Driver And Lane Blamed For Crash

 I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more frequently.

I’m not talking about the crash that resulted when someone drove a Tesla SUV across a Seattle bike lane to access a parking lot. Unfortunately, I’m also not referring to the life-altering brain injury Aviv Litov suffered when his bike hit the car. 

What I am about to mention is the lawsuit that’s followed. Not surprisingly, the Tesla driver is a defendant, as the suit cites her negligence. But the other defendant is one not often named in such cases:  the city itself.  

The lawsuit, filed by the Strittmatter firm in Seattle, alleges that the lane’s faulty design was a factor in the crash that landed Litov in a hospital for two months and has led to a long, arduous road to heal. 

The lane on Green Lake Drive appears to be like many here in New York (including the one along Astoria’s Crescent Street, where I lived until last March) and other American cities:  It’s separated from the traffic lane by a line of parked cars.

Those cars certainly are an effective barrier.  But in some spots—particularly driveways and intersections that cross those lanes—those parked vehicles also obstruct visibility for both cyclists and drivers. Too often, frustrated motorists make risky maneuvers to turn—or cyclists simply can’t see them until it’s too late.

I hope Litov has a full—or as full as possible—recovery. And it will be interesting, to say the least, to see whether more municipalities or their contractors are held to account for poor bike lane conception, design, construction or maintenance—of which I’ve seen plenty or, should I say, too much.

Jimmy Carter

 Today witnessed Jimmy Carter’s funeral.

Whatever one thinks of his politics and his overall world-view, he is—at least in my eyes—the best human being to occupy the White House during my lifetime .

That isn’t to say, of course, that he was perfect: Early in his career, he made a few compromises that, to be fair, some may see as having been necessary in the political climate of his place and time.  Still, to his credit, most of his positions and policies were consistent with his liberal philosophy and his Christian faith, as he understood it.

During the ride I took the other day, I made a point of peddling up and down Charlotte Street, which is about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from my apartment. While it looks nothing like it did the day he made his impromptu visit nearly half a century ago, I had a sense-memory of the smoke and ashes that filled the street (which I wouldn’t see until many years later) and others similarly devastated.

While I remember seeing and hearing about that visit—and his work that followed, during and after his presidency, these might be, for me, the most enduring images of him:

Out Of The Fire

 Here in New York, we’re having the coldest weather we’ve had in a while. So some of you may interpret my writing about Los Angeles for the third day in a row is an expression of an unconscious wish.

I can honestly deny that, as I’ve gone for rides, however short, during our cold spell.  Also, I wouldn’t want to be in the L.A. area at this moment because my ride would be more like this:

Lady on bike escaping flames from #palisadesfire pic.twitter.com/N76am4Tf1C

— JASMINE VIEL (@jasmineviel) January 8, 2025