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On the Bike, Behind the Wheel

11.27.2012 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

A friend of mine had a close call the other morning. She was backing her car out of her driveway, and nearly hit a cyclist.

The incident was unsettling to my friend, of course. “There’s nothing worse than being hit by a car with a ‘Be Kind to Cyclists’ bumper sticker,” she said.

Now, in defense of my friend, she had trouble seeing the cyclist, who was dressed in gray on an overcast morning. “If she’d been dressed in something a little brighter, I would have seen her sooner,” she said. But she added that if she had hit the cyclist, it would have been her fault, and not the woman on the bike’s.

Her story hit a chord with me. Recently, I was driving down a twisty, hilly two-lane road near my neighborhood. Speeds there easily hit 65 mph, although the posted speed limit is 55. I avoid the road on my bike, because I consider it too dangerous, although my club will ride on it for a short distance during one of our regular routes to the west. But we’re on a stretch only about a hundred yards long, and we turn off onto a residential street.

As I drove down that same stretch of road, I noticed another cyclist coming toward me. He was alone. He was riding the same route we do, and I knew he was going to turn onto the residential street. But for a moment, I found myself debating what to do. I could speed up, and get to the intersection before he did, thus asserting my dominance as a motorized vehicle, or I could slow down, and let him turn safely in front of me.

I’m ashamed that I even considered speeding up.

I slowed the car, much to the dismay of the driver behind me. The cyclist made his turn, and I continued on.

When we’re on our bikes, situations like that are no-brainers. We expect the oncoming car to slow, although we’re careful enough to have an alternative move in our minds if they shouldn’t. And when riding down a residential street, we expect drivers to look carefully for us as they back out of their driveways.

It’s not so simple, is it? There seems to be a difference in mentality when we’re behind the wheel as opposed to on the bike. If anyone should be at their safest around bikes when we’re in our cars, it should be us. Wake up calls like the one that happened to my friend and I are good reminders to be ever vigilant while driving. And they’re reminders that when we’re on our bikes, we should take nothing for granted.

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Categories // Safety Tags // cars

Cheating Death

01.22.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

No, nothing serious. But lately, I do feel at the end of my rides as though I have cheated death. Each time.

It’s a combination of things, really. For instance, on Saturday’s ride with my wife. Out on the shoulder of a four-lane divided highway, there’s a spot where a bridge crosses another road. At this point, the shoulder is pretty cruddy, with lots of gravel and debris. I usually move just into the traffic lane until I’m over the bridge, then go back onto the shoulder.

But Saturday, a pickup decided he wasn’t going to let me into his lane. I heard him come up behind me. I held my line. He passed within a foot of me. Another similar incident, where the car wasn’t quite as close, happened later on the same ride. I chalked it up to a typical day on the bike.

On Sunday’s club ride, we were out on Fitzhugh Road again, and I was sticking close to my friend Penny, who is coming back from surgery. Fitzhugh is our “roller” route, and is challenging for fit riders — let alone someone who’s just building her endurance. I seemed to be constantly shouting, “Car back!” as traffic was heavier than it often is. The cars are better than they used to be at slowing and following behind us until the way ahead is clear on the two-lane, shoulderless road. Two cars tucked in behind Penny as she labored up a hill, waiting until the road ahead was safe to pass. But a third vehicle, a Hummer, wasn’t about to wait. It braked hard behind the other two cars, with a short squeal of its brakes. As soon as the way cleared, and the cars were able to move around Penny, the Hummer gunned it, squealed its tires again, and passed her — again leaving no more than a foot of space between it and her. The experience rattled her, sine Fitzhugh’s roller are tough enough without having to contend with impatient drivers.

On the return trip, I rode with Rob, a strong rider new to our Sunday outings. “I almost bought it on the way out,” he said. “I hit one of those damp patches on a curve, and my rear wheel wanted to break away. I just got it under control.”

A sheriff’s patrol car raced by in the oncoming lane, lights flashing. Minutes later, it was followed by a fire truck, this time with siren blaring. The guy next to me muttered, “Hope that’s not one of our people back there.”

The thought was still with us when we heard sirens again. This time, a county paramedic unit roared by. Up ahead, we pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store. A state trooper was parked in his squad car. Judy, one of our other riders, chatted with the trooper through his car window.

“It’s okay,” she said, pulling away from the squad. “A guy fell off a ladder.”

“Good,” said my friend David, when we told him about it after he caught up to us a few minutes later.

It was a sentiment we all shared. We weren’t glad some local was hurt — we were glad it wasn’t one of our cycling group.

Cycling is a great pastime. Like many others, I chafe when I’m kept from getting out on the road for several days. But it seems to me that riding the roads is getting dicier. I don’t cycle with the verve I once did — rather, I am super careful of both road conditions and motorists. I still love riding, but I want to make sure I don’t realize my mortality any sooner than necessary.

 

 

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Categories // Safety Tags // cars, Safety

Driving to Rides

09.29.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

When I joined my cycling club way back in 2008, one of the things that attracted me to it was that it was based right in the neighborhood. For our Sunday morning rides, I hop on the bike at home and ride exactly one mile to a Starbucks where we gather before setting out. If I’m not riding with the club, I have a repertoire of six different rides from my front door, so I’m never riding over the same ground on successive rides.

But every once in awhile, I get the hankering to ride somewhere new and different. So I’ll throw the bike in the back of the SUV and hit the highway. It’s usually worth it. Two weeks ago, I drove 30 miles to ride with a small group on country roads that I don’t get to experience often — precisely because they’re 30 miles away. The ride was great, even if I did tackle that iffy downhill I wrote about two posts ago.

I also like to do rides with the Austin Cycling Association, and they start from a variety of places. Some are even farther than 30 miles from the house. So I’m driving to those rides, too. Any organized rides I do involve driving to the start.

  Unloading the vehicles before an organized ride.

Usually, it’s worth it. Every now and then I wind up with a clinker, like the one last weekend where I drove 30 miles again — in the other direction — but wound up on a ride that traveled busy suburban streets. A lot of folks seemed to like it, but if I’m going to drive to a ride, I want to wind up out in the country.

Sometimes, I read about bikers who bike to their rides — and that can involve an extra 25 miles. One way. So when the ride is over, they’ve still got another 25 miles to go home. That’s certainly in the spirit of biking. It’s using the bike as an alternate form of transportation, and mixes the utility and the sporting uses of biking. Most of my fellow club members ride farther than I do to get to Starbucks. Some come five miles or more.

So while I will happily drive to a ride, sometimes I feel a little conflicted by doing so. We’re using fossil fuels in pursuit of a recreational activity that makes use of human power. Somehow it doesn’t seem right. Or logical. Or something.

But I enjoy the different cycling locales I visit. I know my enjoyment of cycling has been heightened by discovering a new route that I might return to every so often. I think I can say with certainty that I will continue to burn gas to get to the start of some rides.

How about you? Thoughts?

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Categories // Rides Tags // cars, Travel

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