Today’s Headlines

  • SFPD Faults Bicyclist for Crash at Fell/Masonic (BIKE NOPA)
  • San Jose Holds Its First Ciclovia-Style Event (Merc)
  • An Estimated 60,000 Turn Out for Bay to Breakers (SF Gate, ABC7)
  • Sunday Parkways "Kicks Off with a Bang" in Portland (Bike Portland)
  • Service Cuts Have Muni Riders Feeling "Frustration to Resignation" (SF Gate)
  • Examiner: "Muni to Offer Voters a Slew of New Taxes" 
  • Palo Alto Considers Changing Height Limits for ‘Sustainable Development’ (Palo Alto Online)
  • Planning Department Proposes New Parking Solution for Market St. Mall (SF Examiner)
  • Matier & Ross On Transbay Terminal’s "$18 Million Bus Stop"
  • Red-Light Cameras Back Up and Running in South San Francisco (ABC7)
  • Marin Supes Set to Raise Parking Fines on County’s Beaches (SF Gate)
  • Rollersports Association Wants Skating Rules Changed on GG Bridge (City Insider, KCBS)
  • BIKE NOPA and Bikes and the City Women Who Bike Series Features Kay Hoskins and Kathleen

  • no love for bikes & the city – meet me at the green bike lane racks bryan.. he heeee
    this week’s series features the wonderful Kathleen: http://bit.ly/b3jfgm

  • Jeffrey W. Baker

    I assume all the fixie defenders in the previous thread are preparing to eat crow. I feel bad for the rider who crashed at masonic because not only is his useless hipster conveyance ruined, but he’s also going to have to pay for his own medical care and the extensive repairs to the other guy’s car, there being no such thing as bicyclist collision liability insurance.

    I always say that there are equal amounts of jackassery among the operators of cars and bikes alike, but when the special stupidity of bicyclists is displayed in this spectacular fashion it does reflect badly on bicyclists and harms the public image of bicycling.

  • Noe Valley Plaza Petition in the Examiner

    Of course, the Examiner did not put in a link to the petition.

    Petition is here

  • TMTOWTDI

    Choosing to turn in front of traffic against a light has nothing to do with the style of bike someone rides. No crow eating necessary on the topic of fixies.

    While likely true that there is no bicyclist collision liability insurance, I did find an article that makes me wonder whether an auto liability policy _would_ cover someone in this case. Here’s the link – http://www.stc-law.com/bikeAccidentInsurance.html

    I took a quick look to see if I could find a Bob Mionske written article on this topic. No luck. Maybe someone else has some background on the topic.

  • Jeffrey W. Baker

    It could have everything to do with not having brakes, if the rider was trying to stop but was unable, and therefore ran the light. It’s hard to imagine that someone intentionally ran a red light into two-way cross traffic.

    I think it should be obvious that if you’re about to hit something, it would be better to have brakes than to not have them. With brakes you’ll either hit it less hard, or not hit it, both of which are superior outcomes compared to hitting it at full speed while looking cool.

  • TIMTOWTDI

    Read the CVC, then report back about whether fixies have brakes. We clearly need a Streetsblog article devoted to this topic.

  • Jeffrey W. Baker

    What we need, apparently, is a group lesson in physics. The fact that a fixie can be dragged to a stop doesn’t mean it has brakes. Stopping distance for skidding the rear wheel is 3x longer than a real bike with real brakes, and what’s worse is you need significant maneuvering room to pull it off. If you don’t have room to turn the bike you can’t stop it.

  • The argument is ridiculous. It needs to stop. Some are against fixies, some are for it, most don’t care. The guy ran a light, brakes being an issue or not. You aren’t going to prove yourself right or wrong by going back and forth like this.

  • TIMTOWTDI

    Dragging to a stop, certainly sounds like the CVC definition to me. Did you read it?

    If you don’t like the standard legislated for braking performance, we can talk about that. But that hasn’t been the contention.

  • east lake biker

    Matier & Ross never fail to tick me off. Okay, the temp Transbay Terminal costs $18 million. So? Do they want people to wait for the bus in the rain and stomp around in the mud? Gee, I wonder how much that “temp” Bay Bridge approach to Treasure Island cost? You know, where the S-curve leads into. It has to be more than $18m.

  • TIMTOWTDI

    We still haven’t covered the more relevant topic of the accident because of all the reflexive fixie demonizing. If we’re going to encourage people (especially young people) to live car-free, it’s a given that accidents/collisions will occur. Instead of focusing on the equipment, what about the complete lack of a safety net for the financial liability from something like this?

    If this had been an Andrew Bennett style collision, we’d be more focused on the bigger picture, the very substantial cost of health care, rehabilitation and lost wages in a serious accident. I can’t be the only person in the Streetsblog world living car-free and completely exposed to the possibility of my own unfortunate lapse in judgment or that of an uninsured driver.

  • Tim, I’m with you 100%.

  • Rarely will you find me not defending the bicyclist, but I think it’s also important to point out that from my experience of riding my friend’s fixie, they seem to encourage the rider to keep a much more fluid momentum, stop less and run lights more since it takes so much work otherwise. I’d love a city so safe for cyclists that that’s not so much an issue, but this does tend to come down more to personal choice in the face of circumstances (dangerous streets).

  • Melyssa

    hey, i noticed that you featured bike nopa’s “women who bike” series, and it looks like meli beat me to commenting, but she also does the collaborative series. being that she IS a woman who bikes, i say she, as a member of 1/2 of the series, deserves at least a shout out on the links too. seems to me if you are going to feature 1/2 of the series, it sort of defeats the purpose of the collaboration.

    thanks.

  • patrick

    I would just like to point out again that the information at hand indicates this has nothing to do with the type of bike, and everything to do with the cyclist.

    Bashing fixies does nothing to prevent this sort of incident from happening again in the future. Be careful out there folks, ride responsibly.

    Let me also remind people that somebody was injured and this should not be used as a venue to promote one’s personal agenda. Lets keep the injured cyclist in mind and hope for a full recovery.