Badly injured teen cyclist improving
I had KGUN newsinterview me on Wednesday about another teenager in a bike accident. They didn’t know much except that he had life-threatening injuries. It didn’t seem too hopeful and I feared we would have two young bicycle fatalities in the space of a week here in Tucson. Apparently KGUN 9 ran the story that night, but I did not see it.
Thankfully, the Arizona Daily Star is reporting that he is improving. I still know very little about this accident, but I am thinking about him! Let’s all wish Eric Michael Sutton a speedy recovery.
–Erik Ryberg
BICAS Bike-In Movie on Sunday
If you have never been to the BICAS BIke-In Movie Night you really ought to go some time. They show movies that involve bicycles in some way and set out chairs on the patio, and project the movie onto the specially-painted wall across the way on the Lucky Street Studios.
The movie is preceded by a very casual bike ride through town at 6:30, with the moving commencing at 7:30. BICAS is at 44 West 6th Street, but the entrance is around the corner through the parking lot on 9th Avenue. They are in the old Citizen’s Warehouse at 9th Avenue and Sixth Street.
As a bonus feature, this Sunday is my birthday, so stop by and introduce yourself and wish me a happy birthday. I’ll be the tall guy on the old Raleigh 3-Speed. Have a great weekend everyone!
–Erik Ryberg
And again grrrr
Your authors have been off-line for a few days, moving the office. Stop by sometime — we are now at 312 South Convent Avenue, just across Cushing Street from the Police Station. You’ll see the bikes parked out front.
Anyway, I was installing some shelves in the new office late Tuesday night when I learned that our friend N. was getting ticketed just up the street. So I ran over to see him and sure enough, there he was with a rather surly and obnoxious officer writing him a ticket for . . . riding his bike with no hands. It seems N had decided to stretch his back and got himself pulled over.
We asked if perhaps a warning would be sufficient, but that got a hostile growl that I believe included the word “ass.” I think he said “shut your ass up” but when I asked N. to verify he said he couldn’t quite make it out. The meaning was clear, though, if the words were not.
Shortly afterward two more squad cars came up. It seems the surly officer couldn’t find the violation and needed assistance. But even with four officers puzzling over the code book for what really did seem an eternity, they couldn’t come up with the violation to cite poor N. Perhaps that is because it isn’t actually illegal to ride no-handed. It probably should be, and it is illegal to carry a package that prevents you from putting both hands on the bars, but as the good officers discovered on Tuesday night, there is no statute that prohibits a person from riding no-handed.
This put our surly officer in a pretty bad mood, because he had been forcefully telling poor N. all along not to tell him how to do his job, even at one point saying he had been a cop longer than N. had been alive. To which I helpfully pointed out that for all his experience he still got it wrong. Which yielded the expected results.
We left.
By my estimation this whole thing took about two cop-hours, which is one and two-thirds more cop-hours than were used to investigate last December’s baseball-bat attack on a Tucson bicyclist. The officer spent 21 minutes on that investigation (it only merited one in that case, not four) and to my knowledge the Tucson police still have not paid a visit to the assailant to ask him to stop attacking bicyclists with baseball bats, even though they know who he is and where he lives. But as one officer told N. the other night, it is not our place to judge the Tucson Police Department’s priorities, is it?
–Erik Ryberg
Grrrr . . . .
I just watched three Tucson bike cops blow a stop sign.
They slowed, looked both ways, and leisurely proceeded on. They obviously were not heading anywhere in a hurry, they just didn’t want to stop. They put themselves in no danger. But what they did would have gotten any of us a ticket on University Avenue.
There is something very erosive and toxic that happens when the police force is above the law, even in minor ways like this. It speaks to the arbitrariness of the law and the finality of power — two things that our civilization has spent a lot of time and energy in the past two and a half centuries to avoid. And two things you see a lot of in countries where corruption, vendetta, and violence rule the polis.
–Erik Ryberg
Update: I just saw them do it again! They blew right through the stop sign in front of my apartment on Convent. They seem to be in the neighborhood today. To clarify, I blow through that stop sign too, just about every day, but each time I do it I risk getting a ticket. They don’t.
–EBR
Memorial Service for Kevin Robinson-Barajas today, September 16, at 7 PM
This just came in to the comments section:
Thanks for the kind words. There will be services for Kevin on 9/16 at 7pm in the Newman Center by the U of A. All friends and supporters are welcome
The Newman Center is at 2nd and Cherry.
–Erik Ryberg
Tucson Citizen op-ed on Kevin Robinson-Barajas
The Citizen, at least, is starting to notice how many cyclists are getting killed.
There’s an odd dearth of nasty comments to the article, too. They are there, but they don’t completely dominate the discussion, thankfully.
Lauren and I have been reading the articles about him and the responses to the post below. He seems like such a great kid, somebody anyone would be proud to know and eager to watch grow up. Be careful out there folks. As Jean Gorman always reminds us: life is precious, not just to you but to your friends and family.
–Erik Ryberg
Did you know Kevin Robinson-Barajas?
More is emerging on this young man. The AZ Star now reports:
Robinson-Barajas was remembered at school Friday as an “affable young man” who was well-liked and had lots of friends. His interests included playing guitar and physics.
His student identification picture describes Kevin perfectly, according to his global studies teacher Robin Batty.
Donning a tie-dye shirt and two beaded necklaces, Kevin was “easy going and pleasant,” she said.A student in the Gate Program for gifted and talented students, Robinson-Barajas was a major contributor in global studies and had a broad knowledge of world and international affairs, Batty said.
Batty is Kevin’s first hour teacher and said she made note of it when Kevin didn’t show up because he was rarely absent. She learned later in the morning of what had occurred.
“I was devastated to hear of this tragedy and the loss to our class,” she said. “He was good natured and seem to enjoy school. We will certainly miss Kevin in our day to day lives.”
It is particularly poignant to me that he was killed just two days after a “bike box” safety lane was installed at Grant and Mountain. I hope we can get one installed at the Fort Lowell intersection now, too. But it will be too late for Kevin and his family.
What a terrible, terrible story.
–Erik Ryberg
Pedaling for Ipod power
When I spotted this bike-powered Ipod charger, I had to post on it because our friend Mickey is currently attempting to make a homemade version of this device with my wheel that has a generator hub on it. Though I would not encourage people to listen to headphones while riding, this could be attached to speakers to provide some tunes while you ride. The description of how it works states, “Neodymium magnets attached to your back bike rim effectively collects power through electromagnetic induction. Oh and there’s a dynamo under your seat.” I can see how it could be handy for biketouring when you can’t get to an electrical outlet for extended periods of time.
-lauren
Not Your Typical Road Obstruction
A bike-commuter from Missoula, Montana was riding to work the other day when he suddenly collided with a 300 pound bear. Jim Litz, a 57 year-old schoolteacher, stated, “I didn’t have time to respond. I never even hit my brakes.” Litz estimates that he was going about 25 mph when the collision occurred. He T-boned the bear and the two went tumbling down the road. Amazingly enough Litz escaped with just a cracked helmet and a few bruised ribs…and a great bear story. His cyclocross bike, which looks to be a Motobecane from the photo, was virtually unscathed as well. His respect for the animal following the crash is commendable….he stated, “I was lucky. I was truly lucky, because I accosted the bear and he let me live. I truly respect them. They’re beautiful creatures.” 
-lauren
Would an “underrun” truck guard have saved Kevin Robinson-Barajas?
Portland, anyway, has installed these guards on many city vehicles. As the numbers of bicyclists increase, it may be time to consider these life-saving devices. It can’t be easy as a driver of a long vehicle to always be aware of who is on their right-hand side. They need to be, and if they are not they are clearly driving negligently, but with all the vehicles on the road it is bound to happen from time to time that a bus driver fails to look.
–Erik Ryberg