Falling down in Traffic
 

Well I did a 37 miles ride with 2000 feet of climbing yesterday. I used the Look which is the lightest bike I have. As I got within a mile and a half from home, there was a stop light. Most of the cars were pulled over to near the center of the lane leaving me plenty of room to move to the head of the line of cars so that I could proceed across the street and into the bike lane. However, he pickup at the front of the line with 4 wheel drive was pulled over as if he was going to make a right turn taking up most of the available room. As I moved up the line I was expecting him to turn right and open up that area but he didn't move and as I got up there he didn't have his signal on and his front wheels were pointed out toward what would be the near the centerline of the two lanes of road on the other side. So I proceeded forward and because of him being in the way I didn't see that there was a sharp step between the asphalt and the concrete gutter and curb. My wheel caught in this and I went down directly in front of him and had to roll over and unclip to stand up and get out of the way of traffic, get back on and proceed across to the bike lane. I received a 1" diameter patch of skin removed on the bottom of my kneecap which is a very difficult place to get a gauze pad to stay, especially at night in bed. So I have tape holding everything up and of course it is glued down to all of the leg hair and I'm not looking forward to pulling that off in a couple of days.

I don't mind riding like an ass half as much as looking like I'm riding like an ass. Be careful that doesn't happen to you simply because if you wait behind a line of traffic you will miss the light and have to wait through a stupid 4 way light intersection. Unless no traffic comes up behind you and the stupid light doesn't trip for a bicycle and like plenty of times in the past I have to end up waiting through two or three cycles with traffic far too heavy to run the light.

On this ride I came back through the same Villareal intersection as before and again the light didn't trip for my bike. Luckily a car came up pretty quick to change the light which is not set to California standards. As soon as the Alameda Supervisors are back in session I will have to go and report the traffic department as giving right of way to some big shot rather than a bike route with a light that doesn't change for bicycles. Maybe Jay is giving them traffic law advice.

Falling down in Traffic
 

On Friday, January 15, 2021 at 2:32:21 PM UTC-8, Tom Kunich wrote:
Well I did a 37 miles ride with 2000 feet of climbing yesterday. I used the Look which is the lightest bike I have. As I got within a mile and a half from home, there was a stop light. Most of the cars were pulled over to near the center of the lane leaving me plenty of room to move to the head of the line of cars so that I could proceed across the street and into the bike lane. However, he pickup at the front of the line with 4 wheel drive was pulled over as if he was going to make a right turn taking up most of the available room. As I moved up the line I was expecting him to turn right and open up that area but he didn't move and as I got up there he didn't have his signal on and his front wheels were pointed out toward what would be the near the centerline of the two lanes of road on the other side. So I proceeded forward and because of him being in the way I didn't see that there was a sharp step between the asphalt and the concrete gutter and curb. My wheel caught in this and I went down directly in front of him and had to roll over and unclip to stand up and get out of the way of traffic, get back on and proceed across to the bike lane. I received a 1" diameter patch of skin removed on the bottom of my kneecap which is a very difficult place to get a gauze pad to stay, especially at night in bed. So I have tape holding everything up and of course it is glued down to all of the leg hair and I'm not looking forward to pulling that off in a couple of days.

I don't mind riding like an ass half as much as looking like I'm riding like an ass. Be careful that doesn't happen to you simply because if you wait behind a line of traffic you will miss the light and have to wait through a stupid 4 way light intersection. Unless no traffic comes up behind you and the stupid light doesn't trip for a bicycle and like plenty of times in the past I have to end up waiting through two or three cycles with traffic far too heavy to run the light.

On this ride I came back through the same Villareal intersection as before and again the light didn't trip for my bike. Luckily a car came up pretty quick to change the light which is not set to California standards. As soon as the Alameda Supervisors are back in session I will have to go and report the traffic department as giving right of way to some big shot rather than a bike route with a light that doesn't change for bicycles. Maybe Jay is giving them traffic law advice.
Well, I got a real cheap shot in on Jay and he didn't respond. Maybe he is learning after all.