They say quitting smoking is the best thing you can do for your health. I wish I could say replacing your car with a bicycle is a biggie as well, but I will admit that there's an element of danger, and I often get a strong whiff of car exhaust which makes me wonder if my lungs are as happy as they should be. I've learned some tricks to riding safely though, and I'm going to share them with you here.

 

Today I rode through the biggest and smelliest cloud of exhaust I have ever encountered. It covered over a half a block. The cause? - a gas powered leaf blower. I understand that some states have banned these obnoxious devices and I am all for that. Small two stroke engines in general cause way more pollution than you would think, and way too much considering what little advantage they have over electric or manual versions. IMHO!

 

Another place I run into exhaust is when a car passes me on a hill. As I ride up the hill, the car passes me on my left and hurries to get by me, and that combined with the extra work the car is doing to get up the hill can really leave me in a gagging cloud of smoke. The answer? Try to avoid going up hills where there is likely to be traffic. Try to gain elevation on the back roads and alleys. If you find yourself gagging from a passing car, slow way down to reduce your breathing, or get off the bike and wait for the air to clear. I have actually turned around or rode a block out of my way to get out of one of these clouds.

 

The dangers often sneak up on you, making them all the more dangerous. For instance riding through parking lots can be dangerous because of unmarked speed bumps. You might have noticed speed bumps are very often painted - as they should be! If they aren't marked, in the dark or in shadow they can take you by surprise and cause you to take a spill.

 

I have only fallen a couple of times, fortunately always at very slow speed, and one of these bumps in CVS parking lots was the cause once. I've noticed CVS seems to have a habit of not painting their speed bumps.

 

After my spill I meant to write a letter to CVS. I should also write to our mayor, Karl Dean, who appears to be on board to encourage bicycles. Perhaps there can be an ordinance about painting those things.

 

I've fallen over a couple of times because I was riding too slow! If you slow down too much you lose the inertia you need to stay up. It's kind of like an airplane stalling as it slows too much. And it takes you by surprise.  I'll put my foot out to catch myself, but if my foot placement is to too close to the centerline of the bike, not far enough out to stop me, inertia will carry me over my foot, and then there's nothing that can be done, over I go. It's embarrassing, and it could be a disaster under the right circumstances.

 

October, 2012:

Found a $20 bill on the ground.  I wouldn't have seen it, of course, had I been driving our road car. We try to leave the beast parked when we are in town. We have 7 grocery stores, three music stores, a local hardware store, two post offices, two libraries, big box stores including Walmart, Home Depot, and Staples, three Apple computer stores, multiple restaurants with vegetarian options, several coffee shopes, several drug stores... all within a few minutes of bicycling, and many destinations can be reached on back roads or in the bike lanes on Belmont Avenue. There are also numerous designated bike routes around our neighborhood. I'm not sure what good that does, but I follow them when I can. Drivers see the signs and might be more likely to notice you and give you berth, I suppose. I favor roads that have wide shoulders and slow speed limits

 

November 28, 2012: cooling off a little, but I taped plastic over my helmet to keep my head warm. I still haven't put away the fingerless gloves and gotten out the winter gloves.

Friday, Jan. 18, 2013

Just got back from a great ride in brisk weather, but there were two dangerous situations I encountered -  I'm learning. Here are two dangers one might not think about:

When a black top road is butted up against a cement gutter, sometimes there is a "lane" of cement about 2 feet wide. Most of the time you can ride on that cement part, and if you veer onto the black top it's not big deal.  Today I encounted a very badly matched seam - the black top was higher than the cement part. Ridiing on the cement, I couldn't allow the tire to veer to the left and rub up against the blacktop of the highway or I might have lost my balance and fallen over, and there was heavy traffic, a bad place to fall! I was riding too fast - I will not ride on that narrow little cement strip again without slowing down.

The other situation I encountered today: I was crossing a two lane highway, but not at an intersection. There was no traffic coming from the left. The traffic coming from the right was stopped a red light further up the road (this was in rush hour traffic so there was a lot of cars standing waiting for the light to change, in two lanes. When I entered the road to cross over and weave my way through the waiting traffic, to get to the bike lane on the other side, the light turned green and the traffic started to move. By the time I got over and into the traffic they were moving, but slowly, and they acomodated  me, but I hadn't expected the traffic to be moving because I hadn't been watching the traffic light to my left - I only checked to see if the traffic was moving, and of course it wasn't until the very instant I was committed to crossing the road. If I had looked to the left and checked the light I would have seen that it was turning green, and I could have pulled back off the road onto the sidewalk.

 

December 2013: 4-way stops

As I ride slow I ride next to the curb. This means I pass the row of cars lined up to go through a 4 way stop at rush hour. When I pull up to the intersection, when do I go? I'm not in the line, so I have to consider that the other three cars in the intersection may ignore me, so the safest thing to do is to get off my bike and become a pedestrian.  i walk my bike across the intersection, then if I'm going left I walk my bike across to the left.

Keep riding! - Al