No this is not Amsterdam, yur in aMerka

I'm trying to be positive here. This guy or

gal could really use a bike. Think of the cleaner air, increased health,as well as the school children who can walk, ride, and play.

So fellow cyclists, let's show this guy just how healthy and fun cycling can be.






THIS is why I Ride.

-- Post From My iPhone

Alert - Large Branch Down

On Miller in front of Both Lynbrook High School and Rainbow Park in San Jose. 10:21 AM


-- Post From My iPhone

1AM Discovery Sunnyvale-Saratoga Rd.

Came upon this sad sight on a 1 AM ride. Must be recent; candles still burning and flowers still fresh.













-- Post From My iPhone

Cecil Wayne Cox Pleads No Contest in the Hit and Run Deaths of Two Elderly San Jose Women

Cecil Cox pleaded no contest in the hit and run deaths of Edina Oliva, 70 and Oralia Puga-Ramirez, 73. The two elderly women were hit on August 9, 2008, while crossing Stevens Creek Blvd. and Cypress Avenue while in a crosswalk. Although the Santa Clara Distric Attorney's office was seeking a nine year sentence the court disagreed and felt that seven years was a more approriate sentence. Cox who was homeless at the time was eventually arrested after he was sighted at a local public library.

Tragedy in the South San Francisco Bay This Weekend.

This weekend the Bay Area lost two 16 year olds to tragic traffic accidents this weekend; one in Union City and One in Half Moon Bay. Not only is the coincidence of the events striking, but the young age that they were taken from us should not go unnoticed.

Juan Rodelas Jr . was killed and his passenger was injured after Rodelas lost control of his speeding Corvette on Central Avenue in Union City.

An unidentified 16 year old male was struck by a car while crossing Highway 1 in Half Moon Bay just before midnight on Friday (Google Maps ).


View 2009 Fatal Vehicular Accidents in South San Franciso Bay in a larger map

Santa Clara County Sheriff Pleads Guilty in the Death of Two Cyclists

Sentencing Set for June 25

Deputy James "Tommy" Council pleaded guilty yesterday (May 8, 2009) in the deaths of two local cyclists Matt Peterson and Kristianna Gough. 

Another Hit and Run On a Pedestrian...This One a 4 Year Old

Hit-and-run driver kills 4-year-old girl playing in driveway

Currently reasearching the number and trend of hit and run accidents relating to cyclists and pedestrians.  Absolutely senseless, any way you look at it.

Thinking of the Current Transportation System as a Health and Safety Issue

All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

You've got to say, 
"I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!" 


Three vehicular events in the Silicon Valley area this weekend highlight the fact that we are all subject to property damage, trauma, critical injury and even death from vehicles.  With this weekends death of a solo driver in Los Altos, a hit and run pedestrian accident in downtown San Jose, and a hit and run accident involving two cyclists, we need to stop and seriously consider the pain and suffering these events cause.

I am acquainted with Ashley (Ashleigh), through work and we share several mutual friends.  Ashley was riding with her boyfriend  this weekend when she was struck by a car that drove into the bike lane.  As I have written before, death and injury has visited family members, a favored author (David Hallberstam's tragic death near the Dumbarton Bridge), three high school friends, a college friend, and bike riding buddies.  Many years ago, while riding my bike, I witnessed a accident victim's final seconds as the blood from his head flowed onto the asphalt, on that early spring morning.  I was stunned and helpless.  Unable to move the truck that had just slammed his head to the ground and was now pinning his body to the roadway, all  I remember was the color of  his face, and how it seemed to change color the more his blood drained from his motionless head.

Several years after witnessing speeding and erratic behavior by a driver on a southbound San Diego Freeway, I came upon the prostrate body of the driver in the middle lane; motionless as we drove by, suddenly making the connection that the driver had met his end in his own horrific way.

With almost two years of a car free lifestyle under my belt, people often ask me; "isn't bike riding dangerous?  I'm to afraid to ride my bike.  I think I'll just go to a spin class instead."  First, bikes can be dangerous, but not many people fail to consider the large number of car accidents every year; whether classified as solo vehicular accidents, alcohol related accidents, accidents due to youth and inexperience, or just sheer and utter stupidity.  We seem to just accept, "as if that's the way it's supposed to be.   

"We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone." 

Ask anyone who rides or walks and they will tell you horror stories of the streets.  Freeing yourself from the cocoon of your car you notice more.  In the two years since my own accident, I have witnessed four accidents involving a car running a red light ( myself  a victem as well).  Of those four, I was the first responder on three of them.  One involved a person trying to flee the scene.  Six victims required medical attention.  

 In the two years since giving up my car in favor of a lifestyle involving cycling, walking and public transportation as a means of mobility, I have kept tract of most of the accidents involving cars, whether solo, with other cars, with bicycles, or pedestrians.  Also motorcycle accidents; which seem almost to be predictable in rider age and accident location are document.

We strikes me and also troubles me the most however is the continued increase in hit and run accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists.  I have read somewhere that it may approach 50%.  That would be one out of two accidents involve a vehicle leaving the scene; an absolute disgrace on any measure of moral, ethic, or civic responsibility.

Anyway here are three Google Maps so far that I have put together.
(Blue - Vehicle, Red - Pedestrian, Yellow - Motorcycle, Green - Cyclists) Dot in the marker represents a fatality.

2007

2008 

2009

This Morning on My Bike

I am not always delight with bike usability in Cupertino, buth this morning there was room for optimism.  In travelling through Cupertino each morning I get a little frustrated with construction sites that take away bike lanes for weeks on end with no signage or the number of unsafe riders on cell phones or carry shopping bags on their hadlebars, or the crazy student drivers near De Anaza College. 

However this morning I felt releived that some form of bike justice was done.  I was travelling east on Stevens Creek Blvd. crossing De Anaza Blvd. just as the light turned green.  As the traffic started to pull away from the light a car decided to make an unplanned and unsignaled right turn (more popularly known as the right hook).  As he cut infront of me makeing his right, I pulled out my only weapon.....my middle finger.  Just as I was crossing the intersection, I noticed a Santa Clara County Sheriff motorcycle cop on the other side of the intersection.  Nice.  Score one ticket for the city of Cupertion and hopefully a safer driver in the futer.

Car Wash for Car Crash Victims

This isn't the first time I have seen car washes held to raise funds for car crash victim's. The article states that the young victims loved cars, only to die in a car.
Friends, family pitch in to aid young San Jose crash victims-San Jose Mercury News

with permission from A. Singer

2008 State of the Valley - Traffic Safety

A while ago I asked a friend why they drive to the gym to "spin" instead of cycling and experiencing all of the joy and fun that comes along with it. They responded that cycling is dangerous. So that got me thinking if cycling is dangerous, just how dangerous is it compared to other modes of transportation. At the time one of my favorite authors, David Halberstam was killed in a local traffic accident near the Dumbarton Bridge in Menlo Park, CA. I also had 3 high school classmates (those that I have heard about) killed in separate traffic accidents. Strangely enough one was killed in New Zealand and the other in South Africa. Additionally two family members have been severely disabled due to car accidents.


When I was 17, I started studying for my private pilot's license and I always heard the reply, "Why do you fly? Its so dangerous". I began to notice that an aircraft accident; even if it only resulted in one or two fatalities, the event would make regional or national news headlines. Conversely, automobile accidents where usually buried on the 4th page of the local section, sometimes only involving one or two paragraphs.

So after the tragic accident involving Mr. Halberstam, I wondered - what if I monitored the news using new internet tools to highlight and document the tragic nature of auto accidents. After keeping track of such grim statistics, it made me conscious of just much, we as a society tend to ignore the violent costs of automobile traffic.

However it is not just vehicular fatalities that are sobering but the sheer number of pedestrian fatalities highly skewed to the most vulnerable part of the population; those due to age or financial circumstances that must walk in a culture designed for high speed auto traffic. In looking at the many cases of pedestrian casualties, three key characteristics stand out. Pedestrian casualties generally victimize the elderly, occur in the poorer areas of the valley (where massive arterial roads are not uncommon), and generally fall upon victims who were born outside the United States and its culture of cars.

To memorialize those that we last last year.

Silicon Valley Youth who died tragically in 2008.
6-13-2008, Breanna Slaughter-Eck, 12 (pictured)
1-9-2008 12:20am Jessica Stevens, 16
2-28-9 Alexander Moran Cabrera, 2
4-22-2008, 9:38 PM, Trieu Dinh, 19
8-2-2008, 4:50 AM Chrishtiana Acevedo, 18
10-10-2008 6:00 PM Moses Florez, 5 (killed on Razr Scooter)
10-12-2008, 9:15 am, Fernando Valencia, 18
10-12-2008, 9:15 am, unidentified passenger of Fernando Valencia, 12
12-18-2008, 12:05 PM, Matthew Mikaelsson. 17


See Map Below
Cyclists (Green)
1-10-2008 6:25PM, Hsien Tsun Wan, 77
2-28-08 Andrew Hale, 54
3-9-2008 Matt Peterson, 30 of San Francisco
3-9-2008 Kristy Gough, 31 of Oakland
6-13-2008, Breanna Slaughter-Eck, 12
10-5-2008, 9:45AM Bruce Finch, 58


Pedestrians (Red)
1-10-2008 as Estella Manalo Bacong, 50
1-4-2008 Randy Walke, 50
1-22-2008 1:55 AM, Leonardo Par Tzoc, 29
1-23-2008 2:40am Unidentified Hispanic Male 35-40
2-8-2008 Guoliang Chen, 76
2-15-2008 Douglas Carr, 61
2-21-2008 6:20 PM unidentified female
3-26-2008 Panfilio Prado, 51
2-21-2008 6:20 PM unidentified female
4-1-2008 6:30PM, Souang Athetsanathip,66
4-25-2008 11:30 Jose Del Carmen Cauigh-Medina, 51
8-2-2008 5:20 PM, Kenneth Stewart pedestrian, 69
8-10-2008, 8:45 PM, Oralia Puga-Ramirez, 73 of San Jose
8-10-2008, Enedina Oliva, 70
8-30-2008 8:40 AM, Maria Dolores Acosta Dereyes, 69
9-9-2008, 2:15 PM, unidentified male pedestrian, Capitol Exp. San Jose
9-13-2008, 9:30, unidentified pedestrian, 91, McLaughlin Ave. & Spokane Dr., San Jose
9-14-2008, 8:45 AM, Rodolfo Escurial, 68
9-14-2008, 8:45 AM, Aproniano Siruno, 71
10-10-2008 6:00 PM Moses Florez, 5 (killed on Razr Scooter)
10-11-2008, 1:20 PM, Margaret Garza, 45
10-26-2008, 7:00AM,Gary Ray Hedges, 66
12-2-2008 3:15 PM, Phyllis Seidman, 66
11-27-2008 7:40 PM , Jose Perez Rivera, 39
12-12-2008, 8:15 PM, Manuel Velasquez, 73


A noticeable but disturbing trend is evident in Pedestrian fatalities in the valley, with regard to age, ethnicity, and location.


Pedestrian Fatalities Age Breakdown (only those whose age is known)
Amt. %
Under 18 years of age 1 - 5%
18 - 30 years of age 1 - 5%
31- 40 years of age 2 - 9%
41- 50 years of age 1 - 5%
51- 65 years of age 5 - 22%
65+ years of age 12 - 54%

Note: These are not audited or verified traffic statistics but just a compilation of traffic casualties that have been reported in local newspapers.



View Larger Map

Good and Bad Today

The great thing about riding a bike around town is that you run into the nicest people. You see friends at random out riding. Well today on two separate occasions I ran into friends out for a ride. Its great to be connected in the community. In Portland after only 4 days in town I ran into acquaintances I had met that week. When you on a bike you have the chance to meet so many other people.

The bad thing about being on a bike is you meet (run into) all the other nut jobs out their who hide behind the anonymity and protection of their SUV.

At the intersection of Prospect Ave. and Saratoga Ave. in San Jose, CA. (right in front of the WAMU...Washington Mutual or whatever it is this week) so guy was displaying a sign with random and incomprehensible gibberish. Some SUV (Volkswagen) nut job proceeds to argue with him for about a minute while making a right hand turn.....bit talk such as get a job asshole...etc.

He then pulls into the WAMU parking lot and starts to get out of his car and I am thinking this 150 homeless looking guy is going to kit taken out by this muscle bound, big armed, tattooed loaded cannon. He started to egg him on ....saying things like come on over here and I'll kick your ass. Like this little guy is going to drop his sign and go take on Sgt. Overcaffinated.

I think he knew that I was watching (eyes on the street) so he got back in his car and took off. After he left I was thinking, oh no I hope he didn't go back home to bring out the heavy artillery.

This incident is something bicyclists usually see with the first signs of spring. You know, cooped up all winter, first chance to get out of the house, go for a ride, roll the windows down and harass cyclists and pedestrians. You usually don't see it just before the holidays on a day when our first seasonal chill sets in. Maybe this is a sign of things to come in the Silicon Valley. Maybe everybody is just stressed out economically, wondering if they will be fired from their own little shit hole start up. "We are all just one step away from humility"

So if you see a guy in West San Jose traffic just waiting to explode; check it out. Volkswagen SUV, slate grey, no license plate in front (didn't get the back plate). He is about 5 foot 8 inches about 190, with big tattooed arms and close cut black hair. Age; about 30-35 years old.

Be careful out there...cyclists.

A Sad, Sad Start to the New Year

Traffic Fatalities continue to plague San Jose City and Santa Clara County. With the sad death of Hsien Tsun Wan, 77, only ten days have passed into the new year with a road fatality victim each represented by a pedestrian, cyclist, auto passenger and driver. There has also been a fatality during the first 10 days which died after being struck by a VTA light rail train.

Now with six road fatalities by the first half of the first month; at this rate the county could possibly reach 150 fatalities by the end of the year far eclipsing 97 road fatalities in 2007. Somehow when we state that We are America's safest big city, we never seem to mention traffic deaths or injuries.

The Year of Driving (and Walking) Dangerously!

It was a sad year given the amount of pedestrian fatalities in both San Jose and San Francisco. Both cities experienced high levels of pedestrian fatalities. Stories tell more than numbers alone. The single mother of four hit by a "hit and run" drunk driver, or the hit and run driver who was turned in by her own passengers. In San Jose over one third of the traffic fatalities were attributed to vehicles striking pedestrians.

Of the 42 people killed by a vehicle in San Jose in 2007, 15 were pedestrians (36 percent), according to police. Typically, about 10 percent to 12 percent of an agency's vehicle-related fatalities are pedestrians.

2007 Traffic Fatalities in the South Bay Area
(Includes Bicycle and Pedestrian Casualties)


View Larger Map

A well respected author that I love to read David Halberstam was killed in an accident while in the area for an interview for an upcoming book. Colin Fletcher died due to complications from an accident suffered six years earlier while walking in CarmelValley, CA.