No the Feed isn’t glazed over, the ground outside my house is glazed over, with ice. There ain’t much moving out there, and what is moving isn’t moving very fast if they’re smart. There are also a lot of stupid people out there sliding off the roads and into ditches, light poles, and each other. Wheeeeeee! What is really unfortunate is that I know what to do about this to make my bike ridable in these conditions but this is likely to be the last ice storm until next winter, which means that I would be investing either large amounts of money or time in preparing for an event that will happen at most twice a year. The local agencies that are responsible for the roads are in the same situation, and are woefully unprepared for the situation as their budgets are not equipped to handle ice removal on any large scale. A light glazing of bridges and overpasses which happens several times a year they are prepared for, this mess is beyond the capacity of the equipment…
Getting to the Feed and away from local weather we have an infrastructure report from Folsom CA. Mayor: There is some good news in Folsom The bicycle part of the story is that after Homeland Security closed the roads over all the dams in the country to prevent terrorists from blowing them up, the city of Folsom created a new bridge to carry the same traffic, but with bike and pedestrian facilities. As for blowing up dams, when I did this stuff for the Gov’t back in the 1970s dams were one of our favorite targets, because a small bomb with a pressure switch detonator could take out a dam, slowly, which would give the populace enough time to evacuate if their government was on the ball about watching for signs of dam collapse. Ours isn’t. ‘Nuff said.
A 13 YO girl outside Shreveport LA is injured crossing I20. Updated: Teen injured crossing I-20 on bicycle I don’t know why she was trying to cross the Interstate, but there’s a reason why crossing Interstate highways is illegal, and the results here illustrate why.
The rest of this morning’s Feed is from outside North America, starting with this report from the UK. Castle Hedingham: Hit and run leaves cyclist injured Fortunately the cyclist suffered mainly road rash and a few bruises.
Also from Jolly Olde: Cyclist, 77, injured in collision They didn’t say what color the van was, so no way of knowing if White Van Man attacked again. 😉 I’m being flippant about this because the cyclist was listed as being shaken up and bruised but not seriously injured.
Still from the UK another cyclist was shaken, not stirred. Cyclist injured in road crash Treated at the scene and allowed to leave would not have even gotten a police report in TX, much less a mention in the paper. This must have been one of the most gentle car/bicycle wrecks on record.
And from Oz, the idiot that did a swoop and squat on a whole group of cyclists is defending himself at the trial. Man represents himself over cyclist pile-up The lawyer that represents himself at trial has an idiot for a client. Old saying but true in this circumstance. He was an idiot for doing the swoop and squat, and he’s a double idiot for trying to do his own defense at the trial.
And that’s everything from this morning, remember what the little girl said and watch this space…
Billed @$.02, Opus