The headline is a major understatement of my current mood. I just got a bill from the city government of the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell for the destruction and removal of my lawn furniture. I mean it’s bad enough that someone came into my back yard and sawed up my 500 pound log bench and hauled it away, but to turn around and charge me for the “privilege”? What really hacks me off is they used electric chainsaws so as not to alert me that my stuff was getting destroyed. The other thing that I’m so annoyed about this was how hard I had to work to get that thing in the right spot. As I said that was a 500 pound oak log that had to be moved several feet from where it fell in order to be useful as a bench, and I did it by myself. Here is the bench in use:
And this is not showing in the preview so I don’t know if you will be able to see it. The image marker icon is showing up but not the picture. Could someone leave me a comment to let me know if they can see the picture?
Up first is a monumental Infrastructure! story from the town outside the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Dallas Relaxes Bike Helmet Law and Dallas bike helmet rules now apply only to cyclists under age 18 Statistics show that the helmet law was mostly enforced by a single officer in the downtown area and in minority districts, but interestingly enough not where the largest concentration of bicycles in the county can be found, around White Rock Lake. The reason the ordinance was changed had nothing to do with that however. Dallas is wanting to launch a bike share system and other places that have both bike share and helmet laws have proven that the two don’t go together very well as all those places have lost big money on the bike share. My personal opinion is a mandatory helmet law is government blatantly stating that they know their infrastructure is deficient and that they do not plan on correcting that infrastructure but would rather blame the user for the government’s failures.
First wreck is in ABQ NM. Cyclist injured in East Mountains hit-and-run I have driven in the area but not since my eldest was a baby, so I don’t know the current conditions. When I was last there Route 66 was still an active US highway, not decommissioned into state highway status. The narrative suggest this was probably a hit-from-behind, so protocols to avoid and infrastructure to prevent. On the subject of infrastructure specific to this wreck has anyone heard anything new about the proposal to turn Old 66 into a 35 MPH shared highway for bicycles and cars, with no trucks allowed outside city limits, much like the Natchez Trace Parkway (except a lower speed limit)? I heard this one about 5 years ago and then nothing more.
Moving a bit west we get another bike v semi wreck. Bicycle rider killed in collision with semitruck As with most wrecks between a cyclist and a semi the cyclist died while the truck driver faces psychological harm at worst. As this was a breaking story that the road was still partially blocked for the investigation when the report went up there was nothing at all on the mode or even a definitive location. As such I have no way to evaluate the wreck for which avoidance technique to use, but I can state with utter assurance that getting the infrastructure “up to Dutch” would have removed the cyclist from any conflict with the semi truck and prevented the wreck completely.
A little further west from that. 19-year old bike rider killed in South LA hit-and-run and Bicyclist dies after South L.A. hit-and-run; driver at large Intersection wreck, the cyclist was said to be waiting to make a left turn when he was hit by a vehicle on the street he was trying to turn to. And I got nothing for this one. If the statement was true that the cyclist was waiting to turn then there was nothing he could do except maybe move back a bit, and all that also implies that infrastructure would not have helped either because the infrastructure as built was not followed. Unfortunately the way both articles are written it is not known which vehicle ran the red, or if neither did and the cyclist was still in the intersection when the light changed and the weapon vehicle just failed to yield. It’s just a really bad way to go all the way around.
Video from two GA bike wrecks that were completely the fault of the drivers involved, one we mentioned yesterday and another I just heard about. Cyclists struck in 2 separate metro Atlanta incidents The hit-and-run on the sidewalk with the little girl and her mother and baby sister was really hard for me to watch, especially as they were so far off the street when they were hit. And the other wreck is being investigated as an attempted murder now. Neither of these wrecks could be avoided by a human cyclist in any stretch of the imagination, and neither could be prevented by infrastructure short of having a wall or guard rail between cyclists and the street, the wreck with the little girl had a curb and trees protecting her and her mother and they still got hit.
A cyclist is killed with a motor vehicle in Canuckistan. Cyclist Succumbs To Injuries Following Bicycle-Vehicle Collision There was more about the CFL team he was going to see than the wreck, so I can’t say anything about avoiding or preventing the wreck. In honor of the victim though “Go Blue Bombers!”
Our daily Ted is better than normal today, which says something. Morning Links: Figueroa for All comes to a head tonight; Bloomberg looks at the Biking (and Transit) Black Hole
More TX Infrastructure news from a little further south. Houston Takes the Next Step Towards a Bicycle Network Now that unused land under transmission lines can be repurposed for bike transportation and recreation, and as a bonus to the power company the bike path will support the repair trucks if needed to repair the transmission towers.
More infrastructure from CA. Why Sharrows Don’t Cut it: Even SF Bike Safety Instructor Bert Hill Got Hit As I said here before sharrows are the abstinence-only sex ed of bicycle infrastructure.
A sad bit of Lifestyle from ME. Cyclist killed last year remembered as participants prepare for 30th annual Trek Across Maine That was a very sad wreck, moreso than usual because it was so unnecessary.
Last link is to a classic Gorillaz album, less one track (copyright issues over a film that used the track as soundtrack…) Gorillaz – Demon Days (Full Album) and even as I typed that it seemed a bit strange to say “classic Gorillaz album”.
And those were all the links that gave fits or giggles, sometimes fits of giggles.
Billed @€0.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 