I feel like that guy in the Dunkin’ Donuts ad meeting himself leaving work as he’s going to work, and the Feed

It was a late night again last night as related in the previous post. And I stumbled out of bed this morning and fired up the computer to boot while I got coffee and morning meds and had a serious case of deja vu because how many years have I been doing this? I know that I started my first bike blog back in 2006 just randomly talking about rides I had done and building bikes, back in Spring of 2006 sometime, got on the reporting and later analysis of bike wrecks near the end of that year, went daily in 2007, got dumped by my blogging host in 2008 so I had to move to WP in November of 2008. So regular posting since 2006 and as close as I could manage to daily since early 2007, that is eight years of nearly every day sitting at a computer and pounding on the keyboard producing words. Speaking of “pounding” on keyboards, I managed to kill about 7 or so in those eight years counting the ones that were attached to computers that died. I’m particularly worried about the one in the laptop because I keep getting random letters from the opposite side of the keyboard showing up while I’m typing, usually vowel swaps, “e” for “o”, “a” for “u” and every so often a random “q”, or “e” thrown in for good measure at the end of a word. Y’all don’t see that because I proofread using both machine and human proofing. But having to go through a post and find all that stuff is just really aggravating.

Up first is a death about a half day’s ride east of WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Benefit account established for bicyclist killed on Old Jacksonville Highway Another driver using the “Get Out Of Jail Free” card for drivers “I couldn’t see him”.

And death is a common thread along with protest in these links from the UK. Vigil and Die In That’s my FB invitation to yet another UK protest, you UK readers might want to be there. Also Vivienne Westwood leads tributes to fashion buyer killed when bike hit lorry That was about the same wreck as the protest I was invited to. Another one Vigil to be held for cyclist killed in city centre collision month after his death also Cyclists stage ‘die in’ protest in memory of bike rider killed in collision with truck and Vigil for Manchester cyclist killed in car crash

After all the mess over the weekend this is a good respite for Ted in Our Daily Ted. Bike share unexpectedly opens in DTLA

Someone is starting to get the message in MD about how deadly motor vehicles are. Deadly Crashes Between Cars And Md. Cyclists Happening At Alarming Rate The comments were “interesting” to say the least. More Bishop’s charges in cyclist’s death prompt lawmakers to consider fining drunk-drivers Fines? How about vehicle forfeiture? Don’t we take the weapon away from someone who gets drunk and shoots up a town? Driving drunk is exactly the same thing as shooting up a town while drunk if you don’t hit anything. If you hit something then it’s different…

Budget cuts are fine, but you have to leave some things alone. 2014 in Clark County saw dramatic jump in fatal crashes After the traffic enforcement took the brunt of budget cutting the year previous whodathunkit that suddenly they see a huge jump in wrecks and especially fatal wrecks.

A little infrastructure news from the Windy City. Are Divvy Riders Safer Than Other Cyclists? Data Says Yes I say there are many things involved here. Bike share bikes are built to a different style than most road or mountain bikes which are designed for racing or styled after bikes designed for racing. Bike share are based on Dutch city bikes so the rider is more upright which makes for a slower bike, and also for a rider with a better view of the road. Also there is the as-yet unexamined demographics of bike-share vs. “just bikes”.

Another jurisdiction discovers that reducing traffic policing has serious negative effects. Safety fear as figures show a rise in number of cycling injuries

A little admonition on infrastructure from Enn Zed. Editorial: Cyclists must be safe too Typical driver’s comments in the comments section.

I’m not so sure how much of this satire article is actual satire. Self-righteous road use causes accidents The opening paragraph about the attempted murder of a cyclist…

And just because I like the link. Electric Motorcycle Gangs: You’ll Never Hear Them Coming

And now I’m out of links and things to say that are bike-related.

Bille @€0.02, Opus the Poet

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I’m exhausted and sore, and now I have a full day’s work to do on the blog post, and the Feed

Remember that paying gig I mentioned in passing yesterday? It came through. Unfortunately it came through for about 7 hours right in the middle of opening up the Feed folder in my e-mail. About 7 hours of work putting together an adult tricycle for someone I had previously offered to build a recumbent or crank-forward bike, but who decided that a more traditional adult tricycle was more to her tastes and riding style, so she bought one in a big box from a big box store. That meant she would need someone who could take it out of the box, inventory the parts etc. until a working adult tricycle was sitting on the ground with her on it. I estimated that would take about 2 hours, told the customer it would take “probably” 3, and more than 6 hours later the trike was finished. Since I had promised this nice lady a trike as a gift I “accepted” a Powerball ticket and some Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs for Mrs. the Poet’s Valentine’s Day present. Speaking of that Powerball ticket the first payout of the 30 annual payments comes to $5,415,892.62 after taxes and 10% to the church, while the cash payout for the Texas Lottery drawing the same day is $5,620,000 before taxes and any charitable contributions made as a bribe for deity favor towards winning.

What to put up first was a hard decision tonight, but I think these links to this major story might be the winner. NYC Adding Truck Side Guards to Protect Pedestrians, Cyclists and NYC Adding Safety Guards To 240 City Trucks In 2015 Somebody was looking at the numbers, and just like in London, big trucks are disproportionate in their representation in fatality statistics. So one kind of fatal wreck that is particular to big trucks is cyclists, pedestrians, and small cars getting run over by the back tires when the truck turns or changes lanes and the pedestrian, cyclist, or small car is in one of the many huge blind spots alongside the truck. Since apparently eliminating the blind spot is an intractable engineering problem an interim solution is something that will shove the pedestrian, cyclist, or small car away from the rear wheels. This seems to have a higher success rate than trying to eliminate the blind spots.

These stickers are pretty useless here in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, but I might buy some anyway. Passive Aggressive Sticker Campaign Targets Bike Lane Blockers Yep in order to have bike lane blockers you first need a bike lane to block, something that is sadly lacking here.

Ted Rogers was busy this weekend, unfortunately. Palm Desert bike rider killed in early morning collision; DUI suspected and Weekend Links: OC hit-and-run driver charged in death of PCH cyclist; fund set to help injured bike rider also Bike rider dies after January hit-and-run in West Covina; third bike rider killed in SoCal this year even Morning Links: Waking the sleeping giant in LA and Pasadena, and a gut-wrenching Colorado hit-and-run Dude, I feel for you today. This is like one of my worst days back when I was covering wrecks, because you know the wreck locations personally.

Meanwhile in FL, the victim of a drunk driver and the other cyclist that barely survived the wreck were remembered at the event they had been training for. More Than A Thousand Kick-Off The Dolphins Cycling Challenge and Cyclist killed near Key Biscayne remembered at tri-county race

What is more important people’s lives or a few parking places? Hold on a second, there are opposing opinions on this question. Will the SFMTA Board Demand Complete Protected Bike Lanes on Polk Street? I have a simple solution, go to the merchants responsible and ask outright how many cyclist and pedestrian deaths and serious injuries are “their” parking spots worth, then charge them that in taxes every time someone is killed or injured on their block because of a failure in the infrastructure to protect them. I think after maybe the second pedestrian death or seriously injured cyclist (my wreck cost more than a quarter of a million dollars just for the first two hospital stays, and I went back 3 more times).

Seattle’s Second Ave. is seriously sub-standard by the CROW manual, but when your choices are “sub-standard” and “constantly terrifying and frequently fatal” sub-standard looks pretty good. Seattle’s Second Ave. should inspire Comm. Ave. plans Seriously, this is amazing bicycle infrastructure by US and UK standards, but criminal by the CROW manual. But, baby steps are better than no steps at all.

Speaking if UK “infrastructure”… Things are improving for cyclists, but painfully slowly And by “painfully” she means with many deaths, broken bones, much road rash, and other assorted injuries.

And the legal infrastructure in Jolly Olde ain’t that great either. Report into road death investigations makes scathing findings about training, processes and victim support Yep UK prosecution of drivers that hit cyclists is rife with bias even against cyclists dressed like glow-in-the-dark clowns and lighted like Christmas trees for “not being visible enough”.

Last link is about lifestyle. Lexington man biking across country in memory of woman killed in Scott County There are far too many memorial rides, mainly because there are far too many reasons to have memorial rides.

And that’s all I have tonight, and I desperately want to have a lie down so my back with stop hurting.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet (still an unkillable badass, but nobody ever said that was painless)