Evidently, the concept of finishing the ride is spreading eastward.
As hard as it is to believe, it’s been ten years since the infamous Kalamazoo, Michigan massacre, when a speeding, stoned driver plowed into a group ride, killing five people and seriously injuring four others.
Now one of those injured victims, who woke up in the hospital with no memory of the crash, intends to finish the ride they all started a decade ago.
The 75-year old man now rides a bike with the names of all the victims on the crossbar of his bike. Those who survived, and those who didn’t.
The other survivors plan to join him for a ceremony on Wednesday’s 10th anniversary to remember the five riders who lost their lives, then join him to finish the ride, or meet them afterwards.
The driver, Charles Pickett Jr., was sentenced to a well-deserved 40 to 75 years in prison.
He was reportedly doing 20 miles per hour over the speed limit, and had taken a large amount of muscle relaxers and pain pills before getting behind the wheel; toxicology reports found meth, hydrocodone (aka Vicodin or Norco), tramadol, ketamine, and cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxant.
Pickett was convicted on all counts, including operating while intoxicated causing death, operating while intoxicated causing serious injury and second-degree murder.
He’ll be at least 90 years old before he’s eligible for release, which still seems like too soon.
The survivors turned to advocacy following the crash, successfully pushing Kalamazoo and other local town into passing a five-foot passing law, as well as convincing the state legislature to pass a hands-free law.
They’re working now to get the state to expand the definition of a vulnerable road user, which currently doesn’t include bicyclists or horse-drawn buggies.
The first formal Finish the Ride I’m aware of was in 2014, when Damian Kevitt invited the community to join him in finishing the bike ride he and his wife had started a year earlier, before he was run down by a hit-and-run driver on Zoo Drive and dragged onto the 5 Freeway.
The crash cost him his leg, and nearly his life, before he was able to free himself.
But it’s a concept I’m very familiar with.
The first ride I took when I was finally allowed back on my bike following the infamous beachfront bee incident was to go right back to the spot where I had crashed, and finish the ride I had planned to take.
Something tells me I wasn’t the first to do that.
And chances are, we’ll be far from the last.
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This is who we share the road with.
A 22-year old San Diego woman was sentenced to a well-deserved eight years and four months behind bars for a drunken crash that critically injured a five-year old girl.
The victim was riding a scooter on a bike path in the Point Loma neighborhood when Savannah Monique Taylor crashed into her, dragging the girl with her car until crashing into a steel bench.
Police found an almost empty bottle of booze inside her car.
According to the Peninsula Beacon, the victim’s father brought the girl, Olive Tomasevic, into the courtroom in a stroller so the judge could see her.
“She came close to dying several times because of the defendant’s actions,” said Alex Tomasevic. “This is what life is like for her today. She can’t walk. She can’t use the toilet. She uses diapers. She cannot eat on her own. She has a feeding tube. She can’t bathe herself. She can’t attend regular school. She can’t talk. She can’t crawl into bed…”
“I see a tenacious little girl,” said (Olive’s mother) Leeann Tomasevic. “She gets hours and hours of physical therapy. I watched the toughest of nurses cry when she was not looking.”
Taylor was ironically residing in a sober living facility at the time of the crash.
There’s no word on what she was doing driving on the bike path.
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My dad landed on Normandy Beach 82 year ago today, beginning an odyssey that would take him through France, into Belgium, skirting the Battle of Bulge and helping liberate a concentration camp, before ending the war Germany with Patton’s troops.
Then they sent him to Okinawa to prepare for D-Day Japan. He would have been one of the first to land, and was told his unit could expect 100% casualties. If the war hadn’t ended, I probably wouldn’t be here.
Although the only time he ever rode a bike in Europe, he borrowed it after getting separated from his unit.
And no, I don’t know if he ever returned it.
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Giving a whole new definition to mountain biking.
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Always pull over to the side of the road if you’re falling asleep behind the wheel.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A new protected bike lane in Philadelphia’s Old City brings out all the same complaints from the same people as every other bike lane in any other city. So if you’ve ever read a story about reactions to any new bike lane, you can probably skip this one and recite the arguments from memory.
London’s not-exactly bike-friendly Telegraph blames a new bike lane for a 500% — actually 600% — increase in serious bicycling crashes after a the two-way protected lane was installed, even though that represents a jump from just five to 30 over a five-year period. And even that is meaningless without putting it in context of the increase in ridership from the beginning of the first period to the end of the last.
A British bike rider was lucky to escape with minor injuries after he was kicked off his bike by the passenger on a passing motorcycle.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A 17-year old Florida boy was hospitalized after he allegedly blew through a stop sign on his ebike and crashed to a driver’s car because he was “vibing.” Maybe they meant “vaping,” unless he was just moovin’ to the groovin’, and gettin’ into the vibes. It could happen.
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Local
No bias here. The Santa Clarita Signal reports a man was hospitalized following an ebike crash — but fails to mention in the headline that there was a car involved, or say anywhere that the car presumably had a driver.
State
Both the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center are disavowing any connection to a new six-day Joy Ride CA from San Francisco to Los Angeles, accusing it of riding on the popularity of the former AIDS/LifeCycle Ride.
No, a Chula Vista man riding an ebike didn’t “collide with a vehicle,” he was injured when he was struck by the motorist.
A trio of Ventura bike shops sponsored a Pride Ride in the city, with several bike routes depending on the riders bicycling skills
National
American Lael Wilcox is attempting to break her own record as the fastest woman to ride around the world, and set a new record as the fast human to do it by completing the ride in less than 80 days.
I want to be like him when I grow up. A 73-year old man is riding across the US to raise awareness of childhood hunger, and hopes to raise $1 million for No Kid Hungry.
Bicycling may be great for your overall health, but your bones are another matter.
Members of Seattle’s Critical Mass fanned out to set a number of informal road blocks, giving the family of a fallen bike rider room to grieve as over hundred bicyclists installed a ghost bike for the popular elementary school teacher.
A trio of Denverites raced to the city’s famed Red Rocks amphitheater by car, bikeshare and public transit; the driver won after the bikeshare bike refused to leave the city, and the transit took forever. Never mind that the public transit system bizarrely won’t be available for showtimes.
A Texas driver turned himself in for a hit-and-run crash, a day after the victim was found in a ditch after going for a bike ride the night before. Giving the driver plenty of time to sober up if he was under the influence, or come up with an excuse if he wasn’t.
An eight-year old Oklahoma boy’s mountain biking crash turned out to be a blessing in disguise when a brain scan revealed a mass in his brain, giving him a chance of survival he might not have otherwise found; video of the crash while he was riding with his dad and younger brother has been viewed over 62 million times.
Tragic news from Chicago, where a 35-year old man was killed in a dooring when someone exiting a car hit him with a car door while he was riding in a painted bike lane, and knocked him into the path of a semi truck; the victim was a planner for the city’s Complete Streets program, responsible for redesigning roads to make them safer for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make it safer for himself.
A New York op-ed writer tries to find common ground between bike advocates and anti-ebike forces, but Streetsblog editors remain unconvinced that said common ground exists.
Trump’s plans to redevelop a popular Washington DC public golf course into an upscale “championship-level” course also threatens the city’s iconic Noon Ride, a daily bike ride that brings “wealthy riders perched on $15,000 bikes riding alongside restaurant workers just getting into the sport,” as well as federal workers, law enforcement officers, political operatives and several fitness professionals; L39ION of Los Angeles founder Justin Williams joins in when he’s in town.
Speaking of DC, 300 second graders got matching new blue bicycles after completing a bicycle safety course.
International
It’s easier to keep your KOM when it’s on a remote Atlantic island no one can get to without major difficulty.
I want to be like him when I grow up. An 83-year old man is attempting to ride across Canada in what’s being called the “Octogenarian Odyssey;” he’ll turn 84 before the ride is finished.
She gets it. A British Columbia woman writes that bike lanes are not a luxury, as a previous op-ed writer suggested, but a necessity for her family, who rely on bicycles for all the destinations of their daily life, from work and daycare to school, shopping and all their other activities.
An awkward Toronto intersection is being closed to motor vehicles, using diverters including flex posts, planters and Muskoka — aka Adirondack — chairs, to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Um, no. A London borough council apologizes after saying ebikes help women “perform their traditional domestic responsibilities” and “stay looking nice.” Maybe someone can send them a link to join the current century.
A writer the UK says he’ll skip a new shared-use pathway thanks to rippled pavement, debris from trees and difficulty accessing it without crossing a busy roadway. But other than that, it’s just fine, apparently.
An Irish advocacy group says the problem isn’t that bike lanes are too wide, like the critics say, but that most bike lanes in the country are too narrow to safely ride side by side, as well as to meet EU standards.
The Guardian shares the best new bike and ebike trails surrounding Melbourne, Australia, for your next trip down under.
Competitive Cycling
UCI rules that current screens are big enough, and bans any bike computers bigger than the biggest one currently available — and you can kiss jersey pockets goodbye, too.
Sad news from New Hampshire, where American road racing and mountain bike pioneer Andy Bishop died after battling stomach cancer; Bishop competed in four editions of the Tour de France in the late ’80s and early ’90s, including for the old 7-Eleven team. He was just 61.
Apparently #1 is the #1 problem in professional cycling this year, as Pee-gate hits the women’s peloton, too.
Finally…
Close encounters of the bear kind — and now the coyotes are out to get us, too. Bike dates aren’t just for “Bicycle Boys” anymore.
And seriously, if you’re going to do crime, don’t ride a distinctive pink bicycle.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
