Got hit again, still on an adrenaline rush, and the Feed

Um, yeah. I had to go out on the bike today, and some numb-nuts in an older model pickup truck ran into me passing on the right pulling up to a red light. I don’t mean “as we approached the red light”, I mean less than a truck length from the light he hit me from the right (almost) passing in my lane. If I hadn’t been riding bicycles in the street since LBJ was sworn in I would have been seriously injured or killed, because there was no place for me to go if I got knocked down except under some trucks, either the guy passing me or the guy in the left turn lane on my left. This makes twice this year I have been hit and managed to stay upright only because I had mad bike skillz, and twice I have been hit on that street this year. The ironic thing is I was hit on a through residential street, one of the few here in the suburbs of Hell, with a speed limit of only 35 MPH (in TX the minimum speed limit is 30, so a 35 MPH street is considered slow and quiet). The ironic thing is because I have been training for drag racing I was using that particular stretch of road as a speed workout and was pushing 18 MPH into a slight headwind (remember I’m riding a bike with the riding position of a Dutch city bike with 2 40 pound capacity kitty-litter buckets on the back, about as aerodynamic as a parachute). I know I was putting out some serious watts at the time. And any minute now I’m going to have an adrenaline crash that will be monumental in its intensity. [SLUMP]

In spite of my experience today there were very few links to actual bicycle wrecks in the Feed today, but there were lots of motorcycle wrecks mostly by racers on race tracks testing new bikes with new tires or new tire compounds for old bikes, the state of the art never being stagnant. There were also a few people getting hit riding skateboards in the bike lanes.

Up first is a cyclist hit by a stop-sign running driver in San Francisco. Cyclist In Critical Condition Injured After Collision With Postal Service Truck [Updated] The facts are in, the driver rolled the stop and ran right into the cyclist as she passed the intersection. Anyway, intersection protocol might have prevented this one if the cyclist had any time to react to the Postal truck, otherwise at some point you have to be able to depend on drivers following the laws and not running you over as you ride in front of them. More Cyclist hurt in S.F. crash with mail truck Interesting how many people in the comments for that article blamed the cyclist for the wreck because she wasn’t wearing a majik foam hat. Intersection wreck, not avoidable by a human cyclist as you have to be able to assume the driver is going to obey the law, but using intersection protocols might have prevented some of the injuries.

A little east of that (and south, too) a cyclist is hit and killed in mysterious circumstances. Cyclist hit and killed by car at Ft. Apache and Flamingo I think the mystery is that the driver was at fault and they can’t figure out how to blame the cyclist for being there, so until them we get nothing. Anyway, intersection wreck, use intersection protocols to avoid.

A drunk driver gets ready to plea after nearly killing a sailor from about as far west as you can get and still be under a US flag… UPDATE: Suspect accused of striking cyclist in drunken crash is negotiating plea This woman was old enough to be legally consuming alcohol at the time of her wreck but is now too young to drink after a change in the laws in Guam. Anyway, the wreck was a hit-from-behind, use the protocols for that to avoid a similar wreck.

Another motor vehicle on bicycle wreck is under trial in Enn Zed. Driver felt impact but had not seen cyclist To use the local vernacular this is a SMIDSY wreck (Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You) and as such is 100% the fault of the driver of the weapon vehicle. The cyclist had the right of way and was in a clearly marked bike lane.

In the previously mentioned (in another post) trial, the driver was found not guilty of dooring the cyclist killed when a car door opened in her path. Waterfront bike death: the ‘fall guy’ Apparently the road did grab the driver’s hand and force him to open the door into the cyclist’s path causing her to fall in front of a large truck.

And in Infrastructure! news from the UK, everybody is safer except cyclists. Road accident statistics: how safe are our roads?

And that’s all I have for you today. I’m going to put some techno music in my new MP3 player and meditate on my brush with Death today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus