Advocacy & Safety - Near misses and such at season's end...

that is if you live in the temperate zone. Here the road season is winding down, so it's time to add up: How many actual falls/accidents have you had so far, and how many SERIOUS near-misses?

I had one hairy near-miss with some shmuck in an SUV yakking on his cell phone- he turned left so close to me that I had to turn my front wheel! I also had another near miss at an intersection- two guys in a pickup turning left, but looking the other way.

I had one stupid fall in may when trying to avoid a pothole, but that was it- so far. There's still time and plenty of potholes....

that is if you live in the temperate zone. Here the road season is winding down, so it's time to add up: How many actual falls/accidents have you had so far, and how many SERIOUS near-misses?



Got clobbered once in August ... put me in the hospital for 2 weeks and am still recovering after 9 weeks.
Up until then I didn't even have a flat tire !

Does anyone sell BLAZE ORANGE bib shorts and jerseys ???

John Wilke
Milwaukee

that is if you live in the temperate zone. Here the road season is winding down, so it's time to add up: How many actual falls/accidents have you had so far, and how many SERIOUS near-misses?



Got clobbered once in August ... put me in the hospital for 2 weeks and am still recovering after 9 weeks.
Up until then I didn't even have a flat tire !

Does anyone sell BLAZE ORANGE bib shorts and jerseys ???

John Wilke
Milwaukee

Yeah I had a bit of a wipe out about 3 weeks ago. Skinned my knee, pulled a shoulder muscle or tendon. I was comming down an abandoned section of road and a PU pulled into the road, I saw it but rather than make the hard left he stopped in the middle of the road. There is an 8-9% grade at this point and a wash out of gravel. So I panic stopped on the gravel, then layed it down before going under. It was my fault I was going 30 on a slope and saw the PU and A S S U M E D that he would turn. This time of year I started taking more extreme risks. I am glad I had a minor accident to keep me humble.

Hmmm, I don't really count these things because I specialize in stupid, non-mortally dangerous 2mph crashes. That being said... I was doored this summer, got a sprained elbow, completely off the bike for a few weeks. Other than that, nothing major. Plenty of flats, though!

the bike season is coming to an end in the temperate zone?

I was in a collision in August that broke my femur at the neck and crushed the guys windshield with my head, I'm still not biking. Other than that, nothing serious I can think of after my first serious accident in 6 years.

Oh, I nearrly ran into a bear on some serious backwoods bike touring in the Olympic mountains in july, does that count?

1 auto collision, 1 ursine close call.

The bike season ends? (I guess as a dedicated commuter I'm more hardcore than most temperate-zone non-commuters are.)

As only a commuter (which maybe makes a difference?), my safety record so far this year (yes, since January) has been:
3 ice slips (January - March)
1 flat (due to over-filling)
0 "accidents" (or incidents, if you prefer)
0 near misses
Handful of mildly annoyed/annoying motorists (I'm getting better at not letting them get to me)
2 cases of decaying roadkill in the shoulder (porcupine, skunk) :)

Does anyone sell BLAZE ORANGE bib shorts and jerseys ???

http://www.alertshirt.com/

As for end of season,for me it's just the end of shorts and t-shirt season. Almost time for the jacket and pants.

Bikes are in season? No wonder those hunters were shooting at me. . . Luckily, near miss.

Haven't been hit yet this summer. I doubt whether I could begin to count the angry swervers or the near-miss reckless drivers. Was only off the bike due to injury for one night, and that was because the night I cut my hand in the kitchen I decided it would be safer to walk to the ER for stitches than to ride ;)

I was commuting by bike once or twice a week before the fall semester started up recently and changed my work schedule to make it far less feasable to bike.

The only notable close call I had was when a car totally blew the stop sign at the stub road of a T intersection as I was passing through the (unregulated) straightaway. The driver turned right to parallel my direction of travel and cut me off, but I was able to turn away from the car just enough to keep from hitting the left rear door of her sedan. I was on my tallbike, which I believe helped me get a few additional inches of sway that made the difference between snagging a wheel well and coasting precariously only a few inches from her vehicle.

I got her plates and description but didn't ever bother reporting the incident. I think judging by the dinner-plate sized eyes staring at me in the rear-view, she learned her lesson well.

I've only had one "real" fall, which was caused by getting my front wheel caught on a parallel garden hose at extremely low speed and tipping to the right (I'm used to mounting and dismounting from the left), which didn't give me enough time to jump off. This was also on the tallbike. :)