Tag Archives: share the road does not mean share the lane

Another day another $0.70 after Medicare and SS, and the Feed

For the self-employed even when we don’t make enough money to actually pay taxes, we still have to pay taxes on income specifically the Social Security and Medicare taxes, which come to roughly 30%. Interestingly enough if I made enough money I wouldn’t have to pay any SS or Medicare taxes… But my income is so low that I’m almost off the bottom of the scale for paying it. My income from wages is so low that I’m not actually paying all that much in SS or Medicare, I think maybe $2 or $3 a year, and the rest doesn’t count as “wages”. Kinda like those hedge fund guys that pay a fraction of the income tax and none of the SS and Medicare tax on their incomes because they don’t count it as “wages”. I mean really, the amount quoted in the headline is about how much I make in “wages”.

Up first, a TX man gets so drunk he forgets that he has the perfect weapon and uses a gun instead. Texas man went on deadly shooting spree while drunk driving in Oklahoma, killing two motorists I would say he’s a dumbass, but he would have to gain about a dozen IQ points to get that smart.

Meanwhile in Sin City. Car Mows Down Pedestrians On Las Vegas Strip, Killing 1 And Injuring Dozens and Driver who mowed down crowds on Vegas Strip asked valet to call 911, police say More than 50 injured or killed, and people scoff at me when I call motor vehicles WMD.

The driver that ran down a cyclist in S.F. CA is in court on murder charges. Man accused of murder in Tenderloin car theft collision back in court

Since we are in CA anyway, here’s Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Hard-hitting real-life safety PSA, and Big Blue Bus leaves bike-riding boy stranded in the rain

Still in CA. On the Mobility Plan and rush hour bus bunching: equity for bus riders? Good transit helps make streets safer for cyclists, too.

Over in KY. Family of Lexington cyclist killed in accident donates bikes to kids

US infrastructure on the Federal level. U.S. Gov’t. May Get More Serious About Cyclist/Pedestrian Deaths in 2016 They still don’t know if the problem is huge, really huge, or enormous, and when they find out they might actually do something about it. Or they could just buy the CROW manual and follow that and everything would be wonderful.

Low information article about a bike wreck in the Great White North. Cyclist struck, injured at Dufferin and Davenport The headline contains most of the actual news in the article, which is kinda sad, really.

Three years, and they still haven’t reached sentencing yet? Man in 2012 hit-and-run that killed cyclist could face year in jail The really annoying thing is the maximum sentence is still less than half the time the cyclist has already been dead. He died more than 3 years ago, the maximum sentence is 18 months, which he won’t even start serving until next year.

More on the insane suggestion that cyclists should be charged congestion fees when there are too many cars for the roads. ‘Cyclists should be considered for a Cambridge congestion charge’, says highways boss Since you can move 8 people on bicycles in the same space as one in a car, if there is a congestion charge for bicycles it should be 1/8 as much as for a motor vehicle, or since bicycles are smaller than motorcycles charge what they would charge the motorcycle, which was nothing. And that right there shows the hypocrisy of charging bicycles for congestion. It has been suggested the “expert” who said bicycles should also pay congestion charges was Keith Peat, noted anti-cycle motorist.

Meanwhile in Oz, they are almost s insane but they carried through. Cyclists in NSW can now be hit with massive fines and have to carry photo ID and NSW cycling laws: metre passing laws a win, but others are bewildering I’m trying to figure out why “raising of the fine for riding without a helmet from $71 to $319 – an increase of 350 per cent” is a good idea while the fine for failure to wear a seat belt remains the same… What is it about the Aussies and their weird compulsions about bicycle helmets?

And that’s all I got today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

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I was social again today, and the Feed

I went out this afternoon with one of the members of the kinky D&D group for another recon on costume supplies. We found remaindered fabrics and a sewing pattern for a costume she liked, but the cost for the pattern alone was more than the cash on hand. So we put everything back for better days, and slunk off with our tails between our legs. Not one of my good days.

Up first is Our Daily Ted. Any links that may be shared are a result of converging sources, not because I copied Ted. Morning Links: New El Monte Bike Hub opens, let CD4’s David Ryu know what you think, and sexist socks at Interbike I admit I had to follow the link to the sock story.

I have to say I don’t think this would ever happen in the US. Police say sorry for ‘not wholly satisfactory’ probe I mean really, US police apologizing? Ain’t gonna happen.

Now we get to see how much the vaunted reputation of Canadians for politeness is deserved. Move Over! The main benefit of the law is that it provides a nearly unshakable reflection of blame from the cyclist to the driver. All that’s required of the cyclist is complying with light and reflector laws, any hit from behind is now solidly the fault of the driver.

I think this is probably a casual correlation to cars becoming safer for the occupants rather than formerly drunk rivers switching to weed and staying home. Since Colorado legalized marijuana, highway fatalities are way down

I’m sure this would have been hilarious as a scene from a Hollywood RomCom, but IRL this would have been terrifying. CYCLIST KILLED, ANOTHER HURT WHEN BOAT BREAKS FREE FROM TRUCK ON STATEN ISLAND Edit to add, The proofreading program tried to correct STATEN to SATAN. One thing that bugs me is they aren’t even willing to say the trailer wasn’t properly secured when the trailer is in a different lane than the towing vehicle. Seriously? More Bicyclist Killed, Another Seriously Injured When Boat Slips Loose From SUV

Speaking of RomComs, how about this video of a BMX street rider for Nike riding in NYC? Watch This Pro BMX Rider Terrify All Of NYC There is a few seconds of the rider doing a nose manual on the hood of a taxi parked in a sidewalk, I would have liked a lot more of riding over cars blocking bike lanes. And seriously could you not tell this was staged?

Even when you are doing everything right as a cyclist, it just takes one driver with a case of the dumbshits to ruin your life. Artist injured in bicycle crash talks about recovery, dangers And because of the destructive power of motor vehicles, it doesn’t even take a real bad case of the dumbshits, because even a momentary lapse of concentration on the part of the driver can leave a greasy stain where the cyclist used to be riding.

Drivers ignoring the bike lane? Buy them flowers. Boston Cyclist Crowdfunds for Tactical Urbanism “Tactical Urbanism” is another phrase for calling out the DIY DOT.

Another article on the study that found that drivers see “Share the Road” as “Bicycles Get Outta the Way”. A Simple Change to Road Signs Could Help Cyclists and Drivers Finally Get Along You think they could have found a better picture of a “cyclist” than a HD screen grab from the video for “Motherfucking Bike”?

Make the bike smarter and you can make the kiosks really stupid, or do away with them altogether. Portland Will Get “Smart Bikes” in 2016

Is your town trying to kill you? The government is trying to make walking American again

And now we are done for the day, because there ain’t no more links. Today’s post was about half the size of yesterday’s by word count.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

Sammy the Sharing Squirrel scripts on Wreck-Free Sunday

I was going to live-blog the final race of the Sprint Cup season from Miami, but I figured that if you are interested in that kind of thing (Sprint Cup Racing) you are watching it too, so a summary at the end, but no live-blog. So instead I’m going to script out a few PSA to animate and show on the Cartoon Network late night block that used to be called Adult Swim, then was Toonami for a while. I haven’t watched it in a long time (as you can probably tell), because they went with a lot of inane live action programs, and I don’t watch the Cartoon Network for programs that are not animated. Anywho, I’m told that PSA campaigns in this programming block that utilize humor work well at getting the message across.

Script 1.

CUTE MUSIC

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Sharing the lane is like sharing a pair of pants without letting the first guy take them off…

Animated sequence of large bear pulling out Sammy’s waistband and sticking legs inside the pants legs with Sammy.

SAMMY: (strained voice) You have to leave room for the guy that was there first.

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

SCRIPT 2

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Sharing the lane is like being forced to swim with sharks and no shark cage.

Animated sequence of Sammy swimming with a smiling shark wearing a short skirt styled like a pair of board shorts. Shark is not being aggressive, just swimming way too close.

SAMMY: Just because you aren’t trying to be scary does not mean that you aren’t scaring people.

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

SCRIPT 3

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Remember roads are first-come, first-served, not fast-come, fast served.

Animated sequence of Sammy driving a convertible with the speedometer pointed to “Speed Limit” with a bear driving a house-sized SUV roaring up on him and driving right over him.

SAMMY: Just because you drive faster does not give you more right to the road than someone slower.

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

SCRIPT 4

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Remember there is is no such law as “The rule of gross tonnage” on the roads.

Animated sequence of Sammy driving a convertible with the speedometer pointed to “Speed Limit” with a bear driving a house-sized SUV with the grill logo “Split Level” roaring up on him and driving right over him.

SAMMY: Remember a bigger vehicle does not have a greater right to the roads, bicycles have equal right with cars, trucks, or motor homes.

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

SCRIPT 5

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Remember that cars are not the only thing allowed to use the roads.

Animated sequence of bicycle leading a group of road users that stretches out to an unseeable horizon, none of which are cars or trucks.

SAMMY: (voiceover the animated sequence) Remember that there are lots of other people using the roads perfectly legally with just as great a right as a person driving a motor vehicle, including bicycles, farm vehicles, mopeds, (herds of sheep, a platoon of soldiers, a cattle drive) fade out through the line in parentheses

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

There you go, Hollywood. Five 15 second PSAs to show to adults late at night and (hopefully) ooze through thick skulls. You’re welcome.