Ahem:
Story One:
A couple of years ago I was riding my bicycle on Snake Road in the Oakland
Hills. It's a very winding and steep mountain road (sounds like fun,
right?). I crashed going downhill around a blind right-hander when I got
onto a wet patch of oil. I went down hard and slid into the middle of the
lane. Because of the shock of the impact and the pain in my right hip and
thigh, I couldn't move from the waist down. My friends are yelling at me
to get out of the road, and I'm trying to dig my fingernails into the
pavement to get traction to drag myself out of harms way, because, guess
what? I hear a car coming. This guy in an MGB comes down the hill and into
the turn, sees me lying there, stops in time, turns on his blinkers and
backs up so no one else will run over me while I'm crawling to safety.
That's the way it should happen.
As I am standing next to the road (finally upright) and thanking the MG
driver, we hear tires squealing as a car comes down the hill towards this
blind turn. The MG quickly pulls off into a driveway and we all watch in
amazed horror as a full-size pickup truck comes blazing around the corner,
gets sideways, overcorrects as he passes us (where I was just lying in the
road), and drifts to a stop a couple of feet short of a car madly reversing
to avoid a crash.
One incident, two possible outcomes, a few seconds apart. I feel extremely
lucky that I got the first choice.
Story Two (shorter, I promise):
I was out driving my '95 RX-7 on R tires on Pinehurst Road behind Oakland.
The section between Redwood Road and the Contra Costa county line is a
fabulous (if short) section of clean, wide, banked and smooth road. I was
driving hard when I came up on a cyclist (one I recognized from seeing him
on the roads). I slowed and moved over, leaving him plenty of room. He
yelled "Slow Down Asshole!" as I went by. I was surprised, mostly because
I had slowed down, and stopped to ask him what the big deal was. I made
sure not to do anything remotely threatening and he stopped (warily) to
talk. He explained that even though he knew I gave him room and wasn't
doing anything stupid that just hearing a car coming fast, tires working,
scares him and makes him nervous. And that all too often, the cars with
those squealing tires and racing engines are driven by people who don't
slow, leave room or pass carefully.
Preach mode on:
Ride your bikes considerately and safely. Pull into single file when you
hear cars coming or conditions aren't safe for two (or more) abreast. If
you want to go so fast you need the whole road (and you can't keep ahead of
the cars), enter a closed-course or marshaled road race.
Drive your cars and ride your motorcycles considerately and safely. Just
as with bicycles on public roads, drive within the limits of road
conditions, visibility, weather, traffic, etc. Leave enough available
traction to avoid a stalled car, a rock slide, or a crashed cyclist.
Please.
Scott
----------
From: Tom Burke[SMTP:thosd@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2000 6:04 AM
To: Kevin Ostrom; mrc01@flash.net; miatamail@txt.com;
ba-autox@autox.team.net; miata@realbig.com; DOCWONG@aol.com;
LeanAngle1@aol.com; Nandaholz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Mt. Hamilton Run this Saturday leaving Golfland 8:30a
--- Kevin Ostrom <Kevin_Ostrom@cc.chiron.com> wrote:
> Yes we need to watch out for bicyclists, but
> some of them need to learn some manners.
> Bicyclists need to stay on the side of the road and
> not be 4-5 wide on a blind curve.
>
Politically incorrect, but true.
Tom
__________________________________________________
Yahoo! Photos -- now, 100 FREE prints!
http://photos.yahoo.com
|