After working on the post later than 0330 this Friday morning, and then spending about an hour to 90 minutes +/- turning my brain off so I could sleep, I was awakened at about 0830 by Mrs. the Poet calling the kittens “Bad children” at a very high volume, and again at frequent intervals through the morning, until I gave up on sleeping and wished my wife a happy 62nd birthday. I have been fighting “brain fuzz” all day today and I apologize in advance for my grammar and sentence construction.
I went out after breakfast to purchase Mrs. the Poet’s birthday gift, not having had a chance to have transportation and money at the same time to buy anything earlier. I got her a Barnes & Nobel gift card (she loves buying books) and a bag of COAL candy (all caps in the trade name) at the “maul”, and dinner at the Whataburger on the way home, and lots of chocolate at the grocery store (bags of soon-to-expire Halloween candy at about 80% off, but it was still good). With the headways of the local line being what they are I left shortly after 12 and didn’t get back until almost 1600 in spite of only going 3 miles from the house at the furthest. We just finished dinner and it’s already 2030 as I type this. I haven’t even opened my email today much less started to filter the Feed… I’m doomed.
Up first, the most dangerous thing you can do to a kid is put him/her in a car, but we haven’t figured out how to NOT do that yet. Carseats and the Limitations of American Safety Culture Basically child carseats are tested to the same standards as cars with adjustments for kids not being able to extract themselves from restraints by themselves (and testing to make sure they can’t remove the restraints without an adult), but the best we could do was take motor vehicles from #1 killer to #2 killer in the age group that uses child car restraints. And for some reason they don’t work if the child is dressed for the cold so wrap the kid in blankets after you strap him or her down into a freezing cold child restraint seat. I guess sternum straps were a strap too far for parents to buckle, because the kid wouldn’t even need arms to be restrained with a 5-point harness with a sternum strap.
Infrastructure criticism from comments on the wreck of a cyclist in Portland OR. Comment of the Week: A map should not be an important safety tool Exactly! Maps should be for wayfinding only, and any route that gets you there should be safe for any mode capable of legally using that route. The fact that we are using maps to find “safe” routes indicates serious shortcomings with the built environment. “We should never, ever have to ask “why would anyone ride their bike on that route?””
And two days ride south of WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, a pilot program tries combining exercise with transportation to give seniors more independence. On the Move, Seniors Lead an East Austin Trike Revival I set up a trike for a local senior citizen and she’s been riding the heck out of it to do things like run to the market and see people just down the street who are too far to walk but too close to get the minivan out and drive (and it turns out there are a lot of trips that fall under that criteria).
They have already completely blocked the sidewalk, why are they encroaching the bike lanes as well? Walk Bike Nashville It shouldn’t have taken that long to get the lane cleared up, but hey, slow is better than not at all.
Speaking of blocked bike lanes, here’s Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Water-blocked in a Santa Monica bike lane, and real sportsmanship in a Spanish bike race
Meanwhile in MO they finally got around to putting the former mayor of a town on trial after he hit a cyclist. Mistrial declared in case of Sunset Hills mayor accused of hitting cyclist The driver’s lawyer started going on about the civil trial during the criminal trial which caused the judge to declare a mistrial.
The FL cyclist killed by a cement truck was right hooked, according to the witness who watched him go under the wheels of the weapon vehicle. Bicyclist dead in accident involving cement truck on State Road 7 I feel for the witness wh had to watch the cyclist get killed.
More on that CA wreck where the driver was on the wrong side of the street when he hit a cyclist head on. Cyclist Killed, Driver Arrested in San Francisco Bicycle vs. Car Crash I thought there was something janky about that wreck when I read the driver was arrested at the scene for a vehicular homicide. Since the driver wasn’t impaired and didn’t leave the scene there had to be something about the driver’s behavior that caused LEO to arrest him on the spot before they even had time to check his social media profiles. Now we know he was trying to get around traffic by driving on the wrong side of the street. If they check his SM and find rants about cyclists he will probably go down on a murder charge. I’m pretty sure there will be a rant or two about cyclists being scum or freeloaders that never obey the law. And at 26 you know he has a substantial SM footprint.
Another VT wreck. Cyclist injured in Winooski crash with truck All that cheap gas has brought out the wrecks in droves. They’re saying this cyclist may have run a stop sign. And I can’t tell if the rear wheel was hit at an angle or directly from the side but not very hard. So the report may be right may be half right (he might have stopped and mis-judged the amount of acceleration he had at his disposal).
They laid a hero to rest, not just a cycling hero, but a warrior, and the current record holder for the fastest SEAL marathon. Former Navy SEAL killed in bike crash to be buried in Arlington Friday and Retired Navy SEAL killed in Md. bike crash to be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery Dude had some serious endurance athlete chops. Plus the Navy SEAL thing. That’s also pretty serious chops.
Another salmon cyclist hit in OR. Cyclist injured in early morning accident I would like to see a picture of the wrecked bike just to make sure it was hit in the front like it would be if the cyclist was riding salmon.
I’m not the only one pissed that drivers who kill basically get away with murder. Motorists Must Face Criminal Charges For Killing Bicyclists
From NYC a cyclist caught riding in the street (the only place legal to ride a bike in NYC) is arrested for resisting arrest when a BLM protest crossed his path as he went to get some dinner. Trapped In Parole: How Biking In The Street Sent A Man To Jail For 6 Months TANJ!
From Jolly Olde comes this facepalm. Make Cambridge cyclists pay congestion charge, says transport expert I disagree, the expert was Keith Peat’s dog, not Keith Peat himself. Keith Peat would have said something much more stupid.
More legal news from the UK. Man in the dock over collision with cyclist Another hit-and-run driver. I loathe and despise hit-and-run drivers…
Speaking of loathing and despising… Mile End crash: Cyclist seriously injured in police chase hit-and-run
Now I wonder what the driver did to make the cyclist stick his head inside the car and take the keys? Man in Christchurch injured after road rage incident -photo of suspect released The cyclist was obviously disarming a terrorist 😉 The problem here is we are only given the driver’s POV, not what he might have done to the cyclist. After all how many people do you know who steal the keys out of a car and then leave for no reason?
After you build a cycle track you have to keep running the entitled drivers out of it. Yarra Council issues 66 fines to tradies, taxi drivers parked in Copenhagen bike lanes Bike infrastructure does no good at separating cars from bicycles when it’s constantly blocked at some point by parked cars. Phase II of the enforcement action needs to be tow and impound, Phase 3 tow and crush. They have already gone through phases 0 and I.
Another infrastructure article. 8 Things Top Bike Cities Have Done to Promote Safer Cycling You’ll note that neither Dallas nor the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell are anywhere on that list.
And last link, fun time! The Milwaukee Bike Swap is back with a fresh new name: The Milwaukee Bike Bazaar!
Have fun. It’s now 0455 and I want desperately to SLEEP!
Billed @ 20 NoDoz and a Bottle Cap Candy, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 