Friday Morning Commute - So long LaHood

Good morning.

• A young cyclist crossing Maple on the W&OD Trail was hit by a driver who then fled the scene. They cyclist suffered only minor injuries.
• A driver in central Virginia was found guilty of failure to yield to a cyclist. The crash that resulted from this failure led to the death of the cyclist - well-known competitive cyclist Michael J. Fawell. But the driver did not get off scot free. He had to pay a $30 fine. To be fair, Fawell had no lights or reflectors and was riding in the rain before sunrise. But he was also riding on the paved shoulder. 
• Ray LaHood will be leaving the Department of Transportation at the end of Obama's first term. If Obama should win, who would make a good replacement? Is Oberstar too much of a pipe-dream? He lives in Potomac.
• Giant bicycles responds to GM.
• RAGBRAI leads to a scientific discovery about Parkinson's and exercise. Can WABGRAD ever aspire to such heights? The discovery is that forced exercise - where the participant doesn't control the speed - show fewer symptoms of the disease. "Dr. Alberts suspects that in Parkinson’s patients, the answer may be simple mathematics. More pedal strokes per minute cause more muscle contractions than fewer pedal strokes, which, in consequence, generate more nervous-system messages to the brain. There, he thinks, biochemical reactions occur in response to the messages, and the more messages, the greater the response."

Comments

[darren]

not sure if i've seen this link yet, but apparently, "One City" means "Zero Giro" http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/10/news/new-giro-director-promises-to-respect-riders-washington-prologue-idea-on-hold_195117

[freewheel]

LaHood = my all-time favorite Republican

[Stanley]

Ug. LaHood was one of the good ones. One of the few in this admin that was effectively achieving something. Maybe even he has grown tired of the indecisiveness and ineffectiveness of his executive branch leadership.