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Close Encounters of the Four Wheeled Kind



 
 
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Old June 5th 07, 05:59 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Close Encounters of the Four Wheeled Kind

On Jun 5, 9:37 am, "Roger Zoul" wrote:
wrote:

::
:: How often do you look behind you on mostly empty rural roads?

Those are the type of roads I ride! Of course, that's how I describe them
but that doesn't mean we both mean the same thing using that term.


How many minutes between one car and the next?

That close in to the city it was running about one vehicle every three
or four minutes including motorcycles, motortrikes, farm equipment,
large cargo trucks, busses, military transports, and cars. This
includes traffic coming from behind and traffic coming at us.

Farther out from the city and depending on the time of daylight it can
be up to ten minutes between vehicles though, if the road is paved,
five minutes is more likely.

The motorcycles share the lane.
The motortrikes share the lane.
The farm equipment rarely passes anything.
The large cargo trucks and the busses honk loudly early and often at
anything on the road or anything looking like it might be thinking
about being on the road in the near future, including chickens.
The military transports tend to have good drivers. So do the WuJing
(armed military police).
The cars are the only unpredictable factor.

:: I check frequently in situations where I expect vehicles to have a
:: chance of being behind me. I check more frequently if I'm wearing
:: earbuds. If the majority of the dozen or so passing vehicles in the
:: last thirty minutes were busses (with professional drivers who start
:: honking with plenty of time to spare) and farm trucks (which are not
:: only noisy but smelly too) one begins to get rather complacent about
:: shoulder checks.

I guess. Perhaps I'm not a racer so I just approach riding differently. I
rarely make any aggressive movements when riding...I would have slowed for
the cow before moving to the left, for example.


I know I didn't speed up and didn't sprint but I can't say for certain
that I did or did not brake before moving to the left.
:
:: Yes, shoulder checks before merging left should be more ingrained.
:: And I probably ought to consider using a mirror at least some of the
:: time. But I didn't have any reason to expect him to be there and
:: even if I had expected him to be there wouldn't have thought he'd've
:: tried to squeeze pass me while I was passing the cow.
:: Notwithstanding the fact that squeezing past me worked I still
:: wouldn't have thought someone would do it.

I guess I don't see it that way...since you share the road with faster
vehicles...it's not infrequent that you have cars passing you on the left.
And perhaps he starting his pass before or just about at the same time you
started your shift to the left. I must admit that it seemed really deadly
for him to keep trying to move passed you with so little room. The dirver
probably overestimated his/her abilities.


Since the driver in question successfully completed the pass without
anyone being injured (just scared) I'd say that he will view it as
confirmation of his skills rather than overestimation. That is, if
the incident even registered. It might not have.

And it is infrequent for a vehicle of any kind to pass me while I'm in
the middle of a passing maneuver, especially one that has required me
to cross over the dashed yellow line.

-M

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