Archive for November, 2009

Road-raging firefighter gets 120 days for shooting at bicyclist

Thanks Nate for the link.
Apparently the poor firefighter is the one who was threatened, so he had little choice but to point a gun at the cyclist’s head and pull the trigger. But he feels just terrible about it.
Former Asheville fireman gets 4 months for shooting at cyclist
By Clarke Morrison • November 20, 2009
ASHEVILLE [...]

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Asheville Firefighter pleads guilty in bicyclist shooting

Posted by Erik on November 19th, 2009 filed in safety

Article here.
ASHEVILLE — A former Asheville firefighter pleaded guilty today to charges he shot at a bicyclist, narrowly missing his skull.
Charles Alexander Diez, 42, pleaded guilty in Buncombe County Superior Court to assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. A sentencing hearing is under way.
Police said Diez, a 17-year veteran of the Fire [...]

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Lighting up the night, one bicyclist at a time

From Facebook:
Teams of volunteers will be installing bicycle lights and educating
bicyclists on the law requiring bicycles to have operating lights at
night and provide information on safe riding during both daylight and nighttime hours.
Bicycle lights will be installed on Thursday, November 19, 2009, from 5p.m. to 7 p.m. (or until supplies are exhausted) at the intersection [...]

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Bogota bike race . . . cyclist v. bus v. car

Posted by Erik on November 18th, 2009 filed in imminent death of car-based culture

From Mike’s Bogota Bike Blog. (Note: Transmilenio is the public transportation system, basically enormous buses driving in dedicated bus lanes.)
This morning, a cyclist, a Transmilenio rider and a car driver ‘raced’ 7.5 kms across Bogotá during the morning rush hour. Naturally, the cyclist (Ferreira, the city councilman who plan to create a public bicycles [...]

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AZ Daily Star: Arizona spends $2.16 per person, per year, on bike-ped projects

From today’s AZ Daily Star:
Tucson does slightly better by pedestrians than the state average when it comes to spending. Arizona spends an average of $2.16 per person per year on bicycle and pedestrian projects. Tucson spends about $2.52 per person, the report says.
This part is interesting, too:
The report also said 14.1 percent of all traffic [...]

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Ciclovia in L.A.?

Posted by Erik on November 16th, 2009 filed in Joie de vivre, Our eternal quest for Platinum Status, opportunity knocks

Maybe, says the L.A. Times!

Imagine: L.A. bicyclists in the driver’s seat, one day a week
A group called cicLAvia wants to close major L.A. thoroughfares to cars and open them to bicyclists on Sundays. City officials are looking for ways to support the plan, which originated in Colombia.
By Matthew Fleischer
November 4, 2009 | 11:22 p.m.
Imagine Los [...]

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BICAS Art Auction — December 6th!

Posted by Erik on November 16th, 2009 filed in Joie de vivre, opportunity knocks, upcoming bicycle related events

This is my favorite event of the year. If you have never attended a BICAS art auction, you need to do it. Good music, a huge crowd, and a lot of really astonishing stuff for sale in a raucous auction. This year will feature, for example, the following piece by BICAS shop [...]

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Biketopia

Posted by Erik on November 15th, 2009 filed in Cool bikes, Joie de vivre, Our eternal quest for Platinum Status

EBR

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A few concluding thoughts on biking in Bogota

A contrast I noticed between two of my days in Bogota best describes my experience there. I spent a Saturday riding by myself through many of the bike paths that my guide Andres had not shown me on the day before.
It was a pretty bad day. I have never seen traffic like what [...]

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Ciclovia Tucson!

Who’s up for it? There are already folks in Tucson working out the details, but I’m sure they’ll need help promoting it when the time comes. I hope my pictures from Bogota have persuaded my readers how cool this can be, and how badly Tucson needs one!
Here’s Tom Thivener, Tucson Bike/Ped Program Manager, [...]

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