In recovery mode today, and a tsunami of a Feed

The weekend was hectic with much travelling from place to place involved, having to be in two places far removed at the same time or as near the same time as makes no difference. I need to unwind and find my center again, but I have all the feed for Saturday, yesterday, and today that still needs to be filtered and e-mails that need to be read and replied to, and I need to do this blog post. I know, first world “problems”, but still stressors that need to be dealt with, organised and taken care of to get on with the rest of my life. Of course the easiest thing to reduce my stress would be to stop posting to this blog, but that is only the surface approach. In reality I need this blog as something to anchor my day, something I have to do every day (with the occasional time off for good behavior) to keep me sane. This is my job for the moment, and I intend to do a good job to the best of my abilities. And did I mention I need to go shopping tomorrow? First world stress…

Lots of links, which took more than 5 hours to filter. I will not be looking for additional links like I usually do because I had 12 pages of links to wade through to find these nuggets. Up first is a wreck/infrastructure report as NYPD seems to have decided that pedestrian and cyclists need to leave the city to drivers and stop getting hit. Lost Evidence, “Biased” Investigation Cited In NYPD’s Probe Of Killed Cyclist Mathieu Lefevre The police reports just keep getting worse and worse. Now they are saying there was blood and paint transfer on the weapon vehicle that was not tested for connection with the wreck. Also the cyclist’s helmet was removed at the scene and allowed to wash down the storm drain with the blood from the wreck as part of the biohazard cleanup.

Still in NYC another cyclist is hit-from-behind. 17-Year-Old Cyclist Hit and Killed by Truck in Harlem and 17-Year-Old Cyclist Struck, Killed By Truck In Harlem There was a picture of the weapon vehicle in the first link, but after using the meager photo-enhancing tools at my disposal I can’t figure out which of the several impact sites visible on the front of the van was the one where the driver killed the cyclist. The one picture I can see of the bicycle doesn’t show the back of the bike so I can’t use that to match the damage to the impact site. The witness report makes it sound like the most probable impact site was the bend in the front bumper and grill slightly to the left of center but the injury report was talking about what sounded like chest trauma as he suddenly started bleeding out about 3 minuted after the impact. Had that been head trauma there would have been blood everywhere immediately.

A Tucson cyclist was plastered when he was hit. Cyclist killed in crash had ‘significant’ amount of alcohol and marijuana in system Yeah, that’s a major faux pas for cyclists, getting drunk and stoned then getting hit by multiple cars, especially when you have 3 times the legal limit for drivers in your system, plus pot.

A wreck that is all too easy to avoid. Man on Bicycle Killed by Train in Tucson and Cyclist killed by train in downtown Tucson had just left BICAS The second link points out that the cyclist’s natural path from his point of origin would have placed him in the middle of the street after the crossing arms came down, that his point of origin was already past the crossing arms for his direction of travel. This is an infrastructure defect that needs to be addressed as there must be no way for a driver or cyclist to leave a building almost directly in the path of a train. Still this is the easiest wreck to avoid of the ones I regularly report on, just look for the train when you’re near the tracks and get away from the tracks if one is coming. Particularly if the train is a freight train, those are very loud and easy to avoid,

The only link that survived after the filtering process of a man killed in Yonkers while riding a bicycle. Bicyclist killed in accident with car You would think this was reported in a UK news outlet from all the information in the article…

Another link to the SWSS wreck in AL. Cyclist injured in downtown Gadsden wreck in critical condition Assuming that the report is accurate as to the cyclist’s whereabouts immediately prior to the wreck, the take-away from this wreck is to look before entering the road from the sidewalk, just as you would from a driveway.

Two links to a wreck involving a college cycling racer from wildly different parts of the country. Lees-McRae cyclist killed in collision Where the wreck was and Hurst cycling enthusiast killed in North Carolina accident from down the road where she was raised. The driver fell asleep and crossed the centerline to hit the cyclist head-on, not a wreck that could be avoided by mere humans. Another link Must Reads: Collegiate cyclist killed in collision; USA Cycling names 2011 Clubs of Year

First of several links out of Oz, a child cyclist doesn’t even get all the way out of the driveway before he gets hit by a car. Child injured in reversal accident There’s no way for a child to avoid a wreck like this as both were preparing to leave and the child left first, but the driver left before the child cleared the driveway.

More from Oz. Cyclists at the mercy of a me, me culture It doesn’t matter how many bike lanes they paint on the street if drivers try to kill you when you have to cross the roads, or people punch you in the face at random places in the bike lane, or casually throw their car doors open in your path.

Another wreck where the cyclist was pretty much left to deal with all the problems. Cyclist recalls horror smash The cyclist was hit-from-behind while riding legally with a friend by a vehicle that was doing about the same speed as the guy that hit me. Only I fared a lot better than he did.

Infrastructure! from my old stomping grounds in the Intermountain region. New bike turn box introduced on Main Street in Salt Lake City Things certainly have changed since I moved away back in the late 1970s.

Infrastructure news from the UK as people are starting to wake up the roads designed to move as many cars as possible to the exclusion of all other modes of travel end up not serving anybody well. Greens blame Boris for rise in cycle casualties and Cycle crash victim’s brother criticises politicians and Guardian Focus podcast: are Britain’s roads safe for cyclists?

And that’s all the news that gives me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus