Hit and Run

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Chris said:

This sure does sound like a lot of people getting
whacked by cars. Let's here the others. Bring your
tales.

Let's also hear the "NOT getting whacked by cars" tales.
There are two sides to the story, no?

Do I need to go first? ;-)

No!!!!! <GRIN>. Remember that it's the unusual stuff which
makes the news(group). Nobody posts when they rode 30 or 50
or 200 miles and didn't get hit by a car. All he needs to do
is go back to the recent helmet thread for examples of how
long some of us have been riding withOUT a mishap.

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

In article <Robvc.34783$js4.2013@attbi_s51>,

Claire Petersky said:

"Frank Krygowski" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Chris said:

This sure does sound like a lot of people getting
whacked by cars.

Let's

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

here the others. Bring your tales.

Let's also hear the "NOT getting whacked by cars" tales.
There are two sides to the story, no?

Hey, I've been riding for 35 years (not continuously, you
comedians) or so, and this is the first time I've had a
bike/car collision.

You¹ve been riding since birth?.....🙂

Glad to hear you are OK.

Get a good lawyer and make sure this fool cannot afford a
car for at least twenty years.

HAND

--
³Freedom Is a Light for Which Many Have Died in Darkness³

- Tomb of the unknown - American Revolution

Claire Petersky said:

When I went to get my bike to ride home, I had pangs of
irrational panic. I had no problem completing the ride in
to work after the accident, but I was still on adrenaline.

Kind of funny how people react to an accident. I remember
being worried about racing in a pack - until the first time
someone brought down the pack and I ended up with my first
chain wheel scar. But my reaction was that I survived and
it wasn't as bad as I expected. It ended up making me ride
more relaxed.

Adrenalin and shock are interesting 'phenomena'. They've
always given me the 5 seconds or so I needed to accept that
whatever happened is going to hurt, but, well, there it
is... (anyone else remember lying down on the ground firmly
believing that if you could simply figure out a way not to
move, ever again, it might not hurt so much?)

So far, however, I've had two reaction accidents from cars
but no actual collision with a car. Guilty of falling on a
car once when I came to a stop on sand and popping out of
the clip didn't exactly work. Don't think that counts.

Curtis L. Russell Odenton, MD (USA) Just someone on
two wheels...

I rode in vancouver for 2 hours and am planning a trip to
the mall this summer. Never got hit yet.

Quoted message said:

I was coming down Dearborn at about 20 mph in to work this morning, 8:45 AM,

Quoted message said:

full morning daylight, and was right hooked by someone
turning in to Chinatown. He didn't use a turn signal. I
could see him angling in to make

Quoted message said:

the turn, so I was braking hard.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I'm sorry to hear about your accident. It sounds like you
handled it impeccably and avoided what could have been much
worse - alert, perfectly controled, reactive. And good for
you for getting the doofus' license number!

Couldn't have said it better. Great job Claire.

About the reaction afterwards, I suppose that is normal. I
mean it seems like a good way to keep people from doing the
same dumb thing twice. I have had similar reactions in
similar conditions. It should wear off with time.

Route 22 in White Plains, New York.

Curtis L. Russell said:

(anyone else remember lying down on the ground firmly
believing that if you could simply figure out a way not to
move, ever again, it might not hurt so much?)

I always remember to lie quiet at first, waiting for the
inital shock to go away. Then I start slowly to move body
parts, doscovering what does and doesn't work. I call it
"taking inventory".

When I got bumped to the pavement last year, a woman came
running up and asked me "Are you hurt, shall I call 911?" I
replied, "I don't know yet, but I'll know in a minute or
so." Turns out I was okay and was able to walk away. The
bike had a worse time of it.

Then there were the other 300+ days last year when I
didn't get hit.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA bike.terrymorse.combike.terrymorse.comOpen ↗

Frank Krygowski <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Let's also hear the "NOT getting whacked by cars" tales.
There are two sides to the story, no?

Do I need to go first? ;-)

I've never had a car-bike crash in 25 years of cycling.

My closest calls were a couple of times where drivers turned
left in front of me, either oncoming, or from side streets.

Between commuting and pleasure cycling I put in around 2000
miles a year on roads.

-Steve

"Frank Krygowski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Chris said:

This sure does sound like a lot of people getting
whacked by cars.

Let's

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

here the others. Bring your tales.

Let's also hear the "NOT getting whacked by cars" tales.
There are two sides to the story, no?

Do I need to go first? ;-)

--

maybe this qualifies. Last year,I was At an intersection, I
was about to turn left onto the east-west bike path, and all
of a sudden this car is barreling toward me, going south I
realized that he was going so fast that I wouldn't have time
to start up and get out of the way. I thought, "this time,
I'm going to get creamed, I'm going to go right up on the
hood and through the windshield." I say 'this time' because
a year before I'd been hit by a car,also at an intersection,
but it was going very slowly, just starting up, so I wasn't
badly hurt. However, this time i'd be creamed. But the guy
screeched to a halt and his front fender just touched my
front wheel, boomp! The guy had great brakes and great
reflexes. He also, unlike other guy, actually got out of his
car and asked if I was okay. I was, and the wheel was fine,
not even a wobble,but I was pretty wobbly all the way home.
Really,though, at that particular intersection, he shouldn't
have been going so fast, since it crosses a bike path. I
kept thinking if he'd been some really old guy with [censored]
reflexes, I'd have ended up in the hospital or worse.

"Neil Cherry" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David Kerber said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Chris wrote:

> This sure does sound like a lot of people getting
> whacked by cars.

Let's

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> here the others. Bring your tales.

Let's also hear the "NOT getting whacked by cars"
tales. There are two sides to the story, no?

Do I need to go first? ;-)

No!!!!! <GRIN>. Remember that it's the unusual stuff
which makes the news(group). Nobody posts when they rode
30 or 50 or 200 miles and didn't get hit by a car. All
he needs to do is go back to the recent helmet thread
for examples of how long some of us have been riding
withOUT a mishap.

Hey how about a cyclist hitting a car (and not the car's
fault!)? Yes I plead guilty, yes shame on me and I was
luck with the outcome!

I was riding really fast (and some of you know how that
feels) and I was doing a bit of tail gating (major
drafting!). I came around a corner to a light and the car
in front of me hit the brakes a little harder than I
expected. So I managed to slow down to about 10 mph before
I hit the bumper. I appologized to the driver but she
hadn't notice the bump. I have been more careful not to
tail gate since (6 years ago). I have bumped into other
vehicles but those have been ones that have put me into a
bad situation. And yes I tend to be very aggressive in
traffic (but I don't beleive I can push around any motor
vehicles).

I remember meeting up with a guy on a ride once who told me
a similar story. He was on a ride and the sun was in his
eyes, a car ahead of him stopped and he went up on the rear
hood. It was a total accident. He wasn't badly hurt, just
banged up, but his bike, sadly, was trashed.

On 02 Jun 2004 13:45:50 GMT, [email hidden] (Joel

Solomon) said:

Route 22 in White Plains, New York.

Ooh, can I join in? I'd like to randomly post some
unreferenced miscellaneous sentence fragments:

that are orange.

ran away with

It was a very supportive

could be too much

Ford Ranger with ladder racks

In spite of all that

in the newspaper today.

flying like a knackered overinflated

couldn't believe how she

but that's not the
--
Rick Onanian

Claire,

I'm glad to hear you're OK. That is the most important
thing. I'm also glad you followed the incident through the
legal channels. I hope there will be justice in this case.

My one collision with a car was in Mid-town Palo Alto,
California. I was commuting home by bike on my brand-new,
just built by me, Trek Y-foil. I was only commuting 2-3 days
a week at that time, so I wasn't completely wise to riding
in traffic. I was on Middlefield Road, which is 2 lanes in
each direction through a somewhat busy shopping district. It
was 9/12/2001. I had just passed a church that had a sign
"Open for Prayer", and was pondering the events of the week.
Then, in front of me, there was a woman waiting to turn left
into the shopping center to my right. I was going about 19-
20 mph. I could sort of see the set-up happening, and had
nowhere to go as the driveway into the shopping center was
very narrow. I wasn't going slow enough to clear the curb.
But, I did manage to get my speed down to about 12 mph
before whacking her sqaure in the passenger door. I popped
out the pedals and on to her roof. She stopped and was very
worried. She said she had been so distraught by 9-11, that
she was having concentration lapses. Several others stopped
to be witnesses. I was pretty sure I was OK except for
bruising, so I just took her information and continued home.
Everything turned out to be fine, except for the 6" deep
crevace in the side of her car 🙂 It was a very grace-filled
incident for all concerned. Now, I do the 'Miss Universe'
wave whenever I see left turners approaching on the other
side - just to make sure they know I'm there and going too
fast for them to turn in front of me. I've only ever had one
person ignore me so far.

Then, there was the time the guy in a mini van backed up
onto me in a left turn lane at a signal, because he was
adjusting his position on the plate...sort of a slow-
munching feeling as his plastic bumper slid up over my tire
and into my bike. He finally realized what was happening and
decided to hang up the cell phone....

Here's to many more incident-free miles for everyone.

Sarah

On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 14:24:17 -0400, Rick Onanian <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Ooh, can I join in? I'd like to randomly post some
unreferenced miscellaneous sentence fragments:

that are orange.

ran away with

It was a very supportive

could be too much

Ford Ranger with ladder racks

In spite of all that

in the newspaper today.

flying like a knackered overinflated

couldn't believe how she

but that's not the
--
Rick Onanian

Ok, now, you're starting to make sense.

Curtis L. Russell Odenton, MD (USA) Just someone on
two wheels...

On 2 Jun 2004 11:45:31 -0700, [email hidden] (Sarah

Clatterbuck) said:

Now, I do the 'Miss Universe' wave whenever I see left
turners approaching on the other side - just to make
sure they know I'm there and going too fast for them to
turn in front of me. I've only ever had one person
ignore me so far.

Care to describe this wave?
--
Rick Onanian

Marlene Blanshay said:

Really,though, at that particular intersection, he
shouldn't have been going so fast, since it crosses a
bike path. I kept thinking if he'd been some really old
guy with [censored] reflexes, I'd have ended up in the hospital
or worse.

Here in Va Beach, there's a -lot- of extra wide sidewalks,
and designated bike paths, both around the main roads, and
in the parks.

Because of this, one has to be very aware, and realize 'hey,
I'm crossing a bike path!". My brother and I were driving to
our biking start and I kept having to scout and hollar
'watch out, bike path', since you only knew that when you
saw the markings on the road.

I'm thinking there needs to be more signage "Caution: bike
path intersects ahead".

-Badger

(That way there'll be less cars intersecting our heads! <g>
Boo, hiss)

Rick Onanian said:

On 2 Jun 2004 11:45:31 -0700, [email hidden]

(Sarah Clatterbuck) said:

Now, I do the 'Miss Universe' wave whenever I see left
turners approaching on the other side - just to make
sure they know I'm there and going too fast for them to
turn in front of me. I've only ever had one person
ignore me so far.

Care to describe this wave?
--
Rick Onanian

First you straighten your tiara...

-Badger

"Badger_South" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Here in Va Beach, there's a -lot- of extra wide sidewalks,
and designated

bike paths,

Quoted message said:

both around the main roads, and in the parks.

Because of this, one has to be very aware, and realize
'hey, I'm crossing

a bike

Quoted message said:

path!". My brother and I were driving to our biking start
and I kept

having to scout and hollar

Quoted message said:

'watch out, bike path', since you only knew that when you
saw the markings

on the

Quoted message said:

road.

Does VBeach/Norfolk still have a lot of sidewalks striped
and signed as 'bike paths'? Haven't ridden down there in a
while, but there wer several a few years ago.

Pete

Claire Petersky said:

The driver didn't bother to stop to find out what might
have gone thump on the back of his car. Instead, he high-
tailed it out of there. I filed a

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his scrotum!

Quoted message said:

When I went to get my bike to ride home, I had pangs of
irrational panic. I had no problem completing the ride in
to work after the accident, but I was still on adrenaline.
By the afternoon, all that wore off, and I approached the
bike with a very weird feeling. But my life is structured
on using the bike to get home, so I got on. Then, I was
sure to ride through the same intersection as the
accident, just to affirm that I was not going to be all
freaked out, and it was okay.

Yeah, it was wierd getting back on the bike after my
accident last year. It took me a week or so to get back into
the groove. What really helped was when I got my replacement
bike. I was so excited to be riding and fiddling with it, I
forgot about being freaky.

I've been avoiding Dearborn westbound, too many people
getting off the highway in a damn rush. Eastbound is usually
pretty good though.

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any
other invention in human history, with the possible
exception of handguns and tequila." - Mitch Radcliffe

Pete said:

"Badger_South" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Here in Va Beach, there's a -lot- of extra wide
sidewalks, and designated

bike paths,

Does VBeach/Norfolk still have a lot of sidewalks striped
and signed as 'bike paths'? Haven't ridden down there in a
while, but there wer several a few years ago.

Pete

Yes, certainly in the area of Great Neck Rd, and Little
Neck. Actual bike paths, and designated extra wide
sidewalks. They're not striped the whole way, just at curb
crossings. In addition there are 'bike path' signs with bike
icons on them. It's nice. I wish my city had some. Alas, it
only has a 2ft wide stripe added to the existing narrow
roads, which everyone drives in. A travesty to the term
'bike path'.

-Badger

"Badger_South" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Yes, certainly in the area of Great Neck Rd, and Little
Neck. Actual bike

paths, and

Quoted message said:

designated extra wide sidewalks. They're not striped the
whole way, just

at curb crossings.

Quoted message said:

In addition there are 'bike path' signs with bike icons on
them. It's

nice.

A sidewalk by any other name...

Pete