I spent several hours getting in and out of the driver’s seat of many cars that I would like to drive now that Mrs. the Poet is starting to have difficulties getting around. Mrs. the Poet refuses to get a driver’s license so I will have to be the driver. She is developing the same grip problems as my Dad did right before he crashed his car back in 2012 so she doesn’t even want to go down that road. She figures any car I can get in and out of with the bum leg from the wreck she can do likewise on the passenger side. Wait until I get the jungle gym of the Sprint T mocked up and start climbing in and out of that. Then I think she might change her tune.
One issue I have been discovering in trying on cars is steering wheels that are consistently too close to the driver. I admit I have short legs, but the only car I felt completely comfortable with was the Fiat 500 which has a very arms-out driving position. Of course this was compounded by every car having the driver’s seat locked in the full upright position, and some also having the driver’s seat in the full rear position. Another thing I noticed was seats with relatively flat bottom cushions and very aggressive bolsters on the seat back were more comfortable and easier to get in and out of than seats with the bolsters on the bottom cushion. What was really nice were the cars where the recline and bottom cushion tilt were independently controlled so my legs and back were equally well supported, while letting my legs move and work the controls. This is something I will have to work on when I do the cockpit in the Sprint-T. Tilting the bottom cushion back helps hold the driver in against braking forces and also makes the back bolsters work better at holding the driver in place behind the wheel. You can’t tell I used to build race cars back in the day, can you?
Up first a low-information wreck (for me, there’s a paywall) from Seguin TX. Bike rider injured at fundraiser in Seguin So the cyclist hit (some part of) a parked car. And that’s all I was able to read.
Another low-information report because there wasn’t much information available from LEO, in the opposite direction from WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. OHP: Cyclist injured after hit-and-run near Muldrow At this point they don’t know if the injured person was riding the bike or pushing it because of how far off the road the victim was when hit.
More on that wreck in CA that may have been deliberate on the part of the driver. UPDATE: Hurt Cyclist is 2-Time Gold Winning Olympic Athlete I wrote “may” because this is the wreck that someone on FB that I linked to yesterday had an encounter with the driver in the same vehicle last year. That one was dismissed as a “he said, she said” incident, but a second wreck with a cyclist in a year does not bode well for the driver’s version of events. More Road rage repeat offender in Santa Barbara bike crash?
Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: LA BAC meets tonight, Los Feliz NC discusses LA mobility plan, and bike Metro’s Rideshare Week
I have been putting off mentioning the cyclist killed riding the Gran Fondo last week because I just did not have the right link to share. Now I do> Edward Lund, Fresno artist and curator, killed in crash during bike ride
Still in CA, a cyclist is shot to death. Teenaged bicyclist killed in gang-related shooting So stupid.
This seems to be another day that’s extremely heavy on CA links. Cyclists’ Idaho stop becomes hot potato in San Francisco Oh no let’s not try something that works someplace else because our population is so much more dense it changes the laws of physics. Or something. Which is what I would put in a comment if I wanted to register at yet another news outlet web site…
More on the cycling couple who were hit by a red-light running vehicle in UT. 1 killed, another injured after pair of cyclists hit by car Still the same story, cyclists waited for their red light to change before entering the intersection. Driver hit them more than halfway across the intersection after running a red light that had been red for some time before he got to the intersection…
And across the country in NYC another pedestrian is killed with “no criminality suspected”. Staten Island Driver Fatally Strikes Pregnant Mother Of Two Somebody needs to do something to stop the death machines from killing everyone in NYC.
Back to PDX for some infrastructure news. Broadway Bridge updates: A broken shoulder and upcoming closure Looks like a mess there indeed.
Over in Jolly Olde cyclists are getting injured in droves as a tram line runs through a bike lane at an acute angle. Changes to Edinburgh junction where dozens of cyclists have fallen on tramlines described as ‘terrible’ More than 100 seriously injured and more getting hurt on a daily basis with 2 or 3 a week serious enough to file suits? The pooch is screwed.
Some cyclists deserve to get fined. Cyclists receiving fines at rate of about 100 a month Given that this is for the entire country of Ireland 100 a month is not excessive, but I do wonder if cyclists are being targeted because they are easier to catch then drivers.
And as helmet use increases, so do spinal injuries. Cyclist spinal in juries ‘soar 320pc in five years’ I realize that correlation is not causation, but I wonder how much is due to an increased percentage of helmet users, and how much is due to just more cyclists to get hurt?
A Canadian visits Amsterdam and does a little research into the history of cycling there. Paul Wilson: Amsterdam — bikes, battles and bare heads
Someone imagined an entire city as devoted to cycling as transportation as your typical late-20th century US city was to cars. Architect imagines a neighborhood and a whole new building type designed around bikes Glorious isn’t it?
And I’m outta links again and need to sleep because I have to get up early tomorrow to do my volunteer gig. 0600 wakeup, ugh.
Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet
Witch on a Bicycle 