Yay! food again and the Feed

Yep, time to buy groceries again. Still trying to figure out how to stop doing this “eating” thing so we don’t have to keep dipping into savings to pay bills. Eventually savings will run out. I may have to start taking the laptop to the library and using the free WiFi and drop cable, phone, and Internet at the house. That would be a drag, but workable as I seldom watch anything except racing, and not much of that lately. Mrs. the Poet would probably have a harder time of it than I would, but once she got over her Pat Sajak and Vanna White withdrawal she would live over it.

Up first is massive schadenfreude unrelated to bicycles or infrastructure. Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis Taken Into Custody She can be held up to 30 days after the expiration of her term if she does not allow her staff to issue marriage licences. I’m reminded of a Fleetwood Mac lyric, the second verse to “Oh Well”. I will leave looking up that lyric to the reader as I have already devoted too much space to this waste of skin.

The first bike story isn’t all that big and seems to be the same report from two different outlets of the same media company. Cyclist hurt in Southborough crash Yep, exact same report, just a different URL. So, no second link.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Avoiding bike/car collisions, too much bike theft news, and new bike coffee shop in DTLA

More on the trio of cyclists hit by a distracted driver in AL. Cyclist urges everyone to share the road after recent death of fellow rider in Blount County Back channel says serious criminal charges are pending against the driver in that wreck, if they can get past the grand jury.

More on the VA pair hit at twilight with no lights on their bikes. Fairfax police identify man killed after he was hit while riding a bike Unfortunately LEO never enforce the Basic Speed Law.

Portland doesn’t know how lucky they have things. Lane blockage on SW Stark presents a different kind of bike commute ‘challenge’ Here in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell we don’t have people parking in bike lanes that aren’t there.

Bike wreck in MN. Montgomery Remembers 8-year-old Killed Following Sunday Bike Accident Single bike wreck that a helmet may have made non-fatal had the victim been wearing one.

Hit-from-behind in MI. Man killed after being struck on bicycle Nothing on anything about this wreck except they haven’t charged the operator of the weapon vehicle yet.

We can’t get the mayor out of his car here, but that’s a different story. Here’s what happened when Mayor Hales biked to work for the first time I seriously think that every elected local official should have to interact with all of the infrastructure they are responsible for using the mode that infrastructure was intended for and then a mode that it wasn’t intended for but that has to use that infrastructure anyway, like crossing a busy street without marked crosswalk, or riding an arterial street with no bike lanes.

Now we segue to NYC traffic idiocy. SUV Driver Runs Over 4-Year-Old Girl In Brooklyn, No Charges Filed “No criminality suspected.”

Another cyclist is killed just a few blocks and few days away from another high-profile fatal bike wreck. Bicyclist struck, killed in west Modesto Salmon cyclist hit by a blind driver, we are talking about wrong² in this wreck. Obviously don’t ride salmon and get out in the lane where you can be seen to avoid a similar wreck.

A little UK infrastructure news. Calls for London’s safer lorries scheme to be applied nationwide It is appalling that death machines are allowed such free rein on the streets of the UK.

Infrastructure news from Oz. The tab heading is better than the headline. Our cities need to future-proof infrastructure to cater for those using alternative forms of transport Cyclists are awesome and this is why we need bike paths

Maybe we don’t really need Google Car. Adjustments in Already Available Auto Technology Could Reduce Frequency of Auto Bike Collisions I have a slight quibble with people who start suggesting “adjustments” that are complete reworks of the code used to run the hardware and require major research and development to get the new code right. When the only similarities between the two systems are one sensor and the CPU.

I have been debating for at least 10 minutes which order these last two links should go. I tossed a coin. Brompton CEO Will Butler-Adams on why the future of the foldable bike is electric A folding bike would probably be a good option on this train when the racks are full. Rolling onto Amtrak’s Capitol Limited Note that this paragraph would be equally intelligible no matter which link was first.

And I’m done, and I want to lay down and let the kinks unwind.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

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Today’s delayed blog post brought to you by Kinky D&D, and the Feed

I was out of the house again this afternoon as the Kinky D&D group met for a dungeon crawl. The game is loosely based on the Oglaf universe warning very NSFW, and like the comic we get long stretches where nothing remotely sexy is going on for one reason or another. That would include today’s game, where nobody was raped or seduced or otherwise engaged in anything resembling sexual activity, including my nympho bard apprentice NPC. Part of that was caused by the party being under mind control by a race of asexual insectoids with sort of a hive mind (Formeans) for most of the session. We got very little loot from the dungeon crawl, a dagger that was slightly better than one lost during the crawl, and a ring of +2 Charisma for my Warlock. Fortunately none of the characters on the crawl needed to perform marathon sex to charge magic because the Formeans really did not understand the concept of recreational sex used as an energy source for magic spells.

Up first because it is funny and hey, bees. [UPDATED] A Serious Swarm Of Bees Is Devouring A Bike In Midtown There are worse ways to temporarily lose access to your bike than having thousands of bees use it as a rally point while waiting for their new queen.

Next up, the Big Story today has been the cyclist hit head-on by a drunk driver driving on the wrong side of the road. Cyclist Killed in Collision on North Center Street [UPDATED 12 noon] and Hickory Police: Cyclist killed by driver high on drugs Again I see this as a drugged out driver targeting a hated road vermin and because he was impaired he ran into the other vehicles and the power pole. I suggest checking his social media for anti-bike rants or even jokes.

The other Big story today is a hit-and-run caught on tape in NYC. Cops Seek Hit-And-Run Driver Who Ran Over Harlem Cyclist and Police Release Video In Harlem Hit-And-Run That Critically Injured Cyclist The cyclist was waiting to make a legal left turn when hit, and drivers wonder why cyclists don’t wait for the red. Well wrecks like this are a big reason.

How much street can you buy with $150K? 1.3 What does it cost to run the transportation system? Turns out to be not much, one traffic light and a few feet of sidewalk with a curb. Converting from the metric system and Canadian dollars it turns out that one lane of road costs $1 million per mile, +/- a few bucks, not counting the cost of the land underneath it. At $150K/mile for a segregated bike path making everybody ride a bike sounds like sound fiscal policy.

So it is official now, it was the cyclist’s fault for getting hit, not the driver blowing 0.123BAC%. Police: Cyclist at fault in crash that killed him I smell bovine digestive byproduct. I smell BS because none of the cyclist’s belongings have been returned to his family especially the bike.

NOLA has a bicycle infrastructure problem. Bicyclist killed by dump truck at Canal and South Broad; five bicyclists have died in New Orleans this year Part of the problem is cyclists obeying the law are invisible to drivers. more on the specific wreck mentioned in the headline. CYCLIST KILLED IN MID CITY WRECK Bog-standard right hook, incomplete pass followed by a turn, and the innocent cyclist has nowhere to get away from the truck.

The shoulder of the road is not bicycle infrastructure. Cyclist dies after being hit by vehicle on Goodwood Blvd. Assuming the driver’s story is correct, and the remains of the bike seem to back that up, there are many reasons why a cyclist would swerve from the shoulder, including there was suddenly no shoulder there to ride on any more.

More on the FL cyclist killed trying to make a legal left turn. Polk County Sheriff’s Office Identifies Lakeland Man Killed While Riding Bike I’m still waiting to see how they are going to blame the cyclist on this one.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: OC truck driver goes on trial; Montebello hit-and-run reward; Metro bike workshops start tonight

From NYC, those horror movies about goofing off behind the wheel worked so well when we were in High School. City employed drivers forced to take ‘Vision Zero’ safety class What makes people think they will work any better on adults?

More on “pedestrian safety” in NYC. A Brief History Of “Jaywalking” In NYC

What happens when bike riders play by the imaginary rules. This Is What Happened When Bicyclists Obeyed Traffic Laws Along The Wiggle Yesterday Two blocks were all it took to get massive road rage from drivers, and a massive traffic jam from just a few cyclists.

Another deadly wreck in the Great White North. 15-year-old cyclist killed in crash on Highway 7/8 Cyclist riding with traffic hit from behind…

Put the fucking phone down and leave it alone until the vehicle has ceased all motion. Lorry driver killed Plymouth cyclist ‘after reaching for phone’ In the time it took to find the play app, find the sermon, and start playback the driver had been not looking at the road for several seconds, and was totally unaware of the cyclist NOT in the road bu the bike lane adjacent to the road…

I for one welcome our robotic overlords, as long as they learn how to “play nice” in an environment filled with squishy humans. Driverless Car Testing and Big Data Intersect in Simulated City

Cyclists need to learn how to stretch, unlike drivers… Off Your Bike: Four Helpful Stretches for the Bike Commuter

And I seem to have run out of links again.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Unkillable Badass Poet