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Daily Archives: November 7, 2019

Drivers overtaking bikes biggest reason for fatal cycling crashes

McClatchyDC: “Drivers overtaking bike riders are the biggest cause of death among cyclists, says a study released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board. Bike safety is a growing problem that appears to be getting more worrisome, and, the board reported, “current available data likely underestimate the level of bicycling activity in the United States.” In 2017, 806 cyclists died in crashes with motor vehicles, which it found “was comparable to the deaths resulting from railroad or marine accidents and more than twice the number of deaths resulting from aviation accidents in the same year.” Last year, the death toll jumped to 857, its highest since 1990. The NTSB report, its most comprehensive look at bicycle safety in 47 years, comes as both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are pushing hard to provide more funding for what they see as a growing problem.

The safety board’s findings gave them new fuel for their effort. “If we do not improve roadway infrastructure for bicyclists, bicyclists will die who otherwise would not,” said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt. “If we do not enhance bicyclist (visibility), likewise, additional bicyclists will die,” he told the board as it met Tuesday to discuss the report. “If we do not act to mitigate head injury for more bicyclists, additional bicyclists will die.”…”

Senate Hearing on Modernizing Library of Congress

C-SPAN – “Carla Hayden, the head of the Library of Congress, testified before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee on modernizing the library. She updated committee members on efforts to digitize and secure documents and described how the public would have more access to the library’s collections. Also testifying at the hearing was Karyn Temple,… Continue Reading

DHS will have comprehensive biometric data on more than 250 million people

“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expects to have face, fingerprint, and iris scans of at least 259 million people [Quartz – paywall] in its biometrics database by 2022, according to a recent presentation from the agency’s Office of Procurement Operations reviewed by Quartz. From the report: That’s about 40 million more than the… Continue Reading

Study says ‘specific’ weather forecasts can’t be made more than 10 days in advance

WashingtonPost.com: “Imagine someone telling you the weather forecast for New Year’s Day today, two months in advance, with exact temperature bounds and rainfall to a hundredth of an inch. Sounds too good to be true, yes? A new study in Science says it’s simply not possible. But just how far can we take a day-by-day… Continue Reading

The World on Two Wheels

Overlooked No More: Annie Londonderry, Who Traveled the World by Bicycle – She cycled away from her Boston home and into stardom, leaving a husband and three small children for a journey that came to symbolize women’s independence. Intrigued by what little he knew of his great-grandfather’s sister, Peter Zheutlin, a journalist, decided to write… Continue Reading

America on Trial

Jon Meacham, Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, author of The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels – TIME: “Here we are … trapped in a time of demagoguery, reflexive partisanship and a Hobbesian world of constant and total political warfare. We know all the factors: the return of the kind of partisan media… Continue Reading