With a sad heart, and the Feed

As posted yesterday WoaB lost a valued employee and part of the family. Brian didn’t just make sure the rodents and cockroaches were eliminated, he was also a fuzzy confidant, something warm to hug, and a source of love in a cold world. He will be missed greatly here at Casa de El Poeta. No longer will he sprawl at the end of the bed and complain when we move our feet at night…

You will be missed, friend. 😥

Up first, a drunk driver hit-and-runs a cyclist in VT, so the head of VTrans wants us to ride more responsibly? Did I miss something? Minter: Drive, ride more safely after tragedies Your laws are car-centric, your infrastructure would be a crime in the Netherlands, and the cyclist was run over from behind by a drunk driver, and this is somehow our fault? More on that wreck, and the victim of it can be found here. A bike ride before dinner. He never came home. and Wife Of Police Officer Killed Cyclist While Drunk Driving, Released And Given Citation

I deal with clowns like this driver every time I ride. WATCH: Frustrated Texas cop smashes car window after driver insists speed limit is only a suggestion and in this case “Failure to Identify” is a valid charge because the LEO was trying to issue a speeding ticket.

NJ teens mourn their fallen friend as a bike-on-semi wreck is investigated. Cresskill students pay tribute to classmate killed by tractor-trailer Looking at the scene I don’t see what there is to investigate. The semi was at a stop sign while the cyclist was riding down a through street, and then the semi pulled in front of the cyclist when he was too close to stop. The weapon vehicle did not even clear the stop sign, much less get all the way into the intersection, before the cyclist hit it. So, what are they trying to prove? That the cyclist somehow committed suicide the day before summer break? That makes sense how?

Our Daily Ted. Newport Beach bike rider dies after fall, apparently due to natural causes Just like cats, people do die, and some die riding their bikes.

Daily Ted Part 2. Weekend Links: Bikeshare finally coming to LA, and fighting among ourselves won’t make bicycling to grow

Another failure to enforce a 3-foot law in FL. Bicyclist Killed in Collision With Private School Bus If the cyclist falls down as you pass and goes under the back tires, you passed too damn close! And really when was the last time anyone on a school bus was injured by running over something as relatively small as an adult human being? So why mentiuon that the kids were unhurt?

Update on an OR cyclist injured in a wreck. Injured cyclist Maurice considers actions, consequences Just as an aside, you are never alone when you ride with a GoPro, always the perfect witness. Other manufacturer’s video products work well also.

A bit of lifestyle as an injured cyclist recovers from her assault by a drunk driver. Sisters ride in Tour de Cure for injured cyclist This was the cyclist injured when a drunk driver hit a car at a stop sign and pushed it into the cyclists riding on the main road.

More on the cyclist killed in the GTA last week. Adam Excell, cyclist killed in Toronto, mourned in Halifax RIP fellow cyclist…

And reaction to the death closer to the site. Toronto cyclists hold ‘die-in’ at Nathan Phillips Square This is another one of those “don’t read the comments” articles. The toxic bilge expressed there will corrupt your mind unless you’re like me and no longer have anything there to corrupt 😉 More Group holds silent mass protest at city hall after recent cyclist deaths

When one of the winners of the UK version of “Survivor” says London is “too dangerous”, you have a problem with your infrastructure. Ben Fogle: Riding a bicycle in London has become too dangerous Yep, London has definitely gotten to the point where heads will roll unless something substantive is done.

Case in point to accentuate the preceding paragraph. Calls for safety review after second accident at junction where unicyclist was trapped under bus Less than a month after a highly publicised wreck involving a circus performer commuting by unicycle, a more “normal” cyclist was also hit and injured in the same intersection. Naturally this is being blamed on the infrastructure this time as having two wrecks in a month is beyond “coincidence”. The victim in this wreck reported several near-misses previous to getting hit this time.

Another report on the cyclist injured by a garbage truck (At least I think it was a garbage truck). London cyclist seriously injured in skip lorry collision Seems to be the same company as one that killed a cyclist a few years back not too far from the location of this wreck. Comments with the article seem to suggest that this particular class of truck (skip lorry) has a significantly higher incident rate with cyclists. Also pointed out in the comments was the fact that of the 6 cyclist fatalities in London this year 5 were female and all 6 were HGV making left turns (UK version of the “right hook”) through the cyclists. Not stated was how many of those cyclists were in bike lanes or trying to reach the ASL at the head of the queue for the intersection… This is a problem with much of UK infrastructure.

And another report that vehicle deaths and injury are declining while cyclists and pedestrians are killed and injured unabated. Number of cyclists injured on Teesside roads up by almost a fifth Drivers and infrastructure are still as bad as ever.

And as the protester’s sign says, another death, another protest in London. Pledge over road deaths Well, lessee. The last 6 deaths, and more than 40% of the previous year’s deaths, were the result of HGV hitting cyclists during rush hours. So how about a requirement that all HGV have to be parked off the main roads during rush hours. Not banned from the roads, just, parked during morning and afternoon rushes?

I’m detecting a bit of bias from this “news” outlet, but really the subject of this video is rather stupid. Look, no brains! Incredible dashcam footage shows idiot cyclist riding with no hands along busy London streets – because she’s too busy TEXTING Yeah, don’t do that. Someone might mistake you for a car driver.

Good cyclist news from the Emerald Isle. Cyclist Orla searches for Samaritan Conor after fall Conor, she’s cute and she wants to talk, and it sounds like she wants to share the lunch she won because of what you did.

And this is how you do it right, even in a medium density suburb. A Case Study in Bike-Friendly Suburban Planning

And I’m out of links.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

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What a party, and the Feed

Actually that should be “what parties”, because there were two of them this weekend. OK so “party” is less accurate than “extremely exuberant religious service”, but what is the difference between “strictly enforced theme party” and “religious service”? And the Sumerians know how to party with their deities, masculine and feminine. They have a service that celebrates the divine gift of making beer by consuming lots of beer in service, fer cryin’ out loud. The White Elephant exchange was a bit of a madhouse, and the present I thought was going to be fought over didn’t go until the last round and hardly anyone got to see it. The gift I got was a deck of meditations to shuffle through for relaxation purposes, and the other person that went with me from the house got a trio of wrought iron candlestands.

The next service/party was the Veritan service with good food and no booze, but still lots of fun. And yes, we have two groups that do services at SJF for us. The “bread” for the Veritan Yule service was made with cranberries and nuts, and there was mulled cider for the cup. Add in a bunch of seasonal songs sung by the congregation and you have another religious service that feels like a party. And it was a party in a manner of speaking, we were celebrating the return of the sun from its descent into darkness. We moderns understand that the change in the seasons is caused by the 23½° tilt of the Earth’s axis and the sun will return regardless of what we humans do or don’t do. But our ancestors thought the seasons were caused by the interference of gods with the travels of the sun since they made the sun move across the skies anyway, why not make the sun go higher or lower at a whim? So those whims must be appeased to bring the sun back from wherever the gods took it. That’s what makes Winter Solstice services so vital to most European peoples, from their perspective lives were on the line if they didn’t get it right. Nowadays we just see it as a reason to party because, “Hey Party!” but back then they were celebrating continued survival of the planet, so more like “Thank the Gods, Let’s Party!”

Up first is a story I got through several links. Remember that Volvo story I had yesterday about the phone app? There is more to the story. Volvo To Introduce A Cyclist Anti-Collision Warning System and ‘World’s first’ smart bike helmet alerts drivers and cyclists, aims to reduce accidents And again I’ll say, what if you don’t have a compatible mobile phone? You’re basically screwed.

Second big story is from Oz. From mosque to memorial: Sydney cyclists’ tribute ride and Sydney cyclists hold commemorative bike ride for Martin Place siege victims Yes, cyclists can have human sympathy with people that are not cyclists. But you guys knew that already.

Trying to make a difference in the infrastructure in Houston. Pedal forward Seriously they need to get the laws and the attitudes changed to make cycling in TX safe without spending about a billion dollars on infrastructure. And then they need to go ahead and spend that billion dollars because even those laws and attitudes are not going to make people feel safe riding a bike on the roads with multi-ton killing machines inches away from fragile bodies. You can ask Dave Hembrow about “subjective safety” .

NYC still refuses to see the elephant in the room. NYPD: 1,295 Pedestrians and Cyclists Injured, 14 Killed in Traffic in November How many of those were killed or injured by bicycles? Zero killed and an unknown (but low) number injured that are not included in this report. But in spite of this information they are still dedicating way too much time and manpower to writing tickets to cyclists. And they still don’t investigate all the wrecks. NYPD Still Doesn’t Investigate All Fatal Traffic Crashes

And not far from NYC (just across the river) car people take away the only safe bike infrastructure in the entire city of Newark. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to Rip Out City’s First Protected Bike Lane Right, they tore out the bike lane because people couldn’t park illegally. Who does a guy have to kill to get and keep bicycle infrastructure?

The SF cyclist killed by a truck turning right across her lane had earbuds in her possession at the time of the wreck. Cyclist Killed In 2013 SoMa Collision With Truck Being Blamed For Wearing Earbuds No evidence she was wearing the earbuds when the truck turned across her lane and into her, but there was a lot of video evidence the truck turned and ran the vehicle in the next lane over killing the operator.

Still in the SF area of CA, it is hard to ride a bike you no longer have. BART + Bike East Bay Theft Prevention Program This is a lesson I have learned first hand.

Still in CA, the woman who deliberately rammed a LEO on duty as a bicycle cop was out of jail less than 4 hours after she was sentenced. Woman who rammed sheriff’s officer released after serving half of jail sentence She somehow managed to get credit for time served after she violated her probation and was put back in jail. As I pointed out in the BikingInLA post that mentioned this story assaulting an officer goes right out the window when the officer is riding a bicycle.

Speaking of BikingInLA, here’s today’s Daily Ted. Morning Links: CicLAvia sued over Wilshire hit-and-run; LaBonge keeps Glendale-Hyperion Bridge dangerous

Infrastructure! news from America’s Amsterdam. The Life and Times of Clinton Street’s Guerrilla Diverters Nothing like a little DIY documentation of DIY infrastructure.

Still in Portland, the only city with a full-time unicycling bagpiper with flaming bagpipes. Unicyling Darth Vader Santa Claus Plays Flaming Bagpipes at Night There should be a program that pays people to ride unicycles playing flaming bagpipes in every major city…

And my daughter’s new home town alerts cyclists that it’s dark out and drivers can’t be expected to actively watch out for them. Five things you need to know today Edinburgh!

And those were all the links I could find that didn’t give me flashbacks to wrecks.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet

So how do you pronounce “Francis/es” anyway, and the Feed

Short answer to the question posed by the headline, two syllables with the second syllable vowel sound a schwa (ə) or fran’ səs. Since Francis/es has expressed no gender, or much of any personality traits aside from a tendency to go in a different direction than expected at startup, I will not assign gender to it. I mean I know it’s a truck, made for carrying loads, but I detect no masculine tendencies nor feminine ones either for that matter. Sure Gigi was like a 9YO girl who swore like a sailor, and Blue was like an eager puppy, and Stratus was like Eeyore except not as talkative, but each of those bikes was either old or abandoned or both. Francis/es is for all intents and purposes a brand new bike and hasn’t had the time to develop a personality yet. There’s no “magic” there yet aside from the stubborness.

On another front, I’m having a small problem with the interior diagonal for the passenger compartment of the Sprint T. To get maximum torsional stiffness I need to run the diagonal from the top of the rear hoop to the bottom of the front hoop or vice-versa. Since the front-to-back diagonal will have to run through the side of the body to get to the base of the rear hoop that only leaves the rear-to-front as a viable alternative. And even that has its difficulties, because that diagonal would have to meet the bottom of the front hoop just to the left of my left foot in this picture:

And as you can see, it’s already pretty crowded there.

Up first, we finally have a clear picture of the jihadist squirrel that suicide attacked a CA cyclist. Cyclist recalls being ‘torpedoed’ by squirrel I would say that fork definitively passed the “squirrel test”.

Still in CA we get a Ted Rogers report on a red-light running cyclist. Alleged red light running cyclist killed in San Diego; first bicycling death in city this year and Cyclist killed in Midway District collision As Ted reported local cyclists say the signal does not detect the presence of a cyclist and does not change when one is there, which kind of conditions cyclists to run that particular light in particular and traffic signals in general. Intersection protocols to avoid or reduce damages, and get the infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.

Moving up the coast a tiny bit (by TX standards). Cyclist seriously injured in crash with car on PCH in Long Beach Not much to go on with this one, I think because that new passing law makes hitting a cyclist from behind an automatic ticket and if the ticket isn’t acknowledged publically there will be outrage from cyclists and drivers. But since there was no intersection given it is pretty much certain that this was a hit-from-behind wreck. Protocols to avoid or reduce damages, and get that infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.

Still in CA but in the northern half of the state. Police: Napa cyclist hit by pickup, seriously injured Looking at the Street View of the scene we see a T intersection with 6½ lanes and no sensor in the bike lane to trigger the signal. This configuration all but demands that cyclists run the red when there is no motor vehicle traffic to trigger the signal unless that camera can detect a bike in the bike lane (if you move on step closer to the intersection than the link I picked you can see the camera). Depending on the cycle time for the light a cyclist could leave on the green and still be in the intersection when the light phase turned green for the other direction. Not knowing the timing of the light phases I can’t say precisely what happened here, but I do know that getting that infrastructure “up to Dutch” would prevent future wrecks.

Two guys riding one bike in GA are hit, one dead, one injured. Bicyclist hit and killed by car in DeKalb County Note that this is a secondary wreck induced by bad infrastructure after the actual cyclist lost control of the bike in limited visibility. The only way to avoid this wreck was to not have the first wreck that caused the cyclist to go onto the road in front of the weapon vehicle. The way to prevent a future wreck is to get that infrastructure “up to Dutch” so that a bicycle wreck doesn’t turn into a car wreck.

Breakthrough in a FL hit-and-run. Possible vehicle in cyclist hit-and-run recovered This was a hit-from-behind of a cyclist riding in the bike lane. I hope they throw the entire law library at this fool because what happened was in front of dozens of witnesses.

More on a MI wreck. Police identify bicyclist killed in early morning crash as Hudsonville man, 54 Cyclist now definitively was lighted beyond legal minimums when hit from behind by a literrally blind driver (oncoming headlights!). Not much the cyclist could have done to avoid this one as the wreck took place just before a merge from 3 lanes in each direction to 2 and a cyclist would need to be where he was hit to prevent motor vehicles from forcing him off the road. Still would require Dutch-quality infrastructure to prevent.

A wreck in far West Canuckistan. Cyclist injured in collision with car on Island Highway Still trying to figure this one out. They were both at fault? How does that happen?Get that infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.

More on the bike/ped wreck in West Canuckistan. Cyclist’s speed not a factor in Stanley Park crash that killed Chinese tourist Outside witnesses have come forward with statements that the pedestrian stepped out right in front of the cyclist leaving no time to react or avoid the wreck.

This is a scary wreck in Oz. Dashcam video: Young girl cyclist in head-on holiday park crash with car (but gets up and walks away) This demonstrates what getting infrastructure “up to Dutch” looks like in a wreck. In the Netherlands this would be exactly the same as it is in the video, shared space with an extremely low motor vehicle speed limit, and you see the outcome. Nothing! the kid gets up and walks away from the wreck unharmed except for needing a change of pants and underwear.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Automakers build in deadly distractions; CD15’s Buscaino multi-modals his way to work

Infrastructure! news from CA. Injured midtown resident challenges Sacramento law allowing sidewalk cycling I actually see this as a positive for cycling if this suit is allowed to continue, as cyclists would then be allowed to sue for the state allowing cars to take over the streets and roads without designing the infrastructure for all users.

A little whimsical infrastructure from West Canuckistan. Vancouver to remove mysterious unicycle markings on bike lanes Turns out unicycles are already legal in Canuckstani bike lanes, no additional signage needed.

Are you still paranoid when they really are out to get you? Cyclists: Motorists See You as Moving Targets The scary thing is a cyclist will get passed by hundreds of cars during a long trip, if only 0.01% of them have socio- or psycopathic drivers that could mean you’re life is in peril 2 or 3 times a day.

And those were all the bicycle-related links I could find for today. I have some on-deck for tomorrow…

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet