My son couldn’t get over here to do grocery day yesterday, so I had to grab the old ALICE ruck and walk up to the store myself. This is one reason why I need to recover as fast as I can and get back on Francis/es, so I can go back to doing the grocery shopping on my own without having to have someone drive me there and back. I only got the items I’m about out of, milk, yogurt, soda, and bread. Well, except for the bread all of those items were pretty massive, and I made the mistake of combining a trip to the hardware store two blocks up the road to pick up new door knobs and locks to replace the ones that just broke this morning. Anyone remember that song from “Hee Haw” about bad luck? Yeah, they could put a few verses in there for me. Anyway I had a gallon of milk, 2 2-liter bottles of generic soda, 4 pounds of yogurt, a bottle of beer, three doorknob sets, a front spindle to a 1937 Ford and 8 stainless steel bolts to fit the steering arm holes on the spindle (which I brought to the hardware because I needed to make sure the bolts fit), and two loaves of bread. And now I wanna lie down and have a nap. Or something. Yeah, something because as I was getting up from my desk to have that little lie-down my back decided “This would be the perfect time to seize up!” so it did. And that was about two hours ago and I haven’t even started to filter links, so here’s to working through pain. Except it doesn’t really “hurt” as much as “not work right”.
And before I forget THANK YOU SCOTUS!!!! for making marriage equality the law of the land. This isn’t like Roe v Wade where women got control over doing something that they would really rather not do if circumstances were different, this is people in love doing what people in love do, getting married. So get out there and get married to the person you love. I charge competitive rates and can do Wiccan and Klingon rituals (but I have to find a new priestess for the Klingon ritual, my last one has gone to Sto-Vo-Kor). Contact me if you are in the DFW area and need to get a religious service done. I guess this means I will have to take down the Gay Marriage Challenge page as not only was nobody able to convince me that same-sex marriage was bad, but neither were they able to convince the SCOTUS.
The big story as far as links are concerned is the UK driver getting arrested for murder in the death of a cyclist who was hit-and-run earlier in the week. Investigation into Harworth cyclist death becomes murder probe and Police name man charged with cyclist Richard Pencott’s murder as family pay tribute also UPDATE: Police arrest man on suspicion of murder after cyclist killed in Harworth not done yet Man arrested following death of cyclist Not a whole lot to say in this one because of UK media laws, but arrested for murder is really something. It has been frequently said in both the UK and this country that if you want to commit a random act of murder just get in a car and drive until you see a cyclist to run over, then claim momentary blindness after the fact. Until I saw this I would have said killing a cyclist was a “perfect crime” as it seldom gets prosecuted, and even when it is prosecuted convictions are few and far between, and when convicted the “sentences” are laughably lenient, mostly community service. But when you structure community service correctly it can be a great deterrence against the perpetrator ever doing it again, because they won’t have much free time to commit another vehicular assault. Not much of a deterrence to others, but that one will never hit another cyclist. Are you kidding me? Man charged with murder after cyclist dies in collision
Our Daily Ted, part one. Morning Links: Metro commits to DTLA bikeshare, US pros swear they’re clean, and $50K reward for fatal hit-and-run Even Ted has a link to the UK murder arrest.
And Daily Ted, part two. Update: Arrest made in horrifying high-speed Highland Park fatal hit-and-run If the road diet planned for the street where the cyclist was killed had been allowed to go through the driver would not have been able to reach anywhere near the speed he was going when he hit the cyclist. And now I see they caught the guy who was still drunk 4 hours after hitting the cyclist, which means he was super drunk at the time of the crime. They found pieces of the victim still on the car when they arrested the driver. More Man arrested after bicyclist is killed in hit-and-run in Highland Park Gil Cedillo is an accessory to this crime.
So, NYPD, how is that Vision Zero thing going for you? Issuing lots of tickets for people running down people in the crosswalk or bike lanes? NYPD: Drivers Killed 18 Pedestrians and Cyclists in May, and Injured 1,262 So, that would be a “no” on tickets for people hit crossing in the crosswalk or riding in the bike lanes.
What is wrong with drivers in AZ? Truck runs into four cyclists Seriously to hit 4 cyclists at once in front of witnesses (oncoming traffic) and scatter them “like popcorn”, is either attempted murder or someone that needs to never drive again.
More on Google trying to make Silicon Valley more like Amsterdam or Copenhagen. Google’s bike plan aims to turn Silicon Valley into the next Copenhagen $5 million seems like a lot of money, and it is, but for the number of communities they are talking about and the spread they have to cover because of sprawl, it’s a very large drop in a fairly large bucket. To extend the metaphor, they have covered the bottom of the bucket, but have a long way to go to fill it.
When you have a memorial ride for just the cyclists killed in the last two weeks, there is something terribly wrong with the infrastructure. Local Cyclists To Ride For Those Who Died In The Past Two Weeks
Oh the horror! Most area cyclists aren’t wearing helmets while riding, Statistics Canada says Windsor area cyclists are riding at about 21% helmets, while Victoria are riding with 83% helmets. So Victoria riders have how much lower head injury statistics than Windsor? Any? Buehler?
Road.cc looks at the KSI stats and comes to the same conclusion I did: UK drivers everywhere are prats. DfT admits “ever increasing problem with pedal cyclist casualties” as serious injuries rise 8 per cent Cycling increased 3.8% but serious injury went up 8%? Yep, your drivers are crap. Or maybe your roads are crap and having mediocre drivers isn’t helping any. But yeah something somewhere along the line is crap and people are getting permanently injured because of it.
Perhaps the problem is a lack of enforcement? Campaign for ‘properly enforced’ speed limits after cyclist killed in collision
Sisyphus has a stone, cyclists have politicians. Devon MPs spearhead cyclist safety campaign
And in the meantime we get things like this. Alan Cronin: Man in court charged with death by dangerous driving after cyclist killed
Last link tonight is from Oz again. Motorists, cyclists all need re-education Some cyclists don’t know the rules, but all cyclists are just doing their best to “not get hit”. So the education really needs to be on drivers so they can Know when cyclists are riding according to the laws and not hit them.
And I’m ready to go to bed, or at least lie down for a bit and try to relax.
Billed @€0.02, Opus the extremely happy about the SCOTUS marriage decision…
Witch on a Bicycle 