Well I had a 31 mile round trip to Allen today to talk to bureaucrats about roads, and you can imagine how much fun that was. The 15 1/4 mile out trip wasn’t too bad, but the half mile I added wandering around Allen City Hall looking for the bike rack didn’t help matters any. The bike rack there is kinda stuck in a bush that grew out of the landscaping all over the rack, which makes it hard to find. But I did eventually and locked the bike up and also tested out a new product, The Helmet Lock. More on that in a later post as I get more time with the product.
The news for cyclists is still that there is stimulus money that has to be spent on bike/pedestrian projects and that there are projects going to use that money. That’s the good news, The bad news is in the mean time there are going to be a lot of highway projects going down that will have absolutely no provisions for bicycle use other than pavement. As an example there is a project going down just a couple of miles from my house I never knew about until the bids were tabulated and accepted, widening SH78 from 4 lanes divided with no shoulder, to 6 lanes and a 4 foot shoulder for bicycles, which if there is just grass past the edge of the shoulder will be enough but just barely. If there is a curb there then 4 feet is not going to be enough as the trash that normally gets blown off the roads will collect at the curb, depriving cyclists of the use of that section of pavement forcing riders closer to the traffic lanes which will be going 70+ MPH. And that’s just an example of the “stuff” I have to wade through at one of these meetings. Now add that to having to read the information packet Which can have as many as 40 pages of projects and changes to projects that you get to look at for a few minutes before the presentations and which you have to comment about after the presentations. The things I do for you 😉
Up first is the news that a cyclist that wrecked on a MUP over the weekend has died from his injuries. Accident a reminder to ride safely and Loop Trail bicyclist dies Wear a helmet, watch where you’re going, and don’t wreck.
A 5 YO cyclist is hit by a car and the car driver is at fault. Bicyclist struck and injured by car Yep the kid was doing exactly what the law said he had to do and the (other) kid in the car still hit him. Because of the description I can’t say how you could avoid a similar wreck, maybe not riding on the sidewalk? I really don’t know.
When I saw the name of this publication I thought the wreck was down the road in Austin TX, but it turns out the wreck was in MN instead. Bicyclist injured in crash The cyclist never saw the car and the driver never saw the bicycle. You have to pay attention to keep your body parts intact, and wearing a helmet would have helped in this wreck, and some others. Just so you know, wearing helmets seldom has a downside because even when it doesn’t help much it seldom hurts.
What appears to be a side on collision with a bicycle that might have been running a red light. Bicyclist critically injured in collision with vehicle I don’t know what happened exactly, except that someone ran the red light for both the vehicles to be in the intersection. As for how you can avoid a similar wreck, for the scenario that had the bicycle running the red light, red means stop. Now if the van ran the red light, you just have to be very alert when entering an intersection.
Another report on that hit-and-run wreck in Houston where a bicycle was run over from behind. Bicyclist Killed By Hit & Run Driver Standard hit-from-behind advice applies: Mirror(s), escape route, and a willingness to bail either to your escape route or from the bike.
I keep saying that some drivers are using their vehicles as weapons against the cyclist, but this one even the police are convinced. Police: Car-bicycle crash in Des Moines was not an accident Yes, cars driving at night without headlights are bad news. 😉
A lawyer weighs in on the DUI wreck of a cyclist in FL that left the cyclist severely injured by a man on his 5th DUI while out on bond from his fourth while waiting for the trial. Bicyclist Critical After Hit By Five Time DUI Offender I have already posted my thoughts on this wreck last week.
Another Canuckistani cyclist is killed on the roads. Cyclist killed in collision on Mons Road OK for those who don’t know what’s going on I submitted the question if I should stop calling the Canadian provinces Manitoba on west Canuckistan and Ontario and east Canadia, and the votes came back tied zero to zero, so I’m still calling western provinces Canuckistan, which makes residents of the area Canuckistani. Aside from the location and direction of travel of the cyclist there was nothing about the wreck to indicate what happened except that the cyclist went from one road onto the road where he was hit.
The cyclist killed by the angry politician was First Peoples (Canadian term for Native American) and was memorialized by his people. Memorial ceremony held for cyclist killed in high-profile altercation You Tube videos showed the cyclist getting knocked off his bike in a hit from behind wreck and when the cyclist got back up the guy ran him down again and the cyclist grabbed the side of the car to keep from getting run over, the question then becomes why he hit the cyclist the first time, and then tried to hit him again the second time. I can see the first time being an accident, but why the second time?
In the UK a truck driver is basically exonerated for hitting a cyclist, but convicted of tampering with the evidence after the hit-and-run. Lorry driver faces jail after cyclist killed I don’t understand this, he was found innocent of hitting the cyclist, but guilty of perverting the course of justice? Just who was perverting the course of justice here?
And final article is about a bunch of loonies that claim it’s too dangerous to mix bicycles and motor vehicles on county roads in IA. Bicycle ban petition sparks debate Here’s a suggestion: lower the speed limit to 35 MPH so that cars have the time to react when there is a bicycle on the road and also fast enough that cyclists training to race don’t bust the speed limits.
Sorry this was so late, it took a while to filter and compose.
Billed @$.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 