Free Republic

The driver of a box truck that struck and killed five bicyclists on a stretch of Nevada highway last week, and told investigators he fell asleep at the wheel, had a high level of methamphetamine in his system, prosecutors said Wednesday. Jordan Alexander Barson, 45, of Kingman, Arizona, faces 12 felony charges, including driving under the influence and reckless driving, in a criminal complaint filed in Las Vegas. "Choices have consequences," Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after a Las Vegas judge issued a warrant for Barson's arrest in the Dec. 10 crash on U.S. 95 between Boulder City...

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

Cyclists searching for stolen bikes in Denver's homeless camps Cyclists turn to social media to find bikes By: Jaclyn AllenSep 28, 2020 DENVER -- A homeless camp or a bicycle chop shop? In Denver, they can certainly at least appear to be one and the same. So many bikes have been stolen across the city, some people -- encouraged on social media -- are now going from camp to camp looking for their property. "I would rather have my car stolen than this," said Carter Haun, pointing to his custom mountain bike. "It would be easier to get another car."...

I am usually adverse to vanity posts, but I am posting in the personal/blogs so I figure it's OK. My main (motorcycle) riding buddy is having some physical issues that are making it hard for him to do some of the longer rides I'd like to do. The other guys I ride with (if you're a woman rider, that's cool too) just can't seem to plan anything beyond a few miles somewhere for a beer. That's not important to me. I want to ride and see things. I want to find some folks in central Kentucky that want to share...

Fitness junkies locked out of gyms, commuters fearful of public transit, and families going stir crazy inside their homes during the coronavirus pandemic have created a boom in bicycle sales unseen in decades. In the United States, bicycle aisles at mass merchandisers like Walmart and Target have been swept clean, and independent shops are doing a brisk business and are selling out of affordable “family” bikes. Bicycle sales over the past two months saw their biggest spike in the U.S. since the oil crisis of the 1970s, said Jay Townley, who analyzes cycling industry trends at Human Powered Solutions. “People...

FRANKFURT/LONDON - Bicycles could play a central role in more major European cities as governments scramble to get commuters back to work without crowding buses or trains after coronavirus lockdowns are eased. Britain, a laggard compared to its continental neighbours when it comes to cycling to work, is now encouraging people to get in the saddle as part of a 250 million pound ($308 million)emergency active travel fund announced last week. And in France, home to the world’s most famous bike race, the government plans to invest 20 million euros ($22 million) to develop and subsidise two-wheel travel, which like...

The de Blasio administration has agreed to add 250 miles of protected bike lanes after a dramatic surge in cyclist deaths. The mayor got behind City Council Speaker Corey Johnson's $1.7 billion proposal to remake the streets in an effort to, “break the car culture in New York,” as Johnson often puts it. Twenty five people have died this year riding bicycles, compared to 10 in all of last year despite the mayor's safe streets agenda, which is called Vision Zero. Bicycle advocates have been demanding the city take new action, especially as traffic increases from e-hailed vehicles and on-demand...

Mayor Bill de Blasio has aggressively pushed a bike-friendly agenda, adding about 100 miles of dedicated .

Yes! Le Tour is here. The 106th edition of the race begins Saturday, in next-door Brussels, a nod to the stern-faced Belgian cycling titan Eddy Merckx, who won five overall Tours and 34 stages beginning in 1969... It’s got a case as the craziest and most beautiful event in sports, but it’s clearly an acquired taste. I’m really super-duper into it. You know this. ...the four-time Tour winner Chris Froome, was badly hurt in a crash, suffering a broken leg and other injuries. Froome would have been a favorite for this year. One of the more intriguing newbies is Mike...

The mobility needs of people who walk and cycle – often the majority of citizens in a city – continue to be overlooked, states Share the Road Programme Annual Report 2018. Even though the benefits of investing in pedestrians and cyclists can save lives, help protect the environment and support poverty reduction. Meeting the needs of people who walk and cycle continues to be a critical part of the mobility solution for helping cities de-couple population growth from increased emissions, and to improve air quality and road safety. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), safe infrastructure for walking and...

Dirty little secrets are rarely this big. An eclectic car, motorcycle and parts collection discovered after the May 2018 death of a Michigan man who had amassed it over the years is heading to the auction block. According to VanDerBrink Auctions, Jeff Begg was an engineer who worked for Dana Corporation, founded several manufacturing companies of his own and fell under the spell of eBay when he was closing out his wife’s account following her passing in 2003.

The stakes are high – will we be able to keep our much envied “antiquated” American way of life, our very freedom and mobility which defines who we are? Americans hold constitutional elections in order to choose, among many positions in government, the local mayor. But a non-governmental organization (NGO), Bycs, which created the bicycle mayors’ program, wants to change that. How can an unelected ‘mayor’ be constitutional? “It is nice to have one, centralized voice,” … “And, honestly especially in the U.S., it’s so much easier to do as a party of one, than a committee, meeting, month to...

VanMoof Sometimes, to make a product truly great, a company must think outside the box. But for Dutch bike manufacturer VanMoof, thinking about the box itself solved a major problem when it came to shipping.According to CNN, the company reported that more than 25 percent of its bikes were damaged before even being delivered last year. The problem was especially bad when shipping to the U.S."Your covetable products, your frictionless website, your killer brand — they all count for nothing when your delivery partner drops the ball," Bex Rad, Vanmoof's creative director, wrote in a Medium post last year.RELATED: Strava Will...

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is recovering after undergoing surgery to repair a broken bone suffered in a cycling accident. A department spokeswoman says DeVos is resting at home after the Thursday surgery. She is expected to recover fully. The spokeswoman did not immediately answer questions about the accident or the nature of DeVos’ injury. (Snip. Not much more article after this...)

You're headed down the road in your car and a kid, on a bike, heads straight for you and pops a wheelie right next to your car, or near a parked car. It's dangerous and it's a fad that just won't die in New Jersey, police say. The stunts are called "swerving" -- or intentionally biking in the path of vehicles while performing tricks. Sometimes, large groups of teens will do this together, just to confound traffic. In response, N.J. towns have taken to local Facebook groups and public forums to air concerns about this dangerous practice, and local police...

“More protected bike lanes!” was summer’s war cry for take-no-prisoners cycling advocates. But the roughly 98 percent of New Yorkers who get to and from work by other means than bicycles need protection from the young, testosterone-fueled white males who comprise the vast majority of two-wheel desperadoes.

The American couple murdered in an ISIS-claimed car attack in Tajikistan quit their office jobs last year and were in the midst of pursuing their lifelong dream of cycling around the world when they were killed. Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, both 29 and living in Washington, DC, chronicled their adventures on a blog called “Simply Cycling” where they wrote that they’d decided to take on the globe on two wheels, “because life is short and the world is big and we want to make the most of our youth and good health before they’re gone.”

"Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans." A progressive young American couple was killed in an Islamic State-claimed terrorist attack last month while on a bike trip around the world. Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, who were both in their late 20s, quit their jobs in 2017 to embark on a trip around the world. Austin, a vegan, and Geoghegan, a vegetarian, decided that they're were wasting their lives working. "I’ve grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years...

Back in March, I posted “The Bike-Share Oversupply in China: Huge Piles of Abandoned and Broken Bicycles,” showing just some of the millions of bicycles that had been rapidly built and dumped into Chinese cities by bike-share companies looking to get in on the next big thing, only to crash hard. In the months since, more of those bike-share startups have gone bankrupt or consolidated, and the bicycle graveyards remain. Municipal governments are still wrangling with the fallout, confiscating derelict or illegally parked bikes, crafting new laws, and working out what to do with millions of abandoned bicycles. In a...

Two weeks ago we endured the third anniversary of the death of my beloved pastor and father-in-law, David Fitzpatrick. David was killed by an impaired (alcohol and drugs), hit-and-run motorist. David’s killer pleaded guilty to first degree vehicular homicide, among other charges, and is now spending many years in prison. … I recall vividly the gut-wrenching moments on May 4, 2015 when we knew there was a bicyclist down in the area where my father-in-law used to ride. The calls to David’s cell phone that would never be answered; the rushed and lonely drive from my job to the crash...