This is going to be a busy night on All Star weekend for NASCAR, and the Feed

There are a bunch of races tonight because of the All Star race tomorrow, there is the Sprint Showdown to get in the race tomorrow for drivers who did not meet the criteria to get in the race before. Then there is the truck series race after that, which promises to be another barn-burner. So I’m going to be as happy as a pig in cool mud on a hot day tonight with all the NASCAR action.

Up first, the article is fairly straightforward about this wreck and the rider’s projected recovery, but the comments, whoo boy the comments… Injured cyclist Alistair Corkett talks about crash that cost him his leg My favorite crazy comment was the guy that blamed the wreck on Obamacare. Really, dude? How do you get from a driver making an illegal left turn and running over a cyclist riding straight through the intersection to Obamacare?

As we get closer to Memorial Day we get more “Injured Veterans” rides. Wounded veterans flock to KC for empowering cycling event and Bush’s Three-Day Bike Ride with Wounded Vets also Wounded Warriors Canada Battlefield Bike Ride rolls out in June with help of Cérvelo

First link from NYC, a driver who ran over a person on the sidewalk may get away with it. NYPD May Not Charge Hit-And-Run Driver Because She Lives In NJ Apparently NYPD is unable to use insurance claims from NJ as evidence in a hit-and-run. TANJ!

Still in NYC. SUV Driver Who Killed UES Man Says Victim “Ran Into My Car” The pedestrian version of the SWSS.

Yesterday’s Daily Ted. Bike rider killed in Hollywood collision Some supporting information Cyclist Killed Riding Through Hollywood Blvd. Crosswalk

Another link to the protest in Portland about the cyclist that lost his leg. Portland protesters call for cyclist safety improvements

Some minor measure of justice in Jolly Olde. Wife of cyclist killed by lorry describes her grief to court and Lorry driver jailed for London cyclist Alan Neve’s death and Death crash driver pleads guilty to causing fatal collision which killed cyclist in Dorset

infrastructure in NYC. Here’s How The DOT Plans To Make The Area Around The Manhattan Bridge In Chinatown Safer I don’t see anything about keeping cars out of the area, so they can’t be too serious about it [/s]

L.A.’s bike week celebrations and informational links. Watch A Cyclist’s Nerve-Wracking Commute Without Bike Lanes I can’t believe how many driver refuse to get over and pass with 3 feet of clearance on Broadway Bridge… Good Samaritan Hospital Holds Its Annual Blessing of the Bicycles The opening does sound like the setup to a bad joke.

On the face of it this sounds like a major improvement in pedestrian safety, but without knowing how many tickets they issued before it may mean next to nothing. S.F. Is Nailing a Lot of Drivers Who Don’t Yield to Pedestrians

Maybe they could do something about the cab drivers? Two Cars Crashing Into Each Other Injure San Francisco Bicyclist

More Bike to Work in CA. Bike to Work ride in Stockton

Still in CA. 10 tips for safe cycling Another article full of factual mistakes, like the “21% of fatalities” and “85% reduction in head injury” lies.

What is the deal with NOLA and bikes? Nicholson Drive crash involving 3 cyclists raise questions of ‘respect’ on the road The evidence indicates the driver was not legally allowed on the road so he took off as soon as LEO attention was distracted.

This is sad. Bicyclist killed in hit-and-run accident had dreams of being car mechanic Many cyclists-by-necessity are working to get out of poverty.

Riding a bike is still tense in NH. Hudson: A cyclist’s plea for civility If the comments section was open it would be “Blah, blah, blah, red lights, blah, blah, blah, taxes, blah, blah, blah, insurance, blah, blah, blah, licenses…”

Infrastructure and culture clash in NC. 2 incidents prompts NCDOT to stress bicycle safety

And trying to get away from the stereotype of “hick AL driver”. Cyclists looking to educate, increase awareness among drivers

Lifestyle in WY. Bike Safe Wyoming raises awareness with 24-hour ride

The driver that killed a cyclist also killed another man the day before he killed the cyclist. Vic widow vows to learn truth from killer Is killing cyclists a “gateway” to general murder?

Weather.com confirms what this blog has been saying for years… The Deadliest States for Bikers FL “wins” again.

Speaking of FL, that’s today’s link about the Ride of Silence. Fort Myers, Sanibel to hold Rides of Silence

Some people have really strange things happen on the roads, and this one wasn’t me. South African Cyclist Hits Dead Buffalo in City Suburb I can honestly say that large livestock has never died in my path while cycling.

Last link from Bikeyface. TWO MILE TOURING This is similar to what I have planned for my rehab, except about 3 miles each way as I go to church as often as I can, and shorter trips to the bank and library.

And I’m all out of links. See you Sunday.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

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I’m exhausted and sore, and now I have a full day’s work to do on the blog post, and the Feed

Remember that paying gig I mentioned in passing yesterday? It came through. Unfortunately it came through for about 7 hours right in the middle of opening up the Feed folder in my e-mail. About 7 hours of work putting together an adult tricycle for someone I had previously offered to build a recumbent or crank-forward bike, but who decided that a more traditional adult tricycle was more to her tastes and riding style, so she bought one in a big box from a big box store. That meant she would need someone who could take it out of the box, inventory the parts etc. until a working adult tricycle was sitting on the ground with her on it. I estimated that would take about 2 hours, told the customer it would take “probably” 3, and more than 6 hours later the trike was finished. Since I had promised this nice lady a trike as a gift I “accepted” a Powerball ticket and some Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs for Mrs. the Poet’s Valentine’s Day present. Speaking of that Powerball ticket the first payout of the 30 annual payments comes to $5,415,892.62 after taxes and 10% to the church, while the cash payout for the Texas Lottery drawing the same day is $5,620,000 before taxes and any charitable contributions made as a bribe for deity favor towards winning.

What to put up first was a hard decision tonight, but I think these links to this major story might be the winner. NYC Adding Truck Side Guards to Protect Pedestrians, Cyclists and NYC Adding Safety Guards To 240 City Trucks In 2015 Somebody was looking at the numbers, and just like in London, big trucks are disproportionate in their representation in fatality statistics. So one kind of fatal wreck that is particular to big trucks is cyclists, pedestrians, and small cars getting run over by the back tires when the truck turns or changes lanes and the pedestrian, cyclist, or small car is in one of the many huge blind spots alongside the truck. Since apparently eliminating the blind spot is an intractable engineering problem an interim solution is something that will shove the pedestrian, cyclist, or small car away from the rear wheels. This seems to have a higher success rate than trying to eliminate the blind spots.

These stickers are pretty useless here in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, but I might buy some anyway. Passive Aggressive Sticker Campaign Targets Bike Lane Blockers Yep in order to have bike lane blockers you first need a bike lane to block, something that is sadly lacking here.

Ted Rogers was busy this weekend, unfortunately. Palm Desert bike rider killed in early morning collision; DUI suspected and Weekend Links: OC hit-and-run driver charged in death of PCH cyclist; fund set to help injured bike rider also Bike rider dies after January hit-and-run in West Covina; third bike rider killed in SoCal this year even Morning Links: Waking the sleeping giant in LA and Pasadena, and a gut-wrenching Colorado hit-and-run Dude, I feel for you today. This is like one of my worst days back when I was covering wrecks, because you know the wreck locations personally.

Meanwhile in FL, the victim of a drunk driver and the other cyclist that barely survived the wreck were remembered at the event they had been training for. More Than A Thousand Kick-Off The Dolphins Cycling Challenge and Cyclist killed near Key Biscayne remembered at tri-county race

What is more important people’s lives or a few parking places? Hold on a second, there are opposing opinions on this question. Will the SFMTA Board Demand Complete Protected Bike Lanes on Polk Street? I have a simple solution, go to the merchants responsible and ask outright how many cyclist and pedestrian deaths and serious injuries are “their” parking spots worth, then charge them that in taxes every time someone is killed or injured on their block because of a failure in the infrastructure to protect them. I think after maybe the second pedestrian death or seriously injured cyclist (my wreck cost more than a quarter of a million dollars just for the first two hospital stays, and I went back 3 more times).

Seattle’s Second Ave. is seriously sub-standard by the CROW manual, but when your choices are “sub-standard” and “constantly terrifying and frequently fatal” sub-standard looks pretty good. Seattle’s Second Ave. should inspire Comm. Ave. plans Seriously, this is amazing bicycle infrastructure by US and UK standards, but criminal by the CROW manual. But, baby steps are better than no steps at all.

Speaking if UK “infrastructure”… Things are improving for cyclists, but painfully slowly And by “painfully” she means with many deaths, broken bones, much road rash, and other assorted injuries.

And the legal infrastructure in Jolly Olde ain’t that great either. Report into road death investigations makes scathing findings about training, processes and victim support Yep UK prosecution of drivers that hit cyclists is rife with bias even against cyclists dressed like glow-in-the-dark clowns and lighted like Christmas trees for “not being visible enough”.

Last link is about lifestyle. Lexington man biking across country in memory of woman killed in Scott County There are far too many memorial rides, mainly because there are far too many reasons to have memorial rides.

And that’s all I have tonight, and I desperately want to have a lie down so my back with stop hurting.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet (still an unkillable badass, but nobody ever said that was painless)

Got my toes done, and the Feed

I think most of you are aware that between the ravages of age and the damages I suffered in the wreck I can’t cut my toenails on the last two toes of my left foot. That means I have to get someone else to do it for me, and the easiest way to do that is to go to my local nail spa and get a pedicure. They have gotten used to me there and sometimes just for giggles I get the whole enchilada and let them paint my toenails. Today I left part of the figurative enchilada on the figurative plate, and came home without any polish on my toes. To give an idea of how ingrained in my psyche not spending money until there is no alternative is, my shoes fit sorta loose now…

There is a new conspiracy theory out there. Did Bono Really Crash A Bike In Central Park? The crux of the argument is CP on a Sunday is a pretty crowded place, and just about everybody in NYC has a phone with a camera on it, yet there is zilch about the wreck from witnesses on any of the social media, or even “Is this Bono?” pictures on Twitter or FB. Given the number of pictures and video posted of Michael Brown getting killed, someone who wasn’t even on the radar until after he was killed, the fact that a celebrity like Bono can get that kind of damages without any pictures of someone trying to help, or even of the ambulance taking him away seems rather odd. I just did an image search and there is nothing of Bono in Central Park in the last 6 months. The only images I could find were of the free concert U2 did in CP a while back, and the tree that killed Sonny Bono while he was skiing many years ago. To quote Alice, “Curiouser and curiouser.” I left a post in a Facebook group devoted to bicycles and bike commuting asking if anyone had any pictures or knew where any pictures of the scene were posted, so I’ll keep y’all posted if I hear anything.

The war of the lumens continues. Try these bright ideas for biking at night. I still think the best thing for making cyclists visible to drivers would be a law requiring all motor vehicles used in a wreck with a pedestrian or cyclist to be crushed and shredded in front of the driver or on national TV if the victim dies, or in other words, hit a pedestrian or cyclist, lose your car. You still have to pay for it, but it will no longer physically exist to be repossessed. That would mean that you would have to pay off the balance immediately… de facto huge fine for hitting a vulnerable road user, payable to the finance company.

More about a friend of the blog who was killed (and even though I know his name and had several conversations about bicycle safety with him I still don’t want to post his name in a link description. Don’t ask why, I can’t put it into words.) Cedar Mill bicyclist killed in crash was known for his graciousness and bike safety advocacy There would be little that could be done further to increase a cyclist’s visibility that the victim had not already done, including lights and dozens of square feet of HiViz fabric covering the bike and rider. Best comment:k7
According to same logic as posted here, the stripes on the road are too low to be effective so they need to be elevated immediately so they can be seen. More Kirke Johnson’s BikePortland comments are chilling and inspiring

Former Congresscritter and current poster child for the gun control movement Gabriel Giffords rides a recumbent trike in public. Gabby Giffords completes 11-mile bike ride That is about the same distance I rode on my first public ride after my wreck…

A FL cyclist died and fell over or the other way around, but wasn’t hit by any vehicle. Medical event killed bicyclist, not traffic crash Yes, it does happen, rarely.

AZ cyclists are trying to find an infrastructure solution to an infrastructure problem. Cyclists unite after death on Pecos Road

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: San Diego cyclists get blamed for collisions, and accused Eagleson killer enters not guilty plea

That San Diego link showed in my Feed as well. Cyclists faulted most in bike-car crashes

A rider searches for the good Samaritan who helped him after a wreck. Injured rider finally tracks down helper

A bit of common sense from Oz. Time to stop the war on the roads, says injured cyclist In the War on Cars, cars are winning by a huge body count.

A modern take on Frogger with more realistic scenarios. CrossyRoad

A little assist on your way? Electric Bikes, On A Roll In Europe, Start To Climb In U.S.

And those were all the links I could find today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet