclist, even if cyclists had an accident rate many times less than motor vehicles they would still get injured more often.

Infrastructure woes in Montreal. Who owns the road in Montreal? This article feels familiar, I may have made a link to it at another web site. But even if it is new the problems reported are familiar, when cyclists are given segregated infrastructure in North America pedestrians begin to take it over, and then complain about how rude the cyclists are to them.

When NPR notices you have a problem, it’s not a small problem. ‘Road Rage’ Case Highlights Cyclist Vs. Driver Tension Some good advice, but some seriously car-head thinking going on at NPR. Also don’t ride like a jerk in a video game, GTA is make believe, you don’t get any extra lives for riding your bike, and riding like you are in GTA just annoys people that then take it out on the next cyclist they see.

Lawrence KS decides to put up a Ghost Bike. City of Lawrence supports ghost bike memorial to encourage cycling safety I’m afraid they still don’t get the idea of a Ghost Bike though. The idea is you make people aware that bicycles use that strip of road by marking the place where a cyclist was hit, you don’t just put one up any old place to remember fallen cyclists.

And another ride for wounded vets. Injured Vets Riding into Jacksonville I know the healing effect a bike, or other human powered vehicle, can have on the physical and mental health of an injured person, from first-hand experience. Go Us!

And that’s the whole of the mess today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Bicycle zombies take over the news, people still getting killed by cars, the Feed

Yes, “zombies” are all the rage now, and have spread from the UK to the US. In the meantime cars are still killing people at a rate of nearly 110 people a day in the US, and nobody is saying anything about that (except me and a few other bicycle fanatics). I feel a rant coming on, and I don’t think it is going to be pretty.

Up first is another report on the waste of human skin that had 20 beers before going out and driving into 2 cyclists, killing one. Driver who downed 20 beers, killed cyclist gets 25-40 years in prison This is the guy that in a previously linked report the victim’s mother gave him a Bible and said he was going to heaven. I hope she’s wrong about that, because if there was ever a guy that deserved to suffer, this is the guy. Interesting that the previous reports said the disgusting piece of filth got 45 years determinate sentence, but this report has him as serving 25-40. I wonder who’s right.

In other court news the driver that dragged a cyclist 860 feet under her car while the man was screaming and beating on the car (that part was new information), is facing undisclosed criminal charges in the case. Driver of car that dragged bicyclist in Natick to face criminal charge The complaint was filed Nov. 25 in Framingham District Court against Lorraine Peterson, 61, of 359 Berlin Road, though police redacted the specific charge. Apparently public records are not public for certain people.

More on the wreck that killed the driver while only slightly injuring the cyclist he hit. Vehicle crashes kill 4, injure 5 Not a good day to have been driving a car, or riding a bicycle for that matter. If I’m reading the report right the vehicle hit the cyclist on the north side of the street and then crossed the road to hit a tree on the south side of the street. That ain’t normal. Hitting a cyclist isn’t what I would call “normal” but the circumstances of the wreck speak to me of a person who was dieing before they hit the cyclist, and the tree just finished the job. This sounds like a stroke or heart attack in progress when he left the road the first time and grazed the cyclist and then tried to stay on the road and pulled left on the wheel, then died. I know that’s an awful lot to pull from a tiny report…

Another hit-and-run in LA CA. Cyclist struck in West Hollywood hit-and-run Not much to go on in this report, but it appears to be a typical right hook wreck, good that the cyclist survived.

In Scotland a cyclist has a run in with a bus and survives. Cyclist in serious condition after accident with bus and from the Beeb Cyclist injured in bus accident It’s good to know that you won’t get hurt driving a bus into a woman riding a bicycle [/sarcasm]. For those who live on my side of the pond, it appears the woman was trying to turn across traffic when she got hit. They drive on the wrong side of the roads in Scotland so you have to turn right to cross traffic, not left.

Someone driving a silver Mercedes is going to have a rough time of it when he gets caught. Cyclist seriously injured in hit-and-run As per usual in UK wreck reports I can’t say anything about how to avoid a similar wreck, other then to always be alert, this cyclist being able to say make and color may very well result in the miscreant being brought to justice.

And what seems obvious as the nose on your face is debated in the UK. Cyclists are not a menace, Spectator debate decides In the end the argument was mass times velocity, would you rather get hit by 200 pounds going 20 MPH, or 4000 pounds going 35 and up? In the overall scheme of things it was like getting hit in a rugby game versus getting hit by an artillery shell. Every once in a while someone will die in a rugby game, but not often, but get hit by a car and you stand a good chance of dying or being permanently injured.

A cyclist is injured in a left hook wreck in Oz. Cyclist injured after collision with car I noticed the cyclist got a few licks in on the car as he was hit, tearing off the passenger side mirror and crumpling the hood a bit and only sustaining minor injuries in the process. As they say “Good on ya!” for returning fire in the face of the enemy

Still trying to figure out if the guy that hit a cyclist in South Africa was just stupid or culpable. Cops hunt for evidence in cyclist death Hit from behind in the cycle lane, and there’s a question of culpability? Did these guys get their training from AZ LEO?

And the “bicycle zombies” meme makes its way to these shores. ‘iPod zombies’ blamed for UK road deaths Note that in this article from the people that actually make the iPod, using one on any vehicle that one is in control of is not a good idea. Bicycles because you might get hit by a car you didn’t hear, cars because they distract you from your environment, and you already have way too many distractions while driving a car anyway.

An opinion about the ruckus over the recent pedestrian deaths by bicycle in the City of Brotherly Love. Road Rage at Philly Newspapers Why are Ronnie and Stu whipping up fear when cars and trucks pose a bigger threat? Because they don’t like bicycles in their streets, and making then out to be a danger to pedestrians arouses fears that they can use to get them legislated away from their city…

On the same subject but from a different direction. Registering bicycles will not prevent any accidents If there was just some way we could easily identify cars so that when the hit someone and drive off the owner could be brought to justice… and pedestrians they just wander around like they own the place, we need some way of identifying pedestrians too…

I hope NY has a better time of it than TX when they pass their 3 foot passing law. NYS Assemblymember to Introduce Safe Passage Law for Cyclists This is desperately needed legal infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians.

And SF finally gets to build bicycle infrastructure again. Eyes On the Street: SF Gets Its First New Bike Lane in Three Years The paint was barely dry before people started using the new bike lane, who had been trying to ride vehicularly but because of driver attitudes were not having a good go of it.

And that’s all I have today, but there will be a rant later, I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to phrase it yet.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Bicycle zombies and even scarier things, The Feed

Yes, the UK has been overrun with bicycle zombies wearing iPods, the horrors! In the US there were so many wrecks in one city in one day that the guy getting hit riding a bicycle didn’t even get a full sentence, much less his own article. and even scarier things than that, if you can imagine.

Getting to the really scary stuff first comes 2 reports on the sentencing of a man that was caught driving drunk 5 times, killing a person on a bicycle the last time. Mother of 19-year-old killed by drunk driver offers driver Bible and place in heaven and Man convicted of fifth drunken driving offense, killing bicylist unable to answer judge’s question: How to stop repeat drunken-driving offenders? I can answer the judge’s question for the brain-dead drunk: Take away their cars and crush them (cars or drunks either one). If you remove access to cars you prevent drunk driving, if getting caught driving drunk means you lose your car, well that ain’t gonna happen twice. Also require a valid driver’s license to purchase a car to prevent wealthy drunks from going out and buying a cheap car to replace their crushed one. This bozo earned the “waste of human skin” tag for this post.

The city of Chicago had so many wrecks that hitting a cyclist didn’t even merit a full sentence in an article in the paper. 6 dead, more injured in holiday weekend crashes I feel sorry for the guy that got hit, near death experience and didn’t even get his name in the paper. From the level of detail in the article about this one I can tell you that one vehicle was definitely a bicycle, if the guy had just been walking they would not have called him a cyclist. But to be fair to the paper when there are 6 people killed in separate wrecks in one day and one wreck requires 5 ambulances to transport the victims, one guy getting hit riding a bike is just a blip on the radar.

A cyclist in NoCal is hit by a passing pickup truck yesterday. Injured Hwy 49 Bike Rider Identified What struck me was the ages of the participants, the 70 YO driver failed to safely pass the 50 YO cyclist with the full length of his vehicle and hit him with the trailer. Another interesting thing was the driver was from AZ, a place known for drivers that don’t think bicycles belong on the roads. As for avoiding a similar wreck, unless you’re Superman or the Flash with superhuman levels of reaction time it ain’t gonna happen. The initial pass was at a safe distance, but the driver started pulling over before the full length of the vehicle and the trailer had cleared the cyclist. Even knowing the vehicle was there you would have to be watching it and ready to bail to an escape route or off the bike when the vehicle started getting too close. This is one of those cases where to be safe everybody has to be playing the game to ensure cyclists’ safety. This is another example of scarier things than bicycle zombies.

Another example of why I don’t ride off-road trails. Cyclist airlifted out of Crystal Cove The cyclist was less than a mile from an elementary school when he had his wreck, but they had to use a helicopter to get him out because the only other ways in were bike or foot. When I’m less than a mile from a school I want to be where an ambulance can get to me without VTOL capability. Heck I want that no matter how far I am from a school.

I have been mentioning bicycle zombies all during this post, and now I shall deliver. Sunday Times and Daily Mail blame ‘iPod zombie cyclists’ for rise in deaths OMGWTF ZOMBIES!! Yeah, as this article points out the other guys are conflating 2 things without correlation, an increase in quarterly bike wrecks with injury statistics and people wearing headphones and earbuds. There were no statistics on how many cyclists were using music players in wrecks, so there was no way to correlate their use to increased numbers of wrecks. This is a common logical fallacy and even when statistics are taken for two things, unless there is also a statistic for those 2 things happening at the same time you can’t draw conclusions especially about causality. For instance the Australian study that showed when bike helmets were made mandatory head injury went down, failed to make correlations with did people with head injury have a helmet or not. Using other data from the same study you could also say that wearing a helmet reduced broken legs because that number also went down, because the helmet law didn’t reduce head injury it reduced the number of people riding bicycles drastically, which indirectly reduced the number of people with head injuries. Beware of people quoting statistics at you without stating their sources or any other data that might refute their conclusions.

And an article about a SD LEO honoring one of their own by making a bike ride. ‘Tour De Force’ Donates To Mechels Family I have my disagreements with LEO about interpretation and enforcement of the laws, but when it all comes down to it at the end of the day they are on the business end of preventing chaos from breaking out.

And that’s all I have today, more later if anything big breaks.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Another ginormous Feed, but not much to show for it

I had an enormous Feed to filter today, but not many articles about bicycles in it. What I did have was massive numbers of articles on people named Rider getting killed or injured by various means. It was really absurd after a while, all these articles about people with either the first or last name “Rider” getting killed or injured, most by some interaction with a motor vehicle but a couple of them were just weird, like the guy that broke his ankle kicking field goals I think at some park, but it might have been a Jr. High athletic field.

Up first because something had to be is an update on the cyclist killed in Yuma AZ while riding in the bike lane. No charges filed yet in cyclist’s death Apparently in AZ you can kill cyclists with impunity as long as you are not drunk or taking drugs, as that is the holdup on filing charges in this case. It doesn’t matter if you are driving in the bike lane when you hit a cyclist from behind as long as you are not chemically impaired when you do it. Neither does it matter if you cross the centerline to hit a cyclist head on, so long as you are not chemically impaired, and you are passing another vehicle without crossing a double yellow line. TANJ! What you can do as a cyclist in the same situation, try to angle your body so that you go through the windshield and take out the driver, because that will be the only retribution you get in AZ.

A spate of cyclists getting killed in the downstate NY area. Teenage Long Island bicyclist killed in collision; third common case in six weeks Looking through the wrecks in question there is a common thread that the light was green for the motor vehicle when the cyclist was hit, but when there was more than one witness the witness states the cyclist waited for a green light in their direction before proceeding. This sounds like a case of when the signal control detects a cyclist the light period is not long enough to get all the way across from a dead stop, so that by the time the cyclist gets to the far traffic lane the light has been green a few seconds already. You can imagine what happens next as motor vehicles see the green light but not the cyclist still in the intersection. I’m not sure what you can do to avoid a similar situation, as quick lights at night are all too common all over the US, there is one just down the street from me. It only picks up that I’m there about 1/3 of the time, and by the time I get to the far lane of the 5 in that intersection the light has already cycled through to green in the other direction.

This is one of those “don’t read the comments” articles as there were calls to kill all cyclists on the roads “made for cars”. Critical Mass cyclists to ride in honor of teen killed in accident The cyclist was hit from behind by a speeding driver and had all the lights and reflectors, and yet some bozo says there should be a bike curfew. I have a better suggestion, how about a car curfew to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of drunks and psychopaths? Bicycles, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles only between 11 PM and 5 AM. Does that make more sense than a bike curfew?

Another report on the CARnage in Toronto this week caused by bad weather and worse drivers. Four men seriously injured in four separate collisions Again they (the paper) blame the guy hit from behind by the van because he wasn’t wearing a helmet, what’s the deal here? Why not blame the guy that was driving too fast for conditions, like the police charged the driver.

A wreck involving a UK citizen that happened in South America. Driver at fault in crash that killed cyclist, say police At least they decided that as the case was out of UK jurisdiction the media laws that bound the paper did not apply in this case as there was no jury to contaminate prior to the trial that won’t be anywhere near the island of Jersey. But still they won’t even say what kind of wreck it was… Have I mentioned recently that I hate UK media laws (as can be seen by the fact I have a tag for it in my tag cloud)?

More on the female cyclist killed in London this week. Talented fashion student is 12th London cyclist killed this year So many female cyclists getting killed, all out of proportion to their numbers, what is the deal here?

Good news for cyclists and pedestrians in Austria. Cyclist and pedestrian death tolls down Whatever they are doing in Austria is what we need to be doing in Garland, as our cyclist death toll is way out of proportion to the number of cyclists… The entire country of Austria has only killed 36 cyclists this year, a 35% drop over the same period the year prior.

And finally, a good story about a cyclist injured in a pileup crash in a pack of cyclists. Jackson cyclist bounces back after injury I say from experience that facial injuries are a bear even when there isn’t massive amounts of pain involved.

And that’s all I have today. remember no post Sunday as I need some time away from the blog to remain sane.

Billed @$.02, Opus

If I had any money I could have gone to the Black Friday sales, a Sunday weak Feed

Fortunately the nature of the US Thanksgiving holiday makes for very few drivers on the roads, which makes for very few cyclists getting hit yesterday.

From the US we don’t have anything, only one North American report on a cyclist rear ended in the fog in Toronto. Deadly week on GTA roads includes four fatalities Interestingly enough the cyclist that was rear-ended was not among the fatalities from that day, but I don’t know if he’s still alive today.

And from Jolly Olde, they killed another woman with a large vehicle, a bus this time. Cyclist in bus collision dies When I read about this wreck back when it first happened I was hopeful that we had a survivor, one of the few heavy vehicle/bicycle wrecks in London that didn’t kill the female victim. Unfortunately, she didn’t survive. I have nothing on this particular wreck, but what I know about the other wrecks is the majority are from heavy vehicles making left turns through the cyclist’s path, a Limey left hook (because they drive on the wrong side of the road) when the cyclist is stationary while waiting for a stop light. I don’t know how to fix that kind of wreck except to make turning across a cycle lane illegal, which will bollux up the works no end. That would be the equivalent in the US of making right on red illegal, and all right turns where there is a bike lane illegal. Think about how that will fly.

And that’s all there was today, yay! I like days that don’t have many killed or injured cyclists.

Billed @$.02, Opus