Morning Links: A disgustingly auto-centric driver, and the rest of the story on that biking tech exec beating

They drive among us.

Commenting on the Facebook page Look! Save A Life / Arizona, a gigantic motorhead asshole driver makes it clear he could care less about the lives on any cyclists who happen to ride — legally — on the road.

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Thankfully, jerks like this are a very small minority of drivers, most of whom do their best to drive safely and accommodate everyone.

As for the others, comments like this live forever on the internet. And can be used as evidence if he ever does hit someone.

Thanks to Cyclelicious and Brendan Lyons for the heads-up.

……..

Speaking of Richard Masoner of Cyclelicious, trust him to get the whole story on that bike riding Silicon Valley tech exec arrested for beating the crap out of a driver.

Turns out the driver did hit the cyclist, as the exec had claimed. And both people in the truck — including the guy behind the wheel — were reportedly drunk, and got out to throw the first punches.

Which makes it a case of self defense against a drunken idiot, rather than the vicious assault the local press implied.

……..

And it turns out there’s a lot more to that story of the sick, twisted Ontario, Canada driver who sued the parents of the teenage bike rider she killed for her pain and suffering in having to live with what she did — including the incredible pain of the boy’s parents and allegations of police misconduct.

There’s a special place in hell for people like that.

Thanks to Stanley E. Goldich for the links.

……..

More on Sunday’s Finish the Ride from KNBC-4, as well as KCBC-2 and USC’s Annenberg TV. Maybe the word is finally getting out about hit-and-runs. As usual, though, it takes Streetsblog’s Sahra Sulaiman to offer real insight and put it all in perspective.

And an LA mom says f*** you to speeding drivers and actually rides her bike on the streets of LA.

………

Local

CicLAvia co-founder Aaron Paley says we need to get rid of the us vs. them attitude on our streets.

New bike lanes appear next to LA’s Eco-Village, and vandal-resistant bike repair stations pop up on LA’s not-quite Eastside.

Naomi Watts rides a bike in Brentwood.

Repeat after me. If you’re carrying a stolen Glock and a high-capacity magazine on your bike in Pasadena after dark, put a damn light on it. The bike, not the gun.

I love this one. Three bike-riding Palos Verdes financial advisors dig into their own pockets to donate 100 bikes to underprivileged kids. Seriously, hats off to these guys.

 

State

Huh? HuPo offers seven spots in California you can only reach by bike. Like auto, transit and pedestrian-accessible Downtown San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Venice Boardwalk, where bikes aren’t even allowed.

Oakland is racing to meet the demand for bike lanes for non-racing riders.

In a move that could improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians, Google promises their self-driving cars can now recognize objects better than a human driver can — including gestures made by bike riders. Yeah, but can they recognize this one? Thanks to Ed Cable for the heads-up.

A teenage Sacramento driver deliberately chases down and pins a 7th grader to a tree after someone throws a water bottle at her SUV. Yeah, that’s equivalent force.

 

National

Grist sort of answers whether it’s safer to ride a bike or drive a car; thanks to Kevin Hopps for the link.

A new wearable bike light promises to be fashionable, but doesn’t look very noticeable.

Kansas residents pitch in when a man suffering from arthritis has his three-wheeled bike stolen.

An aggressive Austin driver intentionally targets — and fortunately misses — pedestrians and cyclists.

An LSU football player is arrested for bike theft, and says he’s very sorry. Well, okay then.

Two women take off on a bike tour of the East Coast. In 1944. Thanks to Chris K for the tip.

Shockingly, the father of a hit-and-run driver who killed a Florida cyclist says it wasn’t his son’s fault, he wasn’t intoxicated, he didn’t flee and it was all that damn bike rider’s fault. For a change, the police disagree.

 

International

Calgary’s city council votes to defy the bike haters and build three separated bike lanes as a pilot project.

A new bike lock promises to be unpickable. But does anyone actually bother to pick bike locks these days?

Caught on video. A bike riding Dutch woman breaks up a fight the hard way.

This might not be the best time for a politician to ride a bike in the Ukraine, as the mayor of the country’s second largest city is shot while riding his.

Aussie streets are designed to tolerate minor “bingles” but bicyclists aren’t. Is it just me, or does bingle sound like the name of an elf?

 

Finally…

Letters reveal the great feminist author Simone de Beauvior and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre rode bikes to help organize the French resistance in World War II.

It was de Beauvior who brilliantly wrote “There are two kinds of people in the world: human beings and women. And when women try to act like human beings, they’re accused of trying to be men.”

Which I learned from a Doonesbury cartoon.

 

11 comments

  1. Rick says:

    Actually, Tremayne (the “untitled” driver) is a woman, not a man.

    • Nick says:

      Actually, not so. Tremayne is the man pictured in the foreground of the profile photo despite what the Facebook page says; not sure why it says he’s a woman. His wife is also on Facebook, she’s the woman in the background.

  2. Joe B says:

    Why is it that all the media reporting on the Ontario case neglect to mention that the driver filed a COUNTERSUIT, after the parents sued her for $900K?

    Doesn’t that seem a relevant fact? Something worth mentioning? It seems like the media is much more interested in calling her “sick”, “twisted”, and assert “the robes of victimhood” rather than actually accurately reporting what happened.

    To my mind there’s a big difference between a driver who adds insult to injury by suing the estate of the person they killed, and a driver who responds to a lawsuit with a strategic countersuit.

    I’m really disappointed with the media response to this story.

    • bikinginla says:

      Strategic countersuit my ass. At best, this suit is a cruel and heartless attack on the grieving parents of a fallen rider. At worst, it is a sick, twisted attempt to portray a killer driver as the real victim in this case.

      Drivers get sued every day, everywhere. In almost every case, they simply defend themselves without feeling the need to further victimize the families of the victims. I seldom hear of a countersuit in such a situation, and have never heard of a driver pretending to be the victim for having killed someone.

      If this is a legal tactic, it is one that is almost sure to backfire. And will inevitably do the greatest damage to the ones filing. If my lawyer suggested anything like that, I would fire him on the spot.

      The outrage is completely justified.

    • Todd Nelson says:

      Good points. And something needs to be said about the irresponsibility of the young men for riding their bicycles three abreast without adequate visibility at 1:30 in the morning, presumably on an isolated stretch of roadway (80 kph or 50 mph speed limit). Did they have a death wish? Did they not hear the SUV approaching or see the headlights flooding the roadway ahead? Were they committed to a sort of “chicken” dare to see which of them would not “chicken-out” and get out of the way? These would be valid contributory factors in a countersuit.

      Well played, Ms. Simon, as sick as it may sound to take her side.

      • Todd Nelson says:

        Did Brandon’s older brother Devon learn something from the other boys that he just couldn’t reconcile?

      • Joe B says:

        Er…no, that really didn’t need to be said. Distorting the story by leaving stuff out (as reporters have done) or making shit up (as you just did) is exactly what I was objecting to.

        You seem to be confused about the responsibilities of various road users. So, although this isn’t really the place, let me clear that up for you: if a cyclist is legally using the road, then it is the responsibility of a passing vehicle to do so safely. It is not the cyclist’s responsibility to dive for cover when a vehicle approaches.

        • Todd Nelson says:

          Really? What did I make up? They are questions, not statements. Do you know the difference? And were the cyclists legally using the roadway, three abreast, without, it would seem, legal reflectors or lights? It doesn’t seem like it, but again, I’m asking questions, not making statements.

          Think about it. If you are cycling invisibly, it is your responsibility to get out of the way when a vehicle approaches. That statement I will stand by and defend.

          • bikinginla says:

            The stories I’ve read indicate the riders did have reflectors, though the police imply that they could have been better. I have also seen no suggestion anywhere that the riders were riding three abreast.

            • Todd Nelson says:

              With the link you provided, I read this:

              “They particularly believe that the boys were blamed for the accident that killed Brandon — that it was their fault because only two of the bikes had what the police called “minimal reflectors,” because they were riding abreast, because their clothing was dark, albeit with reflectors, because they weren’t wearing helmets.”

              Not sure what “minimal reflectors” mean, but “riding abreast” is what it is until someone reports otherwise.

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