I’m always wondering what New Jersey is going to stoop to next.  Apparently, it’s banning quick release bike tires for tires under a certain size. They are prone to accidents:
(AP) TRENTON, N.J. Certain bicycles with quick-release wheels couldn’t be sold in New Jersey under legislation approved Monday by the Assembly. The bikes allow wheels to be removed without tools so they can be quickly secured with a chain lock or transported in vehicles. Lawmakers said they are prone to accidents. Under the bill, it would be illegal to sell bicycles with quick-release wheels if the bicycle has a front wheel less than 20 inches in diameter. Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, a Democrat from Gloucester, said the bill mainly targets children’s bicycles.
How many times did we fall off our bikes when we were kids? Several for me, and I’m just fine.  Of course, others would say that explains a lot.
My daughter had a bad bike accident several years ago. Broke her jaw in two places.
She didn’t have quick removing tires. She was wearing a helmet. Her bike was in good operating condition and she was an experienced rider.
What happened?
She rode into a big pothole that she didn’t see until too late which brought the bike to an abrupt halt, sending her over the handlebars. She landed on the point of her chin which pretty much negated any safety factor from the helmet. The only reason she didn’t lose most of her teeth is because she had braces at the time which held them all in place enough to save them. She still had a few cracked and broken that had to be capped.
The point?
Who’s responsibility is it to maintain the streets? So who’s fault was this traumatic experience?
And it didn’t even OCCUR to me to sue the city over it (or sue the bike manufacturer, or the helmet manufacturer or demand legislation to prevent it from happening again…)
I’d bet if there was some sort of study done, bad streets and sidewalks are the cause of more bike injuries every year than spontaneously self-removing front tires are…
Why does this annoy me so much? Because maintaining public roadways is one of the things that I actually believe to be a legitimate role of government…and they suck at it. Why? Because they spend so much time worrying about whether we choose to purchase kids’ bikes with quick release tires, where we smoke, whether we choose to utilize transportation related safety equipment or not, whether we choose to arm ourselves for self defense or not, whether we mow our lawns often enough, whether we leave our trash cans on the street 15 minutes past the cutoff or not, whether we are performing maintenance on our automobiles on our own property or not…..ad nauseum, ad infinitum.
And the REALLY sad thing is that we CHOOSE these clowns to run things.