turd

haven't been able to find any more information than this, so far:
https://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/12..._keith_al.html
https://www.zentastic.com/entries/200507121426.html

shishi

Jesus christ...

dolface

yeah, i just saw that. is it always this bad, and i'm just paying more attention now, or are things worse than usual?

Judah

Sorry to hear this.

It seems worse than last year. I didn't feel nearly the same frantic activity on the roads last year as I'm feeling this year. Like people are in more of a rush and less willing to compromise for cyclists...

absntr

It's worse this year. There's definitely a frantic feeling in the air of late with drivers. My collarbone separation -- because of a pesky impatient stop sign running driver.

NY though seems to be getting it hard.

What's in the air?

neuron

these deaths are much crazier and way worse this year. seems like it keeps accelerating too.

this blog entry is kind of sad. i can share the exhilaration and annoyance he felt, which makes it that much more real. RIP.

https://www.nootrope.net/blog/2005/06/riding-season.html

Jose R

Chemtrails. HAARP.

People are stressed. Driving around in SUVs paying $50 for gas, paying $3,500 a month for a 1,000sqft McMansion on an interest only mortgage. Afraid of losing their jobs. Afraid of being blowed up in a false flag operation, er I mean terrorist bombing. Afraid of losing their home to hurricane/earthquake/eminent domain. Parents are worried about the draft. The illegal occupation in Iraq is causing great distress, here and abroad.

Since 1980, I think, volcanic/earthquake activity has shot up. More hurricanes than ususal, and earlier in the season.

We live in unsettled times. People are being driven to behave selfishly with no concern for others. Cyclists are in the direct line of fire. Especially since local governments and law enforcement don't take bike accidents seriously and have shown no interest in protecting the lives of cyclists.

fixedfiend

He died avoiding a little kid and smashed his head into a divider wall. No helmet. I can relate because that's similar to how I just seperated my shoulder. How's yours feeling? Full steam yet? do you have that Quasimodo lump like I do?

turd

where'd you get this info? can you post, pls..

eat_raw

When I want to give benefit of the doubt, I assume that a large portion of the population is lacking in spatio-reasoning skills. For example, I ride daily in Prospect Park, and pedestrians see me coming and don't yield the right of way---- in fact, they walk directly in my path, basically DARING ME to run them over. Or a mother neglectfully allows her kid(s) to block the path of a group of bikers. Or, the best one yet, a work group of kids REPEATEDLY blocks all lanes on the downhill--- you'd think after the first time they'd realize it was dangerous both for them and the bikers.

What's my point? Are there so many challenged people out there? NO

There's this unwarranted sense of entitlement that basically has people thinking 'You get out of my ****in way '

Easy enough to do when someone walks in front of you on a bike path
harder, however, when that (type of) person is driving a car.

On the one hand, we have the idiots opening their car doors without looking. And they're exactly using the excuse 'I didn't see HIM/HER' quite successfully---MIND BOGGELING.
On the other, we have idiots, with more than enough room, crowding bikers towards the parked cars---it's a game to see how close they can come.
And my personal favorite: the QUASI stop at the STOP SIGN;
don't stop at the sign but come out into the intersection and stop there----basically, you're telling everyone else (cars and bikes) BLOW ME!!!
1)Either stop and let me go, after all, I'M SPECIAL----**** the RIGHT of WAY
2) Go around me ---I'm SPECIAL
3) HIT ME ----you don't have the balls cause I'M SPECIAL

Any budget deficit is wiped away by merely TICKETING STOP SIGN abusers.

But what I find even more difficult to believe is that
so many bikers are riding BRAKELESS and HELMETLESS.

Why?

fixedfiend

I don't really want to start a helmet flame war...

Yoshi

From the road bike forum: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=121020

Probably the same accident - Keith Alexander lived in Brooklyn if I'm not mistaken, and road a high end bike. I used to read his blog fairly often...I didn't know him personally but this still is quite sad.

filtersweep

It wasn't even traffic related... truly sad.

absntr

Oh man - that's hard to hear. I'm not going to discuss the merits of helmets anymore than anyone else (like you said - no helmet flame wars please) but that sucks.

Mine's doing better. Still doing basic stretching to keep it mobile but I'm more or less almost back to normal. I'd say I have about 85% complete mobility/rotation. Still aches under heavy loads and long rides - which I did this past weekend -- a metric century. Not the best idea to go out with a full loaded mess bag but I did it anyway. The last 8 miles was torture.

And as for Quasimodo lumps...

https://flickr.com/photos/absenter/18418218/

Though these days it looks like it's sticking out even more. It's never going to sit right unless I get surgery: a screw to hold it in place. I neither want to go under the knife or dole out that kind of money at the moment for something that's cosmetic. For now.

pgoat

This really sucks.

The stress factor is doubtlessly a part of it......also, Are there now substantially more cars than ever in Manhattan , Brooklyn, Queens? I know Long Island has just gone beserk in the number of people - and hence motorists - in the last five years or so. I wouldn't think of riding my bike on some of the same highways I used to zoom along on autopilot just 7 or 8 years ago out there.

anybody know if the number of people driving is on the rise in the city as well?

shishi

More people=More cars

Studies have shown with the increase of the living standard, the number of cars goes up 10%-20%. NYC ain't getting any cheaper.

peripatetic

I'm sure that being at war in such a jingoistic society as ours only serves to enflame the macho tendencies of most people who equate the size of their genitalia to the authority with which they drive. I find it so sad to look around at all of the shiny new cars in such a depressed, public-housing laden area as my own and realize that this merely represents a large portion of people who can least afford to using an automobile as a measure of their own self-worth. All I see are high interest rates and repossessions waiting for one more missed payment. All of this while we're led as the sacrificial lambs in a war on an ephemeral target in which we are not really all that interested in waging. (What if all the world leaders didn't have secret service or bodyguards? Who'd be the targets of bombings then?)

I don't know how much any of this is connected, but it sure feels like it. Indifference breeds resentment and hostility.

RIP, one more biker.

vobopl

Mine is still here after 20 years since accident - the only person caring was one tailor in HK

medicinhed

How sad.
This year seems really bad.
I'm getting a bad feeling on the streets sometimes. With more people seeming to buy bikes, drivers seem less and less willing to share the road.

I've gotta start wearing the helmet. I've gotta start watching my back. Cars are not our friends.

pgoat

I don't know how much any of this is connected, but it sure feels like it. Indifference breeds resentment and hostility.

mister, you are right on target, far as i can see.......


I sold my car about five years ago - was like a junkie giving up his needle. I wasn't sure how I'd survve so emasculated and deprived.

well, many pedaled miles later I am quite happier and healthier, thanks very much.

Want to argue that one, crank up your brain and take a good look - I mean a REAL GOOD LOOK at a car commercial or two. Vehicles that are absurdly expensive, grossly overpowered and underengineered for their main purpose (Hello? A to B?) and they turn our air to toxic crud in the bargain. Yippee.

I'm sure people will chime in with all kinds of reasons they MUST have and use a car - as in everyday. I am sure for some people it's true. I am also pretty confident for most people they could reduce or eliminate their use of a car if they wanted to. They just don't want to.

But do they understand why they don't want to?

pgoat

I like that anti-car rant above

These guys say it better than I could:

https://www.gobybicycle.com/

Yoshi

I have mostly confirmed that the accident reported in the road cycling forum was indeed Keith Alexander (I heard this from a friend of his, so I'm assuming it's true).

Also, some more links:

https://93x.com/listingsEntry.asp?ID=349534&PT=ROCK+NEWS
https://www.deesnider.com/CMS/content/view/167/2/