Thats What I Get For Being Helpful Or The Clothes Make The Cyclist

I was riding my bike through Harvard SQ yesterday (I just happen to be wearing nice cloths, cause sometimes I like to be classy), and while stopped at a red light the following scene happened.

Cope standing on the corner.

Lady with kids walks up: “Excuse me officer. Do you know where Ben and Jerry’s is?”

Cop has no idea, calls to other cop, other cop can’t hear him, this happens several times, finally I get tired of watching and say

Me: “There is a Ben and Jerry’s in the garage” points “And there is a JP licks down there” points “And a pink berry over there” points again.

Lady: “Thank you so much!”

She walks off with her kids, to enjoy some ice cream

Cop: “You know your ice cream huh?”

Me: “ha ha yea I do, you got to know where you can refuel after a long ride.”

At this point the whole thing was some serious Mayberry non-Bostonian friendliness shit, not the kind of thing you see every day. I think the cop must have realized that we were all being way too nice to each other so he then says to his buddy.

Cop: “See he isn’t one of those annoying cyclists that wear all those stupid clothes…”

WHAT!?!

Me: *in my head* “See you aren’t one of those fat lazy cops that act like dicks”

Me: *out loud* *nervous laughter* “Yea I try to wear whats practical.”

I then rode off, but seriously why would you say something like that? I think he was trying to be nice, but it displayed a serious lack of respect for a whole class of road users. For all I know this guy felt the same way about pedestrians and car drivers as well…but his utter lack of respect made me feel a little wtf for the rest of my ride.

It also opens up a whole can of interesting worms for how people feel about cyclists based on how they are dressed. I was in nice clothes, and I was “good.” The spandex roadies were “annoying” and I would bet if I had been on my fixy in cut offs I would have been “dangerous.”

We clearly still have a lot of hearts and minds to win over to the cycling cause. My ultimate goal would be to have cycling be as “boring” as any other mode of transport. By this I mean I want cycling to be seen as just as valid, useful, and normal as walking/driving/taking the train. Till then watch out for the cops in Harvard Square if you are in full kit.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

Whaaa?

You see a lot of kinds of bikes on ragbrai here are some fun ones.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

Apparently If You Make Enough Money You Can Run Over Whomever You Want

From the Vail Daily

A financial manager for wealthy clients will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardize his job, prosecutors said Thursday.

Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, faces two misdemeanor traffic charges stemming from a July 3 incident when he allegedly hit bicyclist Dr. Steven Milo from behind then sped away, according to court documents.

Did you catch that, he wont face charges, not because he isn’t guilty…but because it would harm his job if he got a felony charge.

What…The…Fuck…

Seriously its not like he just bumped this guy either, he seriously ran him over then drove off.

Milo, 34, is a physician living in New York City with his wife and two children, where he is still recovering from his injuries, court records show.

Milo suffered spinal cord injuries, bleeding from his brain and damage to his knee and scapula, according to court documents. Over the past six weeks he has suffered “disabling” spinal headaches and faces multiple surgeries for a herniated disc and plastic surgery to fix the scars he suffered in the accident.

“He will have lifetime pain,” Haddon wrote. “His ability to deal with the physical challenges of his profession — liver transplant surgery — has been seriously jeopardized.”

Apparently the DA’s logic goes something like this, if Erzinger gets a felony charge, he has to report that to his clients, and that would harm his business as an ultra high end investment guy, so instead we will just make him pay the money and he wont get the criminal record. Pardon me but wasn’t the fact that he ran over someone then drove off the thing he is getting punished for…isn’t getting a felony going to hurt anyone’s business? Isn’t that the point of criminal charges? Why is this guy immune? Oh yea because he is super rich and this is Vale CO we are talking about here.

If he really wanted to avoid all this trouble he could have done a couple of things. NOT run the guy over, or perhaps stay at the scene and help him out instead of driving away and then calling BMW about how he could get his mirror fixed.

This is a serious breach of the law and if you would like to do something about it you can sign a petition here, or perhaps you could give the driver an email and let him know how you fell ([email protected]), or you could give the Eagle County DA’s office a call and let them know that you don’t think being rich means you can get out of being charged with a crime (970-328-6947).

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

What The F#*$^! Watertown Cyclist Ran Over, Multiple Witnesses, Police Find “No Crime”

So it would seem a cyclist in newton, who was wearing a helmet, and driving in a straight line, on the right hand side of the road, was run over by a driver who just suddenly swerved to the right for no apparent reason, and didn’t get charged with any crime? How the fuck is that not a crime?

According to police reports, a 40-year-old Watertown man was cycling east on Commonwealth Avenue in the 2300 block at about 5:20 p.m. and a car driven by a 38-year-old Watertown woman was heading east as well. According to witnesses, including an off-duty Wayland police officer, the cyclist was wearing a helmet and was traveling in a straight line in the far right portion of the road.

The car unexpectedly swerved to the right, according to witnesses, and hit the cyclist, knocking him under the car. The woman reportedly attempted to back up with the cyclist still underneath. Several drivers pulled over and lifted the car off the cyclist so he could breathe, according to police reports.

The cyclist was treated at the scene by Newton firefighters and EMTs and was taken to Newton-Wellesley Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. After interviewing witnesses, police determined there was no improper operation and did not cite the driver, according to reports(via wicked local Newton)

I ask you this, how is it that witnesses say that the car suddenly swerved to the right striking this poor guy, then tries to back over him, and the police find that after talking to these witnesses that there was no crime committed? How is that not a crime, driving to endanger, reckless driving, failure to yield, deviating from the lane, running someone over, trying to back over then once you hit them…take your pick.

It’s shit like this that really pisses me off. When you have a cyclist doing everything they are supposed to, multiple credible witnesses (including an off duty police officer), and they still don’t site this person with a crime. This lady should be in jail right now.

Thanks to Nikki for the heads up.

PS. If you do ever submit a tip via the contact form, and want me to link to a website or something else when I give you credit for the tip please include that as well, I am more than happy to plug your website in return for being my eyes and ears on the street.

EDIT: Teeheehee updated with this link

Where we learn that because the cyclist was riding on the right hand side of the street it was the cyclists fault…holy crap that is so wrong. This lady just turns right into a drive way, and without signaling, and then it seems like she panicked and nearly ran him over again while he was under her car, and the police think that because the cyclist was on the right hand side of the street he “contributed to the accident”

Lt. Bruce Apotheker said the actions of Castagno and other bystanders helped save the cyclist’s life. And according to the investigating officer, Apotheker said, the driver was not at fault for the crash.

“The cyclist’s actions, which were confirmed by his own statements, contributed to the crash,” Apotheker said.

The driver told police she never saw the cyclist, and because he had not previously passed her, she had no reason to expect he would be there, Apotheker said. She was not cited for improper operation.

“The officer felt a reasonable and prudent person would not be expecting someone on their right,” he said.

No no no no no no. You have a legal duty while driving in your car to make sure you are not going to run someone over when you start a turn. You have to look in your mirror, and you have to signal, and you have to NOT RUN PEOPLE OVER.

EDIT: Seems the advocate groups are involved now, both locally in newton and elsewhere…more info when I get it.

Add to Reddit.

Tweet

What About The Pedestrians?

I have spent a lot of time on this site talking about motorists, and cyclists and how they can better follow the law. With the exception of one post however I have largely left pedestrians un-wagged at by my finger of reproach.

There is a discussion started on the forum with the point of trying to figure out the absolute worst intersection when it comes to jaywalkers, but in this article I want to posit a few reasons for why I think J-walking is so bad in this city.

Let me start with a strange tale from a city far away. I was in the far off land of San Jose, stranded with no bicycle, I was forced to walk (don’t feel too bad for me, I eventually found some wheels). So I am strolling around enjoying the fine weather, and I come to an intersection. The walk signal was on the little hand, and waiting on one side of the street was a large group of people. I look left….look right…no cars for MILES.

They have wide streets, a grid pattern, and it was clear nothing with an engine was anywhere near this intersection. Being a good Bostonian, I begin to walk into the street, and I shit you not, someone tells me to wait. I hear “the walk signal is not on.” It was told to me in the way a parent would explain to a child that a stove is hot or perhaps the way some people talk to really old people…all wrapped in a veil of contempt. I stopped dead in my tracks and waited.

For the next day or two I payed special attention to these west coast’ians, and damn if not every single one of them dutifully waited, even when no cars where coming, even when the signal time seemed like ages, to cross the street. It was as if they were all children of Hamelin, and the little walk guy was the pied piper leading them around. Frankly I was dumbfounded.

You return to Boston and you get shit like this.

We all know that this is not an isolated incident, this is the norm in this town.

I mean look at all that mess. People crossing in front of oncoming cars, people crossing behind oncoming cars, people crossing when the red hand is clearly visible. It is truly chaotic. These people seem to have no concept of just how bad it is going to hurt if they get hit by these cars. They also seem to have no sense of taking turns. The people in cars for the most part waited patiently at each red light, and when it turned green they were forced to deal with a sea of random pedestrians blocking their way.

I sat at this intersection for a good 5 minutes, long enough to wait through about 3-4 cycles. This walk signal turns over very quickly, if you got their just as the red hand went up, you might have to wait a minute tops to get the next walk sign (although it might be nice to leave the walk guy up a bit longer at this particular intersection).

So jaywalking in this fashion is dangerous, rude, and the pedestrians didn’t even have to wait that long to get a walk signal…so why do they do it? Why do the people in Boston jaywalk in droves, and the people in San Jose publicly scold you when you even think about jaywalking?

I think it boils down to two reasons, these two reasons sort of wrap around each other and fit into the reasons why bikers and motorists break the law.

Culture:

Simply put, people feel fine about jaywalking in Boston, because no one says peep about it. You walk around long enough in this town and you might get shoulder bumped as others file past you. I mean if everyone else is doing it..why not do it too? In San Jose they self enforce, they hiss at the outsiders (like me) who deem to cross when the red hand is up. I wonder what would happen if I sat on the corner and pointed out to people that they were jaywalking…probably nothing good.

Law Enforcement:

You might not believe this, but I assure you it is true…you can get a ticket for jaywalking on the west coast. A cop can be like “you crossed the street in the middle,” boom ticket. In theory you could get one here as well, but you wont. I actually asked a cop to give a ticket to a jaywalker who had caused an accident by walking out into (moving) traffic, and was told “this isn’t California, we don’t ticket for jaywalking here.”

So in essence, the exact same things that lead bikers and drivers to break the law rampantly lead pedestrians to do the same. What I would really like people to realize is that Boston doesn’t have a driver/biker/walker law breaking problem, it has a law breaking problem.

Every user class is breaking the law in a myriad of ways, and doing so in massive numbers. I am really sick of hearing the drivers blame it on the cyclists who blame it on the pedestrians who blame it on the drivers…etc etc.

I have also come to realize that law breaking (of any user class) is not random. The law breaking is not spread out at every intersection, it is concentrated on several intersections. Because it is so concentrated, it is easily targeted with enforcement.

You stick a couple cops at the intersection I filmed above, (much in the way Cambridge tickets cyclists that run reds near MIT) you could spread the word very quickly about what the law is, and what happens when you break it.

This targeted enforcement is unlikely to happen, but it must. As more and more people walk and bike it is going to be vital to make sure these growing user classes are following the rules. It will also be crucial for safety that drivers are operating safely around these growing user classes, so they too much follow the rules.

If we truly want a cyclist/walker friendly city we must get every user class to start following the rules, and not simply spread the blame in a never ending circular firing squad.

(and before anyone chimes in, I realize this must also come with education and infrastructure improvements)

Add to Reddit.

Tweet