OK I went to my scheduled trip to the chiropractor today, and that little fall I took Sunday turns out to be not so “little”. I had dislocations in 2 ribs and my right clavicle. They would have eventually worked their way more or less back into position but getting them back sooner was better in the long run. Add that to the bleeding problem I had Sunday and yesterday and that was a very expensive bike ride, at least in pain if not in actual money. Fortunately nothing was actually broken, just not where it should have been. I knew something was “off” because my other shoulder hurt right behind the shoulder blade when I woke up this morning. Anywho, everything is back where it should be and all I have to deal with is the lingering inflammation from the injury that should clear up by morning.
Up first is a man getting killed about as far south as you can go and still be in Texas. Cyclist hit, killed and Cyclist killed was peddling to work I don’t know what he was peddling, but he was pedaling a bicycle. Intersection wreck and they aren’t blaming the cyclist in this one so maybe the driver of the weapon vehicle ran a red light and it was caught on a redlight camera. Intersection wreck, use the protocols to avoid or to mitigate injury, and get the infrastructure right to prevent, assuming the driver did not run the red light, because if that was the case no amount of infrastructure can “fix” this as the wreck would have been averted by simply using the existing infrastructure correctly.
And it seems Houston cops can’t be bothered to enforce a law that protects cyclists as a string of the exact kind of wrecks the law was enacted to prevent happens with zero tickets for breaking the law. Houston bike riders upset by cycling deaths No tickets for breaking the 3-foot passing law in the entire 6 months the law has been in effect? They are not looking very hard, I got passed within a foot 3 times in 7 miles Sunday.
More on a cyclist death in FL. Police: Driver was drunk in September crash that killed cyclist The cyclist had no chance of avoiding this wreck, I’m more and more certain every time more information is released about it. And since he was hit riding in a park designated as a place cyclists could train for long bike rides and races the only infrastructure that will help is the legal kind that takes bad drivers off the roads and away from motor vehicles.
Even cops can’t avoid people trying to run them over when they ride their bikes in UT. Las Vegas man arrested for evading police, nearly hitting bicycle cop with car OK this does not fall into any of the usual categories of wreck I cover, but I’m including this because, well because I wanted to. Ordinary cyclists would not be trying to pull over a car full of potheads.
And speaking of bike cops… MPD officer chooses bike over squad car during cold snap There are great tips about riding in extreme weather in this bit.
Sometimes even barrier protected bicycle infrastructure isn’t enough. Cyclist falls from overpass after car collides with jersey barrier Since the cyclist was parked and admiring the view when the barrier was hit and knocked him over the side I place this in the category of unavoidable wreck. And since it was on a barrier protected bike lane that pretty much excludes physical infrastructure from preventing another wreck like this. The only thing that could work would be legal infrastructure that takes away the cars of stoopid drivers, hopefully before they hurt someone.
Update on a CO wreck. Cyclist killed in hit-and-run crash near Windsor identified Still a hit-from-behind wreck, still use the protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent.
Up in Canuckistan a cyclist is hit-and-run. Cyclist in critical condition in Calgary hospital after Sunday-morning suspected hit and run There were bits of the weapon vehicle left at the scene and an injured cyclist so they “suspect” a hit-and-run? Since this was in the middle of a bridge that pretty much moots hit-from-behind protocols because there was no escape route, infrastructure that protected cyclists behind a barrier would most likely prevent the wreck (see the Seattle story earlier in the post).
I don’t know how a cyclist is supposed to avoid this. Cyclist injured by flying shed roof OK first of all he wasn’t even riding when he got hit, he was trying to hide in the shelter of a bus stop. Second since the bus stop was virtually cleaned off the pad by the force of the impact it was good it hit him while he was in the shelter instead of out on the road.
Still in Jolly Olde, justice for a dead cyclist goes to the hands of a jury. Jurors retire over Southampton cyclist death crash verdict The jurors have to decide if driving while blind and killing someone is careless or dangerous or just one of those things. As there are no cyclists on the jury I suspect the driver will be “just one of those things”.
A SA cyclist is mugged for his bike and cell phone. Cyclist down but not out after mugging I guess this would be a bike-jacking?
Better news in another stolen bike story in this country. Velo Posse Recovers Stolen Bike. Thieves Beware Too bad they couldn’t let the thief “fall down” a few times as they already had him locked up when they recovered the bike.
Surprising news from Jolly Olde on the relative morbidity and mortality of bicycles and motor vehicles. Motorists and cyclists create army of walking wounded Actually motorists create the army, cyclists create a small platoon, and when it comes to mortality drivers are far better killers than cyclist both because the vehicles are more deadly, and because they spend more time on the road than cyclists. Last year the ratio was 253:1 in favor of the cyclists, while in the last 10 years the ratio was 145:1 in favor of the cyclists.
A little infrastructure news from MD. Maryland proposal increases distance between drivers, cyclists I like seeing laws that make hitting cyclists a crime, but I like seeing those laws enforced even better.
Some mixed good and not-so-good news from BikingInLA. Help a badly wounded rider get back on his feet, BAC Bikeways subcommittee minutes, and ride with Greg Laemmle
Last link is a funny. How To Be A Road Biker At least I think it was supposed to be funny, I have so many tabs and windows open right now that the video crashed repeatedly while I was trying to watch it, but other people who watched it thought it was amusing.
And those were all the links that made me laugh or cry or pitch a fit.
Billed @€0.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 