It’s hot in Texas and water is wet, and the Feed

Looking at my phone the temp just went to 103°F with the heat index “only” 102 because there is almost no humidity. Seriously the air in Phoenix is more humid than the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, 22% in TX to 26% in AZ. And I actually go out and ride a bike in weather like this, wearing a full-face helmet. Well nobody has accused me of being “normal” lately. Speaking of that there are only 20 more shopping days to get me a Death Day present. I’m looking for RPG dice this year, especially d6 and d8. And I’m a vain geek, I want pretty dice that kinda match. And seriously about this, I’m playing a game now where I sometimes need as many as 10 d6 for damage rolls because my Warlock is heavily buffed with stacking magic items that both increase his “to hit” as well as his damage. I mean my to hit is now +13 against the touch AC of my opponent meaning against most non-monsters I hit every time, and I have better than even odds against pretty much all of the monsters. Currently it takes me longer to roll damage than most people take to play a turn because of my lack of d6. 😦

Right now it appears the Big Story is the woman hit by a semi in Boston on Friday morning. Cyclist Killed by Tractor Trailer Identified and Cyclist’s death spotlights Mass. Ave. peril also Recent fatal bike encounters with trucks, buses this too Police search for flatbed truck after bicyclist hit and killed at Boston more like this Bicycle rider killed in Back Bay crash in the previous link you can see the cyclist just before she was hit under the passenger side mirror of the picture of the weapon vehicle. Police Identify Bicyclist Killed In Back Bay Accident I’m going to make a 100% absolutely serious recommendation here: Ban large trucks like this from urban areas unless accompanied by bicyclist outriders front and rear to make sure that no pedestrians or cyclists get run over because drivers can’t see out of the right side or directly in front of the vehicle. The outriders’ responsibility would be to ensure that there was nothing and nobody in the way of the truck before allowing it to make a turning movement and hold the truck until the way had been cleared with the front outrider keeping people from turning across the truck and the back outrider making sure nobody comes from behind, and both making sure that the people who got there first have time to get out of the way, then the truck can make a turn. Obviously this is much more important when making a right turn because such large vehicles have to fade far to the left to clear such things as light poles and sidewalks, but there is still some issues with the left turns from a one-way street that require fading right for clearance. Using bicyclists as outriders means the forward speed is more or less limited to a safe speed. Late addition Surgeon Remembered After Being Struck and Killed on Bike

From a few hours ride east of WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Calls for road safety after Longview cyclist crashes “It’s not if I’m going to get hit, it’s when,” which sounds pretty pessimistic, but this is TX, the state where the 2 biggest-selling vehicles are pickup trucks in spite of most of the population living in one of 6 urban areas.

A memorial ride south of WoaB about a day and a half ride. Memorial to honor teen killed in auto vs. bike crash “(H)e swerved and hit the side of a vehicle” tells me that he got buzzed and hit. Remember this victim of motor violence.

Ted had a good day. We interrupt this website for a view from Sunday’s successful CicLAvia

Well it was good for a little while, anyway. Bicyclist killed riding on I-15 in North San Diego County hit-and-run; victim may have been struck multiple times

Same area, slightly earlier. Mission Beach Cyclist Severely Injured in Hit-and-Run Area readers are encouraged to BOLO for the weapon vehicle, have SDPD non-emergency number on speed dial. And PD need to have the ability to get texts and attachments from cell phones so that vital information can be sent from people on the scene instead of trying to describe the situation verbally. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

From the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike catches a killer. FHP: Hit-and-run driver distracted by e-cig before killing teen cyclist and Arrest made in hit-and-run crash that killed 17-year-old He dropped his vaper on the floor and instead of pulling over and stopping while he searched for it, he just ducked down and drove blind.

NYC, you suck. 18-Year-Old Queens Cyclist Who Was Struck By Driver In Bike Lane Has Died The drunk driver has not yet been charged with anything, including not charged with drunk driving.

Upstate NY is only slightly better. Bike accident during Great Race sends two cyclists to Upstate University Hospital No motor vehicles involved, but it was a race/ride. Some people were just out to have a nice ride somewhat protected from motor vehicles.

More upstate NY hassles. No easy answers for rider-driver friction in Piermont Part of the problem is NY culture leads to confrontations (remember Pacino’s “Hey! I’m WALKING here!”?), and part of the problem is we cyclists get a trifle excited when some putz comes within inches of terminating our lives which does little to reduce tensions.

Meanwhile in Joisey. Charges filed in Mine Hill crash that left cyclist injured The driver has been charged with driving like a putz and failing to yield.

A bill in PA that deserves to get thrown under the bus. Pa. bill to demand cyclists wear reflective vests at night getting thrown under bus Seriously, instead of demanding that cyclists do all the work here, how about just enforcing the Basic Speed Law?

Are you Too Old To Drive? Mother of bicyclist killed in car accident helps educate elderly drivers I remember covering this wreck back then, the cyclist was hit with the front of the right front fender. The driver just did not even consider that there was a lane of traffic to the right of the vehicle before starting the turn.

Someone in MN has a serious hate on for cyclists. Answers Tough To Find After Cyclist Hit By Chunk Of Concrete and People are ruthlessly attacking Minneapolis cyclists, for some reason Seriously, this was a planned attack, as the driver was riding in some cyclist-heavy parts of the city and wearing PPE so as to not get hurt by the objects he was throwing at cyclists. If you see the weapon vehicle deploy spike strips and shoot to kill. The car that is, kill the car. We want the driver to be publicly humiliated for at least a decade or so and corpses don’t get humiliated easily.

Still in MN a left cross wreck injures a young girl. Minnesota Girl Injured On Bicycle After Car Struck Her This story is just so bizarre. The driver was the victim of random mob violence a few years ago that left him brain damaged and was just now starting to get something resembling a normal life back when he turned left into the cyclist. As a member of both groups, brain damaged and cyclist, I don’t know which I should feel more sorry for. But as a member of both groups I also need to say they should test the driver for his degree of perception to his left, as well as can he physically turn his head to see that direction. He may have undiscovered defects on that side of his body, that he may not even know about.

Another hit-from-behind wreck in WI. Bicyclist hurt in Sunday crash named Other than the fact the driver stayed at the scene and rendered aid to the cyclist until medical help arrived it was a common hit-from-behind wreck.

Another cyclist is killed in another hit-and-run, this time in MI. Bicyclist on trek across Michigan dies in hit-and-run crash and Woman cycling across Michigan killed in hit-and-run The driver of the pickup truck hit the last rider in a group and sped away because he was a person of low moral content. When they find the truck it should be crushed as soon as they finish processing it, possibly with the driver still in it.

A little girl is hurt in SD. Five-Year-Old Girl Injured In Car Vs. Bicycle Accident If a 5YO can’t play safely here then there isn’t a safe place to play in SD.

Our first international links come from the Great White North, as age is no defense against criminally bad driving. Charges pending against 83-year-old driver after cyclist hit And neither is “sun glare”. It’s not like you don’t know the sun is going to be there…

The father of a cyclist killed in a hit-and-run wants a mandatory minimum sentence for killing someone in a hit-and-run to deter DUIs from leaving the scene. Dead cyclist’s father wants jail time for hit-and-run drivers and Dead cyclist’s father wants jail time for hit-and-run drivers I suggest the minimum for a fatal hit-and-run be twice the minimum for death by DUI, whatever they call it in the statute. If leaving the guy to die is not worse than killing him outright, well…

Gawddammit! Cyclist seriously injured after being hit by a lorry in central London OK I know the drivers have at least some degree of driving ability to pass the test for the license, and the majority of the cyclists hit have been experienced and careful cyclists, which narrows it down to infrastructure and vehicle blind spots…

Road.cc is sorta like Gothamist except all bike and in England. They have two links in today’s Feed. The first one is the driver who had his pathetically weak sentence reduced further because victims’ impact statements don’t actually count, they’re just for show. Lorry driver who caused death of Denbighshire cyclist has driving ban reduced FFS.

Second link is the bus driver that hit a cyclist in plain view and dragging his body until there was no hope of survival and getting away with it. Bus driver who dragged cyclist to his death and failed to stop avoids jail That distance in American (formerly Imperial English) is almost 80 feet. And WTF?!? “Death by Dangerous Driving” is the most serious driving offense in the book, and he got probation?

I think the coppers are still looking for the murder weapon. 70 year-old man questioned over death of cyclist Yep, I’ almost positive that’s what they’re doing.

Last link. Sips For Cyclists Event To Benefit Injured Riders Go out there and benefit somebody.

And I’m tired and done composing, now comes proofing, editing, and tagging.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Unkillable Badass Poet

Advertisement

Having allergy problems again, and the Feed

I’m having allergy problems again (deja vu!) with my legs this time. I have an itchy rash around my ankles and slight swelling of the right leg with the left one looking like I’m smuggling oranges in my calf. When I take a diphenhydramine the swelling and the rash mostly go away, but I get a little sleepy and slightly loopy until the pill wears off, which happens in about 3 hours. The the rash and swelling come back. Yay! consistency.

Up first is yet another link to that heinous murder of a cyclist just a few miles away from WoaB World HQ. Cyclist dies after being stuck in windshield as driver fled The author of this piece remembered the killer nurse who left a man stuck in her windshield also, there is a link to that wreck in the article. Not the same as my link, though.

This story is a little further away and somewhat of a palate cleanser after that last link. Waco cyclist, cancer survivor overcomes obstacles to set world record The bad thing about melanoma is it can kill you quickly, the good thing is it can be easily treated without impairing your ability to function as a human being after treatment. As demonstrated in this story.

And I immediately take you back down again with this link from the same area, ain’t I a stinker? Bicycle rider robbed at gunpoint This is kinda inevitable, really. I mean they attack people inside cars and rob them or steal the cars, which are like mini armored vehicles now. All cyclists have are wits and situational awareness, and sometimes that just isn’t enough. With the M.O. used in this robbery there is no amount of situational awareness that could protect you. Once crooks started identifying cyclists as having enough money and “stuff” on them to be worth robbing, they started robbing us.

An internal debate made public at StreetsblogLA. Man is Shot and Killed by the Officers He Called to Help Search for Stolen Bike. Is it a Livable Streets Issue? When does police racism and brutality become a livable streets issue? IMHO when people are in fear of LEO, then streets are no longer livable. When people are in fear of anything when they are out on the street, that area is no longer “livable”.

Since we need some good news to balance the previous link and paragraph, people raised a ton of money for the survivors of the victims of a hit-and-run in CA. Nearly $80K Raised For Family Of Afghan Immigrant Killed While Riding Bike If you give people half a chance they can and usually do good.

And this looks like a good place to put Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Scofflaw drivers and bike riders break laws at the same rate; too much news from Tour de France

A cyclist hit in MT has been transferred to Seattle to treat her injuries. Cyclist injured in downtown Missoula stable in Seattle hospital And for those whose geography is a little weak Seattle ia almost 500 miles from Missoula, and you’re basically crossing 2 and ¹/₃ states to get there. That’s roughly equivalent of transferring a patient from Belfast to London for my UK readers, or Antwerp to Paris for readers on The Continent. Stop and think for a moment what this says about the level of treatment available in Missoula…

A cyclist is almost “taken out” on a charity ride. Braden Tucker: Bicyclist critically injured in hit-skip during VeloSano ‘Bike To Cure’ event and UPDATE: Injured VeloSano rider in fair condition There is no way the driver that hit this cyclist does not know he hit someone especially looking at the level of destruction of the bike in this wreck. The rear wheel was ripped out of the dropouts during the wreck, that kind of impact is going to make a lot of noise.

Speaking of large group rides, we have our first drunk driver hitting someone in RAGBRAI on the first day of the ride. Hudson couple on bike injured by drunk driver Can’t say for sure, but there is no way the driver did not know there were a lot of bicycles on the roads that day, so it might be a case of drunken road rage.

Speaking of RAGBRAI, did you know that an ambulance company started to provide coverage to the ride went on to become a state-wide provider? I didn’t. Local ambulance service keeps RAGBRAI riders safe How about that?

The wheels of justice grind very slowly, and sometimes you think there isn’t anybody at the controls. Woman arrested for cyclist’s death Is that a bike flag stuck in the front bumper of the weapon vehicle? The crime scene pictures don’t show very good sight lines for the cyclist, who may (probably) thought the way was clear when he started crossing the road. The degree of damage makes me think the drunk and distracted driver may have been speeding at the time of the wreck, further reducing the cyclist’s clear crossing window. Drunk drivers who kill need to be handcuffed to the steering wheel of their cars while the cars are run through a metal shredder. On fire.

Continuing on the drivers that need to be fed through a metal shredder topic… Suspected drunk driver hits, kills prominent Albuquerque homebuilder This cyclist was hit riding on the sidewalk inside a gated community. If there is any place safe to ride a bike in ABQ that should be it.

On the other side of the country we have another one. Atlanta police searching for driver who hit, killed cyclist And by “another one” I mean a cyclist hit riding on the sidewalk by an out of control driver. This guy died because the driver decided to do some doughnuts in the middle of the street when he lost control and went over the curb and ran down the cyclist.

FL puts another notch in the gun. Bicyclist critically injured in crash with car and Weston man, 51, struck and killed while riding bicycle The cyclist was hit with the driver’s side of the car, but the cyclist ended up on the right-hand sidewalk after clearing a hedge. Either the bike was moved after the wreck, or there are some strange physics going on here.

This link is not for the squeamish. Bicyclist impales neck on fence after pothole crash in Queens The cyclist did not impale himself during the wreck but as an aftermath to the wreck, staggering around after picking himself up off the sidewalk. That is going to hurt, long term, but since it looks like critical blood vessels were not hit or the cervical spine damaged he should live a fairly normal life after the initial recovery.

This ‘hood is too dangerous for kids to be kids. Girl on bike injured after collision with car in Lowell The damage visible on the weapon vehicle shows it was traveling too fast for a residential neighborhood, but still people blame the victim for not wearing a helmet when her arm was injured. SMH The damage to the bike and the weapon vehicle are much too severe for the claimed “25 MPH” impact with a “little” 13 YO girl. I will say this in the driver’s favor, the apparent geometry for this wreck did not allow any reaction time to stop or even slow down.

How do you keep people in cars from hitting people on bikes? Turn down the volume. We must change the car vs. bike culture we have created Part of the problem is the Culture of Speed we have developed. People in cars expect a road clear of slow-moving vehicles, not to have to move around a bicycle in “their” lane.

What can you do about drivers backing blindly across the bike lane when leaving parking? My Turn: Downtown parking not good for cyclists How about reconfiguring the stripes so the driver is looking the direction traffic is coming from? Simple in concept but getting drivers to change the way they have done things for decades will not be easy. Why change the way you’ve done things for decades just because you kill nearly 100 people a day every day doing it like that?

A sad update from West Canuckistan. Injured cyclist passes The injuries were too severe for the cyclist to recover from her door prize. Helmets are just not built to survive that kind of concentrated force.

Well one way to prevent HGV from killing any more London cyclists would be to ban them when the concentration of cyclists is highest. PM To Consider Banning Rush Hour Lorries After Cyclist Death

Gee, maybe it has something to do with a poor state of driver licensing? Growing numbers of cyclists being killed or seriously injured on Welsh roads Perhaps raising the standard of cereal they hand them out from as premiums will improve that somewhat. Something more adult with less sugar in/on it

How stupid do you have to be to get out of a car and chase someone down with a knife? Family of ‘road rage’ victim Don Lock pay tearful tribute to him

People sitting in the bus saw the cyclist, why didn’t the driver with a much better view out the front? ‘Shattered’ bus driver admits causing cyclist’s death That’s all I have to say about that.

And I think I have run out of links. [checks] Yep, all done.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet @opusthepoet

Mrs. the Poet is on her way, and the Feed

Mrs. the Poet is on her way to help take care of grandnephews in NY as things get destabilized for our niece. The farm she has been living on got sold out from underneath her and she needs childcare while she works. Mrs. the Poet will be spending about 36 hours on the Dawgbus to get there, and another 18 hours to recover.

In other news around Casa de El Poeta, we got the Explanation of Benefits on my surgery from BCBS. The total costs were in the neighborhood of $28K, my costs after my cash co-pay I provided the day of surgery, $0. When you reach your max out-of-pocket for the year with this policy, that is it, except for office visits to your PCP to see if something else needs fixing. So it took more than a year of running around and significant transportation issues to get there and back, but the lump on the back of my neck is gone and I don’t owe any more money for the procedure.

Up first, condolences on this Daily Ted. Suspected DUI driver kills adult trike rider and her dog in Garden Grove And the weapon vehicle will be crushed …?

Another link to that lawsuit where a bike rider was tased while riding his bike. Cops Beat, Tase Man for Riding Bike With No Headlight, Failing to ID Themselves, Lawsuit Claims More information, this article makes the claim the LEO failed to tell the victim he was being stopped for not having a headlight before tasing him while he was riding. As I pointed out yesterday this makes as much sense as tasing the driver of a car while the car is still moving, which nobody in their right mind would ever do because of the danger.

And a cyclist gets right crossed because a driver didn’t look so they give the cyclist a ticket for riding on the sidewalk? Elmira teen seriously injured in bike-car crash Monday TANJ!

There are two huge stories in the UK today. This is the one that makes me slightly more angry. Gran died after reckless cyclist ploughed into her on BMX bike he pulled from skip and Cyclist, 21, who knocked down and killed grandmother, 73, while riding BMX bike he pulled out of a skip is jailed Why does this one make me angry? Because the cyclist is going to be spending a year in jail longer than most drivers get for killing pedestrians or cyclists.

This is the other story that makes me almost as angry. Pictured: Newly-married cyclist killed in London lorry crash and Cyclist, 26, killed in Bank tipper truck crash was newly married Oxford graduate also Cyclist killed at ‘hectic’ seven-way Bank junction in London also this Why are female cyclists more vulnerable to London’s lorries?

In a different but related story. Widow of cyclist killed by Crossrail lorry calls for road safety improvements Another cyclist killed because of HGV having restricted visibility out the front and to the passenger side, which is exactly where the “bike lanes” of the UK put them. This cyclist apparently could not see the light had changed because there were trucks pulled in front of them, and one of those trucks ran him over.

From Canuckistan pay attention to cyclists while driving, the life you save could be your neighbor or the kid down the block. Cyclists deserve attention

A proposed change in the legal infrastructure of Oz. Cyclists face on-the-spot fines for using their phones, VicRoads report recommends Besides the phone thing cyclists would be assumed to have right of way in all intersections.

OH considers changing the law for the worse. Should bike helmets be the law? Considering the rather limited energy window that helmets work in, I would say making them mandatory would be a crime.

Memorial ride for a cyclist killed on a bike trail when a motorcycle went off the parallel road at high speed. Memory of bicyclist killed on Seaford bike path inspires fundraising bike ride

And an update on the Marine riding a hand-cycle from CA to VA. Combat-injured vet bicycling through Chanute Needless to say WoaB would be sending $$ to this if we had the $$ to send.

And I’m out of links again. Good thing because I have to make dinner and then clean up after.

Billed @€0.02, Opus

Ugh, Monday again? and the Feed

I used to like Garfield, back in the ’80s and early ’90s, but one thing I still like is the Monday hate from a cat that doesn’t do anything all week or during the weekend, but somehow still hates Monday. The irony could be used to build a bridge… My reasons for disliking Mondays are more concrete. If I don’t write about bikes on Saturday or Sunday then the links accumulate for 3 days and I have a monster to deal with come Monday. But as the alternative was never getting time away from injured or dead people who got that way on a bike, having a heavy workload on Monday beats a padded cell 7 days a week.

Up first because the computer is locking up and giving me fits and I need to clean out some links, Part 1 of Our Daily Ted. San Diego cyclist killed by distracted driver; fourth SoCal bicycling fatality in just the last four days This has been a rough stretch again for Ted.

And Daily Ted Part 2. Morning Links: Bike lane riding in the Biking Black Hole; Caltrans looks at active trans; hero cop saves a cyclist OK I thought I had a lot of links on Mondays…

As mentioned in today’s Daily Ted, there were some terrorist attacks on cyclists in the UK this weekend. Cyclist knocked down by ‘cut-throat’ wire stung up on bike path by twisted thugs Several thin wires set a various heights along a bike path by a golf course with injured cyclists finding most of them before LEO cleaned out the rest. And Cyclist crashes as tacks sprinkled on Velothon Wales route – but others praise local support Looking at the comments there were several cyclists injured after getting tires punctured by tacks, but only one “officially” injured. And for the UK commentariat here in TX something like this would be attempted murder if there was a possibility that someone could die because of it.

NYPD has a law that protects pedestrians and to a lesser extent cyclists, but they aren’t enforcing it. Tragic city bike accidents test new Right of Way law — as traffic incidents result in mixed legal recourse A big part of the problem is only 31 officers in all of NYC are allowed to issue those tickets for “failure to yield” that come with the big fines, and they are only called to the scene when someone dies or is likely to die, or is “seriously Injured”. Apparently getting one’s leg turned into hamburger doesn’t count as “seriously”.

And what if the US had nationalized health care that went all the way down to the guy in the ambulance? We would get stuff like this. The moment a cyclist bleeding to death was saved – by a balloon fed through her leg: Woman, 24, undergoes emergency procedure after paramedics decide she would not survive journey to hospital They can do this because there was a surgeon on the team that went in the ambulance. Here in the US that doesn’t happen. And so people die who don’t need to, because profits.

Considering all the technology used to catch speeders, and the fact that so many tech geeks ride regularly, this was practically predestined to happen. Police use ultrasonic device to make sure drivers stay 3 feet from cyclists Personally I would like to see gigawatt laser cannons used to keep drivers away from cyclists (get too close and lose the front of the car), but until that happens, tickets backed by video recording the illegal pass as measured with ultrasound will have to do.

This one hurts a little. Funeral set for Montevallo woman hit and killed while riding bicycle Cyclist killed in a hit-and-run after either getting robbed or escaping getting robbed and trying to get to a safe(r) place.

This one brought a tear to my eye, too. Hundreds of bicyclists ride to promote safety and honor teen killed, another injured This was in MS, not known as a particularly bike friendly state.

It shouldn’t take a dead cop to get moving on keeping cyclists safe, in fact nobody should have to die to get movement on keeping cyclists safe. Officials discuss bicycle ordinances and safety tips in light of Joplin police officer recently injured in bicycle crash Sorry, injured cop, not dead cop. And I noticed that all of the laws discussed were restrictive on cyclists, with none saying anything about not hitting cyclists or that there are more cases where the cyclist has the right to the entire lane than not.

More on the MA cyclist shot and killed. Surveillance video captured slaying of boy on bike, DA says Sorry about the auto-playing video.

They caught a hit-and-run driver in the Great White North after he turned himself in. Keswick man charged in fatal Yorkville hit and run Apparently he cleaned himself and the car up before turning himself in so that he couldn’t be charged with anything except the hit-and-run. Except now they can add “obstructing justice” or whatever they call it in Ontario.

I’m not seeing anything con in this pro and con article on bike trails except that maybe they don’t have enough of them. Let’s Talk About It, Trail Systems

First of many infrastructure articles from roundabout Jolly Olde. Cyclists Demand National Lorry Safety Crackdown When a single mode of travel killed roughly 40% of cyclists last year and 100% of cyclists this year it is a pretty safe assumption that there is something fundamentally wrong with that mode of transport as it pertains to bicycles.

Still on that subject but from another sort of Anglophone country. Campaign to warn cyclists of lorry blind spots There’s your problem, drivers can’t see out of the cabs of trucks well enough to not hit cyclists sharing the streets in the city. Or the pedestrians in the crosswalk either…

A possible solution to the urban chaos. Dublin City Council Poised to Ban Cars in City Center

While we are still doing UK news. WATCH: Chester Triathlon pays tribute to cyclist killed in road accident Yep, I got a little misty on that one, too.

You know the guy was liked by everybody except the killer when they name a bike club after you when you die in a wreck. New bike club set up in memory of cyclist

And from Oz by way of Road.CC in the UK, an idiot. NSW roads minister wants to CLOSE segregated bike lane in Sydney Really, close a bike lane that carries more people than the whole road next to it? You are an idiot.

And on that note I’m out of links, which means I’m also out of idiots. Hurray!

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

This is gonna hurt, and the Feed

I am taking a break from filtering because 1) my butt is getting tired, and B. my brain is getting slightly crispy around the edges as I deal with some monumentally stupid/trollish comments left on some articles, and π) I need to go hit something. I figure a punch-a-pillow break is better than any of my alternatives.

Up first because “why not?” is Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Hollywood bike parking becomes a homeless site; a blogger argues bike lane air is bad for LA kids While bike lane air is “bad” the consequences of sitting in traffic in a light armored vehicle are orders of magnitude worse.

And Pt. 2 of Our Daily Ted. 22-year old alleged sidewalk rider killed in South LA hit-and-run How do they know the cyclist “swerved” off the sidewalk in a hit-and-run? And every time I see the word “Slauson” I think this. I used to watch that stuff when it was new. Yes, I already know I’m old…

Another link to the driver banned from owning a cell phone for 2 years. Cellphone ban for driver who killed cyclist is ‘a reminder every day,’ judge says The driver is allowed to use WiFi devices, but anything that directly connects to any cell phone system.

One of the most deeply held tenets of WoaB is “Don’t hit the pedestrians.” Pedestrian Suing Cyclist After Collision On Dearborn Street From the comments section the entire suit is a pack of lies intended to prey upon the prejudices of the (potential) jury, the pedestrian in question walked into the cyclist’s path while walking in the bike lane instead of crossing it, the equivalent of walking down the middle of a street, and the bike was equipped with two independent braking systems, fixie with a front brake. Still, DON’T HIT THE PEDESTRIANS!

OK this one is bizarre beyond words. Bicyclist injured in downtown Woodland accident Adrenaline can be a scary thing. It can make you really stupid, so that you get up and run away from getting hit with a car hard enough to smash the windshield hard enough to spray broken glass on the front seat occupants… Something got this cyclist wound up on adrenaline before he got hit, because there wasn’t enough time for any adrenaline from the wreck to kick in so that he could get up and run away from the wreck like that.

This IL story is a bit better than the one in an earlier paragraph. The ‘Wheel’ Deal: Flossmoor Cop Gifts Bike Crash Victim with a New Ride

I’m including this for a single sentence from LEO, the most sane thing I have ever read credited to a LEO. Cyclist killed by tractor trailer was on way home from work Did you see it, or has it been deleted? “Police say Goodrow was not wearing a helmet but suspect it would have made little difference.” Really, a styrofoam hat against 50K pounds or more of truck and trailer? And regarding the lights and reflectors the VA Vehicle code reads “… shall be equipped with a headlight on the front emitting a white light visible in clear weather from a distance of at least 500 feet to the front and a red reflector visible from a distance of at least 600 feet to the rear when directly in front of lawful lower beams of headlights on a motor vehicle.” So the rear reflector (without a light) was within the law, and the cyclist was hit from behind so the headlight was moot. The truck driver should have seen the cyclist but failed to pass safely.

From NYC another pedestrian is mowed down. 5-Year-Old Boy Struck By Driver On Prospect Park West

More on the Trek QR recall. 3 Reasons Why You May Have a Trek Bicycle Injury Lawsuit And I have one very good reason why you don’t have a valid lawsuit: in order for the “defective” QR to cause the problem it did you have to leave the QR in the open position. The equivalent would be to fail to tighten the lug nuts on your Chevy and then sue GM when the wheel falls off…

While we are in the figurative WI courtroom. Homicide charges loom for driver who hit, killed 2 bicyclists in Muskego I thought there must be foul play in order to hit 2 cyclists and kill them both…

More on the cyclist killed riding USBR 36 in IL. From the view of a cyclist The comments section was toxic. Literally toxic.

From the Great White North. Battlefield bike ride across Europe to aid injured soldiers If any of my Canadian reader$ feel $o inclined…

And court news from Jolly Olde. Bus driver in court over Washington cyclist’s death Still don’t know anything about what happened because of UK media laws, except that LEO think the bus driver “did it” whatever “it” was.

More on those detection systems planned for testing in London. Thermal cameras will watch for waiting cyclists and turn traffic lights green Typical comments about cyclists not paying a tax that hasn’t existed since 1937 in the comment section…

And one wonders what will happen to the program in the last paragraph in light of this report. Tories withdraw £23m of promised spending for cycling in latest cuts

Remembering a cyclist killed by an overloaded semi in Oz. Family honours Brisbane cyclist as memorial mural unveiled at accident site on Annerley Road The truck hit the underside of the bridge and fell on the cyclist riding to the side as the truck passed.

And trying to make the death mean something. Cyclist’s widow calls for inner city truck ban I see a workable compromise: Trucks move in the ban area by trip permit only with bicycle outriders fore and aft to keep the truck from running anyone over. Truck moves no faster than bicycle speed so no cyclists would be endangered by them. Make the permits non-profit (just administrative costs only) and the costs for the cyclists either on a per-mile rate or a per-job rate with a mileage or time limit per job and a new permit required for each trip in and out of the ban zone, each permit good for one round trip in and out of the ban zone. Cyclists get full employment, other road users are protected, and goods are still delivered to destinations inside the “no truck” zone.

And I’m outta links and patience. I wanna watch some tube and veg out.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

This is my Long Day, and the Feed

Well I’m not seeing a lot of action from the clickbait headline, but I might try again with a different approach.

I’m still having issues with my neck that are common after surgery, like the steri-strips are starting to itch (or maybe where the incision is healing), and having something stuck to the back of my neck is just annoying now. Nothing major, just things that were expected to happen are happening now.

Up first, yesterday was not good for cyclists in London. Camberwell crash: Female cyclist fighting for life after collision with lorry in south London and Walthamstow crash: heroic bystanders free unicyclist from underneath bus after he was knocked down in rush hour accident More on the unicyclist London Crowd LIFTS 12 Tonne Double Decker Bus Off Injured Unicyclist also Cyclist, 32, dies after crash with Co-op lorry in London in sixth fatal accident this year still more Cyclist killed after lorry collision in south-east London and it just keeps getting worse Cyclist killed in Camberwell crash was top King’s College Hospital physiotherapist Female cyclists dies after Denmark Hill crash Nothing official but at this point it appears to be a left hook for the bicyclist, and a run over from behind for the unicyclist. And I had a link to a possible third wreck, but the page was 404 when I tried to pull it up. I’m assuming this was the third wreck mentioned in the video for that last link above. Immediate response to the wrecks? Harriet Harman: ban lorries in rush hour to save cyclists The killed cyclist hadn’t even died before the first political outcry to remove the most deadly thing from London’s streets and byways. And given that all 6 cyclist fatalities this year involved HGV, this is a perfectly reasonable response.

NYC had fewer wrecks but more (until after the last delivery of the Feed) links. Bicyclist Dead After Being Rear-Ended By Speeding Driver In East Harlem and Neuroscientist on bike killed by driver who fled traffic stop this, too NYPD on hunt for hit-and-run driver who fatally struck bicyclist, a Weill Cornell professor, in East Harlem more Cyclist Killed In Harlem Hit-And-Run Was Neurological Surgery Professor and Bicyclist Is Killed by Car Fleeing Court Police You know what is the really frustrating thing about this? The car was noticed as stolen on Sunday, but NYPD would not take a report from the person watching the house or over the phone from the out-of-state owner. That’s 4 days this car was running around NYC unencumbered when it could have been pulled over and impounded as stolen before it was used to kill someone. Granted since the perps were running from a traffic stop in this wreck, it could have just meant that a different cyclist was run over from behind, or they could have been boxed in by traffic for that stop and nobody would have been hurt, but that is all hypothesis because NYPD didn’t take the damn report! May all their gonads be “lovingly” caressed by electric eels, the thieves, the people driving when the cyclist was killed if they are not the people that stole the car in the first place, and the cops that refused to take the report that the car had been stolen. There is no excuse for this kind of mass fornication.

Much closer to home for WoaB. HUNDREDS OF CYCLISTS ARE HIT ON HOUSTON STREETS EVERY YEAR The story that opens the report, of the cyclist wearing a glow-in-the-dark clown suit hit from behind while crossing an intersection aptly displays the problem, drivers either don’t look or don’t care because they can certainly see most cyclists if they look in front of the car. Until something is done about that nothing will change much anywhere in TX as far as cyclists getting hit and killed on the roads. And that string of videos further down with the guy riding with the 3-foot flag on the side of the bike shows the other problem, drivers that think because they “didn’t hit” a cyclist they made a safe pass… The Caddy driver that moved right just before passing…

A Ghost Bike is placed, and removed, within a week of a wreck in IL. Daughters honor mother by seeking bike safety I would ask why someone would steal a Ghost Bike, but at this point, I don’t really care “why”. And the hate shown in the comments section for someone hit while riding a bike on a designated USBR.

Another RoS article, this one is more long form than the ones we had up until this. Ride of Silence serves as chance to remember, honor cyclists killed on the road

More RoS. Charleston ride of silence honors Jae Bellamy, other injured or killed cyclists This is the city where my brother lives and works. Interesting that Charleston has killed as many cyclists as London, with much less uproar about it.

Bike Month draws to a close in NJ. Rider risks, safety tips highlighted as part of Bike Month in N.J (VIDEO)

Kinda infrastructurish from just outside NYC. Communities try to ease friction between cars and bikes

ABQ tries bike share as tourist visits decline. Albuquerque Looks to New Bike-Share for Downtown Boost I remember when ABQ was a sleepy middle-sized town and the biggest danger was when both Unser brothers (Al and Bobby) were in town between car races.

More on the SLC “protected intersection”. Salt Lake City Will Have First Protected Bike Intersection in the U.S. This almost approaches “Dutch” quality bicycle infrastructure. The only problem is if drivers don’t want anything to do with the street why would cyclists use it? If there is no place to go to why ride the street?

Hot’lanta infrastructure (kinda disappointing). Atlanta takes steps to become more bike friendly

Another stop for the Worker’s Comp bike protest. Injured Workers Stop in Cobourg During 600 km Bike Ride to Draw Attention to a Compensation System Being Dismantled by the Liberal Government

And either I’m out of links or I’m blind, but I can read this, so probably not blind.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet