The Feed looks like the dog’s breakfast again

Yes the Feed was a bit scattered again today, with more motorcycle wrecks than all the bicycle stories combined. There was one story in my feed of a skateboarder accident in the road that I guess made my Feed because the first responder on the scene was a bicycle cop…

A “cute” story has an unusual first “responder” to a bike wreck. Smart Hound Aids Injured Biker Yes the first “responder” on scene was a 7 month old Labrador puppy. I have to give the pup credit for being able to tell the cyclist was injured just by seeing him on the ground. Good dog!

Some are incredulous at how many cyclists are riding without helmets. Most adults ride without helmets As most of my regular readers know I advocate that everyone wear a helmet every time they ride. I also am adamantly opposed to mandatory helmet laws until the standard for bicycle helmets is raised to cover an impact with a motor vehicle at normal traffic speeds.

In one CA community they are considering bicycles in their transportation master plan. Bicycle master plan calls for cyclists, drivers to share the road The plan is for cyclists to ride on the roads with motor vehicle users without educating drivers that bicycles have the right to use those roads, while giving lip service to educating cyclists about their rights…

From Jolly Olde is another report on someone getting hurt by a motor vehicle, details in 8 months to a year. Cyclist injured [sarcasm]Yes, that was a deeply informative article with great detail on the actual wreck. [/sarcasm]

Another report from the UK is this report on a hit-and-run. Teen cyclist injured in hit and run The irony here is this would not have even merited a mention in US media, it wouldn’t have even gotten a police report in many jurisdictions. But in the UK we have the media report but they are legally prohibited from actual reporting the crime, they’re only allowed to report the existence of the crime.

And finishing up we have a rare English language report on bicycle and other roads user’s fatalities. Pedestrian deaths top fatalities among vehicle riders for first time since 1974 What is interesting was the number of bicyclist fatalities was so much higher than in the US when we killed 698 to their 717 when the populations are so much higher in the US. As another point of comparison we killed 30,401 inside motor vehicles compared to Japan killing 5,115 total on the roads for a ratio of 6.134:1 for Japan and 43.554 for the US, 7.100423866970981 times more bicycle fatalities per motor vehicle fatality for Japan.

And that’s all I have for today. More later as it comes in unless it comes in when I’m at church tonight at the Drum Jam in which case I won’t get to it until tomorrow morning.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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FL kills another cyclist, and other stuff

The evening Feed had more death and carnage, and more actual articles that had something to do with bicycles than the morning Feed.

And going with the headline of this blog post, there was another cyclist killed in FL. Brooksville bicyclist killed in hit-and-run this makes 6 this year and we haven’t even finished the first month yet. This being a hit-and-run makes it even worse than usual.

In OH police charge a driver that hit a cyclist with vehicular homicide. Driver charged in cyclist’s death When this blog was hosted on MySpace I reported on this wreck, and at the time I posted that the cyclist had done everything right, that the driver that hit him was at fault, and it turns out I was right. I hope they throw the book at him, Webster’s Unabridged…

And from Oz another hit-and-run driver is arrested. Man arrested after cyclist death Other than he struck a cyclist and ran there isn’t much information available from the article. I could only speculate as to why the driver ran or even who he hit or how.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Rant on accountability behind the wheel

I was sent to a post in the blog of the guy that wrote the book Traffic on bills before the legislatures of 2 states making killing someone while breaking traffic laws more serious than a ticket, as is happening now in many states. A mother’s death, a son’s loss deepens. There are other stories out there if you choose to go looking for them, but that example has some egregious examples of the situation taking place.

In the blog How We Drive author Tom Vanderbilt writes about bills before the legislatures of MD and WA that would lower the bar for bringing felony charges when traffic laws are broken and people get killed. ‘A Culture of Accountability on Our Roads’ The fact that someone can speed, run red lights, and break other traffic laws, and only get a ticket, or even several tickets, for killing someone. To quote my wife “That ain’t right!”

For my state rep Joe Driver, if you or your legislative assistant are reading this blog, TX needs this law, or a similar law. For most people they thought there was already a law like this, the fact that killing or seriously injuring someone while breaking traffic laws is not considered a felony or even a serious misdemeanor.

Billed @$.02, Opus