It’s just a dinky piece of brass that’s keeping me off the bike now

All I need to ride my bike now is to pump up the tires. All I need to pump up the tires is a small brass adapter that lets a Schrader pump fit a presta valve stem. All I need to get the presta adapter is to be able to walk the two miles to get to and from DART.

That’s it. All that is keeping me off my bike is the two miles separating origin from destination before/after using transit. And that I can barely get from the front door to the mailbox at the moment. Just walking to the kitchen from my office is A Pain. I’m not doing a “poor, pitiful me” here. I’m angry. What I’m angry about is the fact that a trip to the store is a 2 mile walk or more pretty much wherever I’m going, because this entire town is built around everyone driving everywhere in a car, for everything, and transit is kinda stuck wherever it will fit, not where it’s needed.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is some retail about 0.6 miles (1 km) from the house as the worm flies. There’s a Dollar General at that distance and also a C-Store slash gas station going a different route right next to a laundromat and donut shop, and about 0.8 miles to 2 more C-Stores/Gas Stations, a Family Dollar, and a couple of restaurants. But the round trip is still over a mile to anything. And that’s bad. Especially if the trip was to buy something heavy or bulky. That’s one reason why I have kept my ALICE ruck in good condition in case I need to grocery shopping and there’s nobody available to haul the stuff back while I can’t use Francis/es.

On to the Other Subject, the hot rod and talking to the computer after I do a Dr. Frankenstein and swap it out of the minivan and into the hot rod, where it will lose its mind. I did some googling and found there are many devices that will connect a cell phone to the computer to read and clear the codes and software that I can load to change the fuel/spark maps. I will need to add the SD card to my phone to load the software because it is a monster app, but that’s tons cheaper than the dedicated reader/writer hardware at the parts store. This part of the project just started looking a lot more do-able than it did at the beginning of the week. Now whether I’m going to be able to tell the computer just once that it is in a 1500 pound hot rod instead of a 3900 pound minivan, or if I will have to do that every time I have to start the car is a question yet to be answered. But the existence of the hardware and software at a price in my budget makes me feel better about the project.

I mean, 15 years ago whodathunkit? Connecting your phone to your car to fix the car? It would have been science fiction. But today it’s just hooking one computer to another computer to fix things that are controlled by the one computer. The facts that one computer is sometimes your phone and the other computer runs your car are incidental.

So, a rant about walkability and transit, and looking at the DIY wonder of diagnosing and repairing your car by using your cell phone. Lot of ground between those two subjects.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Unkillable

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In recovery mode, and the Feed

After 2 days in a row of working well into the night before finishing a post, today I’m in recovery mode, trying to “chillax” and scrub some of the things I read yesterday out of my mind. That is unfortunately still part of the process even when I’m not doing wrecks and wreck analysis in the blog, I still get links that include graphic images or reports on bike wrecks that I don’t know about until I actually open and read them. So every so often I’m going to switch to another window and do Kittenwars! and let the cute relax me and calm me down. Thank [$DEITY] the Intarwebz was mainly invented to distribute porn and cat pictures. If I can’t get calmness one way there’s always another.

Up first because there is an autoplay ad with audio that is driving me crazy, a cyclist gets buzzed in the UK and it’s dismissed as an “accident”. Cyclist knocked off bike appeals to motorists for more caution when passing All I can say about the ad is to read quickly, because I never did locate the source to shut it down. As to the “judgement” of the LEO involved… There is a rule in the Highway Code that bicycles are to be passed at the same distance as another car or truck which this driver clearly ignored.

Why FL kills more cyclists and pedestrians than any other state in the US, part OMGWGAFAM. No fine for Lee deputy in teen cyclist’s death

And while we are on LEO getting away with vehicular homicide… DMV: No Punishment For Cop Who Fatally Struck Japanese Student

And in the same building… Truck Driver Who Fatally Struck Bushwick Cyclist Gets License Suspended For Six Months That’s right, he killed a cyclist and left the scene (hit-and-run) and the most they could do is a six month license suspension. [facepalm]Why bother?[/facepalm]

I can’t believe this was not already allowed by case law. Oregon bill would make stolen bike location info probable cause for search warrant I mean you have a tracker that is accurate anywhere from a few feet to a few inches and you can enter that data into Google Maps to see what building it is located in and possibly even which apartment in that building, but you can’t use that to issue a search warrant?

Another legal infrastructure case in MI. Law must do more to protect bicycle riders

And what can I say except that while most Canadians are really nice people, they still have jails and prisons in Canada for a reason. Calgary Cyclist Threatened With Sexual Assault After Being Hit

I keep harping on the fact that a cyclist is as likely to get hurt in a bike/ped wreck as the pedestrian, as demonstrated in this link. Two injured in Shrewsbury collision The cyclist and pedestrian were about equally damaged in this wreck, with no word on what happened because this is a UK media outlet, and their media laws prohibit anything that could become part of a criminal case from being published until it becomes public record in the trial.

And the judge in this case is an absolute ass. Cyclist killed trying to beat lorry across junction The cyclist was riding in the required position to the left of the truck and tried to go straight through where the truck was turning left, this is the UK equivalent of a right hook. The cyclist was not trying to beat the truck, she was JRA when the truck turned through the space she already occupied.

And more on the Oz passing law. Victorian Greens push for one-metre buffer when overtaking cyclists Not much to say at this point except Gigi is going to love the comments section.

And wrapping up is two more links to the UK’s worst mother. Hit-and-run mum refused to help teenager knocked off bike and Mother who knocked over teenage cyclist REFUSED to help him because ‘her children were late for school and they would be upset by the blood’ I wonder how many links I’m going to get in total before this dies out?

And praise [$DEITY] I am out of links.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

Who ordered this weather, and the Feed

The weather has gotten on Mrs. the Poet’s last nerve. Actually the weather itself is not so much the problem as the fact that it kept both of the tenants/housemates in the house since everybody’s jobs were shut down by the weather (except mine since I work from home anyway). Since nobody here is of a compatible personality type with anyone else, being in such close confines for 2 days straight has resulted in some conflict. I think I might have to dig up the flowerbeds. 😉

Up first is Our Daily Ted, Pt. 1. Morning Links: Unfortunate irony on the Milt Olin Ride, and still more on the proposed helmet law

And unfortunately there is a Part 2. Teenage bike rider killed on Aviation Blvd in El Segundo

A little Ghost Bike lifestyle in NC. Ghost bikes honor those killed Just between you and me and the fencepost, I don’t want to see any more ghost bikes. Not a ban on the memorials, just no more dead cyclists.

I’m not seeing what the problem is on making repeat DUI a felony in CO. Felony DUI bill, a Hickenlooper priority, faces obstacles I’m sure my regular readers know my antipathy towards drunk drivers, especially given my history with them. I don’t think this bill goes far enough, they still allow the drunk driver to keep the car.

I’m not big on celebrity worship, but you have to admit this was pretty awesome. @edbegleyjr arriving by bike to the #Oscars You can see the tux peeping ut from under the rain gear.

Trucking interests are trying to change transportation priorities in Portland OR. Advocates mount effort to keep transportation hierarchy in city policy “The transportation hierarchy is seen as a powerful enough idea that some freight advocates have urged for the “commercial vehicles” category, currently ranked below “public transit” and above “taxis”, to be removed from the priority list.” Yep, that is a real good idea, go from the middle of the list to nowhere on the list.

Infrastructure news from the northern part of CA. Alameda’s Second Parking-Protected Bikeway Takes Shape on Shoreline Drive That looks like a nice bit of infrastructure (by US weak standards). Still not up to CROW standards, but right at the top of the heap for the US.

One of the consequences of failing to enforce pedestrian right-of-way. Police Search For Suspect In Marble Hill Hit-And-Run Notice the blood-stained crosswalk where the pedestrian was hit. RIP Daniel Cabrera.

They are changing the story about how this pedestrian was killed after video evidence contradicting the story was revealed. Cop Admits Flashing Lights Were Off When He Fatally Struck Japanese Student

A breakthrough that could lead to smaller, lighter cells for all EV. Kevlar Barrier Could Lead to Safer Lithium-ion Batteries Well yes safer, too. Safer is good, but smaller and lighter are right up there too. and “safer” here is a byproduct of trying to make the cells smaller and less likely to fail as they age.

And when those cells become available here is a place they could shine. FIA Selects Eight Formula E Manufacturers The series is evolving from a complete spec series to a spec chassis and battery with different motor/controller manufacturers, to spec chassis with different motor/controller/battery systems. They are trying to get to a system that only requires one car to get to the end of a race since they can’t charge the batteries fast enough during the race on temporary street circuits. This should trickle down to street EV and e-assist bikes. The organizer’s aim is to restrict the development budgets to things that can make a difference in real world applications and away from aerodynamics and suspension geometry that are already well understood and which racing developments are not well suited for street use.

And I’m all out of links again.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

Hello Tuesday, and the Feed

Tuesday is my slow day here at WoaB, right after my busiest day on Monday. I used to use two other sources on Monday that I now use on Tuesday to fill in for the total lack of links from the regular Feed. And by lack of links, since I stopped doing wrecks that means Tuesday sometimes has no links from the Feed. So moving those other links from Monday to Tuesday sometimes is the difference between a few links and no links. And a link accumulator blog with no links is kinda sad, y’know?

Up first, is why this blog existed for the first 8 years I wrote it. The Web Monkey Speaks: Mean Streets Yep, there are some crazy people out there, and they only seem to get crazy when they drive. Outside of a car they are sweet kind people who wouldn’t hurt a fly, behind the wheel they would kill a cyclist in a heartbeat because they had to lift a foot off the gas pedal and coast for a few seconds.

To drive home the point from the previous paragraph. Funny Kill Victory Count Vinyl Sticker Decal, Honda, JDM, Acura, BMW, Ford, Oh yeah, funny like a punch in the face with a fist full of broken glass and razor blades. Maybe someone should report them for selling a product that encourages violence against vulnerable road users, like someone registered as an eBay user? I mean this product just screams “Slash my tires, I am an idiot who deserves it!”

This gap in the infrastructure leaves everyone at risk. Unlicensed, Hit-and-Run Drivers Kill First NYC Pedestrian Victims of 2015

And some (slightly) good news from NYC. Traffic Deaths Declined In 2014 For Everyone Except Cyclists I would count the increase in cyclists as “data noise” given the small number killed in either year.

And we get another entry in the winter bike riding frenzy. Can You Bike In The Snow? I prefer to use home-made studded tires for riding in icy conditions, and I use ski gloves for when it gets really cold to keep my hands warm.

If you have been thinking that intersections have been designed by idiots who never walked further than from their parking spot to the office, you may be right. Injustice at the Intersection It is interesting to note that the St.Louis suburb of Ferguson has very few sidewalks including only on one side of the street where Darren Wilson shot Mike Brown after Brown allegedly jaywalked.

You think you ride a lot, you are just a piker. The great Tommy Godwin – 75,065 miles (120,805 Kms)… on a bicycle… in one year… 1939! To give this a TX scale this is equivalent to riding from Garland to Texarkana every other day for a year, and then riding back the next day. That’s a long trip and boring as heck, but mostly flat so it would be doable (but not by me).

Unfortunately we are still a long way off from reaching Peak Car here in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. URBANISTS NEED TO FACE THE FULL IMPLICATIONS OF PEAK CAR Two ways of looking at this: with having passed Peak Car congestion can be beaten by installing bicycle infrastructure to reduce the car count through bottlenecks and just flat reduce the number of cars on the roads, or “you can build your way out of congestion” because there won’t be any more cars to fill those new roads.

This is why you need good bike infrastructure even after peak car. Bicycle safety advocates call for road improvements Pt. 2 Woman sues over accident on bike path that left her paralyzed If a wreck on a bike path can do that to an experienced cyclist, you are not building Dutch quality infrastructure.

And sometimes bad infrastructure is made worse. Cyclist dodges roofing nails on Silver Comet Trail That string of nails looks tailor-made for poking holes in tires.

A critical part of bicycle infrastructure in the UK is the NIH. How London Air Ambulance saved life of cyclist who lost leg in skip lorry crash

Not everyone in NJ is like Chris Christy, or even voted for him. Ringwood pair recognized for aiding cyclist

Another pair of great people in IL. Relatives of injured cyclist reach out to good Samaritan

Another e-assist bike kit that will “change the world”. The FlyKly Smart Wheel for Bicycles is Now Available and First to Hit the Market in the Movement to Usher in a New Era in Urban Transportation What, you thought I was kidding? I see one of these things about once a month, it’s like the people that put these articles out think we never saw all those other articles on the web. It’s almost like “sooner or later one of these things will succeed.”

And I’m all out of links again.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

Slowly getting Francis/es whipped into shape, and the Feed

In case you were wondering Francis/es is the name for the new cargo bike, named for Donald O’Connor’s costar in a series of comedy movies in the ’50s. The is/es is because this bike has not expressed an identifiable gender to which the spelling can be corrected for. So until the bike expresses a preference it gets its name spelled is/es. And yes I’m being silly, a bit, but I spend too much time around people who define their gender differently internally than the world had externally to not be sensitive to the same thing with the bike. Just because it has a step-through frame aka “girl’s bike” does not mean the bike is feminine. It might be, but don’t forget that it also has a quarter-ton load capacity, so roughly me and 300 pounds of stuff. That’s not “girly” or “princess” by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyway getting off the name of the bike, I have been adding things that are needed to make the bike useful on a daily basis, like lights and a computer (a rear fender too, but that looks like it’s coming much later). The computer I bought has one major problem, and that’s a mounting kit that lacks reach. Seriously the mounting kit will mount to the left side of the stem and maybe get as far down the fork of a 700c wheel to get to where the spokes cross on a cross-2 lacing pattern. This is not going to work on the new bike, where the cable has to go down the handlebar steer tube, at least a foot and a half if not 2 feet, under the cargo box which is a shade over 2 feet again, back up the frame to the fork steer tube so at least a foot more, then down the fork for another foot of cable. The distance is slightly shorter to the rear wheel, but not by much. Maybe only 4 feet to the rear wheel instead of 6 to the front wheel. The cable on the mounting kit that comes with the computer would make it about halfway down the handlebar steer tube. So either I need to find a rear wheel mounting kit for this computer (Cateye Velo 7) or spend more money on another computer.

Up first is not a bike wreck, but almost was (moped instead of a pedal bike), just a long day’s ride south of WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. 2 Dead After Suspected Drunk Driver Crashes Into SXSW Crowd [Updated] and Car Crashes Into SXSW Crowd In Austin; 2 Fatalities Reported OK the updated report says one of the deceased was riding a bicycle, so now it is a bike wreck. No earthly clue how to avoid this and the infrastructure was clearly marked as non-car with reflective barriers and everything, so that didn’t help either.

Another DWI brings a rarer than hen’s teeth murder charge in NYC. Murder Charge For Suspected DWI Driver Who Killed M14 Bus Driver

Bike on bike insanity in CA. Seriously, don’t be a two-wheeled Jerry Browning jerk, and your Morning Links And a lot of decent links to be found there.

Crazy drivers driving crazy in Bermuda. These drivers don’t care about life

First of several infrastructure links from CA, is the SF transportation department spending more money on office supplies than bicycle infrastructure? Is the MTA Spending More on Post-Its Than Bike Projects?

A problem that is especially bad for cyclists but crosses all modes of road users gets significant attention in CA. Bill Suspending Hit-and-Run Drivers’ Licenses Passes Assembly Committee Left off that headline is the word “unanimously”. As I wrote, everybody is a potential victim of a hit-and-run driver.

Navigating the legal infrastructure in OR for recovering your losses when your bike is damaged or totaled, in two parts. Get legal with Ray Thomas: How to fight for your property damage claim (Part 1) and Get legal with Ray Thomas: How to fight for your property damage claim (Part 2)

Another “fun” time in OR. Bicycle that tumbled off car and fell onto Interstate 5 spurs $49,000 suit That settles it, next time I put my bike on a bike rack I’m using extra tiedowns.

A national Infrastructure! story. State DOTs Let Roads Fall Apart While Splurging on Highway Expansion You can’t have any more roads until you take care of the ones you already have…

More infrastructure from NYC in this last link. Hoylman: State could be roadblock to safer streets The Lege won’t allow automated camera enforcement, and there just aren’t enough cops to protect the streets without interfering with the important job of doing stop and frisk on brown people… 😛

And those are the links I found today that gave me fits, that were transportation related. Transportation safety is not a bicycles-vs-cars thing, it’s a human rights thing, the right to travel freely and safely.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Hoping my ancient computer doesn’t crash, a huge Feed

Well, I went to the lab rat keeper’s place again. I’m still alive, and I still have a pulse that’s slightly faster than a corpse’s after I drink my 3rd cup of coffee for the morning, no telling what it would be without coffee. I was advised again to get a medic alert bracelet or dog tags to let people I’m not dead if I’m found unconscious in the street before I get my morning coffee. The bad news is I gained 3.2 pounds since last month. 😛 The funny part is I have 2 sets of clothes now, one set of pants and shirts for “fat days” and another for “skinny days” and the “fat” clothes I can get over my thighs but when I stand up they fall off, the “skinny” clothes are a fight to get on over my thighs but when I get them on they don’t fall off 😉 Also I can now see the entire upper lobe of my rectus abdominus clearly now including the striation between the upper lobe and the middle lobe. I still have some more fat to lose yet, but I have lost a bunch already.

Up first is a story with multiple reports about a cyclist killed by a police car. Cyclist killed in collision with SDPD car in University City and Collision with police car kills bicyclist also SDPD calls fatal collision with bicyclist an ‘unfortunate accident’ and finally Police car headed to call hits and kills bicyclist Notice that aside from the comments there is nothing in the reports that wasn’t cleared by the killer’s employers the police department. The claim that the police officer was driving under the speed limit would be laughable if the consequences hadn’t been so dire. I mean when was the last time you saw a driver doing the speed limit, much less under the speed limit?

More on that drunk cyclist who crashed into a tree while riding on the sidewalk. Bike Crash Victim Seriously Hurt and Santa Rosa cyclist remains in critical condition OK there are a number of things that could have prevented this wreck. Not riding drunk is the first and foremost, not riding on the sidewalk second, and third is wearing a helmet when you ride. If you prevent the crash you don’t need the helmet, but you can’t always prevent the wreck so wear the helmet. Ideally you do everything you can to prevent the wreck first then protect yourself from getting hurt in the wreck.

I keep posting about not riding on the sidewalk, this is why. Cyclist Injured In Traffic Crash See, drivers don’t expect you when you’re riding on the sidewalk and do things like pull in front of you when you’re crossing the road even after you’ve already started across, with life-threatening consequences in this case. Ride in the street with the rest of the vehicles…

A recurring theme today seems to be cops killing cyclists. Bicyclist struck, killed by Bladensburg police vehicle Again the ridiculous claim that the cop was driving under the speed limit. But apparently the cyclist deserves some of the blame for not watching out for other vehicles on the road, and now he’s dead. Again, watch out for other vehicles when you pull out from parking lots and driveways.

Not your normal bike wreck, by a long shot. Police arrest Boise man after they watch him mug a bicyclist Downtown early Saturday Can you get any more stupid than this? He tries to steal the guy’s bicycle, in front of a bunch of cops. At least that’s one more anti-bike nut taken off the streets.

And another kid is killed just going for a bike ride near Newark DE. 13-year-old cyclist killed near Newark Nothing much about the wreck except that the cyclist was killed by cardiac arrest, apparently caused by blunt trauma to the chest if the rest of the report means what I think it means.

A memorial is planned for the cyclist killed by a transit bus in NY state. Memorial planned for cyclist killed by bus This was one of the good guys for transportational cycling, and I’m sorry his voice was silenced. but, his death will also speak volumes as even a cyclist of his vast experience was not able to navigate the traffic on that street because of poor design, that he pointed out almost a decade ago but that still hasn’t been changed.

A point that hinges on bicycle safety, pedestrian safety. The 10 most dangerous American cities for pedestrians and Pedestrians beware: Study ranks Orlando worst in nation for pedestrians and from one of the best cities, where things are still pretty bad Taking a walk shouldn’t be a contact sport And finally Path to good health, less pollution is the sidewalk: report Studies have shown a positive correlation between pedestrian safety figures and cyclist safety figures, safer pedestrians make for safer cyclists and vice versa. It’s interesting to note that the 4 worst cities are all in FL, the state that kills the most cyclists in spite of not having the most cyclists to kill.

Darcy Sheppard is getting a Ghost Bike. “Ghost bike” memorial placed on Bloor St. for Darcy Allan Sheppard, cyclist killed in August Just for the record I really don’t want a ghost bike, but if I get killed riding my bike there better damn well be a white painted bicycle where I got hit or I’m going to haunt someone until there is a Ghost Bike. So Ghost Bike, or real ghost riding a bicycle. Y’all better hope I die in my sleep from old age. I never had the chance to meet Darcy, he might have been a real SOB. But nobody deserves to die the way he was killed by a driver trying to smear him off the side of his car.

Another blameless wreck in Jolly Olde. Cyclist suffers head injury in collision with car in Purley I hope the cyclist recovers, and that the real story comes out so I can tell you what to do to keep safe in a similar situation.

And shades of TTTWLAMWAMD, someone semi-famous in Jolly Olde is handed down a severe sentence for using his vehicle to injure a cyclist. Former showjumper Christopher Robertson jailed for injuring cyclist From what I understand felons have a hard time getting a driver’s license in the UK, especially if the crime they committed used a car as a weapon…

Media stirring poo in DC against cyclists. WTOP Report Provokes Anger Among Area Cyclists I wonder if this station is a Faux News outlet?

And a bike ride for a veteran. Group bikes in honor of Canton man killed in Afghanistan Thank you veterans.

And that’s it for today. I was wondering if this computer would continue to run as it crashed twice trying to compose this report, once while filtering the Feed and a second time while composing the post, fortunately after I had saved so nothing was lost. If you happen to have a computer that works good and you’re either local or willing to ship, leave a comment.

Billed @$.02, Opus