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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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LocalCicLAvia 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.