Commuting home on my normal route yesterday, I moved to the left to avoid a lady pushing a stroller. I was climbing slowly on a lightly traveled residential street near downtown and my move to the left caused my front wheel to drop into a crack between pavement blocks and down I went. I fell to the left too quickly to even get a foot down although I did manage to extend my left hand. I fell onto a low brick retaining wall, if it had been higher or not there at all, I probably would have been relatively unhurt. As it is, there are 8 sutures holding a Y-shaped cut closed in my left eyebrow and oozing road rash below my left knee and on my left elbow. The stroller lady gave me a cloth diaper (clean) to compress the laceration and I rode 6 miles to the urgent care place to get the sewing done. I live less than a half mile from the center, so it was on the way. I still can't believe how quickly I went down and at almost a walking pace. The helmet didn't help much although if the wall had been a few inches further away it might have. The glove kept my hand from being abraded although it is really sore from the impact. I always though it would be a Buick on a busy street that would get me. Be careful!

Why was she pushing a pushchair down the road? I can't think why you'd need to move left to avoid a pedestrian unless you were cycling on the pavement or one of those awful cycle lanes people put on pavements.

wow. Feel better.
I'm sorry to hear about your tumble.

Narrow street, no sidewalks, large vehicle parked on my right and stroller lady in the middle passing by the parked vehicle. For some reason, the cross streets in this neighborhood have no sidewalks. It is an older (1930's?) area that has been gentrified but has few sidewalks or off-street parking. However, there is almost no traffic on the cross streets, which I suppose helps somewhat if you live there.

Weird. I can never get to grips with how strangely designed American towns seem to be.

The way the roads are described makes me imagine them as being very large paving slabs laid haphazardly with gaps, weeds and large holes. Is the next step the installation of land mines just to make it a touch more exciting?

When did you visit Seattle? (In lieu of costly landmines, we opted for residential streets with signless 4-way intersections with miniature 1-lane roundabouts.)

Someone has obviously never driven the Cross Bronx Expressway in NYFC.

Those potholes could only have been caused by landmines.

Sorry to hear about the spill. The first thought was, that could have been me!

I ride, I'm huge, I'm Irish, I have a slight youth deficiency...

But the fact is that it could be any of us, any time, by mistake or misfortune. Don't let it slow you down. Sitting on the couch is more dangerous than riding.

I'll have to take photos of my commute so that you can envy the wonderful roads around where I live.

Glad you're relatively ok!

I found this funny, it sounds like you wouldn't have bothered to get fixed up if it wasn't on your way home, haha.

I had the same exact thought when I went over the handlebars in February. In my case, though, the helmet helped a lot since I when over the handlebars and did a face plant.