Moron Passed

To the moron in the car on the Johson Street bridge tonight:

You were following way to close to the cyclist. That just isn’t safe. I know she was riding slow, and I know she was hugging the right hand side of the lane instead of riding in the center, but that doesn’t mean you have to badger her. Chill out.

To the lady in the Pathfinder-esque vehicle:

Not only were you too close to the cyclist on the bridge, but you looked like you were trying to pass. You were encroaching on my lane! I honked at you, and yet you didn’t slow down and move over. What is wrong with you? Besides, what were you going to do if you had passed them? There was a long line of cars in front of you. See moron #1 above.

Slowing Intersection

I don’t know why, but when I am out on the roads, I seem to come across lots of morons.

Yesterday I saw this guy on a scooter running a red light. More than once. He turned right on to the road I was on without slowing down at all. I know he had a red then. He approached another light that was also red (the instersection of Head and Old Esquimalt). Instead of slowing, he turns right, then noticing there is no traffic, pulls a u-turn so that he is on Head, facing Old Esquimalt. He guns it and turns right to get back on to Old Esquimalt. The same a running a red.

Today while riding to work I was moving along at a pretty good clip and some car pulls out of a driveway to get into traffic. Only there isn’t room so they hit the brakes and end up blocking the bike lane. I then have to hit the brakes and weave around them. A little later some truck stops in the bike lane and double parks so he could drop off his wife. I wanted to give him a mean look (oooooh), but he was shielding his eyes with his hand. He knew he was doing something he shouldn’t.

On the way home today I was coming down a hill to an intersection and I had a green light. A cyclist decided to try and zip across the red, and through the traffic, nearly t-boning me.

Finally, as I was climbing a hill on Esquimalt Ave, a red and white taxi blew past me pretty quickly at less than a foot from my shoulder. There was a whole other lane they could have mover over in to, but no, he had to stay in his lane.

After experiences like this, it’s

no wonder more people don’t cycle commute.

Turning Mistakes

On the weekend we made a trip out to Costco to grab a few necessities (and a few other items too). After Costco we had to head across Millstream Road to buy some dog food at Petsmart.

The intersection is a pretty busy one, and the lights are regular green lights. If people are turning left, they need to yield to people driving straight.

Well, that didn’t happen. Some dude in a white Ram turned left, following some other vehicles, not seeing me. I honked at him for cutting me off.

I get it that people make mistakes, but at least own up to them. This guy just ignored me, and that made me mad. Pay attention while driving!

Safety Wrapped

Seen a few minutes ago, the least safety conscious thing this week.

One of the maintenance people for the office building I work in is using a leaf blower to clean out the gutters. He is standing on a roof top leaning out. His safety mechanism is a length of rope looped over a railing that he has wrapped around his wrist. The fall would be about 20 feet to a marble covered courtyard.

Clueless Regularly

I was out at Costco this morning picking up a few things. One thing I don’t get about Costco is why the people shopping there are so clueless. The aisles aren’t that big and the buggies are. People just stop in the middle of the aisle. They block each other, they cut each other off. Generally people are pretty rude there.

Contrast that to a regular grocery, hardware, or department store. I can’t recall seeing the same behaviour there. Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve seen the same behaviour at Christmas time, but it certainly doesn’t happen regularly.

Approached Action

On the ride home from ulti tonight I was in a bike lane, and my spidey sense started tingling. Over my left shoulder a car appeared and pulled in front of me. As we approached a road their right turn blinker came on, the slowed, and started moving over.

Instantly I slammed on the brakes and watched as the car stopped as well. This driver was waiting for me to pass. If they couldn’t make the turn, then why start passing me? Just slow down a little, wait for me to go past the road, then make their turn.

I was fuming, and was contemplating saying something, then noticed the big N on the back of the car. I cut the person some slack, and they waved at me and made their turn.

In retrospect I shouldn’t have cut the slack. I should have pulled up beside them and explained why that was a dangerous thing to do, and explained the better course of action. Obviously the parent in the passenger seat didn’t know how to handle the situation any better. I could have informed two people with a few words.

Collision Lane

The ride to work today was a normal ride. It was quite cloudy out, and since all my gear got soaked last night, I had to wear my riding pants.

Some time in the afternoon the sun came out and it warmed up a little. The ride home was actually quite pleasant, but I was on the verge of overheating.

Unfortunately I came across a few morons.

The first was a near car collision as I was about to get on the bridge. I saw an older mercedes approaching the yield sign, but it showed no signs of slowing down. I slowed down but the car in front of me didn’t really slow down. The Mercedes cut in front of the car in front of me then suddenly hit the brakes and stopped. All traffic was stopped and I had to jam on the brakes to avoid running in to the cars. Watch what you are doing people.

The next moron was right as I neared Tyee while riding up Esquimalt Ave. It is a decent hill, and this douche guns it to get past me with his right turn signal on. This guy wasn’t paying attention though. I saw it before he did, but the right turn lane was full since the cross traffic had the right of way. The gunner had to slam on the brakes and just managed to not rear end a porsche. This meant he was blocking my way up Esquimalt Ave. I gave him the thumbs up as I rode by slowly.

The last idiot was a real dork. As I was climbing the final hill near my home a guy in a minivan passes me then honked at me. Quickly he made a right turn in front of me, not using his right turn signal. Nice maneuver. Why the honk though? Don’t do that.

Leery Instinct

Yesterday it was a cold and rainy day. I had to work, so it wasn’t a total loss.

On my way home I was leery of other drivers (like normal really). I had passed a Mercedes doing 45 in the 50 zone along Esquimalt Ave.

As I approached Catherine St, I saw a Volvo come down Catherine to turn right onto Esquimalt (the same direction and lane I was in). The Volvo had a red light, and they stopped, but as I got close to the intersection, they suddenly started pulling out.

Suddenly this Volvo was halfway into my lane. I reacted instantly by hitting the horn, cranking the wheel in an emergency maneuver, and slamming on the brakes. Instinct. I felt the truck’s front wheels skid a bit with the hard turn.

I suddenly remembered that Mercedes and glanced in the rearview and was lucky to see it far enough behind me that I wasn’t going to sideswipe it. I recovered enough to end up in my lane, but my legs and arms were pretty jittery.

I couldn’t believe how close it was. Why do I attract the morons?

Concerned Pace

This is a sad story I came across a while ago. The gist of the story is that some parents are concerned that so many cars are speeding through school zones that they essentially have to deal with the problem themselves. They are going to drive pace cars through schools zones, and these pace cars will stick to the speed limit.

It is disheartening that it has to come to this. Why can’t people just chill a little bit. Speeding through a school zone is stupid, dangerous, and won’t save any noticeable time on the commute. Try waking up 10 minutes earlier. Try taking a different route. Try relaxing. It is up to the driver to get out the door on time if there is a place you need to be at a certain time.

I know that kids and other circumstances can throw a hige wrench in to your plans, and that sometimes being late is not an option, but a school zone is no place for dangerous driving.

I think pace cars are an an ingenious solution to a rather bad problem.

Slamming Drift

One of the exciting moments (Yoshi puking in the truck doesn’t count) during the Ikea trip came on the drive back to the ferry. I narrowly avoided colliding with another car at high speed in the rain. The near miss gave such an adrenaline kick that I needed to pull over and let the muscle tremors wear off.

What happened was some idiot cut us off. Said idiot had cut me off once before when he merged onto the highway right before the Massey tunnel. For the first incident he was in the right lane, and just moved into my lane without checking. I layed on the horn while slamming on the brakes. That was no big deal.

After the tunnel highway 99 exits onto highway 17 which takes you to Tsawwassen. Jerko was in the right hand lane of the 2 exits lane. It is raining quite hard and as we take the exit and round the corner he starts to drift toward my lane.

I was keeping an eye on him from the first incident to avoid him. Slowly he moved back to his lane. Partway around the exit ramp a left turn lane opens to go North on 17. Dipshit then decides he wants to go left and crosses my lane to get over to the left turn lane.

Our vehicle bumpers were definitely overlapping. Instantaneously I was on the brakes, on the horn, and cranking the wheel to avoud hitting him. All I could see was the front right corner of my truck aiming for the left rear wheel. Somehow I avoided him, and I was lucky there was noone to my left.

The other driver continued on like nothing happened, but I had to pull over to regain my composure. It was way closer that I am comfortable with. I estimate that I was within a couple feet of his car, but Sox felt I was closer. Either way, I was proud of my situational awareness, my reaction, and my defensive driving.

I do wish there was a way to report drivers like that. Maybe there is, but I don’t know it, and I certainly didn’t write down the other guys plate number.