Daily Archives: May 15, 2012

Waiting on the Ride of Silence, and the Feed

No, I’m not forgetting about the Ride of Silence. It’s just that this year I’m going to be in a place without a Ride and also without a bike, which makes me a little depressed about the Ride. I’ll get over it, but for now I’m a bit on the down side. That’s why I’m not posting as many links in the run-up to the Ride as I usually do. Also this is the first time I won’t be able to make the Mother Ride. I mean I have missed a few RoS because of scheduling snafus (the BPAC meeting being held on the same day and a couple of cities away from the Ride being the biggest impediment to attending the Ride), but this is the first time I have had absolutely zero chance of making the Mother Ride.

I’m not going to post any links to the death of the cyclist killed when she hit the back of a team car during a race in CA, but that doesn’t mean I disregard the death. It was just as meaningful as any death, but it was during a race on closed roads and there is nothing I can say that would apply to people riding on the roads in “normal” traffic. So while I feel just as bad about this wreck as I do about all the rest of them, I’m not going to link to this story.

Up first a NC cyclist was wearing clothes instead of a glow in the dark clown costume so it was obviously his fault he got hit, right? Cyclist was wearing dark clothing, lacked large reflectors on bike The cyclist in this case was seen to be drinking prior to the wreck, so there is a possibility he was impaired and rode out in front of the driver too close to be avoided. To avoid use intersection protocols and wear lights on the bike, to prevent get the infrastructure right so cyclists don’t have to cross busy high-speed highways to get to or from things like restaurants.

A little away from that wreck the guy that died on Folly Road in Charleston was also charged in a DUI death of a pedestrian on the same stretch of road. Skinful felony DUI suspect under legal limit for alcohol, tested positive for THC I’m still trying to get a handle on this wreck as a local tells me that there were no parked cars on the street where the cyclist was killed, but that this was a street that saw a lot of bike traffic because of the bridge it connected to and that trying to ride on side streets would cause you to keep crossing Folly as the through streets crossed the road several times. As far as the previous wreck is concerned he may not have had enough alcohol in his blood to be legally drunk but add a contact high from pot… and I’m still of mixed feelings about this. Sure he was a drunk/impaired driver who killed a pedestrian, but he died a cyclist… So does he go to the hot place of eternal torment because ha drove drunk and killed a pedestrian, or the comfy place with bad music because he died a cyclist? Questions like that are beyond my pay grade and security clearance…

A CT cyclist and several passengers are injured when a bus is hit from behind as the cyclist was loading his bike on the bus front bike rack. Several Injured After Truck Hits Bus OK there is no earthly way a cyclist can avoid this one as it was a pinball wreck where a second vehicle hits the cyclist after being hit itself, and in this case the bus was hit out of the field of vision of the cyclist or any of the rest of the passengers of the bus. To prevent this would be a good case for installing bike/bus lanes so that there would be no trucks in the lane to hit the bus from behind at a high rate of speed.

A really nasty hit-and-run in PA. Charges Expected In Weekend Hit-And-Run From the information in the article I would say that this was either a case of an impaired driver or a deliberate assault on the cyclist for being “in the way”. To avoid use the hit-from-behind protocols from the link at the top of my blog, to prevent get the stupid infrastructure right so drivers don’t feel compelled to get angry at a cyclist “in the way”.

A cyclist in Enn Zed gets right crossed (the equivalent of the left cross for those that drive on the wrong side of the road). Cyclist hit in rush hour traffic Not much I can say about this one really except the usual platitudes about using intersection protocols to avoid a similar wreck and getting the infrastructure right to prevent a wreck like that from ever being able to happen.

Infrastructure! news from around NY. Westfielder Walker Makes Strides for Safety at Tamaques Park Apparently pedestrians feel like they should walk in the bike lanes. And the sidewalk, and anywhere else they feel?

Another article ranking infrastructure along with intangibles for cycling in the US, by city. Minneapolis Ranks #1 For Cycling…. Again. I noticed that Dallas and Garland both failed to make the top 1000 of cities in their size…

Cyclists in Jolly Olde don’t like being stationary targets. We jump red lights for our own safety, cyclists claim I have been hearing this for years, and there is some factual evidence to back them up on this one, specifically the study on why more women than men are killed by HGV at intersections. Advocacy & Safety – “Are women cyclists in more danger than men?”

Links to Ride of Silence events. The Ride of Silence: a loud cry for bicycle safety and Freeloaders: Two wheels are better than four

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

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