Friday, March 18, 2011

Spring Drivers

The good news it's spring and that means better riding weather. The bad news is it also means some drivers aren't ready to drive near bicyclists.
First a FedEx truck buzzes me then a woman in a sedan who must get past me "right now" even if it means driving into oncoming traffic. Both incidents were pretty tame as far as traffic incidents go, but both drivers saved themselves only about 2 seconds by endangering both me, and others.






6 comments:

David Glandon said...

So did you send the video to FedEx?

Anonymous said...

Hi Jeff,

I bike commuted from Brown Deer to UWM for 25 years through most of the year and ran into many of the same situations that you describe.

One in particular I'll always remember. I was riding east on Hampton Ave on a Sunday morning in the summer. I was between Port Rd and Wilson on the north side of Estabrook Park. There were a bunch of people playing soccer and cars were parked in the right lane. I rode in the left lane, as I should. A motorcycle cop went past on my left complaining that he had to go in the opposing lane of traffic to pass me. I just said I need to be away from the door zone. He said, "Stop ahead, we need to talk." Well, it was a one sided talk. He told me to shut up and read me the riot act. Since he had a gun, I didn't talk back. I'm not black but people have gotten shot talking back to cops.

Ron

Dan said...

On a narrow road like that, I'd recommend taking a little more of the lane. Don't give them a chance to squeeze through.

Anonymous said...

The truck was not that close unless.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, nor was the lady that close.

Jeff said...

Mr. Anonymous,
Perhaps you are comfortable with a semi passing within 2 feet of your handlebar at 35 mph, I am not.
Also I never said the car was too close, I said that the driver was so impatient she went into oncoming traffic to pass.