I got passed by a school bus this morning.

Let me put that in context...

I was going 25mph about 150 yards from a red light. Plenty of time for me to stop. I'm in a school zone so I'm doing the speed limit. (It's a pretty good run down hill. I'm not strong enough to do 25 consistently in the flats)

The approach to this light has 1 thing lane with no shoulder/sidewalk/dirt path/ect. It's a wall of trees a foot from the lane and people usually make right turns on red so I don't wan't to be to the far right. I have to ride right in the lane at this intersection. There is no safe option for being off to the side.

A school bus, with kids on board, goes around me on the left by crossing far over the center line into the left side of the road. Passes me, then slams on the brakes at the light. But right after the light the lane opens into a 25 foot wide lane where I jump over to the far right and cars and buses can easily pass with ease and ample clearance. All the bus had to do was wait for the light then pass me safely on the other side of the intersection.

And it's a pretty blind left turn. So a car on the cross street making a right onto the road I was on could have lawfully entered that lane and immediately been in the path of a school bus on the wrong side of the road doing 30 mph.

School bus.

With kids on board.

In the district where my kids go to school and ride the bus.

This wasn't my kids' bus with them on board or I'd have chased the bus to it's next stop and had immediate words with the driver.

But I was pretty cheesed off at that kind of aggressive driving in a bus that risked my life and put a bus full of kids into possible oncoming traffic, all to get ahead of me at a red light and save 5 seconds it might take to pass me after the light.

Oh, but do I work for a company that manages the employee benefits for this school system? As a matter of fact I do! Meaning I have personal relationships with the entire human resources staff of the school district as well as a working relationship with the bus depot manager for when I need to send benefit enrollers out there....NEXT WEEK. What a handy coincidence!

50F, raining.

I had this happen this morning, Car A was getting tailgated by Car B. Car A turned right exactly in front of me to enter driveway but screeched to a halt across both the bike lane and the travel lane when freaked out by Truck T pulling out of the driveway. Car B had the left lane open but was tailgating A, anyway it also screeched to a halt, actually leaving enough room for me to go around A and in front of T which had never moved during any of this.

I might have also screeched to a halt in the triangle between A and B but with the rain my brakes were not screeching.

Brakes NOT screeching in the rain? lol that's usually the opposite of what happens to me. Wet = instant brake squeal, on my disc brakes especially.
[MENTION=468175]Skipjacks[/MENTION] any video of that incident? I've seen it happen plenty of times but from a school bus driver with kids on board is pretty bad.

No. I've been thinking about adding a camera but I don't feel like buying one. I have a car dash camera that would work but I can't figure out how to mount it. (Mostly because I haven't tried really hard)

Nice threading the needle!

You have the reflexes of a Jedi.

It was pretty slow so I had time to take it all in...

School bus drivers around here are the worst. Even though I know they all have cameras on them! Van pool drivers 2nd worst.

Thanks as always for your insight. It really is helpful.

Are you saying you are running two "headlights" simultaneously? I remember a few years back some discussion among motorcycle people thinking this wasn't always a good idea (a few bikes were starting to come with double headlights). The line of thought was that a car might see you approaching and think that the narrowly spaced headlights were actually those of a car much further away, leading to the fear someone would pull out right in front of you, not realizing how close you actually were.

Of course motorcycles travel much faster and in regular lanes of traffic, but it's just a thought.


Anyway, this is fun thread, and it's interesting to hear stories of people's rides.

I just zoned out and lollygagged today

There's a cheap camera at meh.com today (9/20) with bicycle mount. Only 720 resolution, but also only $20.

Getting into commuting again, and it feels great. Very warm day today though at about 90 deg. F with humidity. I expect it will be hotter on the ride home. Front brake caliper came off again so I had the bike shop check it when I got to work. It had just stretched out and they adjusted it for me. Third ride in a row where that happened. Yikes

A very nice ride in this morning with some winds but that beats out the fog and mist we have been having. The temp was 67 f degrees with dark skies when I left the house this am.

This was probably my most windy ride! 10-20 mph winds from NNE when most of my commute to work is heading North. Well, as long as the winds don't change direction, the ride back home is going to be a breeze! Last commute of the week for me, as I head to Vermont for the Fall Classic brevet on 23rd.

[MENTION=465722]robertorolfo[/MENTION], no the two dynamo-powered lights are a headlight and a tail light.

Last night's commute home, was hot (Temps near 90 F) sweaty, and actually awesome. I made one of my best commute times ever, 22 min for my 5.3 mile commute. I ran into another rider on a roadie in full garb who asked about my messenger bag, which is the Infamous Israeli Paratrooper Bag. I used to have one back in HS in the late '80's and it was one of the best bags I've ever owned. When I found them listed on Amazon a short while back I just had to get one again. It fits my work notepad, some pens, an office outfit, my vape gear, electronics chargers, and usually my lunch as well, so it works for me as an everyday bag.

This morning, near 70 degrees with high humidity, and a normal commute time. 28 minutes which included both a store and gas station stop.

Nice move [MENTION=60072]HardyWeinberg[/MENTION]. I was expecting some retaliation from the tailgating driver. A mad honk or something.

Nice ride in this morning. A squirrel crossing the road up ahead paused as if he was going to taunt me and make me hit the brakes. But then he saw a car was passing me and decided to bolt the rest of the way across.

75 degrees with a dewpoint of 70 for this morning's ride in.

sticky, sticky, sticky....... gross.

i for one will not be sad to see this last blast of summer heat wave leave the area for good.

yo, mother nature, bring on some of that cool clean crisp autumn air that makes life worth living.

In case anyone cares, I made a video of what my commute looks like, which I've been wanting to do ever since I got a GoPro camera almost 2 years ago. 15 miles each way, 2/3 rural (10 miles closer to work), 1/3 suburban & residential (5 miles closer to home). I basically just took the clips of when cars were passing me and put them together. I believe this shows every single car that passed me on that particular commute from this past Tuesday, and I had no problems at all from anyone that day, which is pretty much the norm.

The commute takes about 70 minutes but the video is 13 minutes. Feel free to skip forward if you like.

I had planned to ride the e-bike yesterday, but overslept again. I have to get home by 5:45 PM today so my wife can go somewhere, so I took the e-bike today to ensure a speedy commute home. I'm hoping to take the road bike tomorrow which will make this my first ever 4-day commute week!

Pretty uneventful ride this AM, except my lights were almost dead. Forgot to plug them in after Tuesday's commute. Front light was pretty dim, but luckily the sky got brighter and brighter as I went along, so it wasn't too bad. And one of my 2 rear lights did make the whole trip without crapping out on me.

My e-bike's head unit display actually has a USB output on it. I need to keep a cable in my bag so that I can plug in my front light if that ever happens again.

48F clammy, overcast. No standing water at least! But it did start sprinkling my last few blocks.

Ha, OK, gotcha. I was actually thinking that I might have been reading your post wrong, and I was right... about being wrong.

2 minutes from the ride home the other afternoon. In a few block stretch, I passed 37 cars (most of them single-occupant), a bus, a handful of garbage/recycling bins, and 2 salmon.

90 degrees + the last 2 days, so I'm just trying to focus on taking it easy on the way in to work. Plus, when I get home I have 3 kids (2 elementary age and 1 baby) so I need as much energy as possible. That's when the real work starts. haha.

I was tempted to drive today since I also went running this morning. Don't want to burn myself out. But I didn't want to miss out on riding a non-precipitation day!

That's a nice hood with good roads. Amazing that more folks aren't cyclecommuting there. BTW, 2 salmon? Where's the fish? :)

Yes, especially since fall is just perfect here. It tends not to rain much until December and temperatures have finally come down enough to make riding in office clothes doable.

Was curious as to how hot it gets in Sacramento. Looked up some temps here: https://www.usclimatedata.com/climat...tates/usca0967 92F avg high in summer seems pretty tame. Am jealous that for February avg hi - low is 60F - 41F. No snow there, I guess.