Posts Tagged ‘bike’

and another week goes on with more and more cyclists getting hurt by bad driving…..

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Do you come to a complete stop at every stop sign?

Just because we can legally ride two abreast and occupy the lane does it mean we should?  Obviously, it’s enraging motorists.  Recently while watching footage from our film, Peter and I were riding side by side in the lane.  Not only do I feel like a hypocrite but also frightened because we were too busy talking, laughing and enjoying the scenery and not paying nearly enough attention to what was coming up behind us, despite having helmet mirrors.  I know how hard it is going to be to break this habit, but we need to try if the roads are going to be shared.  Just because we’re smaller and lighter, doesn’t mean we need to be the boldest or the most obnoxious.

For cyclists to be less preyed upon by the TruckNutz Dangling hothead SUV drivers or oblivious soccer moms we need to do a lot more to protect ourselves and to be more on the defensive.

With that said, the reality is that the police are not going to protect us and they are not going to thoroughly investigate the collisions that kill us.  This week it was reported that a cyclist was killed while riding on a bicycle path!  A 13 year old who was stopped at a stop sign on his bike was hit by a school bus!  Drivers are not looking for us or pedestrians, so let’s make them and this needs to come from all of us, not just the “granola crunchers” or the recumbies or the uber safer’s.  But the clubman, the weekend century roller, the fixedhipster, the bmx punk, the trickster, people who ride these things, racers, commuters, group riders and this guy.

We are reclaiming our place on the roads, our history is longer than that of the car, let’s be the example of sharing the tarmac despite how hard it is when you read headlines like these:

Bicyclists don’t need ‘three foot rule’

Baltimore Sun – Second, that bike lanes advance the use of bicycles and safety of bicyclists. They don’t. And third, that any form of feel good legislation aimed at errant

Child on bicycle struck by minivan in Terra Bella

Visalia Times-Deltan – A 7-year-old bicyclist was struck by a minivan in Terra Bella on Sunday, the Tulare County Fire Department reported. The collision occurred at 6:16 pm in

Cyclists impeding traffic in Florida

Examiner.com – Regardless, there’s a tendency for police officers to enforce impeding traffic laws against cyclists as a means of promoting high traffic flow,

Opening Car Door Knocks Bicyclist into Path of NYC Transit Bus and Kills Her

InjuryBoard.com (blog) – A bicyclist is dead after an opening car door struck and pushed her into the path of a bus, says NY1.com. The accident happened early Wednesday morning,

Cyclist died from Clementi accident

Straits Times – By Mavis Goh ONE of two cyclists knocked down in Clementi on Sunday night by a suspected drink-driver died in hospital on Wednesday from head injuries.

Modesto cyclist dies in auto collision

Modesto Bee – The 73-year-old cyclist died Monday after he was struck by a pickup on southbound Claus Road near Scenic Drive. According to police, he was in the right

Paseo reopens after car kills bicyclist

KRQE – A car headed eastbound on Paseo del Norte near Second Street lost control, drove off the road and through a fence, killing a bicyclist on the bicycle trail,

Bicyclist hit by vehicle in Chino Hills

San Bernardino Sun – A 17-year-old bicyclist on Sunday night suffered major injuries after being hit by a vehicle. The Chino Hills boy was traveling east about 9 pm on Valle

Pickup truck hits, kills bicyclist near I-17

AZFamily by Jennifer Thomas PHOENIX — A 51-year-old bicyclist was killed after he was hit by a pickup truck at Interstate 17 and Glendale Avenue Monday morning.

7-year-old hit-and-run victim dies

by khou.com staff HOUSTON — A 7-year-old girl left in critical condition after a hit-and-run at Bear Creek Park died Tuesday evening, officials said. 

Zambia: Bus Runs Over Chibombo Cyclist

AllAfrica.com – A 29-year-old man of Chitanda area in Chibombo died on the spot at the weekend after being hit by a bus on the Lusaka-Mumbwa road.

ChipSeal: Impede Traffic, Pull Over a Cyclist!

By ChipSeal – The cyclist was traveling west-bound on East Ennis Avenue having just crossed Kaufman Avenue, on his way home with groceries. He was pulled over in the 200 block in heavy traffic. Because there was no place to pull off the roadway,

Crap Cycling & Walking in Waltham Forest: Woman cyclist crushed by

By freewheeler – Last Thursday, on what felt like a warm, sunny first day of Spring, I was witness to the immediate aftermath of a collision involving a cyclist and a 32 tonne articulated lorry. It was a truly horrible, chilling sight.

HeiserGate

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Last week was a busy week for those of us who discuss cycling. On Wednesday the founder of Road ID used Twitter to gather attention to an aging, balding, grey Van Dyke sporting, AM radio host named Tony Kornheiser, who stated on air that cyclists need to be “run down.”

The twitterverse acted quickly making Kornheiser it’s most popular twat.  In another spineless move Kornheiser used his ESPN weight and called on Lance Armstrong to set the stage for an apology.  Lance accepted Kornheiser’s impotent, “I’m sorry,” for condoning vehicular manslaughter over the airwaves to the ears of millions of people with bumper stickers like this. (Suckin Gas And Hauling Ass!!!)

According to Lance’s twitter feed, Tony didn’t mean what he said he was only joking, but both cyclists and car’s need to exhibit mutual respect for each other.  Respect I agree with; if there is going to be any successful road sharing, the duty falls equally on cyclists and motorists to share.  But instead of creating a wider national conversation about “mutual respect” or road sharing or the fact that in the United States more cyclists are killed on the roads than in any other country on the planet- nothing happened.

Click on the Graph we found this weekend from Twitter pal @Amsterdamized

Kornheisergate ended with hardly a ripple in the media.  I’d love to see Tony Kornheiser have to commute to work via bicycle, perhaps then he’d get a perspective of what its like riding a 20 pound machine next to a two-thousand pound truck with tinted windows as the driver talks on the phone and sips a big gulp.

Kornheiser’s transcript and comments, a quick and infuriating read.

http://bit.ly/bI5LQ6

Taker easy,

Pearson

Maryland Crab Cars

Friday, February 12th, 2010

One year ago, 21 year old Tressa Russell ran over 66 year old Stanly Brown (February 11, 2009) when she drove away from a pizzeria.  Last week she was sentenced to 3 years of probation, 240 hours of community service and a fine of $5,400.00.  What bothers me is not the lack of incarceration but her utter deficient humanity, oh yeah I didn’t mention, she thought she hit a pothole so she kept on driving.  She only returned to the scene after she called a friend who told her there were police and ambulances where she said she hit that pothole.

Link to the story from the Albany Times Union : http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=896427

In an exact quote from her statement printed by the Albany Times Union, she plead guilty primarily, “so I could get my car back and to make the victim’s sisters happy for the loss of their brother.”

The article continued, “The defendant (Tressa Russell) appears to be more upset about the loss of her car and license than the loss of the life of the victim, Stanley Brown.”

In court, Russell’s attorney, Joseph McCoy, said his client was remorseful. He said his client’s decision to leave the scene in no way contributed to the victim’s death.

Just hitting Stanley with her car contributed to him dying.

I hope that our cultural apathy takes a break when hearing story’s like this, until that happens I’m going to continue talking about it.

At least Mercedes Benz is working on an affordable car that senses when the operator is getting drowsy through a complicated system of behavior monitoring, a feature they call ATTENTION ASSIST http://bit.ly/bGQ6B0 (An article if you dig reading propaganda like I do or you could just check the videos below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weeM9FZlQig

Cooler feature  :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WoYVNZ31Ow&feature=related

Volvo has also developed a slick safety system where the car automatically brakes in the event an obstacle pops up.  If the car senses the driver is not braking hard enough the system will engage more power to the brakes to avoid a collision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQh5Fp2wJyE

*please note this video is almost 4 years old, these features are currently available now in 2010.

These are amazing advances to keep people safe, except the focus remains on protecting the driver from himself.

Since saving drivers is crucial to car companies, how about developing a sensor (similar to those high frequency warnings used to steer deer away from our precious grills) that alerts the driver they are in a populated zone and to: “Be careful, there are humans around, walking and cycling, watch out! They may hurt us!”  Of course the effort being to spare car buyers from 240 hours of community service or the nuisance of losing their car after committing manslaughter.

Yesterday the Maryland State Senate passed SB 51 requiring motorists to yield right-of-way at intersections when a cyclist is in a designated bike lane or lawfully riding on the shoulder.  The article on the Baltimore Sun’s website has some colorful comments, getting angry reading them is pointless, consider the source and then hope they lose their license .  My eternal favs though are anyone who equates riding a bike and legislation for cycling as socialism.

http://bit.ly/aaZf70

Some light reading at the end of this dark post, here is the bill’s published pdf.

http://mlis.state.md.us/2010rs/fnotes/bil_0001/sb0051.pdf

Happy Valentine’s Day.

p