This is the time of year when I don’t have much to link to, mostly from Oz and other “Down Under” locations. There will be a spike starting 12/26 and generally running until 1/7 the next year as kids get run over while riding new bikes, but that is Really Depressing to think about right now. Anyway, while things are slightly less deadly around the blog I figured this would be a good time to remind people that if they make enough noise with their elected officials they can pretty much shut the Feed down by not having any stories about dead or injured cyclists to link to because there aren’t any cyclists getting killed or injured. All it takes is getting the infrastructure right so that cyclists and pedestrians are not second class on the roads. The Dutch have had 40 years of development in not-killing cyclists and pedestrians under their belts and they have all their specifications on line and freely available for anyone to use.
Up first is a kind of death that is becoming all-too-common for CA cyclists. Girl riding bike shot, killed in Compton; suspect sought This is not a bicycle problem, but just something that happens to people whether they are riding bicycles or not.
On the other side of the country a rather cryptic wreck report from a blotter. Croton Cops: Cyclist Hit By Car; Laundry Owner Wants His Carts Back. “Police did not charge the driver.” AKA “No criminality suspected” and aside from the fact the cyclist had broken bones and the driver did not suffer anything other than a slight delay that’s all I know about this wreck.
Good news from a Seattle wreck. Injured bicycle rider’s daughter looking for Good Samaritan Since nobody saw the wreck and reported on it I can’t say how to avoid it or if changes to the built infrastructure would have prevented it.
A little kid riding a bike in Oz gets hit and killed. Two children die in separate road tragedies in 24 hours Kid was JRA outside his house when hit, which under the Dutch model would have been shared space with either a 30 km/hr (18 MPH) or a 20 km/hr (12 MPH) speed limit and severe penalties for hitting children.
Last link is Infrastructure! news and very good news at that. Hadley poised to settle federal case with bicycle advocate; agrees to pay $27,500 in lawyer’s fees Basically the town has been told to stop harassing cyclists riding in the street, pay the lawyer’s fees and refund all fines and monetary penalties accrued since they started giving the guy a bad time for obeying the law. Incidentally the police chief has been “sick” since the initial summary judgement against him. Things that make you go “hmmm”.
And those are all the links about bicycles that I had, most of which did not cause fits.
Billed @€0.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 