Interview and a mugshot
 

Recently, I ran across a journalist for one of Kansas City rags. The Pitch is a weekly paper that I suppose would be best described as "alternative culture/hipster news". It covers high-profile stuff in and around KC, night-life, dining, arts and entertainment and the like.

Anyhow, The lady I talked to lives near one of my bike commuter friends, and works close to where he works. After sharing his commute route with her, I found out that she was worried about safety on the road, which ended up in an e-mail volley about my crash back in March. It felt interview-ish, and that's what it ended up being. Yet another commuter friend of mine had a similar run in, where he was actually nudged off the road. He got interviewed as well.

Today, I just got my ugly mug captured digitally by their photog. It sounds very much like they're trying to really push for people to start paying attention to cyclists out here. The photo guy said he has also taken pictures of a guy who got run down while on a recreational group ride, so it doesn't sound commuter specific. I really won't know the entire content of the article until it hits the presses, but I know they have enough information about me to draft up a short bio including my crash.

No word on press date, but since it's a weekly rag, it's probably going to hit newsstands in the next few weeks.

Lucky you....ugly mug for the world to cringe from. :D


We'll need a link at the appropriate time of course.

That's cool! My friend Zach does the covers for that magazine.

Well, the article got published in print yesterday. About 75% of the article made it to the Pitch's online archive. There's a whole page missing from the online version, but the rider profiles (mine included) are up.

http://news.pitch.com/2007-11-08/new...sy-riders/full

Holy crap! That article reads as a "Cycling Tales of Woe". Nice coverage, but the subject matter makes me sad. :(

Egads....

That article makes me want to commute on the bus and train instead of the bike.
I know it was not their intent but as pinkrobe said it reads as a cycling tales of woe.

So, which one is ax0n? :)

Noah.

Yah... My comment below the article is visible. It's kind of a shame that most bicycling coverage out here is gloom and doom. I'm trying to convince the writer (who is a cyclist herself) to maybe put together a counter-article which is uplifting to cyclists.

This wasn't meant to scare riders, it was meant to alert motorists. It will scare riders, though. For every day I've had a close call, though, I've had 6 months of fun and healthy travel.

I just drove through KC coming back from my Katy trail trip on Tuesday evening.

I don't understand why anyone would live there. Traffic on 435 at 6:30PM looked as bad as what you would expect at 5. I bet all that 6:30 traffic got off work at 5. Multiple backups and over an hour to go about 15 miles at one point. There were countless very aggressive drivers zigging and zagging everywhere, every time the road opened up to something approximating highway speeds. Surface roads in the sprawl were parking lots.

I lived there in 99, but I lived and worked in Johnson county and only had to travel about 8 miles to work opposite the main cager throngs (lived off 75th, worked off 135th). Back then there was a vote to build light rail half-funded by the feds, and it was defeated. It's a city where the schools near most offices are horrid, so everyone moves into the sprawl: then they choose to sit in their cars and battle *******s for 2+ hours every day rather than sit by their neighbors on the train. What a crap-hole city, filled with the stupidest drivers anywhere. You can keep it. I can't imagine anyone with a family choosing to live there (I don't have a family, and I chose to leave anyway).

They're still working on the light rail. I stay off the highways at all costs. My commute is (give or take, depending on route) 14-15 miles each way. 87th and Quivira to downtown KCMO. All on side roads.

One thing that they are finally getting right is revitalizing downtown KCMO for population. There's a huge Gen-Y constituent that's moving downtown, living and working here. It's getting better for bicycles and pedestrians, but by in large, the cagers out here are still lunatics. If you want to feel better about KC, try driving (or heaven forbid, riding a bike) in Atlanta. I don't know how my fellow bike commuters in A-town do it.

Yeah, that was a rough read.

Especially aggravating was the recurring theme of - "Legal action: None."

I wouldn't want to ride in Kansas City after reading that article.

... often with the caveat of "victim was unable to get the license plate number"

Lesson for motorists to learn? If you hit a cyclist, it's okay so long as you get away before they come to their senses and get your tag info.

Or if you do stop, just use the magic words "I didn't see him." Somehow this has become an acceptable excuse to run over people in the US.

That's an interesting perspective. As a former resident of KC and Hutchinson, KS, I can tell you that Wichita would be the last place in Kansas that I would choose to live. Stupid drivers abound in both communities, but my experience was that Wichita's held the edge. Especially in the aggressive-SUV department. I found it pretty easy to get around Johnson County on a bike. But everyone's experience is different...

Noah, that article certainly is gloom-and-doom, but I think it's probably necessary if we want to get the attention of motorists. Not that most suburbanites are going to read the Pitch, but it's still worth something. Thanks for telling them your story.

For me, it was scary to read about the accident (Jeff Denny's) at Roe and Tomahawk. Used to ride through there every week to get to friends' houses and sometimes school (SM East). That type of incident is why I stand up and try to be as visible as possible as I approach an intersection behind a vehicle. It might look stupid, but it gets noticed.

"Hershey was upset that the KCPD didn't send an officer to the scene of a hit-and-run. An investigation at the behest of former City Councilman John Fairfield found that the police had acted according to procedure because Hershey had said he didn't need an ambulance."

This quote tells quite a bit about the lack of concern in KC with hit-and-run.

+1

Reading about the two deaths involved there really bothers me. No legal recourse? WTF? These two drivers in two incidents weren't even given a ticket... just shockingly bad bias it seems against bikes.

Glad that Mr. Triggs' family are pursuing things, I only hope they can set a positive precedent for cyclists.

Wichita isn't exactly a joy to cycle in, but our average cager-commute is something like 12 minutes. I imagine KC-metro is at least four times that. Where I live, in mid-northwest Wichita, getting around by bike is pretty easy. The worst area for cycling in Wichita is the west side, west of the 235 bypass. that area is overpaid white trash with SUVs and sub-prime mortgages. Our sprawl isn't nearly as bad as KC, therefore no one would need to live 30 miles from work to get their kids in a decent school. Wichita is 1/4 the size of KC (Half-million vs nearly 2 million people)

I think most large cities are just as bad as KC, I've just driven more frequently in KC so I have more experience with it. It seems like the sprawl and bad drivers are worse than in most places to me.


I bet Hutch is a nice cycling town. If I could find a way to make a living there I'd move. Wide streets seem to have enough room for bikes all over town. I see a lot of cyclists when my job takes me there, but most are the homeless-looking types. When I visit hutch I often wonder why anyone there even drives a car. I cant think of too many local Hutchinson trips that wouldn't be faster by bike than by car.

Noah, I'm glad you made it into that article, but it's no different from much mainstream media coverage of cycling as a daredevil activity for the foolhardy. In 20 years of year-round bike commutes I've yet to be hospitalized or be involved in anything more than a minor fender bender.

RFM