Seriously having trouble keeping my head on straight here, and the Feed

As announced earlier I no longer post links to bike wrecks here at WoaB. I started this because It was causing me “problems” in the rest of my life. I mean seriously, if there was something that was killing as many people as motor vehicles do every day, but say in larger numbers at a time instead of in singles and rarely doubles, then people would be screaming to “do something” about the deaths. Look at Ebola. There were exactly 3 people who died from Ebola in the United States, none of whom contracted the disease here. All of the people who contracted Ebola in the US have recovered. But for weeks all you heard or saw on the idiot box was Ebola and ISIS terrorists were going to kill us all in our beds. While all this was going on about 6000 people died from what is quaintly acronymed MVA and many tens of thousands more were injured to some degree from minor temporary inconvenience to long term hospital stay but full recovery to lifelong disability to “spend the rest of my life in bed unable to move and still be in constant pain”. Those last two add up to about twice as many people as died, so about 20000 people left dead or permanently crippled to some degree while 3 people died and a few more got sick and spent a few weeks in hospital or isolation. And all of the attention was on the 3 people dying and the few sickened instead of the twenty thousand killed or otherwise destroyed by something that we could actually do something about and stop the deaths and life-changing injuries. And people are still asking if I’m wasting my life on bicycles. So now you know why I’m having trouble keeping my head on straight in spite of no longer doing the bike wreck thing.

Up first is a response to the comments left on an article linked here a while back. Blame in the wrong place The letter is in response to comments that blame the cyclist for the wreck that was previously judged to be the criminal act of the driver in the video.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: CM Cedillo turns a deaf ear to pleas of bike riders, portraying cyclists as bullies from the 1%

Cycling in the city where my last full-tine job went. ‘Nobody cycles across Mumbai.’ But why?

Another link to a bike that depends on the model of phone you own to be fully functional. Dutch introduce first-ever ‘intelligent bicycle’ that warns of danger I’m not so sure I want a bike that would not give me everything I paid for unless it “liked” the phone I was using.

If the city won’t do it, DIY. Guerrilla traffic diverters installed – then removed – on SE Clinton Interesting that they didn’t have the money to install diverters, but less than 8 hours after the DIY diverters were set up they had been removed without even a meeting of the City Council?

And where does your state rank? 2014 BICYCLE FRIENDLY STATE℠ RANKING All I have to say in favor of TX is “Thank [DEITY] we are not living in Alabama!” Seriously 33rd out of 50 is appalling for a state that is constantly bragging about how “Great” they are. But considering that the city I live next to was “The Worst City for Bicycling In the US” just 4 years ago, being 33rd out of 50 is improvement. EDIT: How the Hell did we end up BEHIND Florida?

And I have run out of links again, yay!

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet

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Mrs. the Poet’s retirement has made for her keeping me from working, and the Feed

I love my wife, I really do. BUUUT (very long “uh” sound there) she refuses to acknowledge what I do as “work” and is constantly telling me to stop “playing on the computer” and do what she wants me to do, basically denying the validity of what I do. I do not know what to say about this, especially at the time she says it because of my aphasia not leaving me with the vocabulary to respond. Sure I sound all glib and insightful in the blog, because I have the time to stop and think about it, lower my stress levels by meditating, and allow the words to flow out of my fingers bypassing my mouth. The process in and of itself is much less stressful than trying to actually speak with my wife making a rejoinder to a comment she made. As a result I’m frequently unable to respond with anything more cogent to her “playing on the computer” remarks with anything more than “Go away, I’m working here!”

Up first, the lowlife scum that hit a Miami cyclist with his vehicle so hard that the roof was collapsed around the driver’s head and then left claiming he “didn’t know” he had hit anyone violated his parole. Driver in Fatal Hit-and-Run Crash on the Rickenbacker Causeway Heading to Prison After Probation Violation and Driver Guilty In Cyclist’s Death Sentenced To Prison For Probation Violation When I saw one link I was thinking they were really looking to violate this guy, but then I read another link that said he had been checking in with Foursquare at bars and clubs, places he was not supposed to be and in violation of his parole, so he basically violated himself on this one. I hope he has a life-affirming moment in prison and never drives again. I was going to type something else, but then I stopped to think “Is what I want vengeance against this one idiot, or do I want a cultural change that keeps idiots like this from being able to hurt people because they lack the means to hurt people?” And I have to say that while vengeance against that idiot would make me feel better for a little while, making it so that idiots like him can’t hurt people would make me feel a lot better in the long run.

Next a little lifestyle from a little south of the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Round Rock memorial bike ride honors avid cyclist Killed in a wreck very much like mine in many respects, just trying to get where he was going and make a living.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Awkward cycle track in Marina, PCH closed at Point Magu, fight North Fig parking at City Hall

Trying to change the legal infrastructure in the land of the automobile. California Bicycle Coalition Announces Its 2015 Legislative Agenda

CA riders remember a fellow rider killed on an epic ride in OR. Riders finish avid cyclist’s last journey

Still in CA, I would love to see drivers held to the same standards as cyclists when motor vehicle infrastructure is discussed. Dick Spotswood: Marin bike lobby’s political clout is slipping Really, not another freeway or even a pothole filled until drivers stop speeding, running red lights, turning right on red through crowded crosswalks, driving on sidewalks to get around people stopped a red lights…

So, what about people who don’t have smart phones, like me? Tech solution for “dead red” lights

Bicycle advocacy in America’s Amsterdam. Guest Article: Four things BikeLoudPDX has learned in their campaign for SE Clinton

They’re starting to learn lessons from the Netherlands. Cycling reduces the death toll on our roads…

OK I don’t know if you will be able to read this or not, but if you can’t copy and paste the headline into a Google search and read it from there. There is at least one city determined to not kill it’s citizens. A Plan to Limit Cars in Paris Collides With French Politics

Another e-assist article. Bultaco Brinco Is a Really Interesting E-Bike, but Not Exactly Cheap I used to have a ‘taco motor in my shifter kart… I don’t think this one would work the same. I like that the pedelec mode has a 100 km range, but I’m thinking there isn’t much assist in that mode. I built a bike with a lot smaller battery that had almost that range but used a constant pedal cadence mode and powered cranks. It is somewhere in the garage which means archeologists will be the next people to see it. At least I hope it’s in the garage. If it isn’t that means I had another bike stolen and I won’t even be able to give the police an exact year, much less a time of day…

And those were all the links I could find today, enjoy!

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet