Originally Posted by
mcours2006
On my route I've come to know almost all the potholes, ruts, large road debris, and other hazards that are lurking in the dark waiting for me to run over it. So the familiarity allows me to effectively avoid them. So in this sense, it does improve your safety.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Personally, I rely on my lights and my eyes to see and avoid hazards on the road. I'm not sure what kind of roads you ride but around here we don't have too many ruts...at least not on paved roads..., large road debris is rather random, and potholes can develop nearly overnight. I'm not sure what you mean by "other hazards" that might sit still long enough for me to learn how to avoid them.
I can agree to the point that "large road debris," meaning (to me) large rocks, tree limbs, etc., tend to get cleaned up fairly fast or moved by cars and trucks. But I have to agree with the ruts and potholes point. I've seen some nasty ruts or pavement cracks, the kind that looks like they're designed to eat bike tires, that have lasted for a year or more. Likewise, there's a road near my commute that's got large dips in the pavement, not real potholes because the pavement is merely sunk, not broken. Hitting those dips after a rain could cause a wipeout if a cyclist didn't know about them. Hazards such as those I tend to route around. In some places, where the governments are fiscally strapped, I don't know that I could avoid by going a road or two over.