Sad News About a Member

[haymarket]

sad to hear this..... having crossed swords with him on occasion I must say he was no slouch. Sympathy for those he left behind.

 

[Zyphlin]

My thoughts go out to his family and friends. Sad story. He always seemed rather sharp and a good guy.

 

[LowDown]

I'm sorry to hear this.

May he rest in peace.

 

[sharon]

Sorry to hear this.. May he rest in peace.

 

[Lord of Planar]

I used to ride a bike all the time. Don't have one anymore. Living in SE Portland, I need to take a bike rather far before I feel safe riding it. Too many idiots on the streets these days.

 

[Muhammed]

I've heard that cycling infrastructure in the U.S. is terrible. I've also heard that some residential areas don't even have sidewalks, just car roads. I don't know if that is true or not.

It's true, while most residential areas do have sidewalks a lot of streets in my neighborhood don't have sidewalks. And in my city it is illegal for anyone over the age of 14 to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk. A law that I regularly ignore, especially at night.

 

[Canell]

It's true, while most residential areas do have sidewalks a lot of streets in my neighborhood don't have sidewalks.

That was my point - if you don't even have sidewalks, how could you expect to have bike lanes, etc. I guess the pedestrians walk trough the grass if they want to go visit someone 10 houses down the road.

 

[Gladiator]

I used to ride a bicycle, and I don't know the circumstances of Old Reliable's demise, but I wanted to mention that I have seen many bicycle riders truning left, in the middle of an intersection. I understand this is their right. But I personally dismount, and cross the street as a pedestrian, pushing my bicycle, in a crosswalk, to turn Left. Instead of getting into the Left lane, to turn Left, I get into the rRght lane, dismount, and cross the cross street, in the crosswalk, with the light. Then, I cross the street I was on, in the crosswalk. Then I get back on the bicycle, going the direction I want to travel, in the direction of traffic.

Anytime I might have a conflict with cars, I dismount, and walk my bike, through the possible conflict area. It is sad that the subject of bicycle safety comes up with the passing of consturctive contributing member.



//

 

[danarhea]

This is sad news. He added a lot of value here. May he rest in peace.

On the issue of traffic, a number of communities around where I live are implementing "safe streets" initiatives. These initiatives have included extending curb cuts, reducing the number of lanes on select streets (some actually heavily used) that had a history of speeders, creating bike lanes, etc., to slow the average speed. So far, the early results are encouraging with the number of accidents and also moving vehicle citations down fairly significantly. An underlying principle is that the streets belong not just to the motorists, but also pedestrians and cyclists. Previous practice gave overriding consideration to motorists. That approach led to problems (accidents, travel at excessive speed, etc.). To date, there is strong bipartisan consensus in those communities (unlike in Washington) not only to sustain the initiative, but to expand it to some of the most heavily-traveled routes. A side effect is that more children are now walking to school and that might have some modest health benefits for those children.

That would be great. In Houston, just last weekend, I was playing at a biker rally. A friend of mine, known as Skid Rawk, came by to watch us play, and to donate to the cause we were playing for. The girl he was with was a date that had been set up by his best friend. That night, his best friend was killed in a motorcycle accident. You never know when it's your time. Until then, you can only live your life as best you can.

OldReliable and I had a few spirited debates here, but he was always respectful, and his posts were generally well thought out. In other words, he kept me on my toes. I miss him. He was a great member.

 

[StillBallin75]

One of the few quality posters in the Economics forum. He will be missed.