The Ride of Silence is today here, and the Feed

Today is the day. I’m going to take the train to White Rock Station, and the White Rock Trail to the rally point for the ride, and probably an allergy pill so I don’t sneeze like a steam engine during the post-ride prayer. I might remember to bring my camera and take some pictures to post in tomorrow’s blog post. We can hope so anyway.

The Really Big Story today is the NTSB “suggestion” that states lower their legal limit for BAC% from .08 to .05%. NTSB recommends lowering DUI threshold to .05 I’m not including the other 27 links because they are all the same article from the AP printed in other newspapers. My research on this suggests that initial testing done included too many alcoholics in the sample size, possibly because the testing advertising placed too much emphasis on “free drinks”. Also the legal limit was set high to make sure the driver was drunk drunk and not “a little tipsy”, as the legislators did not understand that “a little tipsy” was in fact too impaired to drive safely. In my lifetime the legal BAC% went from as high as .15% to .08%, with the drop to .10% coming fairly quickly as state troopers used legislators as test subjects and film or video tape to record behavior and driving ability at various levels of BAC% with even the semi-alcoholic legislators seeing that even at .10% when they felt sober enough to drive they were seriously impaired. Further testing with a wider pool of test subjects (and offering money for the test beyond just free alcohol) showed even to conservative legislators that driving was significantly impaired at the .08% level that they felt just fine at. I think also part of the reason for the lower BAC% is that people are drinking less, being less acclimated to the effects of alcohol, and showing impairment at lower concentrations than before, but that is just my hypothesis, I have no way of testing it to raise it to the point of a theory.

Speaking of drunk drivers… $25,000 bond set for Patrick Ward, suspect accused of driving an SUV that hit and killed a cyclist This was the driver that was driving in the bike lane against the flow of traffic so he could make a left turn…

More on the NY cyclist that died from hitting a deer. Medical examiner: Blunt force trauma killed N. Salem bicyclist who hit deer Even though this cyclist was wearing a helmet, and did not hit an unyielding motor vehicle but instead hit a somewhat softer deer, he still got fatal massive blunt force trauma to his pelvis.

A salmon NH cyclist is hit. Girl hurt after plowing into side of car while riding her bicycle As has been said many times by many people, when you ride salmon drivers don’t look for you and just pull right out in front of you (or into you). This cyclist was lucky. Ride with traffic to avoid (and use intersection protocols) and get the infrastructure right so that a 12YO girl can use it.

Two NC cyclists (or one cyclist and a passenger) get hit. Two children riding bicycle struck by car, injured The children had just left their driveway when they were hit. intersection protocols to avoid, and slow down motor vehicles in residential areas to prevent. This makes 3 kids hit outside their or their friends’ homes while riding bikes in the last 7 days. That’s 3 kids too many.

A VT cyclist is Jerry Browned and injured. Rehoboth teen, 14, struck by van while riding his bicycle The cyclist was struck and injured, the bike was untouched. Hit-from-behind protocol to avoid, and a 3-foot law that is rigorously enforced to prevent if they don’t want to spend the money to build bicycle infrastructure.

An IL cyclist is killed. Bicyclist killed in collision with car in Schaumburg At this point LEO do not know who had right of way in this wreck (and I can’t get google maps to open up to check for a traffic control device) so I can’t tell you how to void this wreck beyond advising using intersection protocols. The fact that the cyclist had to cross a high-speed intersection without separation in time and space is an indictment against the infrastructure, which correcting would have prevented this wreck. The Dutch way would have had a grade separated crossing for this intersection.

A serious wreck in CA. Cyclists injured in Harris Grade Road crash While the article doesn’t say the pictures show bikes that have obviously been hit from behind by a vehicle moving at a high rate of speed. I mean you can see a shoe still clipped into the pedal and still tied which means the foot that had been in that shoe was removed violently. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent.

A NY police Explorer and cyclist does the right thing, and people are stunned. Greenburgh Police Explorer Keenan Assisted Injured Cyclist I don’t know what the big deal is, he just followed his training and used human compassion. Have we become that jaded that someone doing the right thing becomes big news?

A rigorous study in Canada shows little difference in head injuries between mandatory helmet provinces and those without helmet laws. Cycle Helmet Safety Laws Not Necessarily Reducing Head Injuries, Study Finds There are many factors that reduce head injury in people who voluntarily wear bicycle helmets compared to another group that does not. including riding style, condition of the bike, and other things I can’t think of off the top of my head.

UK cyclists are still livid over a serial cyclist killer getting only 300 hours of community service and a 5 year ban after his second victim. CTC and families of cyclists killed by same driver 25 years apart call for appeal against driver’s community service sentence and Tougher sentence demanded for driver who killed two cyclists also Cyclist Audrey Fyfe’s widower lodges complaint against driver’s sentence

From Oz more on the second driver convicted in a hit-and-run against a cyclist. Second man jailed over cyclist hit-and-run When I went back to get the headline the page had vanished and an “under construction” page was up in its place. So at this point I have no idea if you will be able to read this article when I post this.

Also from Oz a cyclist is rammed into a parked car. Rider, 50, injured at New Lambton And at this point that is all I know from this wreck, that the driver hit the cyclist from behind and rammed the cyclist into a parked car. I would say hit-from-behind protocols but the escape route was obstructed by storage of private property on the public right-of-way. That only leaves putting cyclists on the other side of the parked cars in a parking-protected cycle track.

Still in Oz, doctors reveal a steady stream of injured cyclists hit by cars through their ER doors. Cyclists hurt every week in Cairns say doctors The carnage of the road seems to mostly impact people not in cars…

South Africa is having a spate of hit-and-run lately. Avid cyclist killed in hit-and-run This is he second cyclist hit from behind while riding on the shoulder in a week. I have seen what “roads” are like in Africa and you don’t want to try to run off the pavement on a 23mm wide tire road bike unless you like pain and fixing broken wheels.

Lots of links for tonight’s RoS… Cyclists to participate in Ride of Silence to honor those injured, killed while riding and Cyclists to participate in Ride of Silence to honor those injured, killed while riding Same media outlet, same headline, two different stories? Also Murfreesboro bike ride will be in remembrance of MTSU student killed in February Another one Ride of Silence honors cyclists injured or killed on the road

And those are all the links that were still alive after I filtered the Feed, and gave me fits.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Stuff I can’t put in a headline, and the Feed

We have been under a pollen alert here at the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell since Monday, and yesterday and this morning were especially bad for yr fthfl scrb. As in I sneezed my way through most of the ritual planning session yesterday and woke to whiteout blindness after I managed to pry my eyelids apart (a two-handed pry job at that). We are in what one former church president called “tree bukkake” season as tree pollen is approaching toxic level for some people and several ambulance rides are requested for steroid shots and a couple cases of anaphylactic shock every day. Fun! I just personally call it “plants having sex in my sinuses”. Even more fun is that the only medication I can avail myself of puts me to sleep for almost as long as it relieves my symptoms, but at least I wake up able to open my eyes and see clearly. I try to remember to take an 8 hour dose right before I go to bed, but one of the other symptoms of an allergy attack for me is very fuzzy thinking. That combined with the memory loss I suffered via the brain injury makes taking meds that aren’t on my “habit” list to take every day hard to remember. The best I can do is to drink lots of fluids so that discharges are easily removed and not sight-obscuring. For me personally that means coffee, unsweetened ice tea, and sports drinks.

But other than that things are just fine.

First up is the rather rare report of someone that killed a cyclist facing criminal charges in TX. Man indicted in Austin cyclist’s death The driver was passing cars on the shoulder (a major traffic violation in TX) when he killed the cyclist, and I’m amazed they even got an indictment. Getting charges filed when a vulnerable road user gets killed in TX first has to overcome the “why wasn’t he in a car?” prejudice. Also finding a bike-friendly route in any urban area in TX requires either riding miles out of your way to avoid congested high-speed routes, or limiting oneself to a very small riding territory.

This was the first link that popped up in the Feed today. Michigan Bike Accident Lawyers at Buckfire & Buckfire Celebrate Bicycle Helmet Safety Week Aaand another lawyer posts the “85%” lie without checking on the source.

More on the Seattle rider killed by a semi on his commute. Riders honor cyclist killed in semi-truck accident What I have been finding through back-channels is that the pavement in the bike lane there is so bad that a cyclist needs three sets of eyes to safely navigate the route. One set to watch the road, one set to watch for traffic, and a third set to watch the signals to keep from running a red light.

A cyclist is cut off in the Caymans. Cyclist hit by car The narrative in this wreck makes it quite clear the cyclist had the right of way and the driver cut him off. Intersection protocols to avoid, and fix the infrastructure to prevent.

Since the driver died prior to the trial, this is mostly to find out what happened to this UK cyclist. Crash death cyclist tried to wave down her killer, inquest hears and Cyclist killed by lorry ‘waved at driver to stop him crashing into her’

Still in the UK an appeal is planned for the paltry sentence levied against a killer driver. Appeal considered in Audrey Fyfe case, daughter says allowing motorist to drive again “beyond comprehension” Cyclists are the “New Negro” in the UK, and the US as well. The penalties for killing a cyclist on the roads is similar to the penalties for lynching a Negro during the ’50s and early ’60s in Mississippi. More Disgust at cyclist killer’s sentence

From Oz a rare bike-on-bike wreck with serious injury. Cyclist badly hurt in crash Head-on wreck leaves one cyclist critically injured while the other walks away. Someone had to have been too far over to the other side of the track, or just both riding in the middle of an unmarked path. The solution of course is for cyclists to ride to one side of a wide and well-marked bike path, but lacking the wide and well-marked parts when meeting another rider you should slow down and move over (right i most of the world, left in those places where they drive on the wrong side of the road) More. Cyclist seriously injured in head-on crash

Infrastructure! news from MA. After Cyclist’s Death, Wellesley Struggles with Bike Safety The problem is attitudes and space, and there ain’t no space so attitudes are going to have to change.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today, less the motorcycle wrecks. Those give me fits too, but they just don’t have a place in this blog.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Bike month getting off to a ripping start, and the Feed

Yea, that is a sarcastic headline up there, minus the HTML sarcasm tags because for some reason WP hasn’t seen fit to implement that particular tag, probably because it hasn’t been standardized yet. If anyone reading this knows what the final standard is going to be on the sarcasm tag, please leave me a comment with an example of the tag in use and a spaced-remarked example of it in use. Seriously, this tag needed to be implemented like a decade ago, or more (just think about the epic USENET flame wars that could have been prevented had this tag been available in the late ’90s, USENET might still be a usable medium of exchange today).

A WA hit-and-run driver gets his almost 2 years after the wreck that killed a cyclist. In brief: Driver who killed cyclist sentenced Not long enough, and no mention of losing his license after getting out of prison.

The big story so far is the cyclist left-crossed in Canada over the weekend didn’t make it. Cyclist injured in Friday collision, dies in hospital and Two men die in hospital days after traffic collisions Left cross, use intersection protocols to avoid, and stop looking for excuses to run over cyclists as part of the way to prevent. “Sun glare” my well-shaped behind.

Also from Canuckistan is this weekend wreck. Cyclist killed in weekend accident Way too much victim-blaming in this article and way too little information. The wreck was a SWSS that the cyclist “swerved” from the sidewalk to get hit.

A little legal infrastructure trying to get installed in the UK. Comment: Driver liability would protect cyclists I don’t think this will get enforced until there is a major cultural swing in the UK, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. And the justice system in the UK is severely broken in regards to cyclists, which was mentioned a few times in the article.

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

Billed @€0.02, Opus

This post may be interrupted, and the Feed

Mrs. the Poet has decided that I am an asset for her part-time job as I can bend over to reach things she can’t and I’m taller to reach things she can’t, so she drags me with her and shares some of the money. Since this has to be done during the day I may have to suspend writing this post while I go help my wife. Yay! employment.

Up first, a cyclist is hit-and-run but LEO find the weapon vehicle with the engine still warm and arrest the driver. Valencia Woman Arrested After Newhall Hit-And-Run Investigation Intersection wreck, intersection protocols to avoid the wreck, fix the infrastructure to prevent, and kudos to the local LEO in this case for taking the assault with a deadly weapon seriously even though the cyclist may have run the stop sign.

Another blind driver hits and kills a cyclist. Cyclist hit by pickup, killed on Highway 20 Notice that the report did not say the cyclist was riding without lights or reflectors, just that he wasn’t wearing reflective clothing, IOW the cyclist is guilty because he wasn’t wearing the glow-in-the-dark clown costume the LEO or the reporter thought he should have been wearing. Hit-from-behind protocol to avoid, and enforcement of the law to not run into vehicles that are in front of you to prevent. More Thursday night crash claims bicyclist’s life

I’m not sure how to classify this article, it’s about the legal infrastructure but it’s more about attitudes towards vulnerable users than anything else. Anyway a ride in NYC to protest “No Criminality Suspected”. Cyclists draw a line; Demand accountability in car accidents The assumption of innocence should only start in the courtroom, until then investigate assuming a crime has been committed.

And it’s Saturday, so there must be a link about e-assist bikes in the folder. And here it is. Juiced Riders ODK Electric Cargo Bike Review I personally think the best use of e-assist on flat terrain is with cargo bikes, also the best use when the road slants up.

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

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Busy day today doing nothing, and the Feed

This is the last weekday of Mrs. the Poet’s week off, so we had a quiet lunch over at the Barnes & Noble’s Cafe. This is kind of a tradition with us, one or the other gets a B&N gift card for Christmas and over Spring Break we take a day off, go have lunch and buy a book or 2. It’s one of “those things” that we do because we have been married for decades and this is a reminder of when we first got together in college, hanging out in the library drinking free coffee in the lounge. The weather is warm again after being way too cool to have bare ears earlier this week, but it has been very windy. It was so bad that when I was riding crosswind it was very difficult to keep Blue upright approaching and leaving a stop sign.

From NC a cyclist goes around one vehicle in the crosswalk and hits another, and nobody gets a ticket? Cyclist not seriously injured after hitting a car at Innes and Main streets Read the narrative, the cyclist was riding on the sidewalk and tried to get around vehicles stopped at a red light, one of which was so far forward as to make it easier to go around the back of the vehicle… But nobody even got a ticket.

More on the wreck in CA where a cyclist was hit from behind in a bike lane. Cyclist Killed on San Tomas Expressway Was a Cautious Rider Combine this with the eyewitness that the driver made a “sudden swerve” behind the cyclist, and we have a wreck that was not avoidable by human cyclists.

More on the cyclist killed by a train in UT. Cyclist killed by TRAX train identified This was exactly what I surmised from the early reports yesterday, the cyclist saw the first train cross and didn’t wait for the second one because he didn’t see it and I guess just presumed the crossing signals were malfunctioning.

One of the minor joys of riding a bike is being better connected to the environment and neighborhood, but there is a slight downside… A Nose Knows Particularly if you live in a neighborhood with lots of great restaurants. All we have is a doughnut shop that is usually closed when I’m out and about in the evenings.

Last links are to a story that has nothing to do with bicycles but much to say about the priorities in VA. New $100 hybrid fee applies to electric mopeds, too and Should electric mopeds be subject to the $100 fee for alternative vehicles? That comes to 11-12% of initial retail cost per year for e-mopeds, vs less than 0.1% for motor vehicles. A comparison would be charging more than $5k for an SUV, per year.

And those are all the links that gave me fits, except for the UK links. Those won’t do anything except raise your blood pressure.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Another kind of Mule Duty, and the Feed

Mrs. the Poet is off from her work removing the flavor from children’s food as this is Spring Break at her school, so we have been Doing Things around the house. Today’s “thing” is washing the comforter and mattress pad from our queen-sized bed. Our washing machine is not large enough to handle a queen-sized comforter, and neither is the dryer. I think you see where this is heading, to the local laundromat. I can just about fit the comforter or the mattress pad into the ALICE ruck, and it is 0.58 miles to the laundromat, so I help Mrs. the Poet to the laundromat while I carry either the pad or the comforter, ride home empty, get whatever I didn’t take the first time and go back to the laundromat while Mrs. the Poet starts the first item washing, get the second item washing then the first drying, when the first item gets dry take it home while the second dries, dump the first item on the bed then go back to the laundromat to get the second item and Mrs. the Poet. Then early dinner, and off to meditation class (I am a backup teacher for the ADD and ADHD people). I have a daily meditation practice that I do, and the world is safer for it.

Up first a cyclist is hit from behind on a clear day in broad daylight. Campbell: Bicyclist struck and killed on San Tomas Expressway, driver detained and Bicyclist Killed on San Tomas Expressway AFAIK at this time the cyclist was JRA on the shoulder of the road when the driver drifted into the shoulder and nailed him from behind… And as I was creating this the second link updated with witness reports that the cyclist was hit “a couple feet” over in the shoulder/bike lane, with the driver making a “sudden swerve” to the right just as she got to the cyclist. If that is the case then there was nothing the cyclist could have done to avoid this wreck, and only segregated infrastructure with a barrier big enough to stop a car would have prevented it. I guess we have a new acronym MWHD (pronounced “mud”) for Multiple Witness Homicidal Driver.

From MO a woman that killed a cyclist gets a slap on the wrist. Kirkwood woman who killed cyclist in drunk driving crash gets 3 years That headline is misleading, she actually got 1 year with an option for 2 more if she really screws up in prison. Given the amount of alcohol in her system this could not have been her first time driving drunk, because she should have been nearly comatose.

And from the state that has been the most deadliest to walk or ride a bicycle in the US for 8 years running (pending release of the 2012 data) a partial explanation why. Woman who hit and killed a cyclist on Sanibel pleads guilty to pill fraud This woman actually got a harsher sentence for buying pills than she got for killing a cyclist with those pills in her system.

Infrastructure! news from the next town to the south. The New Jefferson Viaduct Cycletrack The only problems I see are getting on and off the cycletrack from the shared lanes at the ends of the bridge. That looks a little dicey for an 8YO to figure out.

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

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Getting very busy this day, and the Feed

February is a very busy month here at Casa De El Poeta (got the Correct Translation this time). Oldest and Youngest children have birthdays that are separated by only 4 days (and 3 years), and 10 days after that is wedding anniversary, which makes February almost as busy and expensive a month as December. Today after I finish the blog post I will be going to Plano to have too much to eat at a restaurant with the birthday kids, then back to church for Vegetarian Pot Luck and ritual scheduling (where ritualists are assigned dates to serve their duty to the rest of the congregation). And tomorrow after morning service Blue and I will be going to the not-so-wilds of Oak Cliff for the parade, then back to Casa De El Poeta for a quick snack (maybe), then evening services. That means that more than likely there will be no Wreck Free Sunday blog post tomorrow (boo!).

Another story on the report from Jolly Olde that fewer people are getting hurt in cars but more cyclists and pedestrians are getting seriously hurt or killed. Number of cyclists killed and seriously injured rises again This article also points out that there were similar rises in the category “anyone not actually in the car at the time of the wreck”. So cars are better at protecting occupants in the wreck, which leads to drivers having more wrecks (?) maybe. It is a fact that drivers are hitting more people walking, riding bicycles, and riding motorcycles, which strongly infers that drivers are just hitting more of everything but because cars are safer for occupants fewer people are getting hurt in the cars.

And also from the UK a primer on what to do after the car hits you. Injured cyclists must use their rights Most important thing to remember is to always, always, ask for medical attention after getting hit by(with) a car or other motor vehicle. Adrenaline can completely anesthetize any injury until several minutes after the actual injury. This was to allow a person to escape a dangerous situation even with serious injury that they might recover from if they could just get away. When you’re hunting mastodons this is a good adaptation, when the beasts are metal and have human pilots it’s mostly not-so-good. Always get checked out by medical personnel after impact with motor vehicles.

An Olympic cyclist discovers that e-assist makes riding a bike a fun thing to do again. Currie Tech Teams Up with ’84 Olympic Cycling Silver Medalist, Nelson Vails to Promote “Getting More People on Bikes!” When an Olympic silver medalist says “This makes me feel like a kid on a bike again” I consider that a Good Thing.

And those are all the links I have today. I had to take a break in the middle of doing the post to go have lunch with the end kids to help them celebrate their birthdays and next week I’ll be celebrating my wedding anniversary, too. Whoo-hoo!

Billed @$0.02, Opus

The new gear gets a test ride, and the Feed

Of the new gear I got from Alertshirts.com yesterday I have managed to give 2 items a test ride of sorts. I wore one of the long sleeve Ts on a ride to deposit a check (14.5 miles RT) and was pleased with the balance between keeping the wind off my skin preventing excess cooling and the wicking action pulling sweat away keeping my skin dry and cooling me but not too much. IOW it worked like a long sleeve wicking jersey but at a fraction of the price. The other item I wore was the wicking polo that I wore to a party to see if anyone could tell it was part of my cycling gear. Nobody could tell it was wicking or had any clue that it was actually visibility gear, they just thought it was another of my brightly colored shirts that I sometimes wear to parties to help make them “festive”. I can’t make any judgments about the wicking ability of the polo shirt, the most strenuous thing I did all night was eating a half-pound cheeseburger and walking to the restroom.

Up first a wreck that has not been fully investigated yet in OK. Bike rider dies after being hit As of the posting of this link all that had been released was the fact that the wreck happened, what happened is still up for grabs, so I’ll keep watching this story to see what develops. And develop it has. Altus Police Investigating Fatal Car-On-Bike Collision It seems this is a hit-from-behind wreck of a lighted and reflectorised cyclist and a hit-and-run to boot. Prediction: the driver will claim he “didn’t see” anything when he hit the cyclist and didn’t stop because he has the IQ of a mule and just ignored an impact that tore pieces from his truck and left them scattered in the road.

Lots of links to this UK story about the low value placed on lives not carried inside motor vehicles. Taxi driver fined £35 after cyclist’s death and Taxi driver who killed a cyclist and carried his body on car bonnet for 90 metres before smashing into a tree is fined just £35 also Taxi driver fined £35 after killing Birmingham cyclist Even Daily Mail readers are aghast at this exhibition, normally they are there with the torches and pitchforks at the slightest bicyclist transgression. AFAIK and not being an expert on the UK justice system by any means, much of the problem with this case came from the court it was tried in. Basically the only way that there could have been a stiffer sentence imposed would have been for the magistrate to have refused to hear the case on the grounds that it exceeded his authority. In US terms this was a Justice of the Peace hearing a murder case, and only having limited fines and tiny jail sentences at his disposal.

In contrast to the previous story, a court with real authority can impose significant amounts of prison time when deserved. Drivers have a responsibility to be aware of cyclists, says judge This case resulted in both an admonishment to all drivers to watch what was in front of them on the roads as well as a prison term and loss of driving privileges. Still not appropriate to the crime, but several orders of magnitude greater than the previous story.

And that’s all I have today. After I post this I have to go put some lube on my chain, as it has been too cold to apply my particular brand of chain lube (50°F or warmer required for the carrier oil to take the dissolved solid lubricant inside the links) until recently.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Running late but not much to say, and the Feed

Had another session with the widow woman yesterday, and had to wait for her sleep meds to wear off before I could come back. Instead of coming straight home we stopped at the local Harbor Freight and picked up some stuff I needed for camping and working on bikes. The most important item on the list was a charger that lets me do single-cell charges on my AA size NiMH rechargeables. The other charger I have only allows charging in pairs which means that for those things that used 3 AA batteries I was up the unsanitary tributary without visible means of locomotion as far as using rechargeable batteries was concerned. This includes many bicycle lights and flashlights. But now that’s no longer a concern as I have a single-cell to 4 cells charger that cuts off automatically to prevent overcharging.

Up first because that was what I clicked on first is a link to a hit-from-behind in MA. 60-year-old cyclist killed in Westfield LEO need to subpoena his online activities and see if he ever posted that he would run a cyclist over instead of passing safely, because that’s what the driver did in this case. And I have read too many posts on Boston.com that had comments that said either exactly that or something very similar to that. Anyway, hit-from-behind, use the protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent. And start executing drivers that kill.

Next folder had 2 links to a hit-and-run in NYC. Cyclist Critically Injured in Apparent Hit-and-Run in Brooklyn, Police Say and my favorite NYC local news outlet said Cyclist Critically Injured In Bushwick Hit And Run At this point NYPD has not released any details about the wreck that would allow my making a determination about conclusively avoiding or preventing this wreck, but based on what I know no I can say that they were in an intersection and that intersection protocols might have helped avoid this wreck and that getting the infrastructure right would have prevented it. Also see the last sentence of the previous paragraph.

A cyclist is hit-from-behind in CA. UPDATED: Bicyclist killed after being hit by car on Highway 299 At this point there is much speculation about why the driver hit the cyclist bu no hard facts. Another case of protocols to avoid, maybe, and fix the infrastructure to prevent. Also another one to check the driver’s online comments.

A killer driver faces charges in the death of a cyclist in the Great White North. Driver charged in September crash that killed cyclist They left off murder charges so the driver probably wasn’t on the Internet, or never made any comments to a link about a bicycle wreck. The wreck was a hit-from-behind where the driver hit 3 cyclists. This tells me that the protocols would have been ineffective even if used (maybe the survivors did use the protocols), and that the only thing that would have positively prevented the wreck would be infrastructure.

A rare UK link. Cyclist Alan Mort death: Judge warning after John Evans jailed Seldom do you read such a thing in UK media, that the judge actually warns other drivers to be more carefull or face a similar outcome. Also seldom do you see a sentence of prison handed down in the death of a cyclist, most get community service or a small fine. Even the driving ban was higher than usual for killing a cyclist (sometimes there is NO ban). So not only a rare link from the UK for this blog, but a rare link for the UK in general based on content.

Last up I have an Infrastructure! story that will knock your socks off. Death By Dooring? House Speaker Howell Thinks It’s Funny also An open-and-shut case of Assembly’s foolishness and “Dooring” Bill — Yes, it is About the Bike I was amazed that it’s legal to throw a door into the path of a cyclist or the actual cyclist and there is nothing police can do, any damages are the fault of the cyclist, not the driver that throws the door in front of him. There oughtta be a law! Well if this passes there will be a law.

And except for one link I lost while trying to put it in the post, those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Dealing with a strange kind of inertia, and the Feed

I have been noticing lately, but starting before my Dad died, that I have a great deal of “inertia” in my daily life. If my mind was a physical object it would weigh tons. I have a great deal of trouble getting coherent and out of bed in the morning, and even more trouble shutting things down at night and getting to sleep. The car analogy would be a full-size SUV with a yard kart motor and brakes that takes a long time to get going and is even harder to stop. I don’t know what causes this. I just know I don’t like it. I would like to be able to fix it, somehow.

Another day of scant links in the Feed, with nothing from North America at all. I see other blogs that have lots of links so I think there is something wrong with the search function coding in the service I use to find my links.

Up first is a guy that died after running into a tree in Oz. Bike rider dies after tree collision Notice that the cyclist’s mandatory helmet was totally ineffective at preventing his death in this single vehicle wreck. To avoid, control your speed and stay on the paved portion of the bicycle path.

From the UK the first of 2 stories showing how cycling is treated by their judicial system. Sam Harding bicycle death: Kenan Aydogdu cleared of manslaughter For those who haven’t been following this one, the driver had illegal window tints installed that had only 17% transmission making seeing in almost impossible and severely limiting outward visibility, so the cyclist could not move away from the vehicle in response to the driver moving inside anticipating the driver’s opening the door. Then witnesses stated the driver opened the door directly in the path of the cyclist in one movement. The driver claimed to have only opened the door a crack to look behind before opening it, which to my mind takes this from “tragic accident” to “deliberate act of assault” because if he cracked it for a look back and then opened it fully into the cyclist he had to have done so deliberately. Then he was acquitted. TANJ!

Second UK link to a terrible tragedy made worse by the courts. ‘£2,700 fine is an insult’, says father of critically injured cyclist Mary Bowers To recap, cyclist waiting at red light is run over from behind by a semi driver when the light changed. He was fined $4,365.36 US for effectively killing a cyclist but not totally killing her, she’s just enough “alive” that they can’t pull the plug on her. Also he’s prohibited from driving for 8 months, another slap on the wrist.

And those are all the links that were still live in the Feed today. This isn’t even all the news that gave me fits, just all the news that showed in the Feed folder.

Billed @$0.02, Opus