Yesterday was a busy day, and the Feed

Yesterday was another day spent mostly away from Casa de El Poeta, being a volunteer for the HRC and mostly riding DART. I had to miss morning services because it took all morning to get from home to the bowling alley where HRC was holding their fund-raiser (Carnibowl), specifically that part of the morning when morning services were held. I got done early enough to make it to evening services at church, and then home to catch up on my e-mails. I finally got caught up on those about 0145, so I decided to just bag it and head to bed.

This morning was interesting mostly because we got checks for a class settlement for getting ripped off by Wells Fargo when we had our mortgage through them, to the tune of nearly $800 total for the six years involved in the settlement.

Up first is part 1 of Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Improving bike safety on Bouquet Canyon, less liability on bike paths, and doping gets mechanical

Part 2 of Our Daily Ted. Bike rider killed in South LA collision last week

And Part 3. And the winner is… I deliberately did not submit an entry for this because I have bikes I could ride with a little work and I thought that someone else should hav a crack at it that doesn’t have a bike. Ted agreed with me as you can read in his post.

Still in CA. Cyclist killed in latest hit-and-run Another article that is more concerned about the clothes the cyclist was wearing than the fact the driver left the scene with an injured person on the road.

Guess what happened in the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bicycle? Bicyclist killed in Sarasota hit-and-run identified Hit from behind and hit-and-run, all it takes to make it a trifecta of Stoopid would be an impaired driver without a license.

Still in FL. Cyclist, 16, dies in hospital one week after wreck in Royal Palm Another wreck that blames a cyclist for not being in a crosswalk.

Cyclist down in CO. 53-year-old Ft. Collins cyclist injured in crash

Update on a cyclist down in NM. Bike ride organized to support injured teen

Over one state in AZ, another hit-and-run. Boy on bicycle injured by hit-and-run driver Another article erroneously suggesting that cyclists belong in a crosswalk.

More on that OH cyclist killed by an impaired driver. Cyclist dies after hit-and-run; driver to be charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, police say “The driver, Melinda Woodall, 34, of Amelia, tried to hide three bottles of pills in her bra after hitting 42-year-old Michael Prater of Cincinnati on Kellogg Avenue.” There was also drug paraphenalia inside the car.

This NY wreck looks like another serious case of windshield bias. Investigation nears end, driver to be ticketed in Hammond cyclist’s death Hit-from-behind and the driver will get… TWO tickets (not just one). TANJ!

VT infrastructure news. COUNCIL APPROVES CONTROVERSIAL BALLOT QUESTION ON BURLINGTON TRAFFIC CHANGE I want to know who put giving all the streets and roads over to cars up for a vote?

Another wounded veterans ride. Ride 2 Recovery helping local veterans cope with injuries and PTSD

A confessed candidate for life in prison over in Jolly Olde. Drink-driver admits causing the death of a cyclist in Walton crash I think I have made my opinions of drunk drivers known over the last 7 or so years I have been doing the blog here on WordPress. The thought of this waste of skin actually getting back out on the roads again just makes my skin crawl.

Also in Jolly Olde. Floral tributes at Great North Road in Newcastle after cyclist dies in hospital Sounds like a great guy taken too soon.

Even the best place in the world can be made better. Even Copenhagen Makes Mistakes

Over in Oz, another driver gets a serious case of the Stoopids when he sees a pack of cyclists on the road. Cyclist’s on-bike camera shows road rage incident in Glen Forrest If I wasn’t positive the guy that tried to kill me was dead and buried…

Still in Oz… Cars are ‘lethal weapons’: killed cyclist’s partner voices her anger and grief Anybody remember that Mythbusters episode where they compared driving while talking on a cell phone to drunk driving, with drunk driving coming out slightly better?

A wreck in Enn Zed. Cyclist avoids serious injury in riverside crash Hit from behind wreck that turned out not-too-bad considering. His ‘bent is now really bent, but a wrecked bike is better than a wrecked life.

And I’m outta links, time to proof and tag and get this thing published.

Billed @$0.02, Opus the Poet

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Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and the Feed

This will be the last post of 2015, and I have to say that I’m slightly surprised at having survived this year as a blog and as a blogger. There were car wrecks and tornadoes, food poisoning, muggings and other mayhem, and none of it actually touched yr fthfl srvnt author. It all kind of swirled around me so that I could see it and report on it, but not have to suffer through it. Another bit of evidence that I’m a character in a story reporting back on what I see and feel as others live the story. I really need a better writer for my sex scenes…

Up first, the driver who killed a MD cyclist was violating two traffic laws to cause the wreck. ‘It’s Just So Unreal’: 19-Year-Old Cyclist Dies After Crash With SUV The two laws? Failing to obey a traffic control, and not stopping for a car stopped in front of a crosswalk. The cyclist had no chance to avoid this wreck as his view of the weapon vehicle was obstructed by the car that was following the law.

A NYS resident doesn’t have to leave the house to get above the legal limit for BAC. NY Woman Beats DWI Charge Because Her Body Is A Brewery This is an actual medical condition that I have been aware of for at least 25 years because I read about it before I moved to TX back in 1989, and again some time during the “Aughties”. So, rare, but not unheard of.

Cop hit cyclist in the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike. Cyclist, Patrol Car Collide In Miami Gardens Cop claimed to have the green light when the cyclist “pulled out in front of him”. The geometry of the wreck indicates the cyclist was in the intersection for several seconds before the patrol car got there, meaning this could have been a stale green crossing where the cyclist had the right of way over the cop car. But since the comments have been closed for the article the only place you will see that is in this blog.

A WV cyclist is blamed for getting right hooked. Keyser man injured in bike/van crash at Memorial Bridge Nothing more I can say about this.

CT LEO are asking the public’s help in finding a cyclist’s killer. Shelton PD Seeks Help Finding Hit-and-Run Driver Who Killed A Cyclist

DiYDoT in action in Portland. Activists use traffic cones to improve safety of bike lane along new Orange Line MAX Yay DiYDoT! Doing what the regular DoT can’t or won’t do to make streets safer.

Lastly, did anyone order a box of kittens?

And that’s it for 2015. Here’s hoping 2016 is at least a little better.

Billed @$0.02, Opus the Poet

Stuff was happening nearby, and the Feed

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

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