One of the reasons yesterday’s post turned into this morning’s post was I had to walk to the store and buy a top off card for my phone. If I didn’t need my phone so much for getting about my life I would just chuck the thing and save myself $33.07 a month (including taxes). But as I have lost count of the times having a phone on my person has been mission-critical (for varying values of “mission”) so divesting myself of this expense is no longer an option. And while I was out a strange thing happened, someone driving a silver 4-door sedan honked at me on the sidewalk and the passenger rolled down the window, waved, and shouted “Hi, Opus!” I guess that even walking on the sidewalk I’m still conspicuous and identifiable. Or I am still a minor local celebrity. I don’t care, but it does kinda put a crimp on my bank-robbing career before it even gets started. 😀
Up first is some decent Infrastructure! news from The Particular Hell WoaB is a suburb of. Dallas’ new bike czar is ready to roll; her thoughts on hot-button issues What happens in the Big D eventually percolates over to The Beautiful Suburbs of Hell next to it.
From NYC we get a bike on ped wreck. Salmoning Cyclist Sends Pedestrian To Hospital With Serious Head Injury Don’t hit the pedestrians. Don’t get killed but DON’T HIT THE PEDESTRIANS!
Update on a CA wreck from the early part of the month. Salinas Police Seeking Public’s Help in Bike Rider’s Death Still can’t find the weapon vehicle, raising the probability of the driver being from out of town and the weapon vehicle long gone.
A MT cyclist wrecks after getting crossed or hooked by a turning vehicle. Whitefish man killed in bike crash ID’d The victim died from a head injury despite wearing a bicycle helmet. Intersection protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.
A cyclist gets hit in the Great White North. Cyclist struck by van, suffered head injuries Nothing the cyclist could have done to avoid this wreck, as the driver pulled almost directly in front of him as he passed the intersection. And unless Dutch quality infrastructure increases the common sense of drivers driving across it infrastructure would have made little difference either.
Over in Oz a driver on trial for hit-and-run has a tummyache. Helensburgh hit-and-run accused ‘too sick’ to attend court: Doctor This was a driver that left the cyclist victim in hospital with spinal injuries, and now can’t be at her hearing because she’s puking? I wonder if the cyclist was out of hospital to attend the hearing?
Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: LA sheriff’s agree PCH cyclists belong in the lane; women could race in 2015 Pro Challenge
Can I get a resounding “No Duh!”? Separation Enhances Bike Lane Success People don’t like riding bicycles next to multi-ton killing machines, and even on provably safe bike lanes they feel better if there is distance and some kind of physical barrier between bicycles and “Certain Death”. It would be like driving near an active artillery range where the targets were behind a barrier but a bad shot could still land on the highway.
And a huge “Hurrah!” for this one. FHWA to Engineers: Go Ahead and Use City-Friendly Street Designs This is a huge win for people without motor vehicles.
More Infrastructure news from DE. DelDOT Contractor Makes 2nd Try at Fixing Bad Rumble Strips First try just turned the holes into bumps, second try was reasonably smooth, good show! Of course not putting rumble strips in the bike lane at all would have been a much better idea, don’t you think? More Cyclists Report That Second Try’s the Charm for Rumble Strip Patch
And looking at somewhat better than nothing infrastructure from the vantage point of the best bicycle infrastructure in the world and they still keep trying to improve it. New British infrastructure. A real improvement or making stop-start cycling even slower?
Riding politely at night? All Lit Up Redux
Something I hope percolates over to Garland from Dallas. Grab a seat, Dallas’ first beer bike is on the move It runs on alternative fuels, all derived from biomass. 😉
Speaking from experience, maybe they can given good infrastructure. Can Cargo Bikes Help Us to Replace Trucks and Minivans? Francis/es works well in places that restrict motor vehicle operation, I know this from direct experience. Paved roads help, too. XD
WoaB endorses this ride. Bicycle ride honors fallen Marine, raises money for charity
And those were all the links that gave me fits or giggles today, and I got done before midnight whaddaya know?
Billed @€0.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 
Hmm, how long was the previous bike coordinator gone before they hired a new one? Kalhammer, I believe. That says what priority Dallas gives the job. That plus trails are excluded from the job. At least Fort Worth has a cycling mayor. IMO, it is a waste of a good engineer…
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I don’t know how long they were without a coordinator. I know that the search for the new one started as soon as the old one said he was leaving for greener pastures, I just don’t know when that was. My memory for things has been going rapidly downhill since the wreck.
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