My co-pays are killing me, and the Feed

I thought I was going to get medical care when I got insurance through the ACA. Instead I get bills I can’t afford to pay. I was looking up my co-pays in preparation for my imaging visit tomorrow, and I thought I was going to have to cough up $50 because my total OOP is only $500 and specialist visits are $500. NOPE! I have to find $250 that does not apply to my total OOP annual limit. Thing is I don’t have $250 available at the moment. If we don’t eat this week and don’t pay insurance we might have $200 altogether. I may have to just endure not being able to turn my neck at this rate. Thank you Rick Perry. I hope you lose all your hair, except on the backs of your hands and that hair turns into a thick pelt. Your refusal to expand Medicaid has rendered me insured but unable to afford my co-pays because all the money we used to have is now going to insurance premiums. Last year’s $0.08/mon has been replaced by $112/mon, which we would have used to pay co-pays if we could have used it last year, but we couldn’t because the PCP we were assigned was not taking new patients, until this year. So last year we effectively only had health insurance if we went to an ER and coughed up a $500 co-pay, and this year while we can get an appointment to our PCP, we can’t get there if we are actually really sick because they are not anywhere near a transit stop. I can’t decide if this is Orwellian, or Hellerian (Catch 22)

Up first, I keep telling people that when a cyclist hits a pedestrian the cyclist is as likely to get hurt as the pedestrian, but do they pay attention? Cyclist critical after collision with runner in Greenwich Park and Cyclist seriously injured after crashing into runner while racing event took place in Greenwich Park The runner was uninjured in this wreck. The Dallas wreck that killed the runner the cyclist was injured enough to require hospitalization. The second SF cyclist who killed a pedestrian this century also required hospitalization. Hitting pedestrians with your bike is dangerous to the cyclist, another reason not to do it.

Speaking of Bucherre, SFPD dispenses some weapons-grade BS in the death of a cyclist. SFPD Explains: Driver Won’t Be Charged for Killing Cyclist at 14th & Folsom The driver was not at fault for running the red light because the cyclist was running it, too? Seriously?

And while we are in CA, here’s Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Serial hit-and-run driver allegedly attacks three in Venice, including two people on bikes

In FL the driver who left a cyclist to die in the streets did not do a very good job of hiding the evidence from LEO. Police find car believed tied to hit-and-run that killed cyclist The damage was not readily apparent from the street, but not hidden very much either.

More on another idiot who used a gun instead of a car to kill a cyclist. GUNMAN WHO SHOT, KILLED BICYCLIST STILL AT LARGE Some people just haven’t learned that the correct way to murder a cyclist is to run him down from behind and claim blindness (“I didn’t see him”). That way instead of charges you get grief counseling for the terrible tragedy of killing another human being. And I really wish I could put the snark tag (/s without HTML brackets), but it is a true statement.

One wonders about huge packs of motor vehicles driving down the street close to but under the speed limit. Police tell Hells Ride cyclists to stop using Beach Rd as a racetrack

Who did the registered owner sell the weapon vehicle to prior to the wreck? “Do the right thing” police tell driver who killed 15 year old West Brom cyclist

This drunk driver did not get what he deserved. Russian Drunk Driver Who Killed U.S. Cyclist Gets 3 Years in Prison Nope, he’s still alive and in possession of all his body parts, nothing close to what he deserves.

Another Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot moment courtesy of Enn Zed. Careless driver who killed cyclist can drive tractors He violated his ban twice since released from jail for killing a cyclist because he was in too big a hurry and they haven’t tossed his can in the calaboose yet? TANJ!

Boston is putting in bicycle infrastructure that is good by American standards. Comm Ave. to get less harrowing for cyclists, everyone else

I guess when you are as vulnerable as a cyclist is on the roads you have more compassion to other vulnerable people. Cyclists ride to D.C. in memory of Sandy Hook and to press for tighter gun laws and ADVOCATES OF TOUGHER GUN CONTROL MAKE BIKE RIDE FROM NEWTOWN TO WASHINGTON

Tell me again how dangerous cyclists are in NYC. Speed Cameras Net $16.9 Million From Dangerous Drivers They are not using all the cameras they are allowed, they are not allowed to run the cameras 24/7, and they still raked in almost $17 Million in one year four months?

I wonder what they were thinking when they came up with this idea. National Bike Summit 2015: Talking “Bikes Plus”

Also this is a new comic I started following that seems pretty good. Broken Telephone It’s a crime story by the guy who writes Dinosaur Comics. I used to be a call center operator (computer help desk, not cell phone) and I can totally relate to this.

And that’s all I got today, thank [$DEITY]!

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

Advertisement

April Fool’s service 3/29

Standard welcome.

This is our annual April Fools chaos service. This is as much an homage to the weather in Texas as it is to anything else. About the only thing we haven’t had for this service has been snow. And I think an actual tornado because we hold the service too early in the day for one of those, but we have had watches in effect for later in the day. So we have weather chaos, congregation chaos, outsider chaos, just about any kind of non-destructive chaos you can imagine. Today we have “No toilets” chaos. And somehow we have managed to control and somewhat harness that chaos for the benefit of the church and the larger community.

Now join with me as we call the quarters in the traditional April Fool’s fashion.

East: Yo! Air! Here, quarter quarter quarter! We wanna breathe here, and think. Y’all come!

South: Yo! Fire! Here quarter quarter quarter! Let’s warm things up with some passion. Y’all come!

West: Yo! Water! Here quarter quarter quarter! Let’s splash around and feel things emotionally. Y’all come!

North: Yo! Earth! Here quarter quarter quarter! It’s time to get down and dirty and be stable. Y’all come!

Center: Yo! Center! The gods might be crazy, so send them here to party! We light a beacon so we can enjoy their company. Y’all play nice now. Open beer and place on altar

Aphrodite: Your contributions to chaos are many and varied, most notable your son/daughter Hermaphroditus. We love you, just like you love us, so everybody love everybody as you join our party and ritual.

Lunation deity

Play “Duck Amuck” Video

Yes, who is responsible for this? I demand to know. My life seems like a series of short stories or at most novellas written by different writers intent on different things, including changing the name of the main character in the middle of the story. And such starkly unbelievable stuff as surviving getting hit by a truck doing 60 MPH and only spending 13 days in hospital before sorta walking out. I mean who does that outside of a work of fiction? That is literally a million to one shot. And that’s not the only unbelievable thing that has happened in my life, just the most recent. I demand script approval and rewrite privileges. Or I would if I could find the freaking writer.

Sometimes we bring the chaos on all by ourselves, which I have also done. For instance the lovely bride who graces my life was somewhat forced there by a combination of stupid mistakes, mine, hers, and ours. But somehow we survived it anyway and we have been together for almost 40 years. I’m sure the rest of you can tell similar tales of preventable mistakes that had life-altering consequences for you and yours. It happens to everybody. But we survive, and sometimes prosper, in spite of and sometimes because of our mistakes. We live through it, and we move on.

Candles of “Why did I do that?” To share how this works, light a candle while sharing a mistake that ended up helping your life in the long run.

While this is going on blow bubbles from the altar.

Pass basket while sharing announcements.

Announce that there will be no pot luck this evening

Dismiss Aphrodite with gratitude for controlling the various guest deities with her expansive love.

Center: We thank all the various deities who have graced today’s circle. Go in peace, at least until you get past the property line. Then you become somebody else’s problem.

North: Thank you for lending your stability in these times of chaos. You may leave with our gratitude.

West: Thank you for lending your calming emotions to these times of chaos. You may leave with our gratitude.

South: Thank you for lending your passion and transformation to these times of chaos. You may leave with our gratitude.

East: Thank you for lending your intellect and communication in these times of chaos. You may leave with our gratitude.

The circle is open, but unbroken. Merry meet, to merry part, to merry meet again! Blessed be, and don’t forget to turn your phones back on.

PSA, Opus

Well this is disappointing, and the Feed

All my life I have wanted to go to Indianapolis to see the 500, until yesterday. Neither will I ever go to watch the Brickyard 400 even if I get to go for free, all expenses paid. Why the sudden change in desired objectives? Indiana passed a law allowing discrimination for religious reasons. The reason this law was passed is to “protect” people from having to serve gay people getting married, but the stoopid sheeple writing the law couldn’t make it that narrow without danger of getting it immediately shut down. This widens the scope of the law so that anyone can discriminate against anyone for any reason even including things like race, gender, long hair on men and short hair on women, or riding a bicycle instead of driving a car. And it would allow Sharia law for Muslims because that is a deeply-held religious belief. So, until this law is repealed or overturned, Indiana is a no-go for me. I might watch the races on TV still, maybe.

And just for the record, this witch is a straight ally, not LGBTQA or any of the other initials in any of the acronyms used. I’m a dues-paying member of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC, the guys with the equal sign as their symbol) and you can go into the list if pages in the header to find a link to The Gay Marriage Challenge, where I invite people to make a logical case against same-sex marriage as damaging somehow to straight heterosexual marriage. So far the only serious attempt managed to shoot his case in the foot twice.

Up first today is Our Daily Ted. Weekend Links: Bicyclist voices heard in Griffith Park flap, but not in San Diego; Seattle driver doesn’t give a f*** The thing I liked about the Seattle bike lane video is the driver didn’t just move over to the parking lane right next to the bike lane she was parked in, she flat-out left completely.

Still in CA SFPD blames a dead cyclist for running a red light when there was a witness statement made to both them and the news media that the weapon vehicle ran a red light. SFPD investigation into bicyclist death called into question This just a couple of years after blaming cyclist Amelie Le Moullac killed in a right hook wreck without looking for the video that showed the truck driver at fault, which was found by a local bicycle advocacy group just hours before it would have been erased. Yeah SFPD, nobody is going to believe you when you make statements that contradict witnesses after that previous SNAFU.

Another link to the possible judicial collusion averted in CA. Attorney who had pled in death of cyclist withdraws his plea This situation just screams “We got caught” setting up some kind of sweet deal for the perp, something like time served, probation, or [$DEITY] forbid, deferred adjudication.

Do you have a hard time getting your brake levers where you can reach them? Lever Position Don’t forget to bring your yard or meter stick to the party.

Assault with a deadly weapon is perfectly fine when the weapon is a motor vehicle. Driver Who Rammed Minneapolis Protestors Charged With Traffic Offenses Someone in the street protesting something that you don’t like? Just drive right over them. No problem aside from a few tickets. The driver rammed through the demonstration at speed injuring several of the protesters.

Prosecutors in Oz go all out in punishing a drunk driver that killed a cyclist. Drunk driver Joseph Haenga sentenced to five years for causing death of champion cyclist Brynt McSwain Five years for killing a human being… TANJ.

We will never manage to pay off building suburbs with tax revenue from building suburbs. Study: Annual Cost of Sprawl in America Adds Up to $4,500 Per Person

Since they aren’t allowed to follow the Dutch blueprints for the wheel, Portland traffic engineers have to do some trial and error to reinvent it. City removes portion of N Rosa Parks bike lane to allow right turns> Actually what they are doing is trying to prevent right hooks. That’s something the Dutch have very nearly eliminated without resorting to mixing zones.

In other infrastructure news (from WI, where Scott Walker has just deleted the bike infrastructure budget)… Second Fatal Crash On Sheboygan Highway The report is not that there was a crash, or even that there were two crashes, what is interesting (for a traffic engineer) is the two fatal wrecks happened within a few feet of each other, meaning this may be infrastructure related.

Another link to the lawsuit filed in the death of a Vancouver West Canuckistan cyclist possibly pushed off a MUP by a pedestrian to be killed by a bus. Antonina Skoczylas, cyclist killed on Stanley Park Causeway, lawsuit launched I said at the time those sidewalks did not look wide enough to use as MUP coming off the bridge, and there is ample room for a bike lane there.

On the one hand he’s a pompous windbag with zero regards for the safety of cyclists even when he is one, on the other hand he’s a funny guy on the telly. Jeremy Clarkson on his bike in every sense – but who should replace him?

And very seldom is the victim of a bike wreck an awful person, unfortunately. Tributes paid to Michael Beard killed in Lincoln cycle crash

An e-assist bike can make your Silver Years more Golden. Electric bikes make inroads in the U.S. The ones I experimented with were set up to keep my average speed as constant as possible so I could route plan based on my cruise speed without assist on flat roads with no winds.

They experimented with co-ed team pursuit on a velodrome with four randomly selected teams. Mixed men and women track event tested at UCI World Cycling Centre The experiment seems to have gone well.

Another wounded veteran ride. Local veterans injured in combat participate in The Warrior Ride Cycling seems to be very therapeutic for combat injured vets.

And I’m all out of links again, finally.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Are we having fun yet? and the Feed

Today is Grocery Day again, and we saved a whole lot of money on “stuff” because I’m on a diet until I get enough money to rebuild Blue. I was nearly 220 at the doctor’s office on Monday and all the extra weight is causing other issues with my legs and feet. So I’m deleting all the soda and salty snacks from my diet as well as other things I used to nibble on from time to time. Since I can’t get more exercise until I can see where I’m going I have to go the other route and restrict caloric intake, or to use the vernacular, “Stop stuffing my pie hole!”

On the “See where I’m going” front, I have an appointment Tuesday for an MRI to see how big and/or invasive the thing on the back of my neck has become. This office is even further away than the PCP, I have to walk by that office about a quarter-mile to get to the imaging center. That means about 2 miles round trip on foot with no sidewalks from the closest bus stop to the imaging center. I’m hoping for good weather but late March in Texas is a crapshoot on weather.

Up first today is a double update on the “reflective clothing” bill in OR. Reflective clothing mandate, other bike bills up for hearing in Oregon house – UPDATED and the update to the update Oregon House Rep gives up on mandatory reflective clothing bill This bill was completely gutted with all the original language removed. “HB3255 bill will not be moving forward in its original form, and will have nothing to do with reflective clothing. The bill will be amended to fully delete its original language, and only require a red light to be visible from the rear of the bicycle at night. This is an amendment to the existing law for bicycle equipment requirements, ORS 815.280 (http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/815.280). Current law already requires a rear reflector at night.” There is a link in the article to the full text of the bill.

Are you a bike hacker? BICYCLE CONTEST Make something awesome, take step-by-step pictures that someone else could use to figure out how to do it themselves, write instructions that fill in the gaps not covered by the pictures, submit, and with a little luck “Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!”

Another follower of WoaB is probably a better writer than I am. Barging in TriBeCa, a Top Gear boor – and why I’m proud to be a Roundhead worrywart See I’m mostly a stream of consciousness writer when I’m not writing fiction, or translating Geek to English, but this guy can actually write with historical references and everything.

Our Daily Ted touches on a few sensitive topics today. Morning Links: Justice for San Diego thrill kill victim, Griffith Park feeder ride, and CD4’s Ryu finally responds Seriously, that guy that killed the cyclist in SD was a real stupid git, all he needed to do was hit the cyclist from behind and either claim he “swerved outta nowhere” or that the cyclist was invisible (I didn’t see him) before the wreck, et voila random murder without consequences beyond a little sheetmetal work and a new paint job paid for by insurance. But no, he had to pass the cyclist, stop and get out and shoot the cyclist with a shotgun, the idiot.

Something I have been advocating for a while and wish had been available when I was hit in 2001. Cyclists mounting cameras on bikes for their protection Seriously a rear-facing camera would have gotten at least the basics of what happened possibly even a license plate number as well as the make and color of vehicle that hit me and documentation of the damage sustained by the weapon vehicle. Instead I get months of flack from the LEO assigned to my case and nothing in the way of justice.

More on the cyclist killed by a dump truck driver while she was on a charity ride. No charges in Ride the Rideau crash that killed cyclist, police say I’m not sure I remember this wreck correctly out of the thousands I have covered but I think the cyclist was either left-crossed or right hooked in the wreck, both violations of the Highway Act, but apparently not applicable if the victim was riding a bike.

After another call for bicycle licenses for riders by candidates for alderman in the Windy City, someone dredges up actual facts about the subject. Why Bicycle Licensing (Almost) Never Works The only way it works requires changing the laws on retail sales statewide and somehow closing borders to bringing in bikes from out of state. So, nope, not gonna work in Chi-Town. For all those thinking that bicycle registration or rider licensing is such a good idea, why not require a Chicago -specific driver’s license? After all there are special Chicago laws for driving that drivers need to know about, so why not make sure people know about them by charging a couple of thousand dollars to take a test before entering the city limits?

And this tasty tid-bit from OR. Bike theft ‘kingpin’ admits crime to local TV reporter The problem is fueled by people buying the stolen parts cheap, because, duh, they are stolen. Stop the trade in stolen goods and you cut the problem off at the knees.

Some Portland infrastructure that does not pass the CROW manual test. Another use for green? City adds bike refuges at SE Ankeny/Sandy/11th I know, something had to be done, and there was (next to) no budget to do it. But I’m getting disgusted with the whole process that doesn’t actually get more butts in bike seats and only marginally improves safety for people already riding bicycles.

Another link to the driver that got out of his car to commit attempted murder in Jolly Olde. Police hunt driver who punched cyclist who was then hit by oncoming car Seriously, this guy could have gotten someone killed or permanently injured. He needs to be found and then held without bail as a danger to himself and others.

Why are they installing bollards in the middle of a car-free space? Cyclist’s fury at ‘unnecessary’ new posts which knocked him off his bike in Redhill Not just bollards but black bollards that are almost invisible in low or flat light. I would be incensed as well even if I didn’t get hurt in the incident.

One of the Good Guys. Hero cyclist foils mugging gang by chasing them on his bike… while filming them flee

The survivors of a deceased cyclist go for a “sue ’em all, one will crack and testify against the rest” strategy. Family of cyclist killed in Stanley Park files suit This was an unnecessary wreck, there is plenty of room for a bike lane in each direction in the street, that sidewalk is way too narrow to use as a MUP, and the speed limit is too high. Also there were pedestrians that may have caused (pushed) the cyclist to leave the sidewalk. That has been my theory from the get-go.

Justice or Just Us? Hong Kong court rules murdered cyclist deserved what he got The cyclist was hit head-on by a driver attempting to pass a vehicle going the other direction and who had a driving record that to put it bluntly stunk to high heaven.

Eulogy for a cyclist. ‘Everything about him spelled New Orleans,’ says family of cyclist killed in Terrytown

And I think I have run out of links or sanity, one or the other.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

Well, this is fun, and the Feed

I was looking at the hair left on the ground today after Sunday’s “Shearing of the Sheep” ritual and I noticed that while all my wavy locks were gone there were still clumps of beard and moustache hair blowing around the back yard. Apparently the critters like my hair but not my beard so much. Well as long as I’m having a positive impact, I’m good with that.

I’m having to reconstruct the post after accidentally deleting it and I’m having problems getting one of the links back, to an article on cities taking responsibility back for their walking infrastructure which I can’t seem to find again. This has been a sore spot for me as we have that issue here in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, property owners are responsible for the sidewalk and any grassy space between the sidewalk and the street in spite of that being city-owned right of way. Hell we can’t even do anything about people who park on the sidewalk blocking it for walking.

Lots of people getting hit in the crosswalk by turning vehicles in NYC this week. 13-Year-Old Boy Struck By Driver While Walking Bike Through UWS Crosswalk “No criminality suspected” because beat cops in NYPD don’t know the law that went into effect in September, hitting pedestrians in the crosswalk is a misdemeanor. Damnit I know the law and I live in TX, why don’t people paid to enforce that law know about it?

Another person is hit in virtually the same way, left-turning vehicle in a crosswalk. MTA Express Bus Seriously Injures Midtown Pedestrian And that cyclist picture is from 2013, Gothamist. Bad form. Crossing in the crosswalk and hit by a vehicle making a left turn makes this a slam dunk “Failure to yield to a pedestrian with right of way” bust. Book ‘im Danno.

An off-duty cop is hit-and-run by an off-duty bus driver, something tells me this is one case that will be “Criminality suspected”. Off-duty MTA bus driver arrested after striking cyclist with car Sure didn’t take them long to find the driver when there was a cop involved, even a reserve cop.

Well after all that here’s a little Daily Ted to peruse. Morning Links: Carfree Griffith Park could be sacrificed for well-healed homeowners; LA beats New York That UK article about near-misses set my hair on end. Of course that is pretty much the standard case with my hair after getting my head shaved.

An arrest was made in SC. Police: Arrest made in hit-and-run involving cyclist This arrest was made because the cyclist had front and rear video recordings. WoaB strongly recommends installing these if you have the funds.

Another arrest in FL. Driver who killed Cape Coral cyclist facing 30 years The fact that the driver was doing 102 MPH just 4 feet before hitting the cyclist says it all for me, this was deliberate random mayhem with the cyclist as collateral damage. If he hadn’t hit the cyclist he would have hit and killed someone else and probably himself as well.

But in CA we can’t even get charges filed. CHP: No charges recommended against truck driver who injured bicyclist The driver was not paying attention to the road and drove in the bike lane hitting the cyclist, and they do nothing? TANJ!

In the other CA (Canada) we get much the same thing. No charges in accident that saw Ottawa cyclist killed in collision with dump truck “No reason was given in the release on how they came to the decision.” As I recall the cyclist was riding straight and the truck was turning and BAM! dead cyclist.

This cyclist is lucky to be alive. Cyclist punched in ‘nasty’ road rage attack in Cambridgeshire and collides with oncoming car OK you got angry at a cyclist, who doesn’t? I mean there they are fit and healthy and riding down the road for the few hundred dollars (or pounds) it costs to buy a bike and nothing more aside from food and clothing which they would be buying anyway, and they make you slow down for a few seconds and totally ruin your day. But really setting up an ambush to beat one up is probably really dumb, especially when you almost kill him. That goes from “traffic boo-boo” to “attempted murder” in 0.001 seconds. And all that time you lost from being behind a cyclist is minor compared to the time it took to set up the ambush, and the time you get to spend in jail awaiting trial, and then the endless years of prison time because you got mad at a cyclist in front of you on the road. Now don’t you feel really dumb?

Well, the killer is off to prison, but the question remains: “Why and How? and could it have been prevented?” Families of charity duo killed on A30 near Newquay request a full inquest into deaths is held Well the driver had been falsifying records about how much time he had been driving, had been working “off the clock” to make more money, and hadn’t slept in almost a day, so it looks like there really isn’t any way to prevent this with the current built infrastructure that has cyclists and heavy trucks share the roads. More laws would just be more laws broken in this case, as the driver broke a series of major trucking laws and labor laws to try and get a little more £££…

Infrastructure in Boston. Boston Plans Protected Bike Lane for Dangerous Avenue Guys? there is this €90 book that tells everything you need to know about building bicycle infrastructure that works for drivers and cyclists and has been proven to work for over 20 years now…

And in Sweden they are doing similar things but excluding cars completely from their cities and not missing them. How Stockholm Became the Ultimate Walkable City

Do we really need a “luxury” e-assist bike? SPA Bicicletto Electric Bike Looks Amazing, but the Price Is Painful – Video, Photo Gallery Yeah it looks nice… even has halfway-decent range if there are no hills.

And I am bereft of any more links, ciao.

Billed @€Opus the Poet

I really am a scatter-brain, and the Feed

I left a ton of stuff out of yesterday’s post, specifically stuff about that lump on the back of my neck. Since I can’t recall exactly what I said and did not say (and I’m too lazy to open another tab and read it, I know that’s bad and I’m lazy) I’ll just go through the list. First of all this lump has been there for many years, at least 5 if not longer. Second there was some imaging done when I first noticed it by the Lab Rat Keeper to make sure it wasn’t something that was going to kill me (it isn’t going to kill me, it’s just really annoying now). Third the person checking me out yesterday was concerned that it has grown over the vertebrae on my neck and around the side of my neck and is concerned it may have become invasive. Fourth, it isn’t a sebaceous cyst because those are painful when poked they way I got poked during the exam yesterday, and not as firm as the lump on the back of my neck. So the thing they are really concerned about is that it might be invasive somehow and removing it might be a problem, and that it pretty much has to be removed sooner rather than later. The MRI is to determine how invasive it is and to positively identify what it is so that it can be removed without surprises when the operation gets done.

And with all that walking my feet hurt pretty bad when I got up this morning. 😛

Up first because The Onion is not the strangest source I have today. ‘What If No One Travels Anywhere Ever Again?’ Wonders Panicked Transportation Secretary Yep, nothing like a little existential angst to get the blood pumping in the morning.

Down the road from the Beautiful suburbs of Hell. I Can’t Even Why some people think we “need” a toll road through the middle of what was sold to the public as a park when the bonds were passed nearly 20 years ago now. No park, just a highway where there were pictures of people sailing little boats in tiny lakes in the brochures promoting the bond issue. Lakes that were never in the “official” bond proposal.

This note is TX-specific. Action Alert: Ask your representative to vote YES on HB 80 Since texting is a 21st Century blight upon humanity (and no I’m not just being old, I text when appropriate) it is only fair that TX should get in the 21st Century and ban it while driving.

Another TX specific paragraph on infrastructure. Texas House Takes Center Stage I like this one, because putting a designated portion of the general fund into transportation means we can demand a designated portion be put to non-motorized transportation. I suggest that $3 Billion be apportioned by fatalities for improving the safety for cyclists and pedestrians. I don’t meant that 16% of that $3 Billion should be put aside for cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure, I’m saying that 16% of the transportation budget up to that $3 Billion should be set aside for cyclists and pedestrians since this is a non-car source of funding.

And even in Houston they see the benefits of greater density in development. Houston Feels Downtown’s Lively Enough to Stop Development Tax Break The tax break had an initial cutoff of 2500 housing units that was quickly extended to 5000 when it was discovered that there was enough demand to support them, which is also about to get topped out years ahead of projected dates.

An experiment that worked out so well they wanted to make it permanent. Banning Cars Can Be Good For Business Whodathunkit? Giving more space to people instead of cars is good for business.

Our Daily Ted is really good today. (Late) Morning Links: Griffith Park road under attack, more on Sunday’s CicLAvia, and stupid Scot cop tricks

Would you like a secure lightweight lock for your crabon wunderFahrrad? LITELOK®: Lightweight, flexible and super secure bike lock. The mix of fibers in the braid that replaces cables and chains requires different cutting methods to separate, making one mode take way too long to get through and leading to thieves getting caught red-handed.

MPLS is getting serious about connected bicycle infrastructure. Minneapolis protected bike lane list for 2015 swells

What do you do when the air becomes dangerous to breathe? Ban cars for a day. Half of Paris just took a mandatory day off of driving OK ban half of cars, with the option to ban the other half the next day if needed.

Someone does not understand the concept of woonerf. 6 Places Where Cars, Bikes, and Pedestrians All Share the Road As Equals Woonerf are places where the motor vehicle is tolerated as something that has to be there but people would prefer not to be there, or basically a rowdy guest that has to be on its best behavior or get tossed out.

An e-assist bike for military use, when sometimes it is critical to be able to move faster than 20 MPH. Trefecta DRT: The $25K high-tech, military-grade electric super bike

And I’m all out of links again. I’ma have a little lie-down for my leg now.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

I seem to have another lipoma that needs removing, and the Feed

Just got back from a more than 6 hour trip (with 2.5 miles of walking) to get to my PCP and get set up for an MRI to determine exactly what is on my neck and how it should be removed. At this point they are “pretty sure” it is a lipoma because it’s too big to be a sebaceous cyst and also too hard, sebaceous cysts are usually squishy and painful when prodded like I was getting prodded today. One thing is for sure, we are going to have to change PCP after this because there is no way Mrs. the Poet could survive that trek if there was anything seriously wrong with her. I had to have a lie down after I got back because of the pain from doing all that walking and standing around waiting.

Up first is a report on a cyclist injured a long but not too hard day’s ride south of WoaB. Cyclist fights her way back from critical crash, arduous recovery Her head injury was initially much worse than mine, but her treatment was as much better as you would expect from 14 years of medical progress. You go girl!

A little further on south from that wreck, we have people remembering those killed in the SXSW wreck a year ago. SXSW crash memorial dedicated and Cyclist group remembers those lives lost at last year’s South by Southwest crash The crappy weather we have been going through this past weekend contributed to a bad turnout, and the really bad news I read was there has been no move to prosecute the driver since the original charges were filed shortly after the wreck.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Another successful CicLAvia, Seleta and Sadik-Khan chat, and 15-to-life in fatal DUI hit-and-run

This one just screams “Stop the setup, people are looking!” SF Attorney Withdraws His Plea In Death Of Cyclist Just before sentencing, the judge recuses himself because people he knows were on the letter-writing campaign for leniency? it sounds like Smith and Murphy were trying to pull a fast one and make the consequences “go away” for the accused lawyer, and they got caught.

In better news the cyclist whose wallet was stolen while he was being cared for by the driver that hit him is slowly coming out of the coma he has been in since the wreck. Cyclist who had wallet stolen while injured awakes from coma and Cyclist Hit By Truck, Robbed As He Lay Hurt In Oakland, Speaks First Words Since Awakening From Coma Having his wallet stolen was just adding insult to literal injury in this case. His medical bills are so high that he will never see the end of the debt he has been buried under.

Another link to the CT driver who killed a cyclist after drinking for several hours and left the scene with the cyclist dying in the road and tried to cover up the evidence. Driver To Serve 8 Years In Prison In Hit-And-Run Death Of Weston Cyclist The thing that bugs me most about this is he is getting more time for the coverup than for killing the cyclist, and that ain’t right.

Another killer driver who is getting punished more for leaving the scene and covering up the wreck by disposing of the weapon vehicle than for killing a human being. Guilty sentence 3 years on for driver who hit and killed cyclist before disappearing to Australia And for hooning off to Oz too, I guess.

And there’s another idiot bragging about committing hit-and-run against a cyclist on Twitter. Anyone knocked off their bike sometime before 10.00 today (22nd March)? Someone claiming it on Twitter Idiot, bragging about breaking a law, and then trying to hide it by deleting the account? Don’t you know the Internet never forgets?

Run them off the roads, then attack them for being on the sidewalk? Police hunt man who attacked cyclist for riding on St Kilda footpath

It begins, we must crush this before it is allowed to spread, crush it without mercy. Hyogo Pref. to require bicycle riders to buy insurance Can you imagine having to buy bicycle insurance for your children? I would imagine that most people would just say why bother and never buy the kids a bike.

Our first Bike Month link is from LA. Get cycling during Bike Month

Included because we still have to deal with people who think like this. Tips for Drivers and Cyclists to Keep Everyone Safe

Riding an e-assist bike is just like this except most people can’t charge their batteries in 10 minutes. It’s like riding a bike, only it’s electric When that assist kicks in it’s like you just got a brand new pair of legs, at least on the bikes I built. But I built my assist bikes to maintain speed on hills, not to go blazing down a flat road without pedalling.

And I’m blessedly out of links, the Stoopid, it buuuurrrrnssss us!

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

I’m not hairy on a Wreck-Free Sunday

I just finished doing the annual Spring head-shaving in the back yard partially in preparation for a trip to my PCP tomorrow to have that lump on the back of my neck taken care of. The other part is I leave the hair removed so the local birds can use it as nesting material. This was one of the years I take the porn-stache off to make sure there is nothing growing on my upper lip that shouldn’t be there.

The trip to the PCP is because the lump is between tennis ball and baseball size, and severely restricting my range of movement moving my head back and left to right. Also, I can’t even get my helmet all the way over my head because it hits that lump. So, the lump has to go, and the first step in that is tomorrow’s doctor visit. This is one of the downsides of my insurance, having to go through the PCP before getting anything that he (they) can’t do. And I’m pretty sure this is going to take a surgeon to deal with because it was originally a lipoma about the size of a walnut and now well just go back and read that first sentence in the paragraph again.

My cheap gene has been kicking in on the powertrain for the Sprint-T. I got a link to a $7500 conversion from ICE to EV and as this conversion is less than the cost of the engine and transmission… And this does not violate Mrs. the Poet’s decree against donor vehicles. The down side is there will be a major performance and range hit unless I drop the SLA and go LiFePO4. But then we are looking at thousands of dollars more, or roughly the same cost as the ICE installation and still not anywhere near the daily range of the ICE. Actually I just finished checking on the cost to get the same range as a 10 gallon gas tank and I am looking at $32K just for the batteries, so green is not as fast as brown or grey. The batteries for the same range as the SLA are about 3 times as much money and less than ¹/₃ the weight, so a slightly greater range on the same amount of electrical power. And I would need a truck to trailer the car for transport to races, so there is nothing to gain there. So, unless I want to totally abandon the major reason I’m building a T bucket rather than buying something like a Kia Rio, I will stick to the ICE. But the intellectual exercise of packaging the EV components in a T bucket was a brief entertainment for me.

I’m currently watching the Sprint Cup race out in Fontana CA, and it has been all JGR and SHR up front. I would call this one a good race anyway, because those are both 4 car teams, and they both seem to have 2 or 3 cars that can run up front at some point in the race. The last segment seems to have degenerated into a fuel economy contest at 190 MPH, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a nail-biter. To the contrary, now it’s a question of who will still be running at the end. This has been a fairly wreck-free race with most of the cautions being for debris. And just now they had a debris caution with 15 laps to go, so that means back to charging for all they’re worth to the end of the race. Unfortunately Matt Kenseth broke an axle leaving his pit box, taking his car out of contention if not out of the race. 😦 And they just had another caution with two to go, which put Kenseth back on the lead lap. Kevin Harvick decided to only take two right side tires… It’s a Green, White, Checker finish. And now we have another caution for a second GWC attempt to finish (they get three tries) but at least Kenseth got the Lucky Dog to be on the lead lap. And Brad Keslowski won after starting back in the pack from getting 4 tires on the caution that brought out the first GWC. Harvick keeps his string of top-2 finishes alive at eight.

And I’m out of things to say, so I’ll stop writing now.

PSA, Opus

We have a new addition to the Feed, and the rest of the Feed

Join me in welcoming infrastructure news magazine Next City to the Feed today. I got several “back issues” sent when I signed up so there will be many links from them in today’s post. I think this will be a good resource for the future for this blog. On a less happy note the spring equinox ritual for tomorrow afternoon at my church has been rescheduled because of forecast bad weather.

Up first Friend of WoaB Carlton Reid has another article on the fact that paved roads in the US and UK owe their existence to cyclists. “Roads were not built for cars”: how cyclists, not drivers, first fought to pave US roads That’s right, we paid for the first paved streets and highways between cities to get paved, not the motor vehicles that did not exist at the time. I know that, you probably knew that, too, we just have to get the news to about 100 million other people in the US who still think roads did not exist prior to the invention of the motor vehicle.

News from Our Daily Ted. Weekend Links: Witnesses wanted in El Segundo death, Westwood votes for bike lanes, and more Valley CicLAvia

And Bikeyface has got this infrastructure thing nailed down. A ZOO That’s kinda what I feel like out there on the roads some days.

And David Hembrow weighs in on the Sydney Rd. door prize in Oz, placing the blame squarely on crappy Oz infrastructure designs. Eliminating the risk of “Dooring”: Good cycle infrastructure design keeps cyclists out of the door zone and saves lives

Making a coroplast honeycomb material may be the next phase of bicycle helmets. The New Materials That Are Revolutionizing Helmet Safety Right Now More expensive than the current EPS material that is standard for bike helmets, but potentially this could make helmets work almost as well as people think they do now.

The first of the Next City links is about the best bike lanes in the US. Cycling Advocates Pick 10 Best New Bike Lanes in the U.S. The “Best” bike lane in the US would still fail to meet the minimum standards set forth in the CROW manual.

Memphis is feeling the loss of their streetcar revival. Memphis Streetcars Will Come Back, But When? And if you are wondering what this has to do with bikes, the increase in cars caused by the shutdown of the streetcars makes use of the parallel bike lane just that much more dangerous…

Does anyone recall how many times I wrote in this blog that stale greens and short amber phases were getting cyclists killed? Investigation Says Mayor Emanuel’s Office Is Ignoring Traffic Safety Numbers Seems like some other people had the same idea…

Surface level highways without grade separation do not belong in neighborhoods, period, full stop, end of story. Vision Zero Activists Target New York Arterials, Including “The Boulevard of Death” You can’t mix fast cars with cyclists and pedestrians without getting dead and broken bodies, they just are not compatible. And if you can’t get the cars away from the people, you have to slow them down to the point that they can mix with people. Recent studies have shown that the maximum safe speed for motor vehicles on streets with pedestrians is 25 MPH. Any faster than that and the survival rate for the inevitable collisions between motor vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists just get’s unacceptably low. I mean people are rightfully appalled at a 91% survival rate for gunshots when motor vehicle collisions survivability rate goes under that at 23 MPH (90%).

Gee, why encourage people to make your downtown a desirable destination when you can turn it into a free parking wasteland. Parking Wars Play Out Differently in Two N.J. Cities One way gets sales and property tax money back to the city and the other lets car thieves have a choice of an open-air or covered market to select a vehicle from, assuming that anyone actually uses them for parking, because why stop and park when there’s nothing to see or do?

I wonder if this is because they don’t like bikes, or because they don’t like people spending money and generating sales tax dollars? Utah Appears Set to Ban Bicycles From Drive-Thru Lanes

Well this is interesting, a deputy threatening arrest for trespassing for riding a mountain bike on a posted mountain bike trail. Dust up over trail access in Oro Valley’s Honeybee trails

Gee, how DO you get people to ride bikes other than providing them with safe infrastructure that gets them from where they are to where they want or need to go? Four Ways to Inspire Bike Riders in Your Small Community

OK this is just as appalling as people getting shot. Mansfield Woodhouse car crash man walked away after injuring a cyclist He wrecked his car hitting parked cars and knocked a man down causing some injury when he pushed one of the parked cars into the man’s bicycle, then he wandered off because he “lost his passenger”? what was he on at the time? drugs, booze, massive amounts of beer?

Gee, why are huge vehicles with poor outward visibility that take up massive amounts of space when they turn killing people with no protection when they are forced to share the roads? TRL to study London’s HGV operations

Before and after court articles from the same Feed. Before New Milford man to be sentenced in cyclist death and after Lee gets eight years in cyclist’s death That’s 30 years of state supervision in all, with the first 8 in prison of he doesn’t mess things up, otherwise he gets to spend the full 25 in prison, then the 5 years of probation.

OK I an absolutely gobsmacked at this verdict. Van driver cleared of killing teenage cyclist in Kent also Texting van driver cleared of responsibility for death of 18-year-old cyclist He admitted he was trying to text but ran out of battery before he completed the text right before hitting the cyclist, and he was still found “not guilty”? And another view. SOMETHING’S NOT QUITE RIGHT HERE A detailed review of the wreck taken from the published testimony and court record.

At least there was a trial for that one even if the jury was composed of wannabe F1 drivers… One year on, ‘justice’ plea for cyclist dad who died in collision with car That’s right the plods won’t even send the case on to prosecutors.

This Irish cyclist may have missed seeing a pothole at night, but she didn’t miss the pothole! Pothole leaves cyclist with head injuries Interesting that the pothole was filled after the time of the wreck and before the cyclist was released from the hospital. 😛

No rush at all to build this memorial to a dead cyclist killed riding to ball practice, he died in 1983. Board OKs Stoughton pavilion for youngster killed riding bike That’s right he was killed by a motor vehicle while riding his bike July 21, 1983! Almost 32 years ago!

A LEO in AK wants to see how big a difference bike lights really make in drivers seeing cyclists do they really pay that much attention? JPD starts bike safety project

It turns out it is very hard to get people to change their commute once they have a set pattern they follow. The Problem With Paying People to Bike to Work Even when you pay people to bike, if they have already established the pattern of driving to work they will probably continue to drive unless besides paying to ride you also do something that strongly disincentives driving at the same time, like charging hourly rates for parking or putting in meters that need to be fed coins regularly.

This link is a bit out of position because it came in after midnight and I was not in the mood to scroll back up 1200 words and put it over by the rest of the CA stuff. YUCAIPA: Driver jailed in cyclist’s death That is one of if not THE harshest sentence I have ever seen anyone get for killing a cyclist, that I can remember. And they did not even have to prove BAC%. I have seen cyclist killer drivers with proven BAC% in the “you’re gonna die” range get lower maximum sentences than this guy’s minimum sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

And I’m done, no more links and I don’ wanna do this anymore today. 😦

Billed @€0.03, Opus the Poet

OMG! The Feed!

This was another “fun” day to do the Filtering. There is still just so much death and destruction even in simple physical infrastructure articles, and it’s 10 times worse in legal infrastructure articles because every change in the legal infrastructure is in response to one or more (usually more) dead cyclists, ones that I usually have covered in detail in this blog. I had to take several breaks during the filtering process, most for links that will never get posted to this blog. Sadly while I don’t post an analyse wreck links any more, I still get a mess of them in the Feed. I tried changing search settings to prevent this, but as I said earlier most physical and every legal infrastructure change has been in response to a dead or crippled cyclist, sometimes several dead and injured cyclists. Removing search terms for dead or injured cyclists prevented me from finding links to those infrastructure articles. The good news is this has become much less of a PTSD trigger and the attacks have gotten much less severe since I stopped writing about wrecks until legal proceedings against the driver are proceeding. The bad news is that means I have gone from 4 or 5 PTSD attacks a day down to one or two, not zero. And I am more than a decade out from my wreck…

Up first a driver in GA rammed a building and injured a store employee there. Woman imprisoned for ramming car into Dollar General 12 years in prison and another 8 on probation, or at least 20 years under state supervision for a non-fatal wreck in a parking lot.

Now compare and contrast this fatal wreck in NYC. Throw away the keys: Driver who killed cyclist loses license for six months Yes that’s right, 20 years state supervision for hitting a building and injuring someone inside, compared to 6 months license suspension for a fatal hit-and-run. And we all know how much of an imposition it is to not have a license to drive when you have already ignored laws against leaving the scene of a wreck. Absolutely none.

This report is on a wreck that I covered here a couple of years ago, the guy that hit a group of cyclists on the sidewalk and proceeded to knock a building off its foundation a few feet further on. Biddeford man charged in fatal bicycle crash sentenced to 10 years in prison Still less than the woman that hit the building in GA by a binary order of magnitude, but an uncountable improvement over the utterly symbolic “punishment” given to the driver that killed the NYC cyclist.

A little closer to home in LA an extremely drunk driver gets 25 years in prison with all but 7.5 suspended for hitting two cyclists and killing one and permanently injuring the other. Branch gets 7.5 years for killing cyclist The lax sentence was at the request of the surviving victim and the deceased victim’s survivors, so I can see some of this. I would really like to see a lifetime ban on driving with a mandatory prison sentence appropriate to illegal possession of weapon if caught driving.

After all that cheerful news, here’s today’s Daily Ted. Morning Links: Westwood BID considers Westwood Blvd bike lanes, South LA cyclist critical after collision

The relatives of a cyclist killed on the road in the UK discover that they had been lied to concerning prosecution of the driver that killed the cyclist. Family of cyclist killed in road crash hits out at police who gave ‘false hope’ of prosecution Now they are rushing to pay for a private prosecution that has to be started soon to prevent dismissal for failure to prosecute before expiration of the statute of limitations in the case.

And in Oz, the driver who used his motor vehicle as a weapon is given a slight fine for the infraction. Fine for driver who knocked down cyclist The difference between murder and assault with a deadly weapon is fractions of an inch, or the choice of deadly weapon.

Why don’t more people in the US ride a bike in spite of so many that want to? It’s the stupid infrastructure. Here’s what keeps people from riding a bike If I’m reading that right, what is keeping the US from having a 54% participation share for bikes (54% regularly riding at some point during the week) is crappy drivers, followed closely by even crappier infrastructure that does nothing to protect cyclists from crappy drivers. Most urban trips in the US could easily be done on a bicycle if the riders felt safe to do so.

And here is why we have crappy infrastructure. Two perfect examples of the attitude Vision Zero is supposed to change As is pointed out in the comments, looking at roads a tenth of a mile at a time does not show where an entire road is unsafe because you could get 10 fatal wrecks per mile and not get any clusters that would indicate bad design in that particular 0.1 mile segment. But nobody outside of that engineering study would agree that this was a safe road.

Put a crazy person who hates bicycles in charge of regulating off-road bicycle infrastructure and guess what you get? In letter to Mayor Hales and commissioners, national orgs ‘object’ to River View decision If you guessed “less off-road bicycle infrastructure” give yourself a cookie. The city bought an existing network of privately maintained MTB trails and 3 years later banned people from riding those trails, without citing a reason and going against their science and technical advisory committee’s recommendations. And when pressed have given a changing palette of “reasons” that were easily refuted by facts, which resulted in no reasons at all.

Conflicting realities in Oz. Cyclists in Sydney need a ticket to ride and one based in our world 18 reasons why registering bicycles is a bad idea The first link is a meandering collection of unsupported opinions masquerading as “fact”, the second is a collection of real facts with links to government sources supporting them.

And I’m out of both links and patience, thank [$DEITY] I ran out of the first prior to running out of the second.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet