In the referenced story Jeff talks about how his local gym is always overly crowded in January by people with a new years resolution to loss weight but empties out by February.
The average bicyclists losses 10 pounds in the first year of riding. It’s fun, its outdoors and its social. So if you are looking for a different experience then going to the gym think about bicycling, You may also want to think about Baltimore Bicycling Club’s Introductory Ride Series. It covers the basics of safe bicycle riding and you get to met other people just starting out as well.: https://baltobikeclub.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=58&Itemid=83
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Murder Snobs
The criminal justice system can be plagued with “murder snobs” — people who think of these violent crimes as less important than intentional crimes. This remains true in spite of the fact that statistics consistently show that the average citizen is far more at risk from homicidal drivers on our roads than from criminals committing intentional homicides.
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Houston Planners Will Spend All Their Federal Air Quality Funding on Cars
Houston planners justified their decision by saying more roads are needed and that pedestrian and cycling infrastructure benefits special interests.
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Warning Crossing Extremely Hazardous
by William Carpenter
Most romantic in the world – no freeways through the center of town.
from Switchboard, from NRDC › Kaid Benfield’s Blog
Kaid Benfield, Director, Sustainable Communities & Smart Growth, Washington, DC
One of my most popular recent posts was published last month on Valentine’s Day. In it, I pointed out that some of the cities considered the most romantic in the world – such as Prague, Paris, Lisbon, Rome, Vienna, and Venice – had a number of things in common: walkability, lively public spaces and thriving downtowns, a strong sense of place, good public transportation, and so on.
Here’s something else they have in common: no (or almost no) freeways running through the center of town.
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Woman arrested in bicyclist hit and run
[B’ Spokes: Sounds very close to Natasha Pettigrew fatality but WITH charges of hit and run. ]
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Pete Skiba
LEESBURG, Ga. — A 25-year-old woman has been charged after authorities say the SUV she was driving Monday night slammed into a bicyclist in a hit-and-run incident.
Mia Register was jailed on charges of drunken driving, hit and run with serious injury, failure to report an accident with injury, and endangering a child.
The bicyclist, Jeffrey Haire, was taken to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital after the crash, which happened about 8:20 p.m. He was listed in good condition Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
“Her boyfriend was in the vehicle with her,” said Lee County Sheriff Reggie Rachals. “He came to the sheriff’s office and turned her in because he knew it was the right thing to do.”
Also in the 2002 Mazda Tribute SUV with Register was her 7-year-old son, said Georgia State Senior Trooper Walter Spurlin, who interviewed the couple after the arrest was made around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“The man tried to get her to stop because he knew she hit someone,” Spurlin said. “She said she thought it was a trash can or a mailbox.”
Spurlin said that at the time of the crash, Haire was wearing a helmet, a reflective vest and had two flashing red lights on the rear of his bicycle. Haire, an experienced cyclist, was following the rules of the road and had taken all safety precautions, Spurlin added.
Register lives about 50 yards from Haire’s street, Spurlin said.
Someone in the neighborhood called the night of the crash to say they saw Register cleaning the SUV. Deputies were already on their way to Register’s home, he added.
The name of Register’s passenger was not immediately available from Spurlin or Rachals. A jail spokeswoman said Wednesday afternoon that Register was in jail awaiting a first appearance before a judge. The initial court appearance could come as early as this morning.
Continue reading “Woman arrested in bicyclist hit and run”
SoHo’s Rejected Pop-Up Cafés Won’t Appear Elsewhere
[B’ Spokes: I love outdoor cafés! And I love better uses for dead car storage areas (parking spaces.)]
The pop-up café on Pearl Street has boosted foot traffic and improved business for nearby restaurants. Image: NYCDOT
Last Thursday evening, Manhattan Community Board 2 voted down five of six approved pop-up cafés in their neighborhood, choosing parking spaces over public seating.
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Should have, could have seen the cyclist = motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation (not Maryland)
Unlike Maryland where a driver has to be doing something grossly wrong like being drunk while driving (unless HB 363 passes.) In this story:
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"There’s no initial evidence of any external factors (that contributed to the collision)," McGowan said, noting investigators will look at all possibilities.
Daley was charged with one count of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation. She was issued a summons to appear in Wrentham District Court on a date to be set by the court, police said.
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Seems very different then here where the driver needs to do something "wrong" (other then run over someone plainly visible in the road.)
Continue reading “Should have, could have seen the cyclist = motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation (not Maryland)”
Off-duty Portland cop allegedly assaulted while biking to work
[B’ Spokes: We really need an incentive program to get more of our officers biking to work.]
A Portland Police Bureau Sergeant who was riding his bike into work yesterday morning was involved in an altercation with a man driving a car that has resulted in the driver being arrested for hit and run and attempted assault.
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Larry Fornshell’s booking photo.
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WHAT’S A CITIZEN TO DO WHEN THE POLICE BOTCH AN INVESTIGATION
[B’ Spokes: I’m going to skip over the details of the fatality and share the ending of this article. And yes I am thinking of some of the bicycling fatalities here in Baltimore, we are urged to be patient till the investigation is completed and then there is no discussion, the conclusions are final. ]
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BY: KEVIN SCHWARTZ AND SHWETA KRISHNAN
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Peter Cadden, unable to convince law enforcement officials that their conclusions were incorrect, says he thinks there should be some sort of independent board citizens like him can appeal to if they have a disagreement with the police. Such boards do exist in municipalities across the United States, often in bigger cities like Boston. Their focus is typically cases of police misconduct. Experts said they were not aware of any boards that would handle a case like Cadden’s. Because of the technical expertise necessary to assess reconstruction reports, as well as the relatively small impact such cases would have, the experts said it would be very difficult to create such a board.
“It’s hard enough to get a civilian review board that has any teeth when it comes to police misconduct,” said Barbara Dougan, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild. “I can’t imagine that you’d have any success at all to have a body that would reassess more technical reports.”
There is no civilian review board in Mattapoisett and nothing like it in Plymouth County. Bradley said district attorney policy when a citizen has a complaint about a report is to check back with the supervisor of the agency that authored it, which his office did in the Cadden case. “There’s not a whole lot they can do if [the reconstructionist] refuses to admit it’s wrong,” Bradley said. “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s difficult to prove [a report] is botched if you have an experienced trooper giving an opinion that was approved by his experienced supervisor.”
According to Dobson, the accident reconstructionist hired by Cadden, the State Police are usually reluctant to revisit a case once a report is filed unless litigation is involved. “[Reports are corrected] almost never,” he said. “It goes into the hands of the attorney, who brings it to life only in the trial.”
Kevin Reddington, a Brockton attorney who handles accident reconstruction cases, said the motive for not changing reports is probably fear of punishment, rather than malicious intent. “Unless there’s some sort of relationship—it’s probably just an overwhelmed guy who mixed up his numbers,” he said. “What happens is they take an adversarial approach. They don’t want to end up in front of a jury, where he’s going to have his head handed to him.”
Over the past year, Cadden has appealed again to the district attorney’s office and the attorney general’s office and met with Police Chief Lyons. The officials have listened and even re-interviewed a witness, but they did not reopen the case. Cadden is frustrated and still insists the State Police report reached the wrong conclusion, but he is out of options.
“I almost feel like this is an irreversible process from their perspective,” he said of law enforcement officials. “You can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
Continue reading “WHAT’S A CITIZEN TO DO WHEN THE POLICE BOTCH AN INVESTIGATION”