Eight million dollar bike injury

[jon]

I'm with Fairweather. Bicycles are Dangerous. I just got off the phone with him and here is our proposed solution.

 

1. License bicycles

2. Make bicycle tires wider

3. Add safety reinforcement to bike

4. Make wider tires for bike to accommodate weight.

5. Make beefier brakes to accommodate weight.

6. Make tires bigger, considering adding two more.

7. Fuck this thing is heavy and can barely go uphill.

8. Shit.

9. Fuck it. Let's put an engine in this thing.

10. Bigger tires to accommodate weight of engine.

11. Shit, this thing is flimsy. Need a beefier frame.

12. Crap now bigger tires.

13. And brakes.

14. Wow not looking like a bike anymore.

15. Can I still use the bike lane?

[prole]

 

Amazing how many more cops and bureaucrats we need when it becomes all about personal responsibility.

[Jim]

Nobody is asking to wrap the world is cozy foam, fuckface, they're asking to not actively sabotage it.

 

...or at least if you do sabotage it, and are made aware of it, then fix it. Prior to a bad accident.

[ZimZam]

Send in the lawyers.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/nyregion/29young.html?no_interstitial

[Hugh Conway]

The JayB/Fairweather Project Management (and philosophical) Style in Action:

 

JayB: It’s a great morning to be out at the bridge. These boys sure are working hard for low wage, just like the Framers intended.

 

Fairweather: It was a brilliant stroke to contract this retrofit to the lowest bidder.

 

JayB: Say, did we design this 1-inch wide groove running parallel to the direction of traffic? Looking at it now, I’d say that a bicycle tire could be taco’d in this MF’er.

 

Fairweather: Fuck it. If they’re riding with those goddamn skinny tires, they get what they deserve anyways. 23c’s are for Pros riding in Europe, where they don’t put grooves in the roads, because Europe is a Socialist welfare hand-holding dystopia.

 

JayB: You’re right, I’m a big proponent of personal responsibility. It’s not as if we could get in the car after lunch and find every hazard to cyclists that currently exists, so the burden is upon the individual to avoid this one particular hazard, as well. But seeing as how I’ve recognized the hazard, and you’ve recognized that even though you personally believe that bicycles shouldn’t use tires any narrower than a motorcycle, some people still (legally) ride such dangerous contraptions on public roadways that are required to be designed for multiple use, it might be our problem to fix.

 

Fairweather: Fuck it, we're indemnified. Personal responsibility. It’s a bitch, ain’t it?

 

Needs more union bashing

[E-rock]

I wanted to work some in, but then I just decided to work.

[Fairweather]

I'm with Fairweather. Bicycles are Dangerous. I just got off the phone with him and here is our proposed solution.

 

1. License bicycles

2. Make bicycle tires wider

3. Add safety reinforcement to bike

4. Make wider tires for bike to accommodate weight.

5. Make beefier brakes to accommodate weight.

6. Make tires bigger, considering adding two more.

7. Fuck this thing is heavy and can barely go uphill.

8. Shit.

9. Fuck it. Let's put an engine in this thing.

10. Bigger tires to accommodate weight of engine.

11. Shit, this thing is flimsy. Need a beefier frame.

12. Crap now bigger tires.

13. And brakes.

14. Wow not looking like a bike anymore.

15. Can I still use the bike lane?

 

Or, like mountain climbers, you could just accept a little personal responsibility for the precarious nature of your endeavor and not expect society to jackpot up $8 million when your skinny little tire gets stuck in a bridge grate.

[prole]

Mountains are not roads.

[prole]

That it's necessary to state that is a monument to your idiocy.

[j_b]

The outrageous part is just 2 pages ago in this very same thread, Fairweather was telling us that mountains aren't infrastructure to explain away his hypocrisy about user fees (fees for cyclists but not for climbers) as he was then pretending land agencies charged user fees for the mountains and not for the infrastructure. You couldn't make this shit up if you wanted..

[rob]

 

Or, like mountain climbers, you could just accept a little personal responsibility for the precarious nature of your endeavor and not expect society to jackpot up $8 million when your skinny little tire gets stuck in a bridge grate.

 

We should plant landmines throughout the enchantments. And then when people start losing legs, we'll just say, "Hey, how about watching where you walk??? TAKE SOME FUCKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!"

[JayB]

So you contend that the cyclist is question must have unwisely assumed that the roads were safe because he had an accident?

 

And because he made this assumption, he did not have a case?

 

Or are those just Fairweather's contentions?

 

There has to be a reasonable level of safety we can assume is inherent in our roadways, otherwise we wouldn't be able to travel at high speed using any vehicle. If I crossed a bridge at night with an engineered trench that was wide enough to swallow my car tire and put me into the drink. Regardless of the fact that it shouldn't have been there in the first place, and had a documented history of causing accidents, I'm at fault for not taking responsibility for my own safety?

\

 

What are you responding to here, exactly? It doesn't appear to be what I'm actually writing. If it was, you'd be directing similar comments towards Jim, who wrote the following:

 

"My first reaction was - why was he riding across the grated bridge deck when there was a safe option? I regularly ride over that bridge and the University Bridge and have seen bicycles ride over the grated portion on a handful of times,and even then wondered why take the risk.

 

But - I was not aware of the history. Really - if WSDOT had other accident reports then do one of two things - 1) post a sign that requires bikes to use the sidewalk, or 2) fix the dang thing with cheap epoxy; which is what the did - too late. Option 1 likely would not avoided a lawsuit. But for the rider, a little common sense goes a long way."

 

Just a couple of weeks ago I saw a dude on a fixie, chatting away with his buddy, eat shit and go down hard when he planted his front wheel in the SLUT tracks. That's another fixture built into the road surface that poses zero hazard for cars, but can present a hazard to cyclists.

 

"Will First Hill Streetcar tracks be a hazard to cyclists?

 

With the city facing a lawsuit from six cyclists who were hurt when their tires got wedged in the South Lake Union Streetcar tracks, some bike commuters wonder how their safety will be considered in designs for the First Hill Streetcar...."

http://blog.seattlepi.com/transportation/archives/208797.asp

 

The odds are high that as long as you've got steel grooves built into the roadway, cyclists are going to plant their tires in them and crash. If we apply the principles that you've outlined above, where does that leave us in this case?

 

 

 

 

 

[Fairweather]

The outrageous part is just 2 pages ago in this very same thread, Fairweather was telling us that mountains aren't infrastructure to explain away his hypocrisy about user fees (fees for cyclists but not for climbers) as he was then pretending land agencies charged user fees for the mountains and not for the infrastructure. You couldn't make this shit up if you wanted..

 

Reading comprehension again, junior. Try to focus on the words "if" and "then". It's not hard--unless you're willfully ignorant. In this instance, the topic is personal responsibility--not infrastructure. As such, it is an exercise you are apparently incapable of understanding.

Edited October 29, 2010 by Fairweather

[j_b]

what a pathetic liar!

 

here you say that mountains aren't infrastructure to differentiate with cyclists who according to you should pay fees: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/984969/Fairweather#Post984969 i.e. you pretend to not understand that land agencies charge a user fee for the infrastructure they maintain and not for the mountains.

 

and just above, you compare mountains to infrastructure because you want cyclists to take responsibility for a dangerous environment like climbers do. i.e. you pretend to not understand that mountains aren't infrastructure.

[Fairweather]

 

[Nitrox]

This thread makes me want to fling open my car door without looking.

 

 

[summitchaserCJB]

It's hard riding in the midst of hostile traffic.

[ZimZam]

This thread makes me want to fling open my car door without looking

and then hopefully you and your avatar can be the new hood ornament for Mack.

[j_b]

BLANK, NADA, ZILCH

Nice dodge, moron!

 

It's no surprise to me that you'll say anything convenient that appears to justify your pathetic ideology. You are trolling for the bottom of the barrel.

[E-rock]

The odds are high that as long as you've got steel grooves built into the roadway, cyclists are going to plant their tires in them and crash. If we apply the principles that you've outlined above, where does that leave us in this case?

 

Quite simply, rails should not be parallel to the lane of travel unless there is a physical barrier between the tracks and the lane. If you can't take the personal responsibility to cross tracks that are perpendicular to you direction of travel, especially when signs warn you of your impending crossing, then you deserve what you get.

[JayB]

The odds are high that as long as you've got steel grooves built into the roadway, cyclists are going to plant their tires in them and crash. If we apply the principles that you've outlined above, where does that leave us in this case?

 

Quite simply, rails should not be parallel to the lane of travel unless there is a physical barrier between the tracks and the lane. If you can't take the personal responsibility to cross tracks that are perpendicular to you direction of travel, especially when signs warn you of your impending crossing, then you deserve what you get.

 

But they are parallel to the lane(s) of travel with no barrier. Designed and built that way, and will likely stay that way forever.

 

The grate issue was borderline for me - since even when I was riding back to campus from The Zoo, barely drunk enough to stay upright and helmetless - I opted for the wide and perfectly smooth concrete path available on either side.

 

I realize this puts me in the regressive neocon personal responsibility fundamentalist camp, but the SLUT rails are way over the line for me. If you can't manage to ride from A to B without planting your front tire in the massively obvious steel slot that traverses the length of the street, then you are physically incapable of operating a bicycle in a safe manner anywhere, and brick walls at the end of dead-end alleys are likely to to represent a mortal hazard for you.

[Fairweather]

BLANK, NADA, ZILCH

Nice dodge, moron!

 

It's no surprise to me that you'll say anything convenient that appears to justify your pathetic ideology. You are trolling for the bottom of the barrel.

 

Oh dear, now you're angry. I can tell because you did that changing-the-letters thing in my user name again.

[Fairweather]

 

Quite simply, rails should not be parallel to the lane of travel unless there is a physical barrier between the tracks and the lane. If you can't take the personal responsibility to cross tracks that are perpendicular to you direction of travel, especially when signs warn you of your impending crossing, then you deserve what you get.

 

Ok. But what if they're

 

d

-i

--a

---g

----o

-----n

------a

-------l

--------?

[billcoe]

Yes! It does exist! Coming in with the Troika!

 

[billcoe]

 

Could have been much worse, lawyer dude could have been popped by an uninsured Illegal Mexican...right JB? Hey, happens all the time. This luck dude just hit the lottery. No, again, I'm not trading a wheelchair for any price, especially not 8 mil. Still sucks for the man. Then again, my neighbor got cancer and no one paid shit to anyone. 3 kids. Good by.

 

Now lets all go fix that damn bridge like should have been done to begin with when the first person flew hard and alerted these government slackers to it.