Damn left side riders
 

Had a wreck this morning, cycle v. cycle, I may be biased but i'm pretty sure I got the worst of it.

Approaching my final destination this morning an hour earlier than normal at 7, I ride the last 100 yards or so on a WIDE sidewalk (no cars allowed on this part of campus so sidewalk riding it is). Anyway in the last 25 yards there is some landscaping going on off to the right side so they have errected a rather nasty looking fence (glo orange ruberized wire strung between very nasty rusty looking fence posts (which look like they would do double duty as cyclists pokers if hit)). So I see a rider coming towards me, looks like a student from campus (which should have clued me in, the only students up at 7 are drunk ones on their way home, the following interaction ensues:

0. Student and I are in the center of the WIDE (more than 10 ft) sidewalk heading towards each other.

1. I move to a definite solid right position.

2. The student for reasons I cannot begin to fathom moves to his left so that we are still heading right towards each other.
Maybe he thought we were in England?

3. I now take a definite right position on the sidewalk with only inches between me and narly rusty fence.

4. The student again moves to his left.

5. I signal my intention to stay on the right right side of the walk. The student looks at me with a blank expression.

5. I realize to late that we are going to collide, I put on my brakes and endo, although that could have been more because my front tire impacted the main triangle of his frame as he swerved out of the way again to his LEFT!!!!!!

6. My helmet takes the brunt of the impact and splits the front section in two, I then apparently turn and my upper lips takes an impact and then slides along the concrete.

7. I proceed to give said student a few choice unprintable words.

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Damage: A single tooth took all of the impact to my lip, it hurts like nobody's buisiness, the dentist took a couple of x-rays and declared that things should be fine in a week. My helmet is DONE.

The student appeared fine although I think he was hammered from a night out, he had no marks on him anywhere, I don't think he fell down at all, but he couldn't answer any questions that me or the witness that stopped were asking him. I showed him my helmet and recommend he find one.

Lessons learned:

1. As soon as he moved left the first time I should have yelled something. At that point it might have become clear to me he was an idiot.

2. My initial speed was fine for this area provided that no one is around which usually no one is. However given the outcome I'd have to say I was going to fast.

3. I NEED a FULL FACE HELMET!!! Who here uses one? What do you reccommend. I looked at the Downhill ones but they don't appear to always have meaningful face protection. What about a Dirt bike helmet? I'm worried that a Motorcycle helmet would be to heavy, but aren't the Dirt bike ones lighter?

Rant: I fricking hate people that walk/bike ride/run or do anything else on their left side of a sidewalk! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that in America everything should happen on the right side!! Damn left-walkers and left-riders!!

Did youcall the police? If he was drunk, then depending on the laws of your state, he could have been up for a DUI.

I'm sure this goes without saying, but even if it didn't look like it, you'd want to replace it anyway. I wrecked myself last week, took a nice spill onto a sidewalk. I don't even think my helmet touched the ground - looks pristine - but I'm dumping it anyway and getting a new one. Not taking the chance.

You're supposed to walk or jog on the left side of the road, aren't you? And I prefer to have walkers see me coming head-on, so they can move their entourage out of the way.

I think I would've "detained" the drunken moron while I called the police and subsequently waited for them to arrive.

So does anyone use a motorcycle helmet? I've seen one guy on the MUP here wearing one.

Ummm... sounds to me like had a completely avoidable accident.
Sure the guy was a moron, but WTH did you proceed at speed toward the obvious collision?

I once saw a guy wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet on a bicycle. He was also wearing a suit coat, slacks, tie and dress shoes. The best part is, he was riding no-handed down a fairly busy, two-lane, black-top road flapping his arms like a bird flapping it's wings. He did this from the time I spotted him until he was out of sight. Very odd! True story!

I think a full-face motorcycle helmet would be extremely hot and uncomfortable on anything but a really short ride. They do make full-face bicycle helmets that some of the downhillers and free-riders use.

Because he had a helmet to protect him, silly! :lol:

Sidewalks are not directional. You can *walk* whichever direction you want on a sidewalk, regardless of the side of the street it's on.

If you want to ride your bike somewhere that you can reasonably expect traffic to head in predictable directions, get off the sidewalk.

If no cars are allowed on campus in this location wouldn't said sidewalk be a path of some sort?

This is an odd one to call.

Because at first I was sure he would move to his right. I realized to late that between the landscaping fence and the possiblity that he might not move to his right I had lost my out. In retrospect two things happened: it took me to long to realize that he wasn't playing with the same rules as I and contributing to this I was moving to fast to react once I knew there was a problem.

There is no off sidwalk route to my destination. It is on a college campus in an area where cars are not allowed to go. How would you get there? Walk?

That's what I did when I was in college. Lots of people rode bikes to school, and then walked them once on campus because 1) that's what the campus rules were - no bikes/skateboards/rollerblades on the walkways, and 2) if you tried to ride a bike on the walkways you would plow into several pedestrians almost instantly, because they were typically full of college students and professors going to classes.

If your walkways are less crowded, then maybe you can get away with riding a bike on them, but don't pretend that there's a rule that says people have to travel in certain directions on certain sides of the walkway just because you're mad that you got hurt.

There isn't a rule as in the city council sat down and laid out a law. But I think anyone with any sense realizes you go on your right. Certainly two bikes meeting (in the ether as it were) without a pedestrian in sight should be able to follow this very sensible and safe convention, and one of them can be justifiable angry if the other does not adhere.

I have to agree that campus sidewalks can be hazardous to your health when riding a bike. I had an "almost" accident with a ninja rider wearing all black on a black bike with no lights last night on campus. I almost hit him TWICE. Coming and going. He was riding erratically, weaving around and using the entire sidewalk. Of course he saw me coming. I'm lit up like a Christmas tree. Fortunately my 40 watts of headlights lit him up from enough of a distance that I could slow down and move off the sidewalk before he nearly clipped me. Love them headlights...


Sorry about your faceplant bike2math, get better soon. I've kissed the pavement myself before.

I wear a full face downhill bmx helmet, the model is Prime AL. VERY LIGHT and well ventilated.

Sells for like $ 60 on amazon or ebay.

Yeah, I agree with you. When you pass another vehicle you go to your right. Common sense. I'm not saying that the collision couldn't possibly have been avioded. But if you and the witness you speak of were to have explained (to a police officer) the fact that the guy either unintentionally or intentionally swerved into your path when you made definitive moves to avoid him (twice!) and combine that with the fact that the moron was drunk , I'm pretty sure the blame would've landed squarely on Drunken Moron in the eyes of the law.

Does the face bar have foam reinforcement? Or is it just a piece of plastic?

I'm not kidding you guys: my tooth hurts something fierce! Add this to Axon's collision a few months ago and I've decided I want something more than my lip and whiskers between my pearly whites and the pavement. Heck I have a job interview of sorts coming up in a month, I can't afford to go to that with a strawberry on my face.

I don't blame you for being mad at that idiot, bike2math. But I think you have to accept the fact that when you're riding on a college campus sidewalk, you have to be ready for anything. Or walk the bike.

There's a reason these kids are going to school. College won't even fix most of 'em. :rolleyes:

If it's your teeth that you're worried about, just use a mouthguard:
http://tinyurl.com/2b4xvm

A full face helmet seems like overkill to me. Just be careful next time. You should have stopped in this instance anyway.

Well, most people are civilized enough, and with enough sence, to keep to the right of any avenue of travel, regardless whether its "directional" or not. Thats just the way it is here in this country. Same goes for walking around in Wal-Mart, or the flea market, or anywhere else theres human traffic flow.

If I'm riding my bike on an MUP or even a college campus sidewalk and see you coming, I fully expect you to keep to the right, eventhough there's not any posted signs directing you to. SOooo,...I'm with the OP on this.

People operate with different levels of defensiveness. I think in this case, a reasonably cautious person would brake and slow to a crawl when the idiot matched your move and went to his left side of the sidewalk. No yelling, no trying the other side, no trying to go farther right. First sign of trouble, hit the brakes and get below a velocity that could get you hurt. if idiot continues to barrel at you, get off bike, off sidewalk, hold bike in front to brace for impact.

Other people know they are in the right and barge ahead not willing to yield to someone not respecting their space. I'm not saying these people are wrong. I'm just saying these people get hurt more.

I wear a Fly Maverick FF helmet on the bmx track. It’s very very light and has plenty of ventilation intakes. The MX helmets tend to not have as much ventilation. The Facial portion of the fly is padded and the lining is removable for washing. Sorry to hear about your accident.

That sucks, and I'm very sorry you got hurt. It was not your fault by any reasonable estimate. HOWEVER: I've learned after several crashes of my own, that even when it's not my fault -- when I've done what you're supposed to do to the letter -- I still could have somehow avoided the crash. The same is true here.
It's an unfair burden to the cyclist, but in addition to looking out for ourselves, we have to be responsible for the idiots who aren't.
It's very little solace to be in the right and in the hospital.
Heal up.

Thanks for the idea. I don't know why I didn't think of it. I've even seen some research which showed that they cut the chance of a concusion for football players in addition to protecting their teeth, gums, lips, tounge, and cheeks. The first one that came up in your link also has exterior lip protection. Very nice.

That's my take in this situation. Sure, there are some common guidelines that most people obey. But these aren't hard and fast rules, and nobody is "wrong" for not following them. I hate to say it, but the OP sounds like he was being an idiot for continuing to plow through at speed because the other guy wasn't clued in to what the OP was thinking (notice that he never said anything to the other guy before the accident, he just expected him to be clued in to his actions).

I agree: I was being stubborn, and I was almost at my destination and didn't want to stop. However I also fully expected this guy to move to his right at some point, in fact when it got to the point where I knew I had to make a decision, it was to late because I couldn't go to my left because of the possiblity he would finally join the country I live in and do the right thing. and I couldn't go to my right because of the scary metal fence thing.

I certainly should have slowed to a 'less than endo' speed the moment he matched my first avoidance manuver. at that point I could have let my superior mass (I outweighed him by 20+ lbs) move him out of the way; and to boot I still had 25 yards in which to slow down rather than the eventual 3 or so I tried to stop in.

I did however signal to him (although maybe I'm at fault for not issuing a verbal signal at some point): I gave a right turn signal after the second avoidance manuver (which he had already matched) and then I pointed to the right side of the walk (I was trying to indicate: I am turning right ahead, I am maintaining this line right here). After the conversation me and the witness had 'with' him I don't think he was aware of what was going on around him. He seemed confused about why his bike had fallen over and what this slightly bloody guy was doing asking him questions like "What day is it?" and "Do you know where you are?" Actually I don't think he said anything, and he was definitely having trouble focusing on us; I probably should have called the police, now that I think about it, I hope he didn't get hurt worse whereever he was going.

College kids, I hated them when I was one, and I hate them more now :rolleyes:

I think the main issue here was that the other guy was drunk. It's clear that the inebriated will have a slower reaction speed, and make bad decisions. It's unfortunate the B2M missed the cue about the other rider in a spot where he was trapped (by the fence). Sure, it might have been overly optimistic to expect reasonable decisions on the part of another rider, but we all do.

FWIW I ride on campus 'sidewalks' all the time. BTW as far as I'm concerned, if there is no motorized road to a destination, and the walkway is fairly wide then it is a road. Think MUP and you've got the right idea. When they're busy, or the visibility or other conditions are bad, I ride slowly, and when I have good visibility and few other users I ride faster (probably no more than 20 kph though).

I've worried about the face injury thing too - the mouthguard is an interesting idea. A lot of hockey players I know wear them (especially the ones with no or a 1/2 visor), and they seem to keep the teeth attached to the jaw fairly well (just look at a middle aged hockey player from the 80's now :)).

You have failed to learn the most important lesson relevant to your situation -- as a group, students are the worst cyclists on the planet and you must adjust your riding style. I hate riding anywhere near campuses because there are always college kids on bikes flying every which way without paying the least amount of attention to what they are doing.

You should drastically reduce speed, be especially alert for being t-boned where ever any kind of path meets the street, watch out for wrong way riders, and don't even think those lights or signs will impact anyone's behavior but yours. If you find yourself on a collision course with some knucklehead (going the wrong way, about to hop off a sidewalk, going to turn into you, etc), take evasive action immediately and get off the bike if necessary. I've seen plenty of head on collisions.

You do not need a full face helmet. Just slow down, assume the nincompoops are out to get you, and be careful and you'll be fine.