Entries tagged with “Cycling”
Yesterday morning on the way to an appointment a car surged out of an alley without fully checking for traffic (said car almost hit another car coming east along the same road I was headed west on) ... and plowed right into me.
Down goes bike, and rider. Rider has various cuts and bruises, a sore back, and road rash; sadly my mountain bike has a severely bent front wheel at the very least and possibly more damage. The bill is going to the driver or to his insurer.
Beyond having my morning interrupted with my bike on top of me and a car on top of my bike, a number of things disturb me about this incident:
- The driver insisted that he was blinded by sunlight, despite the fact that, at 9:15 am on October 5th, the sun was high in the sky, and the space I was cycling through was in full shade; the driver would not take me up on my challenge to climb back in his car and tell me honestly that he couldn’t see me 3 meters away;
- The driver was far more interested in escaping responsibility than ensuring that he didn’t hurt me, and more importantly, admitting his error, which is of course the first step in avoiding another;
- The driver seemed completely unaware of traffic around him – I witnessed him almost hit the eastbound car, pause momentarily, and then surge forward to follow the car he’d almost hit… only to slam right into me.
I’d seen the car almost hit the eastbound vehicle, right in front of me, and was myself attempting to get clear, but the driver in apparently blind zeal to get going just gunned his car after the eastbound car cleared his bumper, and ran right into me… not even stopping until my yelling finally woke him up.
The man claims to have 55 years of accident free driving. This may be so, but on Thursday I certainly did not witness an alert driver, and I will be reporting this fellow to police as a possible unsafe driver. Like it or not, there is a point in life after which our reflexes and driving abilities deteriorate. I’m not convinced this man gets it.
I was hit on a major east-west city bike route, one travelled by hundreds of cyclists every day – 37th avenue – and this driver lives three doors away.
Over the years I have learned that cycling in the city requires “aggressive defensive” tactics, and being vocal is one of the tools of the trade. I’ve no problem at all shouting ”HEY WATCH OUT” at the top of my voice, long before a problem asserts itself painfully. Sometimes drivers take this the wrong way and give me the finger or some banal and generally very rude commentary. I don’t care, as I figure even the rudest of drivers doesn’t actually want to hit a cyclist, no matter how much they may say to the contrary.
Sometimes I get in a little hot water for being so aggressive, but that’s the price of safety. Yesterday I can’t figure out if I was in too good a mood to don my loud warning demeanor, or if I just didn’t have enough time. Watching the driver almost hit the eastbound car definitely distracted me too – between attempting to dive my bike out of the way and taking in what was happening, it seemed like I didn’t get my warning out fast enough. Perhaps there just wasn’t time, a sobering thought even for this experienced cyclist.
Still, I’ll keep on yelling for safety. Countless times this has prevented serious mishap. If you hear a cyclist yelling a warning at your car-wrapped carcass, don’t get mad – smile and thank your lucky stars that the rider, and the bike, aren’t under your front tires.
… after a glorious ride today, the odometer reads 2,359, the number of kilometers we’ve put on the tandem so far this year. Suspect we’ll hit something between four to five thousand before the end of the year.
In today’s Globe and Mail an article on page A3 tells of how instructions currently floating around the internet make Kryptonite – but also ANY type of lock that uses a cylinderical key – vulnerable to easy picking using the inside of a common Bic pen.
This is not new information, apparently the vulnerability has been known since the early 1990’s, but the information then quickly disappeared from public view.
Bring on the power of the 2000 era Internet, where its trivial to record and distribute a how-to movie around the world, and where on-line community discussion (both good and bad folks) is far more common—the 1990’s problem becomes a giant nightmare.
The bottom line – virtually all U-locks and many other types of heavy duty locks, most of which use cylinderical keys these days, are at risk.
Mountain Co-Op might be one of the better resellers from which to get replacement service; Kryptonite themselves have not announced any formal recall or replacement plan. I’ve my doubts, as this is a company shattering development for them, despite the issue affecting all such locks, not just theirs.
No doubt there will be a run on locks around town although it being a rainy fall here, perhaps the sunny weather cyclists will forget all about this. I’m going shopping for at least a couple alternatives today.
Mike
In a related story, a wireless internet-enabled bike-cum-printing press and its owner were also arrested.
Oddly interesting – the bike. The arrest – shameful.
I’m shocked and surprised that the NYC Police arrested 264 “Critical Mass” cyclists and passers by on Friday, ostensibly on the orders of city management and before the Republican National Convention opening gavel was struck.
Shocked that the arrests aren’t receiving more attention. Surprised that Mayor Bloomberg, who, as founder of The Bloomberg, financial media giant, ought to know a thing or two about putting on a good show. Arresting cyclists en masse, a group probably salted heavily with pacifists, doesn’t make for good press.
The new Trans Canada Trail Bridge just to the east of the 2nd Narrows Memorial Bridge makes for a nice route on the north side of Burnaby, a great alternative to going to Confederation Park or points east. 25km round trip from our place.
Saw Liz and Stan's new Bushnell tandem - its the same colour as our Bushnell. Oh no, a fashion trend - bright "mango" tandems cruising the streets of the lower mainland. We also met up with another tandeming family which may come along on the Galiano Island adventure, which hopefully will get delayed until later in July so we can go too!
Well, not really. Here at home we don't see many tandems out on the road, so we attract a fair amount of attention when we are out and about Vancouver,
especially when we have the Picollo trailer bike behind us. Despite the length the whole machine is surprisingly manueverable, albeit a little heavy
when the occupants are factored in. We find that our youngest does best on longer rides when his Picollo is attached to the tandem, although it can
be hooked up to Sue's bike as well.
A couple of weekends ago the we all tramped down to Lacy (near Olympia) WA for
the North West Tandem Rally 2004. There, we were just one of many - over 450 tandem teams attended the weekend long event. Even a few triples and singles too. The
mass start each morning was something to behold!
A fine time, if slightly damp
from time to time, was had by all. The kids clearly enjoyed themselves - despite riding 26 miles the first day, and 24 or so the second (partly in the rain, partly in glorious sunshine) the unanimous decision is 'lets do this again!!'.
Friends Stan and Liz and their kids were there too, and we had a grand time camping out in the college baseball field.
