Where: Ringwood Avenue, Menlo Park, California.
When: This morning.
Who: The guy riding the bicycle in front of me.
What: He almost got creamed by a left turning car.
Why: Because the ditz on a bike completely blew through a stop sign at the all-way stop. The left turning car driver very clearly had the right-of-way and had to stop short when the cyclist darted out directly in front of him. Props to the motorist for paying attention to cretins hazards; boo on the cyclist for making the rest of us look bad.
I don’t get too update uptight about rolling through stops if nobody else is around, but if you’re riding in traffic, it’s a really good idea to pay attention to these traffic rules, whether you’re on bike or in a car. Elly Blue explores this topic in more detail at Grist: “What does it mean to cycle responsibly?”
(For those enamored of Dutch cycling — the high level of compliance among Dutch cyclists puzzles and sometimes annoys American visitors, who’d like to jaywalk when traffic is absolutely clear).
More bicycle blog updates.
The photo caption says “Malvern Star abreast tandem bicycle” — but tandem means one behind the other so this isn’t really a tandem bike. (Malvern Star is to Australia what Schwinn is to the USA.)
Bike Hugger looks at bicycle derailleurs then and now in a pair of videos.
WSJ: Gen Y wants walkable communities. Via Streetsblog.
John Prolly says “Tokyo to Osaka” is worth checking out.
GPS-equipped bait bikes used to nab bike thieves in South Carolina.
LA Critical Mass, police brutality video, and a lawsuit.
Ghana: Advertising supported bike transport to schools.
Grist: “War On Cars” – A brief history of a rhetorical device.
Bike Hacks: Dog Bike.
Good: Those invisible cyclists — and we’re not talking about Bike Ninjas. Via Planetizen.
Android-powered cyclocomputer.
Bike that automatically saves crash data for post-mortem analysis so put to rest those “he said she said” issues in accident reports.
See also:
