Wednesday, March 14, 2018

New Outside Column!

Hey, look at that, I've got a new grouping of words over on the Outside website!


I'm sure it will inspire much "Vehicular Cyclist Exceptionalism" as well as various quasi-libertarian comments about "personal responsibility."

Speaking of which, here's a story about New Zealanders questioning the absurdity of helmet laws:



Note the co-anchor foregoes his helmet when he rides to the "deery."

I have no idea what that means.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice one Snob!

Drock said...

Post night ride comment, I’m tired

theEel said...

weed!

HDEB said...

The new grouping of words at Outside would make sense but, the logic within relies on physics, and physics is science, and science is fake ; /

minim said...

Heyyyy! Moving to NYC frim Australia soon!

dnk said...

I think "deery" is New Zealand speak for bodega. It's "dairy" i.e., a place to pick up milk and snortable bath salts.

I've never been to New Zealand, so I really don't know what I'm talking about.

But right now the bath salts in my brain are giving me powerful confidence that my uninformed guess posted in a comments section on the internet could help bring about a detente between America the Great and the tragically helmeted island of New Zealand.

Matthew Weigel said...

Riding to the corner store? http://www.chemistry.co.nz/kiwi.htm#dairy

Anonymous said...

As an upstate NY commuter for the last 30+ years, (and who has been hit multiple times), I agree wholeheartedly with your (very well) written article. However, if I'm being honest, I want that Audi R8 with every fiber of my being.

Anonymous said...

RE: Outside, % drivers at fault when crashing into bicyclists
A SoCal policeman once told me that the percentage was 90% driver’s fault in collisions with bicyclists. In that shortly before he had pulled me over for tailgating him, he didn’t have an incentive to give cyclists a break on info like that.

Clarification: That sounds like the tailgating was on a bike. No, in a car. But during the ensuing conversation I asked him a bike-related question that led to him telling me this. Decent guy.

Anonymous said...

I think the existing legal idea in the US is "strict liability," not "presumed liability," which as far as I can tell in my non-lawyerly way is a thing cycling advocates made up. In strict liability, one is liable period, no questions, due to the outweighed dangerous nature of the activity, ex. keeping explosives or tigers. The caveat is that damages are limited to something like real costs (medical treatment + bicycle replacement),not allowing punitive damages. Perhaps someone who actually knows tort law could correct my understanding, if need be?

Otherwise, generally and legally shifting more responsibility onto drivers sounds like a very good idea indeed.

dancesonpedals said...

Only been to New Zealand once, to visit the In Laws. Nice country; they may drive on the left, but they serve beer cold.

As for tort law, the basic rule is that if you eat a tort, you have to pay for it.

Bill Crowder said...

He's actually saying "dairy", which is New Zealandish for Bodega or corner store. As in, "I don't wear a helmet to go buy a beer at the corner store, but I would if I was going on a long ride". You are welcome.

cyclejerk said...

It ain’t easy bein’ quasi-libertarian and a commuter cyclist. Trying to be personally responsible, yet running lights and stop signs in full view of cagers doesn’t help. But fuck them because Freedom!

Spokey said...

I prefer adhering to tart law.

either one. the sugary or the bipedal tart is fine with me

Anonymous said...

Only when everyone traveling in any wheeled vehicle has to wear plastic hat should they have the nerve to suggest that cyclists consider same. Let's be even more sensible, pedestrians are at infinitely more risk of injury once they leave the proven danger of their own homes, they should be wearing plastic hats and body armour before sensible cyclists have anything forced on them.

Six decades of cycling has not left a scratch but I have had scars for that time from slipping in the home!

wishiwasmerckx said...

I am not a lawyer, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Punitive damages are indeed available in a product liability case where the manufacturer's conduct rises to the level of malice, fraud, oppression or willful or wanton misconduct.

Menu hint: Don't order the wanton and the tort together; they do not compliment one another.

Anonymous said...

'All wheeled vehicles' don't seem to include motor vehicles in New Zealand parlance.

Persia said...

Folk from the Shaky Isles are odd - not only do they not pronounce vowels, but they use the term Dairy, instead of the far more sensible Milk Bar, as used on the large island a bit to the west.

A question for North Americans: if a Corner Store is not located on a corner, what do you call it?

bad boy of the south said...

Beware the rides of march.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of compulsory Styrofoam hats, here is an interesting ad from a dreaded australian law of the 90'ties.
https://www.zupimages.net/up/18/11/kc7l.jpg

Anonymous said...

"A question for North Americans: if a Corner Store is not located on a corner, what do you call it?"

They are all located on corners.

wishiwasmerckx said...

Persia: we call it a Bodega.

Dave said...

Hey Mr Snob, the "Dairy", is to an Australian a Milk bar, or to North Americans, The corner store...

Dairy Air said...

@Dave

http://heritages.com/

Pretty much a corner grocery (with hoagies!) in South (New) Jersey and thereabouts.

Unknown said...

I live in a so-cal town 60 miles north of Los Angeles. Its made up of suburbs built between 1949-1970. 2018 traffic does not match the aged baby boomer layout of my city. Traffic accidents happen everyday and ghost bikes haunt almost every corner of my town. Its a shame because these roadside memorials are usually for kids and migrant farmworkers, people who truly depend on bikes 24/7 the issue has and will always be about better civil engineering that is directed much more democratically by our local community.

BlahBlah Back Cheap said...

Drive Thru is on private property, they can tell cyclists to go fuck themselves.
So banks and fast food places do just that, usually based on the false premises it is due to insurance prohibitions on cyclists.

Limited access highways also reduce access to pedestrians, equestrians, etc.
If you can't meet the minimum speed, you can't get on the ride.
With exceptions where there are no other roadways. Like crossing the Great Divide.


So... can handcyclists and other disabled cyclists park in the handicapped parking spots near the entrances? Or do they have to carry a placard.

If you ride your bike through a plate glass window because you confused your brake with your shifter (or your pedal)... CONGRATULATIONS! I hope you were wearing a GoPro or some kind of camera.

Kevin Love said...

Some parts of Canada, such as their largest province, Ontario, also have a presumed liability law.

ITALO SLEAZE said...

Have you actually read that book?

Death to Safety Nazis. said...

The elevator at work has a Tourism New Zealand ad playing in it showing carefree people bicycling bare headed in the New Zealand countryside.

Whenever I see it I think "fucking false advertising - where the fuck are the police giving out helmet fines - like in the real world"? Unless you've been fined $300 for not having a plastic hat on you have no idea how fucked helmet laws are and having a fucking fat sanctimonious arsehole write the ticket doesn't help.