Jim Price's death reported on national news

On the ABC radio national news, on their midnight
Saturday broadcast, reported on Jim's death.

They didn't mention his name, just that
a teenager who was text-messaging while
driving killed a bicyclist in Colorado.
And the cyclist's wife did not want the teenager
to be severly punished.

The point of this :30 second piece was more like
'Stupid things teens do when driving', then
bicyclist are to be accepted and their loss
is a sign of a broken transportation system.

--Chris

chris collins wrote:
On the ABC radio national news, on their midnight
Saturday broadcast, reported on Jim's death.

They didn't mention his name, just that
a teenager who was text-messaging while
driving killed a bicyclist in Colorado.
And the cyclist's wife did not want the teenager
to be severly punished.

The point of this :30 second piece was more like
'Stupid things teens do when driving', then
bicyclist are to be accepted and their loss
is a sign of a broken transportation system.

--Chris

This is pure BS. That should not have be the object lesson from this
tragedy. The cell phone industry and the country have been complicit
in such homicidal events. That's the only thing that's broken in the
transportation system.

The cell phone industry insists that it is safe to talk on the phone
while driving. While I don't think the cell phone industry has come
out and advocated text messaging was safe while driving, they have not
declared that act was dangerous either. And we citizens condone this
kind of behavior by not enacting strict laws against cell phone use in
a moving vehicle.

Drive now, talk later! Pull over the damn vehicle if you need to talk.
I see clueless drivers talking on the cell phone all the time. There
are more cell phone users than drunks out there. As such, cell phone
users are more dangerous than drunk drivers in a moving vehicle.

"damyth" writes:

chris collins wrote:
On the ABC radio national news, on their midnight Saturday
broadcast, reported on Jim's death.

They didn't mention his name, just that a teenager who was
text-messaging while driving killed a bicyclist in Colorado. And
the cyclist's wife did not want the teenager to be severly
punished.

The point of this :30 second piece was more like 'Stupid things
teens do when driving', then bicyclist are to be accepted and their
loss is a sign of a broken transportation system.

This is pure BS. That should not have be the object lesson from
this tragedy. The cell phone industry and the country have been
complicit in such homicidal events. That's the only thing that's
broken in the transportation system.

Ummm, do you actually use the transportation system? This is one of
many things about the U.S. transporation system that are broken

Inadequate training of drivers in the first place is one of the most
crucial problems in our transportation system- most drivers barely
know how to control their cars unless driving conditions are ideal.
Incompetent road design creates dangers for cyclists and drivers alike
on a daily basis in every city in America. Drivers who are distracted
by cell phones, DVD players, car stereos, books, newspapers, food,
maps, etc. can be seen on every mile of urban highways. Drivers who
are impaired by drugs and alcohol are far too common, those who are
sleep deprived, or who suffer from a lack of anger management skills
for that matter. Most drivers seriously overestimate their
competence.

The cell phone industry insists that it is safe to talk on the phone
while driving. While I don't think the cell phone industry has come
out and advocated text messaging was safe while driving, they have
not declared that act was dangerous either. And we citizens condone
this kind of behavior by not enacting strict laws against cell phone
use in a moving vehicle.

Of course the cell phone industry portrays this as safe. Using a cell
phone in your car is probably half if not more of the cell phone use
in the U.S. It's often cited as one of the main reasons people buy
cell phones.

Drive now, talk later! Pull over the damn vehicle if you need to
talk. I see clueless drivers talking on the cell phone all the
time. There are more cell phone users than drunks out there. As
such, cell phone users are more dangerous than drunk drivers in a
moving vehicle.

It's not just cell phones. It's all distractions from attention to
the task at hand: driving your car. The laws ought to focus not on
cell phones but on distracted drivers- eating, reading, getting a
blowjob, whatever, while driving. Cell phones are only one part of
the problem.

"Tim McNamara" wrote in message
...
"damyth" writes:

chris collins wrote:
On the ABC radio national news, on their midnight Saturday
broadcast, reported on Jim's death.

They didn't mention his name, just that a teenager who was
text-messaging while driving killed a bicyclist in Colorado. And
the cyclist's wife did not want the teenager to be severly
punished.

The point of this :30 second piece was more like 'Stupid things
teens do when driving', then bicyclist are to be accepted and their
loss is a sign of a broken transportation system.

This is pure BS. That should not have be the object lesson from
this tragedy. The cell phone industry and the country have been
complicit in such homicidal events. That's the only thing that's
broken in the transportation system.

Ummm, do you actually use the transportation system? This is one of
many things about the U.S. transporation system that are broken

Inadequate training of drivers in the first place is one of the most
crucial problems in our transportation system- most drivers barely
know how to control their cars unless driving conditions are ideal.
Incompetent road design creates dangers for cyclists and drivers alike
on a daily basis in every city in America. Drivers who are distracted
by cell phones, DVD players, car stereos, books, newspapers, food,
maps, etc. can be seen on every mile of urban highways. Drivers who
are impaired by drugs and alcohol are far too common, those who are
sleep deprived, or who suffer from a lack of anger management skills
for that matter. Most drivers seriously overestimate their
competence.

The cell phone industry insists that it is safe to talk on the phone
while driving. While I don't think the cell phone industry has come
out and advocated text messaging was safe while driving, they have
not declared that act was dangerous either. And we citizens condone
this kind of behavior by not enacting strict laws against cell phone
use in a moving vehicle.

Of course the cell phone industry portrays this as safe. Using a cell
phone in your car is probably half if not more of the cell phone use
in the U.S. It's often cited as one of the main reasons people buy
cell phones.

Drive now, talk later! Pull over the damn vehicle if you need to
talk. I see clueless drivers talking on the cell phone all the
time. There are more cell phone users than drunks out there. As
such, cell phone users are more dangerous than drunk drivers in a
moving vehicle.

It's not just cell phones. It's all distractions from attention to
the task at hand: driving your car. The laws ought to focus not on
cell phones but on distracted drivers- eating, reading, getting a
blowjob, whatever, while driving. Cell phones are only one part of
the problem.


Well stated! Drivers should not be intentionally distracting themselves
from the task at hand, yet many seem to go out of their way to do so.
People are just desensitized to the energy involved in a vehicle of a couple
thousand pounds whizzing down the highway. A friend of mine was killed in a
head-on collision in broad daylight in her car when the oncoming driver on a
2-lane road decided to turn around and attend to her child while negotiating
a curve in the road. Obviously, the driver had no sense of perspective
regarding the relative importance of the fussing child vs the need to stay
in one's lane. The oft-heard excuse of "I didn't see him" is just
excuse-making for being distracted by something optional or unimportant.

It's a cultural problem, basically. I lived for 8 years in a country that
tended to have a wide variety of things in the road; street sweepers with
carts and brooms, slow-moving construction equipment, pedestrians,
motorcycles, etc. I felt a lot safer on my bike in there than I do in the
US because the drivers seemed to expect the unexpected. It might also have
helped that all "accidents" involving vehicles in that country are criminal
offenses and the laws there invariably consider the more injured party to be
the victim.

A common US attitude (though not reflected in the laws) is that only
motorized vehicles should be on the roads and that there is some sort of
inate right to drive and distract oneself while doing so. In that other
country, I had no incidents in those 8 years of drivers yelling obscenities
at me, blowing their horn at me, giving me the finger, or other aggressive
behavior. They just treated me as a legitimate user of the roads, as by
their laws I was. Back in the US for the past 18 months, I've had at least
10 instances of drivers aggressively indicating that they didn't appreciate
my presence on the roads, although it is completely legal for me to be
there. It's depressing.

Cal

"Tim McNamara" wrote in message
...

Ummm, do you actually use the transportation system? This is one of
many things about the U.S. transporation system that are broken

The bicycle centric nature of this newgroup cracks me up sometimes. The US
has the most effective and reliable transportation system anywhere on the
planet by nearly every measure. It may not be that friendly to cyclists,
but the ability to get from point A to point B easier, cheaper, and faster
is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. The system isn't prefect and some of
the issues were accurately pointed out. The system is very auto-centric
(that doesn't mean it's broken), there's too many drunk drivers, and there
are less than attentive drivers out there even when sober.

Oh yeah, the US as a whole doesn't give a **** about bicycles as
transportation. Of course that doesn't mean the system is broken, it just
means that government, society, and transportation planners, and most of the
population doesn't place much value on the bicycle as a means of
transportation (present company excepted). That's a political issue, not an
absolute indication of a "flaw".

Tom

Ever hear of Germany??

They have stunning roads and you can take 65 trains a day between Bonn
and Berlin.
And you can go most places on bike paths. And they are incredibly fuel
efficient.

You Americans should actually go and look at the world instead of
imagining it.

tcmedara wrote:
"Tim McNamara" wrote in message
...

Ummm, do you actually use the transportation system? This is one of
many things about the U.S. transporation system that are broken

The bicycle centric nature of this newgroup cracks me up sometimes. The US
has the most effective and reliable transportation system anywhere on the
planet by nearly every measure. It may not be that friendly to cyclists,
but the ability to get from point A to point B easier, cheaper, and faster
is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. The system isn't prefect and some of
the issues were accurately pointed out. The system is very auto-centric
(that doesn't mean it's broken), there's too many drunk drivers, and there
are less than attentive drivers out there even when sober.

Oh yeah, the US as a whole doesn't give a **** about bicycles as
transportation. Of course that doesn't mean the system is broken, it just
means that government, society, and transportation planners, and most of the
population doesn't place much value on the bicycle as a means of
transportation (present company excepted). That's a political issue, not an
absolute indication of a "flaw".

Tom

Gotta agree. having traveled in Europe and Asia, the ability to get
from Point A to Point B easily is unsurpassed in the US, particularly
considering how big it is. The 'system' encourages auto centric
behavior, with it's 'live one place, work another' mentality. There are
few communities where 'staying at home' in the small community exists.
All this puts the bicycle in the 'toy' catagory, not in the 'realistic
transportation' catagory.

tcmedara wrote:


The bicycle centric nature of this newgroup cracks me up sometimes.

fx: boggles
No, really? And what, pray, would you have thought a newsfroup containing
in its name the word "bicycles" would be about?

--
Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
World Domination? Just find a world that's into that kind of thing,
then chain to the floor and walk up and down on it in high heels.

CEarly wrote:
"Tim McNamara" wrote in message
...
"damyth" writes:

chris collins wrote:
On the ABC radio national news, on their midnight Saturday
broadcast, reported on Jim's death.

They didn't mention his name, just that a teenager who was
text-messaging while driving killed a bicyclist in Colorado. And
the cyclist's wife did not want the teenager to be severly
punished.

The point of this :30 second piece was more like 'Stupid things
teens do when driving', then bicyclist are to be accepted and their
loss is a sign of a broken transportation system.

This is pure BS. That should not have be the object lesson from
this tragedy. The cell phone industry and the country have been
complicit in such homicidal events. That's the only thing that's
broken in the transportation system.

Ummm, do you actually use the transportation system? This is one of
many things about the U.S. transporation system that are broken

Inadequate training of drivers in the first place is one of the most
crucial problems in our transportation system- most drivers barely
know how to control their cars unless driving conditions are ideal.
Incompetent road design creates dangers for cyclists and drivers alike
on a daily basis in every city in America. Drivers who are distracted
by cell phones, DVD players, car stereos, books, newspapers, food,
maps, etc. can be seen on every mile of urban highways. Drivers who
are impaired by drugs and alcohol are far too common, those who are
sleep deprived, or who suffer from a lack of anger management skills
for that matter. Most drivers seriously overestimate their
competence.

The cell phone industry insists that it is safe to talk on the phone
while driving. While I don't think the cell phone industry has come
out and advocated text messaging was safe while driving, they have
not declared that act was dangerous either. And we citizens condone
this kind of behavior by not enacting strict laws against cell phone
use in a moving vehicle.

Of course the cell phone industry portrays this as safe. Using a cell
phone in your car is probably half if not more of the cell phone use
in the U.S. It's often cited as one of the main reasons people buy
cell phones.

Drive now, talk later! Pull over the damn vehicle if you need to
talk. I see clueless drivers talking on the cell phone all the
time. There are more cell phone users than drunks out there. As
such, cell phone users are more dangerous than drunk drivers in a
moving vehicle.

It's not just cell phones. It's all distractions from attention to
the task at hand: driving your car. The laws ought to focus not on
cell phones but on distracted drivers- eating, reading, getting a
blowjob, whatever, while driving. Cell phones are only one part of
the problem.


Well stated! Drivers should not be intentionally distracting themselves
from the task at hand, yet many seem to go out of their way to do so.
People are just desensitized to the energy involved in a vehicle of a couple
thousand pounds whizzing down the highway. A friend of mine was killed in a
head-on collision in broad daylight in her car when the oncoming driver on a
2-lane road decided to turn around and attend to her child while negotiating
a curve in the road. Obviously, the driver had no sense of perspective
regarding the relative importance of the fussing child vs the need to stay
in one's lane. The oft-heard excuse of "I didn't see him" is just
excuse-making for being distracted by something optional or unimportant.

It's a cultural problem, basically. I lived for 8 years in a country that
tended to have a wide variety of things in the road; street sweepers with
carts and brooms, slow-moving construction equipment, pedestrians,
motorcycles, etc. I felt a lot safer on my bike in there than I do in the
US because the drivers seemed to expect the unexpected. It might also have
helped that all "accidents" involving vehicles in that country are criminal
offenses and the laws there invariably consider the more injured party to be
the victim.

A common US attitude (though not reflected in the laws) is that only
motorized vehicles should be on the roads and that there is some sort of
inate right to drive and distract oneself while doing so. In that other
country, I had no incidents in those 8 years of drivers yelling obscenities
at me, blowing their horn at me, giving me the finger, or other aggressive
behavior. They just treated me as a legitimate user of the roads, as by
their laws I was. Back in the US for the past 18 months, I've had at least
10 instances of drivers aggressively indicating that they didn't appreciate
my presence on the roads, although it is completely legal for me to be
there. It's depressing.

Cal

A coupe of years ago, when I was really toasted on a long ride, a guy
in a pickup truck up by Lyons tossed a half eaten cheezeburger at
me...geeezzz, was I hungrey too, wish I could have caught it...Getting
abused arond here in the 'republic' is common as well. Go a couple of
miles north toward the redneck burg of Longmont(Wrongmont), ride your
bike around and you will see.

"tcmedara" wrote
The bicycle centric nature of this newgroup cracks me up sometimes. The
US has the most effective and reliable transportation system anywhere on
the planet by nearly every measure. It may not be that friendly to
cyclists, but the ability to get from point A to point B easier, cheaper,
and faster is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. The system isn't prefect
and some of the issues were accurately pointed out. The system is very
auto-centric (that doesn't mean it's broken), there's too many drunk
drivers, and there are less than attentive drivers out there even when
sober.

Oh yeah, the US as a whole doesn't give a **** about bicycles as
transportation. Of course that doesn't mean the system is broken, it just
means that government, society, and transportation planners, and most of
the population doesn't place much value on the bicycle as a means of
transportation (present company excepted). That's a political issue, not
an absolute indication of a "flaw".

Tom

Looking at the sheer number of people who get moved around various European
countries in the course of a day I would have to call the transportation
systems of those countries more effective than ours.

Transportation is not going to stay cheap in this country if we keep on
depleting the world's oil supply at the present rate, and if we keep on
screwing up our trade balance by importing so much oil. Throw in the medical
cost of this country's obesity problem (caused in large part by our
auto-centric transportation system) and the US transportation system doesn't
look quite so cheap. Add in the cost of disrupting the world's food supply
through global warming (caused by burning all those fossil fuels) and the US
transportation system doesn't look cheap at all.

The US transportation system provides a fair bit of short term convenience
to a small portion of the world's population at a very high long term cost
to the entire world. That's a pretty flawed system to me.
--
mark