Happy Canada Day, and the Feed

First let me wish my Canadian Readers a happy independence day. I know I make fun of where you live (The Great White North, East Canuckistan, West Canuckistan, Far West Canuckistan) but believe me when I say I do it out of love. You guys are awesome (you had same-sex marriage 10 years before we did as just one example) and I have loved your country ever since my baby brother was born in it 53 years ago (St. John’s Newfoundland, right after it was declared a separate province) and every time we lived there since. I haven’t been back since the early ’70s, but I stay current as I can given how little news comes from north of the border. I mean besides Rob Ford, he’s sorta like your Chris Christie only on drugs, and not trying to take over the country.

Second the reason why this post is going up so late with so few links is I went to get “Arthur, Arthur Dent” rubbed on and transit to the new therapist killed about an hour each way, plus waiting for the bus, plus having to get money from the bank to pay for the massage, and then an hour for the massage. But it was worth it. My range of motion is temporarily only limited by the bones and ligaments in my neck, not by the muscle binding up and not allowing more contraction or extension. I can already feel the muscles starting to tighten back up, but for the moment it’s wonderful.

Since we started out talking about Canada and everything, here’s another link to that pinball wreck that caused a pole to fall on two cyclists. Greater Toronto Area cyclist dead after violent crash More Driver arrested after cyclist, 47, killed in Dufferin St. collision No new facts in the case, just new reports that makes it doubly sure that the cyclists were just waiting on traffic to clear and the lights to change when the power pole fell on them.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: 19-year old bike rider shot in Commerce; more naked folks on bikes; and mobile LA bike repair Included was a link to an attempted murder by motor vehicle on 3 cyclists hit near Sacramento. I’ll include that link if I see it in the Feed, but Ted gets CA news a day ahead of me.

Hey, a bunch of links about cops doing the right thing in Seattle. Police: Intoxicated driver killed cyclist Saturday night and Seattle police: Driver who hit and killed cyclist was intoxicated also DRIVER ARRESTED AFTER KILLING BICYCLE RIDER IN SEATTLE The driver stopped, was suspected of being drunk since he was falling down and other suspicious behavior, and he was arrested.

Another shocker as LEO are looking for “enhancements” to a hit-and-run in WY. Police still investigating Casper hit-and-run that injured bicyclist Find as many “enhancements” as you can, boys, hit-and-run should be treated like attempted murder when the victim survives, and murder if the victim dies…

Another WTF moment in Detroit. Man on bicycle shot and killed during robbery on Fenkell on Detroit’s west side Nothing you can do as a cyclist to avoid this, as you can’t outrun a bullet and unless there is heavy traffic you can’t outrun a motor vehicle.

Back to the Great White North for this little infrastructure blurb. THE QUICK, THE SAFE AND THE CYCLIST Another “death vs speed” chart to go with the hundreds of other charts that say pretty much the same thing.

The tide is turning against drunk and distracted drivers that kill cyclists in Jolly Olde. Jail for woman who killed cyclist after using phone while driving Now we have to hope that she doesn’t spend 6 months in jail and then go to a halfway house.

And just when it was starting to look like things are improving. Community order, driving ban and fine for driver who caused cyclist’s death Yep another round of “community service” for killing a cyclist.

So, who gets to go to jail for this death? Cancelled plans for a safe roundabout ‘could have prevented’ cyclist’s death, says politician The planned changes would have added at most a couple of seconds to clearing the junction while saving cyclists’ lives and bodies, but apparently a few seconds is too great a cost to pay for a cyclist’s life.

And they wonder why cyclists do this? Cyclists stage another mass ‘die-in’ protest at Bank in continuing battle to raise awareness of cycling safety in London

Or why they do this? Cyclist Jeremy Vine reveals he films bad drivers and sends footage to police This is the guy that says a camera is more important than a helmet for a cyclist in London.

Another useless “safety” gadget. Introducing the Varia™ Line of Smart Cycling Devices from Garmin® – Rearview Bike Radar and Smart Bike Lights to Help Create a Safer Riding Environment Alerting starting at 140 meters means the alert is going to be pretty much constant when I ride to church for example.

Bosch expands their crank assist motor line. Bosch Announces More Torque, More Battery and Other New eBike Technologies More power storage at the same weight/volume? How much empty space did they have with the old batteries?

A solar-assisted recumbent trike with a “swamp cooler” AC. Solar Assisted Air Conditioned Tricycle with Unlimited Range

When you get hit you need a good lawyer on your side. Meet the Chicago lawyer who represented cyclists before it was cool

And I’m out of links and patience as my legs decided they haven’t been annoying enough lately and just swelled up and started itching, so I’m going to finish this up and have a lie-down and then do dishes.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

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Stuff was happening nearby, and the Feed

For those of you wondering and sending me e-mails, yes the shootout over pictures of the prophet Mohammed was about 2 miles away by bike from my house, and 2) I didn’t know about it until I read the news the next morning. I live in that Garland, or to put it another way the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Let me hasten to add that I share very little with the person who deliberately baited this trap to cause extremists to attack the gathering other than a strong support for freedom of speech. I do not consider a “contest” for the “most offensive cartoon” to be freedom of speech, any more than I would consider a contest for the most offensive cartoon of a black man getting lynched. If you’re setting up “offensive” as a goal to be achieved you are automatically exceeding the protections of “free speech”.

And while we are on the subject of offensive things, the lump on the side and back of my neck is getting larger and more restrictive of my range of motion, and BCBS sent me a letter stating they agree with the diagnosis that it should be removed posthaste. Of course for an insurance company “posthaste” is not quite the same as it is for those of us who can get killed, they gave me a year to get rid of it. For an insurance company dealing with something that is not bleeding to death, that counts as “posthaste”.

Up first from the links, another bad day for Ted. 62-year old crosswalk rider killed in Santa Ana left cross collision Left crosses are pretty much the worst, because you can see it coming but don’t have the time to react to do anything about it. I’m just glad I never had to cover wrecks that might involve people I knew.

Our Daily Ted Pt. 2. Morning Links: More on efforts to undo Chase Street, bike riding family shot in WI, and apparently only dopes dope

Daily Ted Part 3. 23-year old bike rider killed last week in Granada Hills truck collision

FL cyclist violates one of WoaB cardinal rules, “Don’t Hit the Pedestrians”. Cyclist Dazed, Injured After Crash with Jogger You gotta pipe up when relaying warnings on a group ride. Sound off like you have a pair.

FL drunk driver gets a stiff sentence. Woman ‘2 Drunk 2 Care’ Gets 24 Years in Fatal Crash Yep, sending a tweet that you are too drunk to drive but you’re driving anyway makes this depraved murder or something like that. At least that would be my initial charge, Murder.

Speaking of Murder, someone dropped a marble or twenty and decided to shoot up a bike trail before shooting himself. Shooter disrupts family bike ride; 4 dead, including gunman As of the time of creating this post the shooter was known to be a veteran, but not known if he had seen combat. Mox Nix, he still saw enough to flip out and start shooting people. RIP dead cyclists, and peace to those shot but not killed.

How can this driver still look so smug in this mug shot? Truck driver charged in fatal Milton collision with bicyclist

How a world-class endurance athlete can be reduced to crawling. Lexington woman sentenced in hit and run crash that injured world-class cyclist

Remembering a NYC cyclist killed in a hit-and-run that ended up changing the way NYPD investigates wrecks. Remembering Clara Heyworth, And The Unlicensed Driver Who Killed Her Without Consequence They caught the driver when he crashed a few blocks away, but because the “investigation” was completely botched because it was started 3 days after the wreck and most of the evidence had been washed away they never charged him.

Still in NYC when you run someone over while police are investigating the first person you ran over you might be stupid get charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Cops: Driver Rammed Man In Wheelchair, Then Fractured Another Man’s Skull Yep, when you hit someone hard enough to send them down the stairs to the subway from the street, and you do it in front of a LEO still investigating the wreck where you ran over a guy in a wheelchair, you might get hosed.

Ripples and repercussions of a bike wreck in DC. The Injured Yogi’s 5 Accidental Life Lessons

Drunk driver in West Canuckistan gets a somewhat harsh sentence for assaulting a cyclist. Drunk driver sentenced Only 15 months for attempted murder…

There is a way to keep people from using the phone and texting while driving, but it is a voluntary thing. Smartphone App Blocks Teens From Texting, Phoning While Driving Make this app mandatory for all phones, not optional for teens. It as already been proven that talking on the phone, even with a hands-free device is as bad as drunk driving, and texting is as bad as driving with your eyes closed.

What do you do when there’s no place to pull over and no way to get passed? Harassed by a streetcar driver while riding safely and Streetcar GM responds to harassment complaint

Now if Amtrak wasn’t about twice as expensive as taking the bus or flying. Amtrak to welcome bicycling passengers by end of the year

Your next e-assist bike could recharge itself. Solarbike is the cycle for sun-lovers My experiments with solar-assist involved a roof over the bike with a coroplast panel to hold the cells. The idea was to point the bike on an east-west axis and tilt the roof south to catch as much sun as possible. The bike in the article does a similar thing with the wheel-mounted cells which can be charged by laying the bike on its side or pointing it so that the sun hits the wheels while parked.

And your next bike share bike could have a little extra helping you get where you want to go. Birmingham’s New Bike-Share Will Have Electric-Assist Bicycles

What if they made a street that adapted to the people using it, outside of cars? Customizing the Crosswalk Experience

Do we really need all that lane space on a city street? Why 12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Disastrous for Safety and Must Be Replaced Now

And I appear to have temporarily run out of links, thank [$DEITY].

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Good news for and about Blue, and the Feed

I was out running errands today, dropping the shoe at the shoe-repair place, getting money out to pay for the parts I need to repair Blue, transferring money to Mrs. the Poet’s account, going to Plano Cycling to pay for those parts with the money I took out… And while we were going through the order for the parts the parts guy noticed that there was a shifter set offered that was more than $20 cheaper than buying front and rear shifters separately, same parts in one box instead of two boxes. And it turns out that for one item I will have to pay shipping because it isn’t a part that’s stocked by their warehouse, it has to be bought directly from RANSbikes in KS.

Up first is some semi-local news from the next town over from the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. 2015 City Council Candidate Survey

I’m trying to figure out whose ox is being gored in this one. Virginia Beach says no to Boardwalk bicycle ads

I suggested doing this to freeways as a means of reducing the need for AC in the summer and running fossil fueled powerplants year around. This bike lane in Korea is topped with 20 miles of solar panels For a bike lane this “solution” has 2 problems: 1) It is running right down the median of a freeway, which means nasty, smelly pollution generated just feet away, and 2) getting on or off the bike path requires getting over that freeway and the barriers on both sides. I can see some cyclists using the facility, so either they are trapped there since it was opened, or there is some way on and off that is not visible in the video.

Speaking of bike lanes, this person enthusiastically supports them. Cyclist badly injured by truck: Bike-only lanes a must Yeah, me too.

I was unaware that Buzz Feed used machine translated text, the other question is what language did they translate it from. Auto Vs. Bicycle: Duking It Out In L.A. Targeted visitors “From visitors jams, to pushy motorists, to purple lights and some close phone calls” Red, stop; amber, proceed with caution; green, go when clear; which one is purple again?

And since we are already in L.A., let’s drop in on Ted Rogers and see what he’s up to. Morning Links: Bike the vote in Pasadena election; cyclists urged to defend Mt. Hollywood Wednesday

Vision Zero meets Zero Vision in NYC. Cy Vance: $580 Fine for Driver Who Killed 9-Year-Old Cooper Stock If this name sounds familiar this is the Cooper that “Cooper’s law” was named after.

How not to implement a road diet. The road diet is history, Paw Paw to go back to 5 lanes of traffic, no more angle parking First of all never tell them that this is an experiment, even if it is. You tell them “This has worked well in other places with similar levels of traffic, so we should end up safer and still getting to where we want to go.” Second, you have to give it at least a year to work, not a couple of months.

A Canadian tragedy results in renaming a charity ride. Ride the Rideau cycling event to be renamed, rerouted after last year’s tragedy The fatality has tarnished the reputation of the event, none of the organizers wishes to cease the fund-raiser, so change the name and never mention the wreck again except in a separate setting.

A UK bike retail association asks how do you grow cycling? OPINION: How do you grow cycling? Start with proper infrastructure and instruction on how to use it, then add layers of legal protections. It’s all spelled out in the CROW manual for only €90.

Well, I’m glad they clarified that the drivers were equally or more useless in the article, but the headline is still excessively provocative. ‘Useless’ WA cyclists need lessons This is from Oz, by-the-by.

And now I need a lie down, because I need to get up early for the new RPG group to have an all-day gore fest. There will probably be a short report on my new Warlock5’s adventures, now that he has been gender swapped and is a girl in magical armor, and a cursed armored belt. You may recall my character put on a cursed belt of gender swap thinking it was a Belt of Giant Strength. It might be a Belt of Giant Strength under the curse, my character hasn’t had the chance to test that part yet, he was too busy being seduced by 2/3 of the female members of the party… He’s “real purdy” now. 😉

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet