I was recently cycling through a Westchester (NY) village and ended up being somersaulted through the air, landing heavily on one knee(causing serious damage). Plus a severely strained neck. The cause? My bicycle wheel (which admittedly is quite narrow) entered the gap between the iron bars of a street storm grate that was a few feet from the curb - even at the slow speed I was cycling (10mph) I was propelled into the ground. My bike stuck, vertically inter-grated (excuse the pun)into the grate. Luckily no car was following me. I'd like to know: 1) Has this hapened to anyone else; 2) is this type of storm drains (ie, parallel bars only and no intersecting crossbars) just considered a normal cycling hazard and, if not, did I just find the only one in the County. If they are common, something should be done about this. This is an unacceptable road condition. I was lucky, relatively, but somebody else may not be. Does anyone know of any advocacy groups I could contact.
Thanks andrew