We’ve been here 7 years now, and the Feed

November 23rd is significant for a number of reasons beyond being the day JFK was shot in 1963. It’s also the day I started posting my blog here after getting more or less kicked off of MySpace for having excessive links 7 years ago. I dual posted for about a month with the link to this blog at the bottom of the old blog on MySpace and went from 800 readers per day to about 50 (but on the other hand I’m still going, has anyone heard anything about MySpace in the last year?). I have gotten some recognition from my peers since moving to WordPress, sometimes had enough readers to actually get a few bucks from advertisers, and gotten some free stuff to review a few times. Overall it has been fun, but there have been a few times when it got so overwhelming I just wanted to walk away and read web comics and ride my bike. But I persevered, got some counselling, and just put my head down and kept going. Which brings us to today. But before I do today, 52 years ago I was rudely awakened from my nap in the kindergarten class of Iliahi Elementary School in Wahiawa, HI to be told that the President had been shot and killed in Dallas. My immediate question was what country was Dallas and when were we going to go to war with them.

Ordinarily I start inside the US and work my way out, but today the story closest to WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell is in Mexico City. Protesters demand traffic safety in Mexico City after cyclists’ deaths and Mexico City made itself more bike-friendly—and cycling accidents went up Part of the problem seems to be drivers as one of the cyclists was hit from behind by a bus in the shared bus/bike lane. I don’t see how cyclist education would do anything to prevent that.

Baby steps towards justice for a cyclist killed in NYC. City Fires Contractor Responsible For Tree That Killed Cyclist In Red Hook This is the first stage, firing the contractor. Then comes charges, prosecution, and eventually a brisk rap on the wrist, followed by a lawsuit that bankrupts the contractor.

Still in NYC a local newspaperfishwrap wets its pants over the prospect of an Idaho Stop law. The NY Post Is Terrified Cyclists Might Someday Be Allowed To Cautiously Run Red Lights Not the best picture to illustrate the article, a salmon cyclist holding a demitasse of espresso while riding with one hand and holding a shopping bag to the handlebars.

And in the meantime real killers are allowed to stalk the streets unimpeded. MTA Bus Driver Strikes Pedestrian In LES Crosswalk Since the victim was in the crosswalk I’m going to assume he had the right of way until proven otherwise.

Back to the other side of the country for Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: LAPD still looking for hit-and-run cyclist, and a bike rider critically injured in SoLA hit-and-run That “hit-and-run” should be in quotes in the headline, because the cyclist hung around until everybody else left and nobody took his contact data… Even the cop looking for him says as much.

Still in CA a memorial to a 9 YO cyclist killed with a van. Irvine grieves for boy, 9, struck and killed on bicycle Apparently they are assigning a large part of the blame to the driver on this wreck, because every time they mentioned motor vehicle operators the words “slow down” were in close proximity.

A bit of infrastructure news from the war zone in CA. Vineland Bike Lanes: So Much Space, So Much Failure It’s really hard to ride in bike lanes when they are full of cars. Too bad CA isn’t a “Stand Your Ground” state so that cyclists could shoot drivers in the bike lanes with their deadly weapons deployed against the cyclists.

A ninja cyclist is hit in PA. Cyclist injured in State College The cyclist had the right of way, but because he was riding ninja the driver couldn’t see him to yield he got hit and blamed for the wreck.

A driver failed to take care of his diabetes and killed a cyclist during a hypoglycemic blackout. Delivery driver who hid the fact he was diabetic from his employers at Currys PC World killed a cyclist when he blacked out at the wheel during a hypoglycaemic attack Yes they spell it with too many vowels, I think it’s to make up for the lack of them in Wales. Anywho they gave him almost 4 years (44 months) in prison for the killing (and I suspect for withholding the information about his diabetes).

A government official in the UK who seems to get most of his news from Fox gets called out on his misinformation. Cyclists pose more dangers than motorists, claims transport minister Fortunately, more rational heads prevailed and called his BS. There are in fact 63 pedestrians killed by motor vehicles for every one killed by cyclists, and 46 injured by motor vehicles for every one by cyclists. And even on sidewalks the ratio is highly skewed in favor of cyclists by more than 34 to one.

They caught a hit-and-run driver in Oz, and they don’t seem likely to let him go cheap or easy. Geelong man charged over alleged hit-and-run that killed cyclist “Azzopardi was remanded in custody and scheduled to appear again in March.” So Aussie cyclists will at least get most of the Austral Summer minus this threat to life and limb.

Another article on how your city could save $$ by increasing the bike share of traffic. Planning for Less Driving, Not More, Would Lead to Big Savings And it doesn’t take much to realize these gains, just enough people on bikes to slow down motor vehicle growth 1% will do it.

And vehicles like this will help it happen. HISTORY BICYCLE CAR

And I’m outta links again. Program note, I will be away from the internet for tomorrow and Thursday so no post until Friday.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Advertisement

I got caught in the rain coming home from my haircut, and the Feed

Trip to the bank, trip to the hardware store, and trip to the nearest haircut place when they said they knew how to do a flattop haircut. Unfortunately they had only a vague idea of what a “flattop” was and what I got was more of a high and tight than a flattop. What I was looking for was something close to this.

But what I got was this.

And I look a lot more unhappy in that picture than I intended to, wow. I guess that’s what getting caught in the rain and having to change all your clothes and put your shoes in the shoe dryer looks like. It wasn’t raining when I left the bus stop 0.4 miles away on the main road, but the water was running ankle-deep in the street by the time I got to the corner of my street less than 10 minutes later.

The Big Story today is a UK politician having a bike wreck because someone tampered with his brakes. Police open investigation after Labour councillor is injured after bicycle brakes cut and Cyclist seriously hurt after saboteurs cut brakes After years of anti-cyclist propaganda from the Murdoch media empire is anyone surprised about this? Seriously check your brakes after every stop where you leave your bike unsupervised, you never know what kind of sick sociopaths will take delight in your possible death or dismemberment.

Next biggest story was a tie between this Oz story and the next paragraph. Qld road safety push after cyclist death and Bike group calls for urgent review of inner city truck use The “shocking” news that there is a 25 foot (7 meter) blind spot in front of a conventional cab truck isn’t really news, but the fact that there has been nothing done about this blind spot to the passenger side of the truck in all the years since it was discovered is disturbing.

Back in the US we have another cyclist killed in gun violence. Witnesses: Man riding bike shot, killed on near north side and Man riding bike shot and killed on north side It appears the cyclist was killed by pedestrians on the sidewalk, rather than a drive-by shooting. So you’re dead if you do (ride in the street) and dead if you don’t.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Tragedy in Santa Clarita, LA announces Vision Zero, and too much racing news for one day

Wildfires in the PNW impact a treasured Portland bike event. County urges bikers to use TriMet as wildfire smoke fills Portland streets (updated) It came ][ this close to getting canceled, but the wind changed direction to push the smoke away from the city a bit.

Closer to home, another hit-and-run in Austin. Popular Austin cyclist falls victim to hit and run The good news is he’s alive and looks like he will recover without further disruption to his life after he heals.

I’m sure this MD cyclist wishes the driver had left the scene instead of what he did. SUV Driver Cited for Hitting Cyclist, Road Rage: Police He beat up on a man with a broken arm and rib and threw a wheel into the woods so the cyclist couldn’t follow him, and his bail was set at only $25K? TANJ!

A young cyclist in LA is killed when he fell over into a truck’s rear wheels. Young boy killed in bicycle accident in Opelousas Gee I wonder what would cause a bicycle to fall over into the rear wheels of a truck? A buzz job or punishment pass maybe? Or a horn blast just a few feet away from his head?

AZ cyclists are having problems with streetcar tracks. N4T Investigators: Another cyclist files lawsuit over streetcar tracks The problem is not the tracks alone, there is also a lot of traffic in the intersection and a cyclist has to have superhuman levels of multitasking to be able to watch for traffic as well as for road defects and streetcar tracks, and the costs for the cyclist could be extremely high, and I’m not just talking about the $300K lawsuit filed for medical expenses.

A NJ cyclist ran out of luck. Newark man, 23, killed in Granville crash Given that no information about the wreck is coming from LEO, and the driver is in jail, maybe a drunk hit the cyclist from behind semi-on-purpose?

How much does not having bike lanes cost your city? Bike-lane advocates cite new Albany County data on cost of injuries The direct, to-the-cyclist cost of a wreck can be higher than the median family income of the city. The average cost is almost the median income in the city, so it doesn’t take much worse than an average wreck to get way past the “average” cost for a wreck.

Back in AZ for encouragement to ride. Get out and ride, but be safe

Bad wreck in NYC. Chinese food delivery guy, 65, seriously injured after hit by truck in Brooklyn Remember the story from Oz about conventional cabs and their blind spots to the front passenger side? Same thing applies here.

Beautiful article from MO. Ghost bikes honor cyclists killed on road

Is “fell over in front of me” the new “I didn’t see him”? Cyclist killed in Rosemont La Petite-Patrie Québécois are more like Parisian French than your average Canadian, but still a lot better than the average N’Yawker. This just sounds so… suspicious.

And Rob Ford is casting a huge shadow on Toronto cyclists. Most cyclists are not considerate

This is what most of MY bike rides feel like. What Happens When A Tank Crashes A Bike Race

Last link, sometimes we can do great things. A Katrina hero: He hopped into a boat and became a one-man rescue squad He kept rescuing people for days, over a week. And he was One Of Us. Given that level of exertion he pretty much had to be, or some other kind of endurance athlete.

And I’m outta links again.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Unkillable Badass Poet (only 6 more shopping days until my Deathday, be sure to hit your favorite liquor store so you can celebrate properly, at home)

Another day “interrupted” with D&D, and the Feed

I took part in another D&D session today, and as I was the only one that had to work today I filtered while I played and let everyone else just play. My 5th Ed. Warlock3 was not challenged by the encounters because everybody was suffering a case of mediocre dice. Nobody rolled any 1s when it counted, but that was about the best thing we could say about the game today. I have never seen so many 2s and 3s on attack rolls as we had today. And it just dawned on me that I was using the wrong column for computing my attack rolls because “Eldrich Blast” is a spell attack in 5th Ed and calculates as Performance Bonus + Charisma Bonus + 1d20, where in D&D3.5 it was Attack Bonus + Feats Bonuses + 1d20 and I was leaving the Charisma bonus off the attack. That meant I was rolling 1d20+2 when I should have been rolling 1d20+7. Considering the number of times I missed by 2 or less, I could have done a lot more damage than I did (none).

Up first, a cyclist disposing of used toilet paper may have caused a massive wildfire. Pooping Cyclist Blamed for 73-Acre Idaho Wildfire Maybe digging a cathole latrine and burying the paper would have been a better idea? Do they even teach digging a cathole latrine any more?

We cyclists know roads were not built for cars, and neither were cities. European Mobility Week: The capital cities that are banning cars from their roads – for one day So for one day cyclists in a few European cities will get a few streets that are blissfully free of death machines.

LEO are “aware” of a video showing an assault on an Irish cyclist. Gardai ‘aware’ of video showing thug knocking cyclist off bike As was pointed out in the comments, that shirt is very distinctive and shouldn’t be too hard to locate. Now if “aware” translates to “give a shit” we might see some charges, maybe even some prosecutions.

Over in Jolly Olde a particularly egregious hooking wreck sees a trial date set. Trial date set for lorry driver from Willesden accused of killing cyclist at Ludgate Circus I’m sure the defense is going to use “activating an automatic speaker system which said ‘this vehicle is turning left’” as an excuse for running the cyclist over as the truck passed. This is especially egregious because the signal did not activate until the weapon vehicle was already making the turn across the cyclist’s lane, leaving less than zero reaction time to the signal.

This Brazilian cyclist hulks out over a car parked in the bike lane, and then does something about the car. Hero cyclist picks up and moves car blocking bike lane I think that might be the rear bumper cover in the foreground of the video that the cyclist removed from the car to get a better grip on the subject.

Our Daily Ted. Update: 36 year old bike rider killed in Newport Coast From the later comments this appears to have been a solo wreck on a trail near the highway. No word on exactly how or where the wreck happened.

Guess who has a bike culture now? Detroit Bike Culture Is Unstoppable It’s a lot easier to keep up two 5 foot bike lanes than a 70 foot wide street, especially when there is almost no traffic on the street anyway.

One of the biggest problem facing cyclists is getting the light to change so that running the red becomes optional rather than mandatory. City and state working to help bicycle users get the green Maybe if they put beg buttons on the side of the street for drivers to use as well as cyclists… Make the infrastructure as convenient for drivers as it is for cyclists. Or even better put a detector in a protected bike lane and make cars wait until a cyclist shows up to trigger the light. Or is that schadenfreude on my part?

Language is important. We don’t say “plane accident.” We shouldn’t say “car accident” either. Changing the language of crossing the street caused what was once normal behavior to be criminal. See “jaywalking”. So, don’t call them “accidents”, call them “wrecks”. Or “death machine tangos” 😀 “Death machine tango leaves two injured, one seriously” has a lot more impact than “Traffic accident leaves…” And how about “Death machine tango with cyclist causes life-threatening injuries”? “Death machine tango in crosswalk leaves two pedestrians dead, another seriously injured”. You don’t even need to be specific about what kind of vehicle any more, because they are all “death machines” to one degree or another.

More Portland infrastructure. City advisory committees oppose TriMet’s plans for swing gates on Orange Line Remember that article two paragraphs ago about making the signal change for cyclists like it does for motor vehicles? Same theory on this one. They want cyclists and handicapped people to work their way through spring-loaded gates trying to not get caught on any protuberances on either the vehicle or the gate that slams shut behind them and hoping a train doesn’t pass while they are trying to get unhooked from the gate on the train side of the gate.

NC residents say “Nuts” to 45 day limits on Ghost Bikes. Residents spurn policy for removing ‘ghost bikes’ As it is now, one determined bike hater could get any ghost bike removed 45 days after it goes up.

Things are very different when a local celebrity is the one injured in a bike wreck. KXLY radio host Ken Hopkins recovering from bike accident I like they are spending $$ to remodel the studio to make it ADA compliant, but why wasn’t it compliant already?

Dude, you got way too much anger about this. Thief Hacks Down 25-Foot Tree to Steal Bike, Locals Say That’s $thousands of tree destroyed to get a bike that will fence for $20.

Last link, BMW designed an e-assist that could be installed on full suspension bikes and retain the clean benefits of a Gates belt drive, but wasn’t in the e-assist business. BMW i Develops Drive Unit Swing Arm For Heisenberg XF1 E-Bike So, shared technology. Yay!

And that’s all I got and I had to do some crawling around to find that much.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet.