Sunday, December 6, 2009

single tip- don't cut off a big truck

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/the-one-tip-for-staying-safe-on-a-bike.php

Pretty shocking stat.
Trucks scare me.
I experienced "truck suck" a few years back, and it still makes me break out in a cold sweat.
That's where air currents try to pull your bicycle under the side of a big rig truck.
Spooky stuff.

Again, don't think a rig is like any other vehicle.
An uneven load can sway sideways past the white dividing lane.
Don't think that hugging the edge of highway asphalt is a good idea.
I swerve off into gravel every time I hear/see a big truck coming.

(I finally will use a mirror on a recumbent bicycle. No eye strain, no annoying vibrations and wild pivotting of rear field-of-view.)

In a bike lane, I try to centre myself off the curb now instead of the lane on this side of the curb cement. I occupy a whole lane with my big chopper handlebars. Plus when my folding baskets are deployed. I've had cars that are *just* in their lane nearly touch me...

D.

Congrats to Raj at WPIRG for her Record sound bite on ghost bikes and that dead cyclist.




Sunday, November 29, 2009

bike lanes uptown- the good, the bad and the ugly




D: the picture order is the Ugly, the Bad and the Good.

OK, the first one is at Erb and Father David Bauer.
This intersection was already like this last year.
It remains unchanged.
The bike lane suddenly ends on FDB.
There are 2 lanes for cars spilling out onto Erb.
The lanes are very narrow.
The bike has nowhere to go, or to fit.
Very UGLY.

Bad: this is on Caroline Street, behind the uptown Waterloo mall.
Inexplicably there is additional on-street parking that suddenly appears mid-street.
As far as the eye can see, there are parking lots.
?!?
To a car driver's point of view, the cyclist who attempts to follow the bike lane to the left of this unnecessary parking will seem to suddenly swerve to cut off the car.
Nice way to go SPLAT.
I saw this a lot in Cambridge.
Fortunately, cyclists sensibly ride on the sidewalk in these stretches instead of risking death.
BAD.

GOOD! I cannot believe it. Something I ranted about last year was actually FIXED!
This change is at Caroline and William Street.
Last year it was identical to the UGLY intersection listed already.
This year, there is enough space for both the intersection and bike lane and cars!
Wow.

I've said it before. A bike lane that blinks out of existence at intersections- the critical juncture where 1/2 of bike accidents take place - is NOT a bike lane.
It's a waste of time, money, and pavement.
It's an afterthought.
Add more nice grass and trees instead.
OR: do it right.
How many bike lane maps are accurate?
If we discount any bike lanes that don't exist at intersections, and ignore any bike lane stretches that don't survive from one street intersection to the next, how many are there REALLY?

BTW, FDB remains uncleaned, uneven, puddly and otherwise excreble this year.
This is an example of do it right or don't do it.
They really shouldn't have bothered.
Most smart cyclists ride on the sidewalk anyway.
Like I said, built it right AND maintain it.
Or just don't.

D.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

my jaunt to nearby Guelph

My car broke down there.
I biked there and around for a coupla days.

Impressions?
1) Kitchener's Victoria becomes Guelph's Woodlawn.
It is equally unfriendly. No sidewalk, no bike lane.
Even the grass is intersected by curbs.
At one point, the dirt path is inches away from a sharp slope.

Edinburgh, heading toward U o' Guelph, has signs forbidding biking on the sidewalk.
The street is OK.

By campus, a few blocks on Gordon have bike lanes.
However, it is not maintained.
There were TWO patches of broken glass.

Back to Woodlawn.
The huge sea of parking for cars at the Cineplex conspicuously lacked bike parking.

There ought to be a bylaw.
100 car spots? One for bikes.

OR we could boycott.
Try to take your bike to the movie.
Of course they won't let you.
That's the point.
Nowhere to lock it up.
Boycott.
Imagine our financial clout if we organized...
D>

Thursday, November 5, 2009

how to die on a bicycle

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/how-to-get-killed-on-a-bike.php

The winner?

A car turning right when the cyclist oncoming has right of way.

BUT.
I cannot believe how BAD cyclists are!
I have only been driving a car, necessary for work, for a few months.
The number of times at night, on the sidewalk, with no lights, the wrong way, a cyclist tries to assert 'right of way' is incredible.
Apparently many cyclists *want* to die.

Cyclists contribute to their own demise about half of the time...

Hard to feel sorry for them.

Don't get me wrong - I strategically break driving rules when I think it increases my safety.
But if I'm on the sidewalk, I'm on the correct side.

A driver who faces a typical hazard begins to react in .7 seconds.
Unexpected? 1.1 seconds.
That can often be the difference between sharply braking and an actual accident.

Of course, the Euro-effect suggests that simply having MORE cyclists would result in safer cyclists.
Car drivers get used to looking for them.

Want that to happen?
Stop building more traffic lanes and new highways every time traffic gets congested. Paired with carrots, this stick will deter drivers who have alternatives.
K-W, of course, is building an incredibly expensive new highway system instead.
Using cyclist and pedestrian tax-base to subsidize those who can afford to own cards.
Regressive fiscal policy.
Congrats, K-W.

Monday, November 2, 2009

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/velib-bike-sharing-thieves-vandals.php

80% of the bikes are missing or damaged.
They cost $3500 apiece, resulting in a brisk black market.

3000 were stolen the first year.

The idea of a distinctive appearance did not seem to reduce theft.
The bike are either stripped for parts locally, or exported intact.

http://redjar.org/jared/projects/communitybike/summary/
Nice summary of community bicycle projects.

D: I am unfamiliar with it, but I have heard of a European antitheft mechanism.
I think it locks the front tired in position.

http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20080910095417936
D: a campus that has GPS-equipped 'bait bikes'.

D: I thought an RFID tag could also do so.
Even just equipping major intersections in big cities would eventually flag down many stolen bikes.
I've seen RFIDs claiming a useful 40' range.

http://www2.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/model/city.storm/3884/36268/
D: an almost perfect city bicycle.
And only $1500!
The frame is aluminum.
I guess that makes the weight tolerable.

As I get older, I like a nice sensible modernized Dutch cruiser more and more.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/dutch-to-new-york-ride-our-bikes-please/
D: here is a modest $800 Batavus Dutch cruiser.

Friday, July 24, 2009

hit and run hurts five ottawa cyclists

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090719/cyclists_minivan_090719/20090719?hub=TopStories&s_name=

Ottawa police say they have made an arrest after a minivan struck and seriously injured five cyclists. At least two of the cyclists are listed in critical condition.

D: by leaving the scene instead of staying, calling 9-1-1 and rendering aid, this driver likely killed or aggravated injuries.

Bicycle helmets are only rated for 20kph impacts.

This seems a good argument for lower speed limits in town.
Of course, if the roads "feel" as if they are safe when faster, cars will still drive faster.
Making roads that are safe but don't feel safe slows drivers down.

Kinetic injury increases as the square of speed.
An impact at 40kph is MUCH safer than at 50kph.

(Wiki)
Essential physics
The kinetic energy involved in a motor vehicle collision is proportional to the square of the speed at impact. The probability of a fatality is, for typical collision speeds, empirically correlated to the fourth power of the speed difference (depending on the type of collision, not necessarily the same as travel speed) at impact,[5] rising much faster than kinetic energy.

A report from the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation includes in its summary the finding that the incidence of crashes depends more on variations in speed between vehicles than on absolute speed, and that the likelihood of a crash happening is significantly higher if vehicles are traveling at speeds slower or faster than the mean speed of traffic

D: too slow is as dangerous as too fast.
I drive on the highway up north some weekends to work in construction.
I don't want speeding tickets to drive up my insurance, or make me lose my license. So I stay only 10 kph above the speed limit.
Very few drivers are happy with this speed.
I'm sure going slower would cause road rage incidents.
Where these people are going in such a hurry is beyond me.
I just leave on time.

My co-renter said he hitches a ride with an older lady sometimes.
She drives the speed limit, right on the dot - in the passing lane.
Meaning people pass unexpected on the right.
SHE is every bit as dangerous as some yahoo weaving in and out of traffic at 20-30kph over the speed limit.

On the highway, there is a bewildering subset of the speeder/passer type.
They'll ride behind me within a second of travel distance for many minutes.
Irate drivers behind them then need to pass multiple vehicles to pass.
Oddly, such a driver will skip many fine opportunities to pass, only to pass finally in less than ideal conditions as their patience runs out.
An odd and dangerous combination of speeding and timidity.

Creating three seconds of reaction time also drives folks bonkers.
These people will travel within 1-2 seconds of the next car.
Leaving almost no time to react in an emergency.

In poor conditions, such as poor visibility or road surface, this combination causes accidents.
I occasionally read of huge multi-vehicle pile-ups on highways during severe fog.

Relating to the story, who will ever know if another second of reaction time would have averted this tragedy?

Friday, June 26, 2009

ugly hit and and hit and drag and run by Fox writer

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/fox-news-writer-drags-cyclist.php

The driver then accelerated, lunging straight into me, knocking me and my bicycle to the ground and to the left side of his car. I quickly got to my feet and positioned myself in front of his vehicle to prevent him from fleeing the scene. I called out to bystanders to call the police and yelled at the driver that he was insane, he just hit me, and he can't leave. The driver again accelerated into me, with no intention of stopping, forcing me, prostrate, onto the drivers side hood of his vehicle. Riding precariously with a 4,000 lb wheel inches from pulling me beneath it, I screamed for the driver to "Stop!!! Please Stop!!" over and over. He continued to ignore my pleas for some 200ft. keeping a steady 5 or 10mph. He then stopped suddenly allowing me to fall off the side of the hood. Just as quickly as he stopped he violently accelerated again knocking me to the side. This time I managed to stay standing. The driver then sped off Northbound. At this point several witnesses came to my aid and reported his license plate.

D: I've said it before and I'll say it again.
Hitting a cyclist with a car should involve criminal charges.
That's a high speed, one ton weapon.

A traffic offence?!
You gotta be kidding.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

comic, types of jerk cyclists



D: just a sample.

ROTFL!
These jokes resemble me. At least, occupying a whole lane downtown in 'car door hell'.

BIKELY, nifty online map of bike routes



D: it seems to be more useful between smaller towns than within them.

My roomie said something about a Google Map beta that looks for bike paths.
http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Google_Maps_Gets_More_Pedestrian

D: here is a pedestrian version.

http://www.theunwired.net/?item=service-google-adds-pedestrian-mode-to-google-maps-no-new-mobile-client-available-yet

D: though let's face it, if you can walk it, you can likely bike it.

Unrelated aside: The weather was rain today.
On the way to brunch, I saw a fellow in a poncho on a bike.
He had cleverly draped the poncho over the handlebars, thereby covering his legs.
Very practical!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

pal cop responds to my crime post 2 blogs ago

Says Constable A. G.:

"Well, lets say it's in the context that we get a call and it's a traffic complaint - driver swerved for a cyclist. There are many Highway Traffic/Provincial Offences we could charge them with.As for it becoming a weapon and going criminally, it could 'technically' be done, the likelihood of it going to a conviction through court....that's a little questionable.If there is more than enough evidence to prove that the driver had intent and did want to infact injure or take the cyclist of the road using foce/weapon...if there was an injury as a result, severity of it, if the suspect is known to victim, there's something we could charge them with i'm sure. It really would depend on the severity and attitude of the driver."

Thanks! <:

UK optical illusion of big hole to slow cyclists




This reminds me of something from the "Traffic" book I read.
Create wide off-colour curbs, although they are a functional road surface.
This makes the street feel narrower, and therefore less safe.
Subjectively, folks think driving slower is a good idea.

Instead, we encourage speeding by making the roads feel particularly open and safe.
And.... encourage speeding.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

law to handle drivers harrassing cyclists

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/survey-should-harassment-of-cyclists-get-its-own-law.php

"April just pointed out that harassment of bicyclists by car drivers is now a special misdemeanor offense in Missouri—it's got its own specific law prohibiting it, rather than it just being included under existing driving laws. Colorado will have a similar law go into effect on August 5th. Personally I think it's not a bad idea at all. Although I haven't experienced it myself, I've had plenty of friends who have been swerved at by drivers, nearly sideswiped, or otherwise harassed by motorists who seemingly feel that anything in the road other than a car deserves to be physically pushed off it. So, what do readers think?"

--------------
D: Hmm. If somebody displays a weapon, such as a large knife, it becomes illegal to "beg, accost, or impede".
And what is a car but a very large weapon? In this context.
Ergo, I'd argue that the criminal code could be applied to drivers that use their automobiles to accost or impede a cyclist.
<:

D>

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

toronto's jarvis street bike lane feud re: Kitchener and Waterloo




D: those are pics of Jarvis Street now, after, and before.
Note that the original green space and lovely trees were eaten up by cars.
Now, bikes are being artificially portrayed as a threat to increased pedestrian space.
If this is so, it is only cuz King Car gobbled up the rest of the space.
I have 4 observations about bike lanes in this situation:
1) placing a bike lane on a main way means a bus route, and that means leapfrog with buses
2) practical bicycling will encourage drivers to switch to cycles, thereby reducing traffic
3) parking is not OK in a bike lane, but stopping to drop off a passenger (like a Taxi) is OK
4) making a bike lane too wide- 1.5m in the case of Jarvis - may encourage the bike lane being treated as either a car turn lane or a parking spot.
D: as a compromise, I personally think bike lanes could be used to hold snow in the winter.
Piling it onto the sidewalk is retarded.
Funny thing about main roads.
For example, King St. in Kitchener.
There are 2 car lanes each way.
There is a sidewalk on each side, without any gap by the road.
Of course, the snow plow buries the sidewalk.
Mike, a bar owner on the street, was out there most of last winter doing heavy shovelling.
Here's a heretical idea: lose a car lane.
And I don't mean the 5th car lane in the middle like Jarvis.
I mean one of the 2-wide car lanes for traffic.
Put in a bike lane both ways.
Have only one lane for cars one way.
Obviously, you need an advanced turn green light.
Use the bike lanes for snow in the winter.
Uptown Waterloo, we have heaps of parking- there is a parking garage!
The sidewalks are narrow.
They compete with store signs, baby strollers and bicycles.
There is on street parking.
I suggest:
1) replace on street parking with drop off / pick up zones.
Unlike Toronto, DON'T sacrifice sidewalk in the process- that is just more "Car is King" thinking!
2) lose a car lane both ways. They are just used for cars trying to park anyway, so there is only effectively ONE lane each way not anyhow.
3) put in bike lanes.
Bikes instead go on the narrow sidewalk. There really isn't space.
But the alternative to getting car-doored is ... wait for it... to occupy a whole car lane.
That always goes over so well with drivers, who have no sense of just how deadly all that on-street parking is to a cyclist.
Plus nobody can parallel park. Meaning we have SUV sized vehicles over a foot out from the curb, physically IN the car lane.
I tried to stay in the car lane with a boss's van some years back.
I was even riding the centre line.
I still clipped my mirror on ill-parked cars!
Rant: whoever laid out the uptown Waterloo on-street parking and sidewalks should be fired.
No thought was put into where bike stands were placed. Some leave the bike half in flower garden.
Some are jammed on newspaper boxes.
There are very few along long stretches.
I'd like to see them coated in rubber or plastic.
I'll take a buncha pics and archive it.



Tuesday, May 19, 2009

bud's encounter with law on ICE motor assisted cycle

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/vehicle/emerging/#power

D: Will works at the local café.
He found this sweet ride at an auction.
Likely worth 1000 bux, I gave him an on sale then half-price siren cable lock for 10 bux.
Anyway, he said he wasn't sure if he could drive it legally.

I was sure a motor assist to 30kph was OK.
But when I looked up the laws, it differentiates between power sources.

A MOPED is

A motor-assisted bicycle is a bicycle that:
is fitted with pedals that are operable at all times to propel the bicycle;
weighs not more than 55 kilograms;
has no hand or foot operated clutch or gearbox driven by the motor and transferring power to the driven wheel;
has a piston displacement of not more that 50 cubic centimetres; and,
does not attain a speed greater than 50 km/hr on level ground within a distance of 2 km from a standing start.

An E-BIKE is

An e-bike is a bike that:
has steering handlebars and is equipped with pedals;
is designed to be propelled primarily by muscular power and to travel on not more than three wheels;
has a motor that has a power output rating of 500W or less. (Note: the motor is electric, and is incapable of propelling the cycle at speed of 32km/h or greater on level ground, without pedaling.) and
bears a permanently affixed label by the manufacturer stating in both official languages that the vehicle conforms to the federal definition of a power-assisted bicycle.

D: note "THE MOTOR IS ELECTRIC".

D: his ride has a cute lil' gas tank built into the top tube. It's combustion.
I did NOT know ICE engines are treated differently...

--------------
Aside: I drove on the highway on this Victoria Day weekend.
I cannot believe how bad some drivers are!
Ride a second of reaction time behind each other.
Alternately hit gas-brake-gas...
I ride bicycles. I try very hard to conserve energy approaching a stop. After all, it is hard earned by muscle energy. A red light ruins my day.
I am essentially a hypermiler 'lite' due to my biking background.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

a casual conversation with a Critical Mass participant

Today, I went to my fave café.

A fellow was sitting beside me.
We started up a conversation on various subjects.
We talked about the worker's very cool Harley-fusion bicycle with a motor assist.

I mentioned I have a bike blog.
He said he was involved with Critical Mass.
I said I read their Facebook group entry about mixing it up with cops, and wanted no part of it.
He then talked about one of the last rallies.
The cyclists not only rode double (side by side), but in both lanes and through red lights.
One cop tried to charge some people for it, only to find himself surrounded by a 100 cyclists.

This did nothing to change my opinion of CM.
They're hooligans, plain and simple.
The transit advocacy issue is a handy excuse for them to express their collective assholishness.

Do they really think any coverage is good coverage?
Drivers and walkers already think cyclists acts like the rules don't apply to them.

I saw a fellow cycling full tilt on the sidewalk on the left not right hand side.
He nearly got taken out by a car leaving Westmount mall.
At c. 30kph, the driver had about a second of reaction time to see a rapidly closing object from an unexpected direction. I would not have been too upset if something happened. That's the learning curve for the slow folks- pain is a great teacher.

Oscar Wilde famously quipped that the only thing worse than being talked about was not being talked about.
He was wrong.
The modern day confuses fame with infamy. Instead of grace and poise from Hollywood, we get lewd up-skirts. Look at me, look at me! ...

Critical Mass is the worst thing to ever happen to bicycle advocacy.
I will have NOTHING to do with them.

They are anathema.

I am applying to a local job as an alternative transit advocate.
I will not be associating CM with anything.

What a bunch of losers.
Get a life.

D>

Monday, May 4, 2009

full size grown-up folding bike


D: most of the folding bikes wouldn't cut it on a real road.
Those silly tiny wheels would be gruesome on pot holes and real cracked roads.
Not to mention gravel.
Keep in mind this would travel well on an airplane too. Take it with you!


Monday, April 13, 2009

what time/distance folks will actively commute from

http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/april09/walkbike41309.html
According to Bopp, many survey participants said they were willing to actively commute if they perceived they could travel to their destination in about 20 minutes -- or a distance of approximately one mile.

D: the health benefits are considerable.

The researchers say the results lay the groundwork for future policy discussions and for tailoring public health messages. Just 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day is enough for health benefits, and small bouts of exercise throughout the day of as little as 10 minutes provide the health payoff, according to recently revised guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Some of the hindrances to active commuting, according to the surveys, included a perceived lack of bike racks, showers or a place to freshen up before work or teaching, and an "office culture" where driving to work is the norm and there is limited support for walking or biking.

D: how many times have I seen a sea of asphalt- and nary a bike rack?
Surely, setting aside a single car parking spot for a bike rack is not much to ask?
Of course, as consumers, cyclists collectively need not ask. They could TELL.
"Install a bike rack or we shop elsewhere."

"There are long-term economic costs to society of obesity, cancers and heart disease," Kaczynski said. "There are emotional costs of people suffering because physical activity is actually being engineered out of our lives by having poor streets and other factors related to urban design."
Mixed land use, where residential areas, commercial opportunities, parks, and workplaces are close and connected, provides more chances for people to engage in physical activity for leisure or for purposeful transportation, Kaczynski said

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

rent my cruzbike thru bicycle forest



http://www.cruzbike.com/

I thought their product was interesting enough to order.

See my "unorthodox_recumbents" blog for more- Google it.

A few comments on building it:
- unless you can tear down and rebuild a bicycle, DON'T attempt it yourself
- take it to a bicycle shop and pay them to build it
- RTFM. You will need to acquire a coupla obscure and rare tools and parts
- the sad thing is that with more care at the company, this would have been a DIY.
- the parts are all very good quality
- the shipping costs were huge on the handlebars, but I wouldn't want the bike without them.

I had rented a Rotator SWB 'bent via Bicycle Forest the year before.
These guys were a joy to deal with!
http://www.bikeforest.com/rentals.php
D: the local guy operates out of his garage in Waterloo.
He has a simply amazing collection of commercial and custom 'bents.
If you ask nicely, he'll show you.
Anyway, in no time I was successfully riding the 'bent.

DON'T assume this means you can use a front-boom SWB Cruzbike on the road the first weekend.
It is a different beast entirely.
Admittedly, I bought a youth's frame on sale. 24" wheels, high seat combo.
I'm sure in time I will refer to my Cruzbike as nimble and agile.
Right now, unstable is the word I use.
I need much more practice before I'm willing to risk using a bike lane, let alone the road.

You see, the pedals and steering are connected.
You push on the pedal.
The steering... jerks!
OMG.
In time, this means you can steer with your feet.
I suspect the frame I selected will be fine up to 30kph, but will then destabilize.
This relegates the bike to commuting in my case, which is fine, I suppose.
I decked out the bike with heaps of various lights and locks and accessories.
I have Reelights, as well as a cheap Euro knockoff for amber sideways 'running lights'.
A coupla scares with cars pulling out on red lights to turn right convinced me this was wise.
I got tired of batteries dying during winter cycling, thus the terrific Reelights.
I have a screamer cable lock on it. As well as a standard U lock.
A coupla folding baskets at the rear.
I'm pondering making my own backpack/ adjustable rucksack mount.
I don't like strapping them down cuz of the chance of all those straps catching in the rear tire.
Plus a rucksack is too long.
This is a design issue with bents that nobody has addressed.

Still, I hafta learn how to handle a Cruzbike. It is training for my Mark II bike design.
Briefly, (again see other blog for more):
I - cheap DIY Flevobike GreenMachine BUT with proprietary suspension tested
II - pedal-thru-front-wheel mid-steerer, a bit Python esque
III - transforming partial fairing design
IV - no frame/ all exoskeleton 'pure' fairing design. A first.

The Mark I was proposed for the 'everybody bike design' this year. I didn't finish the CAD drawing, so will submit pics of the first prototype for next year.

Cheers.

Monday, January 19, 2009

ugly road rage case

A Brentwood physician who allegedly injured two cyclists last summer by slamming on his car brakes in front of them on Mandeville Canyon Road pleaded not guilty today.
The resulting impact flung one cyclist through the car’s rear window and the other to the pavement.
allegedly told police during the July 4 incident that he stopped his red Infinity sedan in front of the cyclists to “teach them a lesson.” The physician complained that cyclists frequently traveled the residential street in Brentwood and that he was “tired of them,

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/a-brentwood-phy.html

D: that was sporting. Like pulling a pistol during a fistfight.
That's a tonne of high-power steel armour. V.s. a squishy guy on a metal tube frame.

Not nearly as ugly as the Toronto case recently.

http://www.bikingtoronto.com/2008/11/cyclist-who-lost-leg-speaks-out.html

http://www.polaine.com/matt/2008/11/27/cyclist-loses-leg-in-road-rage-attack/

A cyclist in Toronto has had to have his leg amputated after a row with a cab driver turned nasty. Police yesterday said the cyclist lost his leg after a cab reversed and pinned him to a utility pole.

It’s understood people heard arguing before the sound of a loud collision and then someone screaming for help as a vehicle sped off. Police who rushed to the scene at 2.30am found the man lying in a pool of blood, with his right leg barely attached. His $5,000 cycle was lying nearby in pieces

D: wow...
Using a car on a pedestrian is attempted murder. 2000 lbs of steel v.s. 200 lbs of jello.
Let's call an ace an ace here.