Maillot Jaune: Olympic bronze medal cyclist Lance Armstrong's last international race will be this January in Australia. Meanwhile, Olympic gold medal cyclist Kristin Armstrong will be coming out of postpartum retirement to try to make the 2012 Olympic team. I've heard that women cyclists actually do better after motherhood, but I'm not sure if that's true.
Podium: Continued discussion of how unfair it would be to make cyclist pay an additional tax for the roads, and an analysis of road funding in Seattle (gas tax pays for 4%).
Podium: Rep Gabrielle Giffords bike commutes here in DC and yells at drivers who cut her off. She also supports bicycle safety legislation.
Maillot Vert: San Francisco's Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved funding for a 1000-unit bike sharing system that they are billing as the "nation's first regional bike-sharing program". I'm sorry, but is Arlington/DC not a regional system? It's not a city system. It's not even in the same state. And since the system is 12-18 months away, it may not come online before another round of CaBi expansion (perhaps into Maryland). They hope to expand the system to 13,000 bikes. The NYT covers it, but mostly as an excuse to tweak other commuter rail users about the lack of bike cars on their trains.
Maillot a Pois Rouge: A Wisoconsin cyclist was paralyzed when his tire got stuck in a gap on a bridge sending him over his handlebars. He sued and settled for $8M. Turns out, another cyclist was injured in the same place back in 1999, a fact they tried to hide until a judge forced them to disclose this. "WSDOT has since filled the gap with an epoxy to prevent more accidents"
Maillot Blanc: Hours after apparently stealing a bike in Minneapolis, the thief was hit while riding that bike and killed. In Detroit, they just arrest them.
Lanterne Rouge: Babies act like they own the road. And speaking of NYC bike lanes, a NYC cop parked in one and then ticketed cyclists who rode around him for not using the bike lane (not using a bike lane where one is available is illegal in NYC).
Is the NYPD trying to make up the money the courts ordered it to pay for physically injuring cyclists and violating their civil liberties? Great work. Sometimes it seems that there are not many other democratic countries in the world where the police can reign so unencumbered and without effective restraint and oversight as in the US.
Posted by: Eric_W. | October 31, 2010 at 09:21 PM
It's interesting how the report of an unnamed "tipster" can be elevated to the level of fact, which then incites indignation. I love the 'Net.
Posted by: guez | October 31, 2010 at 09:40 PM
The tipster outs himself in the comments and gives out his email address so that others who were ticketed can contact him. But perhaps I should have added the word "allegedly." I'm confident the readership here is smart enough to make their own judgement about things.
Posted by: washcycle | October 31, 2010 at 10:00 PM