Darren’s boss

Darren’s wonderful, wonderful boss, Mike, is in the hospital. Mike was hit by a car on his bicycle on the way to work this morning. He is expected to have full recovery, but was being prepped for surgery last I heard a couple of hours ago.

Mike was hit on the right side, and hit his head on the pavement, cracking his helmet. His right collarbone is broken, three broken ribs on the right side, and his right lung has collapsed. He was out for about 5 minutes and came to in the ambulance. His first CT was good and they don’t think he sustained neurological damage, but they are going to do another scan.

We are all wishing him a very fast and full recovery.

Darren is now questioning his own bicycle commute to work. It’s not a terribly long ride, but he has to get through a major intersection and a freeway exchange. Laura also bikes to work (bike and train).

If we as a society seriously want to move away from being so automobile oriented, we are going to have to invest in better, safer infrastructure for bicyclists. It’s ludicrous to expect a painted line on the road (that simply evaporates at each intersection) to protect bicyclists from the impact of cars. We can’t afford to upgrade everything all at once, but why are we currently spending good money to build roads in the same way we built them nearly 100 years ago?