oboeguy

'Twas on the way home tonight. It was pretty late, nearly 9:30, and coldish (around freezing) so nobody was out on this particular stretch of the Hudson River Greenway. I saw in my peripheral vision a small shadow flicker along the ground, and perhaps only after the clunk of running over something rat-sized was I pretty sure the shadow was in fact a rat. I didn't even bother to look back.

jyossarian

I wouldn't have looked back either. You'd just piss off the rat even more.

LittleBigMan

Lol

ban guzzi

yeah...don't piss 'em off! I know the racoon I T-boned this past summer was mad! The squirrel tho'...

suicide by chain ring....

That was gross.

DCCommuter

I'm sure the rat is over on ratforums right now moaning about how lousy his commute was today.

oboeguy

Bwuahaha! I'll bet he signs in as "ratbert".

Mr. Underbridge

And I'm sure he's getting a lecture on "Vehicular Scurrying" from a bunch of the other rats on the board, who will hijack the thread with theoretical debates of tail positioning, and whether Multi-Use Sewers are safer than roads.

unixpro

If it was a NYC rat, you've probably got a contract out on you now. I'd avoid the area for a while.

doraemonkey

I rode with the rats in Barcelona once a few years back... I was riding back from a night out on the town, and in my state of intoxication I saw some brown shadows skittering in front of my bike. I thought I was halucinating... and then after a moment's reflection, I thought ah...rats!

oboeguy

I'm surprised it hasn't happened before, to be honest. I've counted more than a dozen rats along the way on occasion.

mikepoole

Was it anything like running with the bulls?

doraemonkey

It was. On a miniature scale... there were 3 or 4 running along with me... or at least trying to get out of my way...

roadiejorge 

In the summer it's worse along the river though I've never actually run one over. I've always dreaded running one over because some are so big I'd probably bail on impact.

HardyWeinberg

That's different from the word over on SquirrelForums. 'If you'd just gone back and forth a few more times this never would have happened!!!'

By the way since you kept going, I imagine NYC rats must be smaller than I've heard!

Desert_Donkey

What's up with the kamikaze wildlife, anyway? I've run over two crazy-assed squirrels that ran right under my wheels for some reason. I wonder if this is something like the wildlife version of "Jackass"?

fourpunk

when i smooshed a rat i definitely almost crashed. but i was riding no-handed at the time.

oboeguy

Heh, it must have been a smaller one because I've seen much bigger. There are a couple of rabbits (yes! in Manhattan) I see on the route every winter. They seem to smarter about not getting in the way.


That's in Pamplona, not BCN.

Argus

I ran over a Canadian goose once, it was dark and raining and I had my glasses off, and it was sitting on the road because it was shock from getting tagged by a car. The last part I know because the home owner was watching the goose on the road.

LittleBigMan

I rode by some digging in my neighborhood, and a lil' varmint was tiddling across the street. Turned out to be a mole. Tried to save it, but it kept running away from me.

HardyWeinberg

bunnies here are very placid, no skittering.

TRUMPHENT

I have seen little bunnies grazing on the grass next to the road and path at dusk. I nearly took out a galloping lizard one morning. It must have warmed up is some early morning sunshine to run like it did. It kept up with my front wheel and dodged between the pedals a few times. It had that weird umbrella collar thing like the lizard that got Newman in Jurassic Park or whatever it was.

My greatest fear is a flock of stork, ibis, curved beak wading bird things that also like to graze with the bunnies on my way to work. They always trap themselves between the mup and a chainlink fence to the left on my northbound leg. They always stampede on my approach. First, they take off and veer left toward the chainlink fence. Then, they realize they must then veer right, right into my trajectory.

Lucky me, they can take off, climb and manuever faster than I approach.

LittleBigMan

I need to stay right here in Commuting, where the action is.

(Dang, truth is funnier than fiction.)

bjornb

I've done this before actually.

Desert_Donkey

What's really a treat is when the Mississippi summer heat brings the rattlesnakes out to bask on the roads; they look like your plain' ol' run-of-the-mill pine branches lying in the road, until you run over one...

TRUMPHENT

Mmm! Rattlesnake, the other white meat! Tastes just like ratlesnake.