For those of you wondering and sending me e-mails, yes the shootout over pictures of the prophet Mohammed was about 2 miles away by bike from my house, and 2) I didn’t know about it until I read the news the next morning. I live in that Garland, or to put it another way the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Let me hasten to add that I share very little with the person who deliberately baited this trap to cause extremists to attack the gathering other than a strong support for freedom of speech. I do not consider a “contest” for the “most offensive cartoon” to be freedom of speech, any more than I would consider a contest for the most offensive cartoon of a black man getting lynched. If you’re setting up “offensive” as a goal to be achieved you are automatically exceeding the protections of “free speech”.
And while we are on the subject of offensive things, the lump on the side and back of my neck is getting larger and more restrictive of my range of motion, and BCBS sent me a letter stating they agree with the diagnosis that it should be removed posthaste. Of course for an insurance company “posthaste” is not quite the same as it is for those of us who can get killed, they gave me a year to get rid of it. For an insurance company dealing with something that is not bleeding to death, that counts as “posthaste”.
Up first from the links, another bad day for Ted. 62-year old crosswalk rider killed in Santa Ana left cross collision Left crosses are pretty much the worst, because you can see it coming but don’t have the time to react to do anything about it. I’m just glad I never had to cover wrecks that might involve people I knew.
Our Daily Ted Pt. 2. Morning Links: More on efforts to undo Chase Street, bike riding family shot in WI, and apparently only dopes dope
Daily Ted Part 3. 23-year old bike rider killed last week in Granada Hills truck collision
FL cyclist violates one of WoaB cardinal rules, “Don’t Hit the Pedestrians”. Cyclist Dazed, Injured After Crash with Jogger You gotta pipe up when relaying warnings on a group ride. Sound off like you have a pair.
FL drunk driver gets a stiff sentence. Woman ‘2 Drunk 2 Care’ Gets 24 Years in Fatal Crash Yep, sending a tweet that you are too drunk to drive but you’re driving anyway makes this depraved murder or something like that. At least that would be my initial charge, Murder.
Speaking of Murder, someone dropped a marble or twenty and decided to shoot up a bike trail before shooting himself. Shooter disrupts family bike ride; 4 dead, including gunman As of the time of creating this post the shooter was known to be a veteran, but not known if he had seen combat. Mox Nix, he still saw enough to flip out and start shooting people. RIP dead cyclists, and peace to those shot but not killed.
How can this driver still look so smug in this mug shot? Truck driver charged in fatal Milton collision with bicyclist
How a world-class endurance athlete can be reduced to crawling. Lexington woman sentenced in hit and run crash that injured world-class cyclist
Remembering a NYC cyclist killed in a hit-and-run that ended up changing the way NYPD investigates wrecks. Remembering Clara Heyworth, And The Unlicensed Driver Who Killed Her Without Consequence They caught the driver when he crashed a few blocks away, but because the “investigation” was completely botched because it was started 3 days after the wreck and most of the evidence had been washed away they never charged him.
Still in NYC when you run someone over while police are investigating the first person you ran over you might be stupid get charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Cops: Driver Rammed Man In Wheelchair, Then Fractured Another Man’s Skull Yep, when you hit someone hard enough to send them down the stairs to the subway from the street, and you do it in front of a LEO still investigating the wreck where you ran over a guy in a wheelchair, you might get hosed.
Ripples and repercussions of a bike wreck in DC. The Injured Yogi’s 5 Accidental Life Lessons
Drunk driver in West Canuckistan gets a somewhat harsh sentence for assaulting a cyclist. Drunk driver sentenced Only 15 months for attempted murder…
There is a way to keep people from using the phone and texting while driving, but it is a voluntary thing. Smartphone App Blocks Teens From Texting, Phoning While Driving Make this app mandatory for all phones, not optional for teens. It as already been proven that talking on the phone, even with a hands-free device is as bad as drunk driving, and texting is as bad as driving with your eyes closed.
What do you do when there’s no place to pull over and no way to get passed? Harassed by a streetcar driver while riding safely and Streetcar GM responds to harassment complaint
Now if Amtrak wasn’t about twice as expensive as taking the bus or flying. Amtrak to welcome bicycling passengers by end of the year
Your next e-assist bike could recharge itself. Solarbike is the cycle for sun-lovers My experiments with solar-assist involved a roof over the bike with a coroplast panel to hold the cells. The idea was to point the bike on an east-west axis and tilt the roof south to catch as much sun as possible. The bike in the article does a similar thing with the wheel-mounted cells which can be charged by laying the bike on its side or pointing it so that the sun hits the wheels while parked.
And your next bike share bike could have a little extra helping you get where you want to go. Birmingham’s New Bike-Share Will Have Electric-Assist Bicycles
What if they made a street that adapted to the people using it, outside of cars? Customizing the Crosswalk Experience
Do we really need all that lane space on a city street? Why 12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Disastrous for Safety and Must Be Replaced Now
And I appear to have temporarily run out of links, thank [$DEITY].
Billed @€0.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 