Category: Biking Elsewhere

Continue reading “Watch as Mr Walker turns into Mr Wheeler Bawwwhahahaaa”

By By Mark Rosenberg – Boston Globe
THREE YEARS AGO, I was driving in Atlanta early one morning when I saw a body on the road. It was a young female runner. I called 911 and then ran to her. She had a horrendous head injury but still had a heart beat. I started CPR, but her injuries were too severe. She died in my hands. I wrote a column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about what happened to the runner, and a flood of letters came in.
Half blamed the runner, saying she should not have been running in the street at that hour. Half blamed the driver, for not paying close enough attention. Not a single writer blamed the road.
I took a photograph of the scene where I had found the runner. When I showed this picture to friends from Sweden they asked, “This is where you live? This is your neighborhood? Your streets are designed to kill people.’’ They said that the thin painted white lines at the intersection could not be seen at dawn, nor was there a raised bump to or a narrowing of the road to demarcate the intersection and slow down traffic. They said the speed limit should be 30 kilometers per hour (about 18.6 miles per hour) or less if we wanted pedestrians to have much of a chance of surviving. They also said traffic lights increased the number of deaths because people often speed up when the light turns yellow.
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Most people think we are doing all that can be done to keep our roads safe. They are wrong. Road traffic injuries kill more than a million people a year worldwide, including 40,000 a year in the United States. We will continue to have drivers who are too young or too old, too distracted, or too bold, but we can change our roads so they help protect both drivers and pedestrians. Reaching Vision Zero may take us a while but how in the world could we ever justify not starting now?
Continue reading “Roads that are designed to kill”

Continue reading “Bicycle versus Bus”

Everyone benefits from increased bicycling.
"EVERY TIME I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." So said H.G. Wells, nearly a century ago.
Wells would be heartened if he could visit the District today. The presence of bicyclists in the metropolitan area has been growing steadily, especially in recent years. A travel survey by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board in 2007-08 found that 3.3 percent of District residents commuted to work on bicycles — up 50 percent in 15 years. With bicyclists have come bike trails, bike parking and bike lanes; in the past seven years, the District has added nearly 40 miles of new bike lanes.
Continue reading “Pedalmania in the District”

1. The posted speed limit is not your God given right to go that speed. It is the maximum safe speed for that road, not a mandatory requirement. Do I hate it when I have to follow a school bus down a narrow street in a car waiting for every kid to mosey off the bus and get a safe distance from the road? Hell YES! Do I want to throw things or run people over? Of course not. Why are school bus drivers so arrogant as to be in the middle of the road letting the kiddies off? Because that tactic saves lives.

2. Make up your mind. Do you want me out of your way, or do you want me to stop for every red light? I can’t do both. If I safely run the red lights, you will only see me one time as I disappear over the horizon. If I stop for every one, you will be stuck behind me light after light after light until you can safely pass with 3 feet to spare. In short, you will NEVER get past me Downtown if I stop for the lights.

3. Not only are cyclists in better shape than your Classic Rock arse, but they probably own cars, trucks, and SUVs too and generally, according to certain statistics, are well educated (i.e., smarter than the average DJ) and in a higher income bracket. No doubt most adult cyclists pay more local road taxes than a lowly Rock Jock or the caller driving a dump truck.

4. People disobey traffic laws. Nearly ever driver on the road – car, motorcycle, SUV, whatever – breaks the law. Why single out cyclists. Roll through right-on-red, roll through stop signs, stopping in crosswalks, driving drunk, texting, speeding – especially on interstate highways, illegal lane change, no signal turns and lane change…..I saw ALL of that just today. Do I want to “get all Grand Theft Auto” on every motorist out there. Well…sadly…YES I do.

5. Why do I have a right to be on public roadways and where does my arrogance (at times) come from? Because when I am on a bike, and you are in your ego-structured carbon-belching ecological bomb tin crap junk vehicle, I simply have more right to be on Earth than you do.
Continue reading “JoeyBike responds to an anti-bike rant”

If convicted of making terroristic threats, Pieper could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined $3,000 to $10,000.
Continue reading “Driver is accused of threatening cyclist with ax”

[The following is from the UK but very applicable here as our number are near equivalent.]
Q1: Cycling’s dangerous, isn’t it?
Q2: Wouldn’t cycling be safer if you wear a helmet? Shouldn’t it be made compulsory?
Q3: Why can’t cyclists learn to ride safely and obey the law? (see also Q4 &5)
Q4: Why don’t cyclists obey red lights? (see Q3 for illegal cycling in general)
Q5 What are you going to do about cyclists riding on the pavement (sidewalk)? (see also Q3)
Q6: Why don’t cyclists have compulsory training, number plates and insurance to stop them riding dangerously and illegally, or so they can be made to pay up when they do?
Q7: Shouldn’t cyclists stop slowing down traffic and stick to where they belong – i.e. cycle paths/tracks off the road? Shouldn’t campaigners be asking for more on-road cycle lanes and off-road paths because they make cycling safer?
Q8: Cyclists don’t pay road tax, so you have no right to complain about the roads or drivers, or to take up road-space, do you?!
Q9: You’ll never get large numbers of people to cycle, will you?
Q10: Our roads would be safer if there were no cyclists, wouldn’t they?
Continue reading “TEN COMMON QUESTIONS”

…who has had ‘experiences on multiple occasions where I’ve almost been killed by a car while on a zebra crossing’, which gave him the idea of attacking vehicles, and using these extreme measures to express his dissatisfaction with the disregard of drivers for the lives of pedestrians.”
“Yan Zheng-ping admits that smashing cars is illegal behaviour, but he makes the counter-question ‘are there any other methods available to me?’”
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“Two drivers argued with me. I said that their cars should have stopped to allow people to pass on the zebra crossing, and that when you see pedestrians you should slow down, or even stop the vehicle. These are generally-accepted standards of civilized conduct, don’t you understand?”
“However, I have discovered that when drivers of small cars encounter surveillance cameras, or crossings where large trucks pass, they become more honest. They fear fines, they fear that other cars will run into them, and they know how to consider their own lives precious. Why, however, can’t they consider the lives of others important?”
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Continue reading “Elderly man vandalizes 30 cars that run through red lights”

THIS ISSUE IS SAFETY RELATED. SRAM will be advising consumers to stop using this product immediately. Failure of the SRAM 10 speed chain PowerLock connector link, while in use, may result in loss of bicycle control and possible injury.
IMPORTANT
– SRAM 8 speed chains and PowerLinks are NOT affected.
– SRAM 9 speed chains and PowerLinks are NOT affected.
– SRAM 10 speed chains are NOT affected.
– ONLY 10 speed PowerLock connector links are affected.
Continue reading “Voluntary Recall Notice – SRAM Chain_10 Speed_Power Lock”