Bicycles in our country are still an anomaly on the road, unlike the other countries mentioned here, where a significant bicycle contribution to traffic is the norm. You need to do everything you can to alert drivers of your presence - Blinkies - and to protect yourself - helmet. But back to the anomaly thing. In our country there is a driving syndrome that my buddy and I call the wounded water buffalo. If you have a bike on a bike rack, or a securely strapped kayak on your vehicle, people will drive unusually aggressive around you. Because you are an anomaly in traffic, people drive more dangerously rather than more safely. It happens when you're on a bicycle, too. I was turning left from a 5-lane road on Saturday. When I moved from the right lane to the left lane toward the left turn lane, a car approaching the red light accelerated to intercept me and pass me as close as he could to me while he was stopping at the red light. On the 30-mile loop this day, there were a dozen people who were overly gracious - stopping when they didn't have to - to help us navigate intersections safely. Bless them, and they're not the ones who are going to hurt you - it's going to be the person who is either ignorant of your presence, or intentionally dangerous because of your presence.
On Monday, May 19, 2014 12:05:17 PM UTC-5, Patrick Moore wrote: > > > I remember my little brother at age 4 on his old-fashioned, 20" wheel, > high and tippy tricycle, sprinting down our concrete driveway (which had a > slight slope), going for gold. Not invariably but very often he'd gradually > tip over forward and sideways and, since he had a big head on a stick body, > usually hit head first with a loud "thunk". Screams, sobs, subsidence, > repeat frequently. He's uncommonly level headed today -- more so than I. > > I grew up cycling in 3d world countries where bicycles were just part of > the everyday, horrible traffic conditions, and no one would have thought of > wearing a helmet any more than wearing an asbestos suit to cook the evening > dal or posho over their charcoal or kerosene fires. From my recollections, > auto and common carrier accidents were far more common than bike accidents. > > On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 9:28 AM, Scott Henry <ske...@gmail.com<javascript:> > > wrote: > >> I saw a 3 year old on training wheels hit the curb yesterday in my >> neighborhood. She was going maybe 2 miles an hour and fell over into the >> grass. She was helmetless and laughing. Apparently lucky to be alive. >> >> Scott >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
