Freedom

The New York Times reports this morning that the FBI is has been given wider powers to spy on people in the fight against terrorism.

A little more freedom is sacrificed in the cause of everyone’s safety.

As terrible as 9/11 was when 3,000 people lost their lives, over ten times that number die on our roads in traffic accidents every year.

This means well over 300,000 people have lost their lives on US highways in the 10 years following 9/11. Where is the outrage? If these numbers were war casualties, members of our armed services there would be outrage.

Actually road deaths went down in 2010 to 32,788, the lowest figures since 1949, and while this can be viewed as good news, it still translates close to 90 people will die today, another 90 tomorrow, 630 per week, and so on. Again where is the outrage?

Cars are being made ever safer for the people inside that vehicle, but not for others who get hit by one; especially if that person is on foot or on a bicycle. Even in my little compact car if I am T-boned by an SUV my chances of survival are slim.

On the subject of losing a little of our freedom in the name of safety, how about losing the freedom to drive like an idiot.

I think I can safely say that most fatal road deaths are caused by driver error, not the machine itself or the road it is on. Impatience, speed, aggressive driving, and distracted driving are the primary cause of most car crashes.

In the UK, where people have a lot less freedom than in the US, new road safety laws are in force, where the police can levy on-the-spot fines for aggressive driving, tailgating, etc. What a great deterrent; a police officer stops you, asks for your credit or debit card, and charges you between $130 and $160 on the spot.

How about a more comprehensive driving test to start with, followed by the worst traffic offenders losing the privilege to drive. If someone dies as a result of someone else’s poor driving, there should be some serious consequences; all too often it is seen simply as an accident.

It really is an outrage that a minority are allowed the freedom to drive in a careless and dangerous manner, when the result is someone else losing their ultimate freedom, their life.

                       

The Annoyance Factor

Above is an interesting video showing a birds-eye-view of a New York City intersection. It shows the interaction between cars, bicycles and pedestrians.

Right off the bat you will see a cyclist make a left turn from the extreme right side of the road into a one-way street going the wrong way. Count the number of cyclists riding through red lights and riding against the flow of traffic.

I have watched this video several times and I notice that cars for the most part, stop for red lights; some stop for pedestrians, some are forced to brake for cyclists. Pedestrians for the most part stay in the cross-walk; they also stop for cars and bicycles.

Cyclists, on the other hand, ride anywhere and everywhere and do not stop for any reason. Not for red lights, for cars or pedestrians; rather they keep moving and maneuver their way around any obstruction.

They go where ever that path takes them; if it leads contra the traffic flow, so be it. There is one exception; a cyclist who actually is riding in a proper manner has to stop when he is cut off by a car that is entering a parking space. In the midst of all this chaos a semi does an illegal U-turn.

I often get a lot of flack when I criticize cyclists, and the argument always put forward is that cyclists rarely kill or seriously injure anyone. This is true, the video ends with the statement that four people are killed or seriously injured in New York City every day.

I think I can safely say that cyclists are only responsible for a tiny percentage of those deaths and serious injuries. They are more likely to be victims of those accidents. However, this is not the issue:

"What about the Annoyance Factor. You can’t excuse bad behavior simply because statistically it is not all that dangerous." 

The complaints I hear from New York motorists and pedestrians are justified if this video is anything to go by. At a guess, cyclists are probably less than 10% of the people in this clip, but they are causing 90% of the chaos.

I am sure there are just as many cyclists riding in a proper manner in New York, and they were for the most part edited out of this video.

In fact take the scofflaw cyclists out of this video and it would be pretty boring. Which highlights the problem, no one notices cyclists riding in a proper manner, they just see the annoying ones.

Footnote: You can also view this on Vimeo, and I recommend you view it in full screen mode. Start the video, then click on the four arrows (Bottom right, next to the word "vimeo.") Press your escape key (Esc.) on your keyboard to exit full screen.

                        

My to do list

My former father-in-law was a coal miner all his life. I use the word former because he was the father of my ex-wife and he has been dead a number of years. His name was Bill, he was a wonderful man.

After he retired he more or less spent his whole time gardening; he grew flowers and vegetables that he would enter into competitions and win prizes. He once told me after his retirement, “I don’t know how I found time to go down’t pit.”

The “Pit” was of course the coal mine, and to explain the nuances of his North Nottingham/Yorkshire accent, the word “the” is dispensed with; the “t” gets added to the end of the word preceding “the.”

So it is “Down’t Pit,” rather than “Down the pit.” Incidentally if a word following “the” starts with a vowel, the “th” is added to that word; as in, “When I was in th’army.” Or if a girl is pregnant, she has, “A bun in th’oven.”

Today I know exactly what Bill meant; I don’t know how I ever found time to build bicycle frames. My “To do” list just gets longer and longer. I sometimes feel overwhelmed.

There is writing on this blog, which I am doing right now, but in 2 or 3 days I will be searching for something new to write about.

Having blog is like having a child, conceiving it is the easy part, but as it grows the hungry little bastard needs constant feeding. If I don’t feed it at least twice a week it will fade and die. However, on the upside, like a child it does make me proud once in a while.

My website “Prodigal Child.net” has broken links, but fixing them is not easy. The site is nine years old and was built with MicroSoft Front Page software, which is pretty much obsolete now. It is like a car that has been fixed and patched up so many times that the only real fix is a replacement.

I am doing just that, building a new website, but it is a monumental time consuming task. I work on it a little at a time when I can. My other Bike Registry site needs constant updating, and I need to add pictures of owner’s bikes, otherwise it will be nothing more than a boring list of bike serial numbers.

Another project that I keep telling people will happen soon is the reproduction of decals for my frames. I have art work completed but now have to purchase materials and equipment to make it happen. Oh, and of course not forgetting, find the time to do it.

 

(Above.) is a music box I made 50 years ago in 1961. It was a Christmas gift for my mother, built with spent matchsticks; I took me a year to build and I got it back after my mother died almost 30 years ago. Now I see this as a family heirloom that I will one day pass on to my daughters.

The musical movement inside is broken and I am in the process of replacing it; not easy because it will involve tearing it apart, and rebuilding part of it.

Of course all these projects are mainly just important to me; no one is forcing me to do anything. But what is the alternative; give up and do nothing?

I am reminded of a story of an old craftsman carving a large pair of oak doors. The design was extremely intricate, with scrolls, oak leaves and a coat of arms with a motto in Latin.

Someone asked him, “How do you know when it’s finished?” His reply, “It’s never finished, I just keep working on it 'til they come and take it away from me.”

I have come to realize I will always have a “To do” list, and conventional wisdom dictates that I should prioritize and finish one project before starting another. But all these projects are important, and each is dependent on the other.

Without the blog and the registry there would be less interest in the bikes I have built. Without that interest there would be no need for replacement decals. Then there is finding time to ride my own bike.

Here I do prioritize, because if I don’t maintain my own health and fitness I will not have the ability or the energy to do everything else. 

At the back of my mind is always the nagging thought that one day it will be simply taken away from me.
 

                        

Building Bridges

I just read a story this morning about a new Interstate 90 Bridge being built in Minnesota. Cycling and pedestrian groups are pressing for the new bridge to include a bike/pedestrian path.

"The Minnesota Department of Transportation says a bike or pedestrian lane on an Interstate bridge won’t work for a variety of reasons, among them cost, environmental impacts, aesthetics and safety concerns."

The Minnesota DOT is blowing smoke. Yes it will cost a little more, but nowhere near as much as a few years down the road when people start wishing they had such a bike/foot path and they think about retro-fitting one.

Here in Charleston, South Carolina, they built a beautiful new bridge over the Cooper River that opened in 2005. (Pictured above.) Initially it too had no planned provision for cyclists or pedestrians, but the local people got organized, signed petitions, and got the planners and people in charge to change their minds.

The bridge was built with a separate path about 12 feet wide on one side of the bridge only. It really is not that difficult, all bridges have steel beams that go cross-wise to support the roadway, it is just a matter of extending those beams on one side to support the bike path. They do not have to redesign the whole bridge.

Here in Charleston there is a wonderful organization called “Charleston Moves.” It is a coalition of cyclists, pedestrians and people pushing for public transport. I would urge the people who live in the area of this proposed bridge to combine their effort; there is strength in numbers.

Don’t let the nay sayers tell you it can’t be done, and even though work is due to start next year; it was quite late in the planning stages when the bike path was added to our bridge.

Everyone who lives in Charleston is very proud of their new bridge; it is a structure of immense beauty. However, without the bike/pedestrian path it would be just another freeway bridge.

Walking the bridge has now become one of the “Must Do” things for tourists visiting our city. The views from the bridge are breathtaking, and you don’t even see these vistas driving over on the freeway. They had the good sense to put the path on the side with the best views of the harbor and downtown Charleston.

Many people work in Down Town Charleston, but live in Mount Pleasant on the other side of the river. Parking is a nightmare in historic Old Town Charleston with its narrow streets. The new bridge is just 2 ½ miles across, easy enough to bike or even walk across to work; many do just that.

Prior to this new bridge being built the river crossing was via two old steel bridges. There was no bike/pedestrian access, and no way to get over the Cooper River other than by car. The new bridge with its bike path means that whole new areas for local cyclists to ride were opened up for people living on either side.

You can cross over the Cooper River Bridge quite late into any evening and you will see people walking, running or cycling on the path. It is much more than a means to drive from one side to the other; it is a facility enjoyed by thousands during the course of a year.

If left to the planners it never would have happed; it came about because of local people getting together and making it happen.

                          

Cheap Gloves: They work for me

I used to pay $35 or more for a pair of cycling gloves, the ones with the fancy gel padding.

A habit I have is if I run over a patch of broken glass, which is quite often on my local bike path; I run the palm of my gloved hand over the front and rear tire.

I do this as I am riding, it only takes seconds, and it will brush away any glass my tire has picked up before it has time to work its way into the tread and cause a flat. The only problem is my nice expensive gloves end up ripped to shreds, usually within a few months.

A little over a year ago when my gloves needed replacing I bought a cheap pair from Wal-Mart for about $5.00. I figured if I was going to wear them out that quickly I would use something that was less expensive to replace.

Well guess what? These cheap gloves lasted longer than the expensive ones; almost a year. I recently bought my second pair.

They don’t have the extra padding on the palm, but I really don’t need it.

The little bit of cushioning my handlebar tape provides I find is enough.

I imagine the palm is not real leather, but it looks and feels like it. The gloves have a mesh back with a Velcro fastening, and a nice feature is a fleecy material on the back of the thumb, which is handy for wiping the sweat from the front edge of my helmet, before it has time to drip all over my glasses.

The other thing is dressing my tires as I have described makes the right glove really dirty. I throw them in the washing machine at least once a week, and let them air-dry over night.

If like me you can live without the fancy padding on your gloves, the next time your gloves need replacing, you will only be risking five bucks if you try a pair of these Bell brand, Wal-Mart cycling gloves.

I’m all for buying quality gear, but in this case cheap and does the job works for me.