An all-Oz Feed today

Well there wasn’t much useful in the Feed this morning, very bad signal to noise ratio and all that. Translated there was an awful lot of non-cycling reports in there with much gore and stupidity, that I have spared you from. You’re welcome.

We have 2 stories to report on this morning both from Oz and both a bit stupid. The first is something that we have experienced in the US several times. Barbed wire, spikes found near picnic spot Yes another idiot taking it upon himself to prevent people from doing things he doesn’t like (and in these stories it is invariably a male) and potentially killing or permanently injuring someone. I hope they catch the guy and put him away for his own safety.

And another salvo in the never-ending war over bicycle helmet laws from the UK via Oz. Name’s the game It’s a bit down the page look for this headline before the paragraph: “Heading for trouble” I have already made my views known on helmet laws, I won’t waste bandwidth restating them here.

And that’s the distilled wisdom from the Feed for this morning. More later as I catch it.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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They snuck one by me

This is a local to me story, about the first bike lanes in Dallas in their planning stages. Bicycle Lanes Coming to Dallas Wow! there was an earlier report. This Katy Trail Arts Loop Sounds Interesting. But That’s a Lot of Green. I’m of 2 minds about bike lanes as opposed to Vehicular Cycling. On the one hand bike lanes are known and proven to increase bike share, as opposed to bike paths that usually go nowhere. They do create almost as many problems as they solve, however. (Google Tracy Sparling and Brett Jarolmek in Portland, getting killed by heavy trucks turning across the bike lane). On the other hand, educating drivers that sharing the roads doesn’t mean for bicycles to get the hell out of the way is very cost effective, and applies to every road, not just the one that has a bike lane. Also in favor of education is the attitude that when bike lanes are built that is the only place bicycles can be, when in fact they can be on the roads anyplace whether there is a bike lane or not.

I would like to see some bike lanes in Dallas County, it’s the most populous metropolitan area in the world without bike lanes. I think all the 40 MPH and faster roads should have segregated bike lanes, which is basically all the through roads in the County.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Bad wrecks and updated reports

We had a bunch of updated reports and multiples today, and some really bad new wrecks to tell you about. There was more from that hit-and-run in Bangalore, an update on the wreck in Oz, and a report on yet another cyclist killed in FL.

Getting to the FL cyclist killed, the 5th since the start of the new year, he was walking his bike across the intersection when he was hit. St. Petersburg bicyclist killed on U.S. 19 and Pedestrian Struck, Killed By Truck The report that there was a second car that was slowing coming to the intersection, that the cyclist was walking his bike through the intersection, and the Streets View leads me to believe that the driver that hit the cyclist was running a red light.

A hit-and-run in Toledo. Bicyclist killed in hit-skip in East Toledo He left the house around 5AM and they found the body at 6:45, but they don’t say how far from the house nor which direction he was traveling, out bound or in bound. Really there isn’t much I can tell you about this wreck, as the only witness to survive the wreck left the scene, and they won’t know what he died from until they do the autopsy tomorrow. They’ll be able to tell which direction he got hit from and what got hit the worst, and maybe recover some bits from the impacting vehicle (aka The Murder Weapon). I’ll keep an eye on this one.

An update on that wreck from Oz that killed one and severely injured a second cyclist of 3 in a group. Cyclist on life support after fatal accident Unfortunately Oz media laws are patterned after UK laws so other than they got hit from behind by a vehicle that wandered into their lane, I can’t say anything about the wreck itself, what happened to the driver or anything else. To avoid check six constantly as all the threats in this situation come from behind at a high rate of speed.

And the Indian press is having a field day on the wreck in Bangalore this weekend as 3 pedestrians and a cyclist are killed instantly. Four killed in Bangalore hit-and-run accident and Car mows down three morning walkers, cyclist The picture of the killer’s wrecked car is a little chilling, as you can see where each individual was hit.

And that’s today’s Feed, keep an ocular pointed in this direction for more news.

Billed @$.02, Opus