Saturday, February 20, 2010

Bike Deaths Move Inland

Anyone who's read any blog or newspaper article on cycling in Southern California knows that Los Angeles is in the midst of an epidemic of hit-and-run collisions, some of which have been fatal. Well, the IE has joined LA- a cyclist and his brother were injured, the former fatally, in a hit-and-run crash in northern San Bernardino. Thomas Joseph Meeks and his brother were struck by a 2000 or earlier white Chrysler or Pontiac, with the surviving victim adamant that it was a Chrysler. The vehicle would have damage to its front end and license plate. If you have any information about the incident, please contact SBPD Sgt. Rich Lawhead at 909-384-5738.

Motorists- learn to share the road. If I hit you, I put a scratch or a dent into your 2-ton steel monstrosity. If you hit me, I go to the ER at best, and possibly the morgue. Remember that you are in control of a deadly weapon whenever you are in the driver's seat, and act accordingly. And, if you are in an accident, PULL THE FSCK OVER.

I hope the driver gets a very long stay in prison for this one.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree...this driver damn well should have stopped...HOWEVER, reports are that the bike turned into the car's path and was the cause of the accident.

I think it would be wise for both drivers and bikers to be made more aware of their surroundings.

k said...

The City of Riverside has set up situations where some unlucky cyclist will be killed. On Central/Alessandro some section(s) are still narrow and along the routes there are slanting portions that run into the sewers, which if a cyclist comes up on it full bore and a semi is in the next lane, there will be little or nothing that cyclist may do. Once they hit the area where the asphalt/concrete bike lane area is slanting down into the drain, it seems like it may flip them either into the street or onto the sidewalk or something in between.

I have expressed concern over these areas a number of times at City Council yet NEW such drains were put in when the Brockton, Magnolia, Central interestion was redone. At least one maybe more.


NO BICYCLE PARKING at the
NEW RIVERSIDE MAIN LIBRARY?

Though the Board of Library Trustees website listed last months meeting, and the City or Riverside Community Calendar listed no Board of Library Trustee meeting it was held anyway. I clicked on the Board of Library Trustees webpage after a visitor left around 5:30 and someone had updated the site between the time I checked earlier and 5:30 and belatedly acknowledged there would in fact be a meeting and also added the Agenda and Minutes for the January meeting below.

I drove down to the meeting anyway, getting there around agenda item number 8. There did not seem to be the usual number of people present in the audience perhaps they too thought the meeting was off. There were two ladies, one of whom was the speaker on an agenda item.

Anyway, last month a man said those such as Raincross Group preferred a 3 story library plan and handed one or more plans to the Commissioners, a plan that called for a THREE STORY SF MAIN LIBRARY when most citizens at the meetings I attended did not want to see the library over 2 stories.

At tonights 2/22 5:00 Board of Library Trustees meeting, there was a mockup in 3 dimensions of the three story structure. Don't know the angle of the sunrise and sunset, but a three story structure can block out the light in areas one would llike light.

They handed out 3 pages of Footprints of the Main Library, pages one and two both different versions of the 1rst Floor Footprint and page 3 showing what would be the second and third stories.

That said when I read your blog, it occurred to me that the footprint showed 92 car parking spaces on page 1 (4 designated handicapped) and on page 2 many parking spaces wiped out by moving the building further back from Mission Inn Avenue. I did not notice any areas designated for bicycle parking. Of course these are plans in progress but the bicycle folks should insist that any New Main Library in Riverside should have adequate bicyle parking, and also should plan for significant increases from whatever the usage may be today. It would also be well if bicycle parking could be in an area that would be under observation or where citizens could look out to discourage theft of bicycles or bicycle parts etc.




Did not notice a link to the Riverside Bicycle Club on your website http://riversidebicycleclub.com/ Might be a good link to add. They include photos taken on rides, information about rides and more.







This month there was a 3 dimensional plan

Allie Cat said...

Karen-
Often, bicycle parking is not explicitly mentioned at planning meetings, because it's something the City thinks people don't care about. The current main library, along with every other city library I've had occasion to visit (namely Eastside and Marcy), has ample bicycle parking. I don't understand the sense in setting the library further back from Mission Inn Ave., as it already has a largely unused plaza, but I will tell you that I support a three-story library. Most livable streets people see buildings in the 3-4 story range as of the appropriate scale, balancing density and aesthetics, and I agree with them.

Also, I am aware of the Riverside Bicycle Club, and I don't link to them for a reason. Though I'm sure they're an excellent organization (which I've never had contact with), they are a recreational cycling organization, which is often unrelated to transportation cycling. In fact, a lot of these guys (who I see gathering at East Coast Bagel or downtown after their rides) simply stick their bikes on their SUV's when they're done. I want to advocate for cycling as transportation, which is something a little different.

Allie Cat said...

Oh, and Eric- Of course cyclists have a responsibility to be more aware of their surroundings, and to ride responsibly, predictably and legally. Those who ride on sidewalks or going the wrong way in bike lanes literally make my blood boil, as do those who ignore traffic controls. That said, the driver of the multi-ton high-speed vehicle surely has more responsibility to do so than the driver of the ~30lb human-powered one. In countries where cycling is more prominent (think Holland and Denmark), the laws are such that in collisions between car and bike, the motorist is presumed at fault unless proven otherwise, therefore motivating them to drive with due care around cyclists.

I also saw in the report that the cyclist had a passenger on his handlebars. I highly doubt he was an experienced cyclist knowledgeable of the relevant vehicle code, and it wouldn't surprise me if he caused the accident. That said, I didn't want to speak ill of the dead.

k said...

Part 1 of 3

On recreational vs transportation cycling.


TRANSPORTATION RIDING

Most of my bicycle riding over time has been transportation cycling.

Most recently I did part health riding and transportation riding by riding to both to exercise and to stop and shop at Staters out on Mary and ride back to the Magnolia Center.

Most of my experience cycling has been transportation cycling. I used to bicycle to work, to a professional job in San Francisco. I rode my bicycle from Noe Valley several miles in urban traffic to a highrise near S.F. City Hall and parked in the highrise basement. I also biked when I attended College at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I bicycled from home off campus to school, and to my horse, and pretty much where ever I went.

I have been hit by a car while transportation bicycling and have been thrown when coming unexpectantly upon a grate in what would be a bicycle lane in which my front wheel went in and I was thrown. That was before the current bicycling craze and few people rode bicycles at college or anywhere and there were no stipped bicycle lanes and few if any places to park a bicycle.

As a teenager in Riverside I used to ride out from Magnolia Center to where I kept my horse out where the treatment Center is now and at that time a car swerved over and tried to hit me.

My father was a transportation bicycle rider and regularly used a bicycle to ride to work in Riverside. He also regularly when to the store and shopped via the bicycle. He also tried to bank via the bicycle but was PROHIBITED from entering the parking lot of a bank on Central near Magnolia on his bicycle. When they would not let him ride a bicycle to do his banking, he and our extended family all pulled our accounts and money out of that bank and banked elsewhere.

My father, who could have had any type of vehicle he wanted, and did have a few, also had 10 speeds bicycles which he used to get around in Riverside. He said if he had to give up all but one means of transportation that he would keep his bicycles and get ride of the cars.

My parents used to have a Cortez Motor home and when they traveled for months around the country they would park the Cortez and stay parked and use the bicycles the brought with them for transportation bicycling and recreational bicycling when they stayed for a week or two or more in various locations.

As both a child and as an adult my father rode bicycles from Riverside to the beach and back.

So while primarily using bicycles for transportation bicycling my father also did recreational bicycling.

k said...

Part 2 of 3

On recreational vs transportation cycling.

RECREATIONAL RIDING

As for recreational cycling most of our family have bicycled through Germany, and from Switzerland into Austria.

My parents and I have also bicycled recreationally and for transportation Riding In Riverside may better serve the interests of public transit/transportation bicycling by providing links for BOTH recreational AND transportation bicycling websites.

k said...

Part 3 of 3

On recreational vs transportation cycling.

CONSIDER ADDING WEBSITE HEADINGS FOR
- TRANSPORTATION CYCLING
- RECREATION CYCLING
with brief definitions of each, and that your website is primarily or only focus on transportation bicycling but provides the recreation sites for the convenience of blog fans.

Consider that recreational bicycling can lead to transportation bicycling. Also even transportation bicyclists need to fix their bicycles and I believe the transportation bicycles may benefit from information on the recreation bicyclist website such as fixing bicycles and more.

Also conversely transportation bicyclists may enjoy the opportunity to do recreational bicycling.

Now you suggest no one should get in their cars and drive to bicycle say along the beach.

It would be EDUCATIONAL to have headings for both types of groups website, and have a brief heading for the type of site.


It may be that those recreational riders, may learn to see the benefits of transportation type riding.



I will say that I visited you site to get information about bicycling groups and was surprised that there was not a link to the local Riverside bicycling site.


Likely you will stay firm to your decision because you are a person who thinks things out carefully and you likely feel you made the proper decision, but some of your readers like me, kinda sorta are watching and looking to your site for links to websites related to NOT DRIVING and many can NOT DRIVE AND DO RECREATIONAL BICYCLING.

For example my nephew used to RECREATIONALLY ride from his HOME with 4 of his sons. MANY IN RIVERSIDE ride their bicycles with their families.



I used to ride recreationally with my father, for exercise to be a bit more healthy, and we NEVER put our bicycles in a car. We had loups we would do from the Magnolia Center through downtown and along the downtown mall (now banned) which we rode slowly down to look at the shops, and another loup from Magnolia Center out to Victoria Avenue along one route and back along another. On the later route we would shop at both Staters and at a Mexican vegetable stand.

One time my bike had a flat, put my bike on the front of an RTA bus, and hopped on RTA and rode to Magnolia Center and walked the bike home from the stop, that way my dad could complete his ride.

I kinda sorta believe I have demonstrated they may be crosslinking of Transportation and Recreational bicyclists at least for some in Riverside, and that that fact may help change your mind.

Don't know why but your decision to NOT include local bicycle websites on your blog kinda hit me hard, and kinda makes me feel bad, and seems like a loss to the Riverside bicycling community.

Don't know why it should matter. It is your blog and it is your decision what to include or exclude.

Craig of Craigslist restricts certain items on his websites and that never bothered me even though an item I was interested in was restricted. His blog and his decision.

So I will watch wait and hope you eventually chose to reconsider this matter, but do realize it is your site and your decision

Allie Cat said...

K- You'll notice I've added the RBC to my links list. I figured if I could post a link to IE Atheists & Agnostics, I could link to the bike club.

k said...

Oh WOW, THANKS.

I did not notice, but just now when I went to look at the website links, I noticed that the entire right column is ENTIRELY BLANK.

I am not using my regular computer and on this computer the text and links at the right do not show up. Don't know if it is this computer or ? This computer will not open as show some .pdf files but usually opens html files.


For example on the Five Before Midnight blog http://rivercitycopwatch.blogspot.com/ and on The Truth Publication online blog http://thetruthpublication.blogspot.com/ I can view the links to prior posts, which on there sites are located on the left margin, while your prior links, websites, information about your blog and yourself that were in the right margin I cannot see, it is BLANK entirely.

Allie Cat said...

K- Every computer I have access to, it works fine. Don't know what's up with yours- it may be the Streetsblog widget that's screwing it up, it's kind of heavy on new web technology.

k said...

It's working now. That is good news. A temporary glitch somewhere between here and there?
Thanks again for the link.