Using Negative Experiences as Learning Opportunities - What is there to learn from this?

What make it doubly frustrating we have had an unbroken string of sunny (but cold) days that would have had me out riding every one of them. [/QUOTE said:
Looking on the bright side, it could have been a string of sunny warm days you missed.

I know what you're going through to some extent. I was recovering from hip surgery last April / May which as it turned out was the best weather of the 2018 season. The rest was mostly rain & wind. I only managed about 1000 miles which was a 10 year low for me.

Get well Alaskan. You'll be back out there soon enough.
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I was over 50 when I started riding motorcycles. A riding buddy friend who had been riding for 50 years gave me one solid piece of advise........."Ride as if everyone is going to hit you." I practice this every ride.

Spacing is also something I actively practice. I NEVER stop parallel to an auto in any situation. I always ride in traffic between the gaps. We have, Right on Red, in CA so its especially dangerous for bike riders.

Lastly, I ride with multiple and flashing front and rear lights both during the day and at night.

Heal well.....
 
86 and still kicking said:
I was over 50 when I started riding motorcycles. A riding buddy friend who had been riding for 50 years gave me one solid piece of advise........."Ride as if everyone is going to hit you." I practice this every ride.

Spacing is also something I actively practice. I NEVER stop parallel to an auto in any situation. I always ride in traffic between the gaps. We have, Right on Red, in CA so its especially dangerous for bike riders.

Lastly, I ride with multiple and flashing front and rear lights both during the day and at night.

Heal well.....
Click to expand...

You are 86 years old and are still riding motorcycles!? This is awesome!
 
Thanks for posting your experience and I trust you are getting better each day. I got my wife a cheap Chinese ebike for Christmas and she loves it. We are starting to use it for errands and alternative transportation. I have a folding fat tire ordered and hope to pick it up within the next two weeks. While driving to get my haircut last week, I thought it would be an easy trip on an ebike. Reading your post made me pay close attention to the bike route. For the first mile on a two lane road, there is a brand new paved hike and bike path separate from the road. When the road becomes four lane, there are designated bike lanes all with proper signage and the hike and bike path becomes a typical narrow sidewalk.

I saw about a dozen bike riders on the round trip and every single one was on the sidewalks. It was easy to see why! I witnessed multiple encroachments into the bike lanes and two different dual wheeled pickups with their entire outside wheel in the bike lane. It looks like I will be relegated to sidewalks and bike paths as it would scare the hell out of me ride these bike lanes. Fortunately, we can get to the grocery store, hardware store, post office, and the liquor store (not listed in order of importance) just using the hike and bike trail.
 
It's not the rear tires on those dualies that will reach out and get you. It's the mirrors! That's exactly what happened to a friend of mine. He got to spend the rest of his summer recuperating from the resulting spill.
 
@Alaskan, wow, the severity is worse than I realized. Glad you were evaluated by a doctor. I’ve not met you but I think it is both lucky and a testament to your conditioning that you were not more seriously hurt- that much force could have torn, lacerated, or broken things. Sending healing wishes. You’re right, it’s been very cold and I’ve dressed warmly!

Thanks for bringing up the Bicycling Street Smarts pamphlet. I ordered it on Amazon and it just arrived.

Partly because of your experience I have been in a more controlled and observant riding mode. I’ll give an example. We live at the top of a steep hill with a 30 MPH road with a very decent paved shoulder that goes straight down the hill. If you were to bike down without brakes you might reach a speed of 40 MPH.

I know people have been writing in this thread that we bikers are invisible to some motorists and today I experienced that for myself. I was on a slow, controlled descent with my body prepared and back on the bike frame... when on this hill an oncoming car turned left directly in front of me. I was right there, they could see the whites of my eyes and they still cut me off. My headlamp was on, I’m a large guy wearing flourescent green jacket, not exactly easy to miss the visual. Anyway I braked hard and nothing bad happened. If I had been less prepared or in less control, that wouldn’t have been the case.

In a related vein to safety I want to mention how much assistance the Garmin radar taillight is providing. I absolutely keep my eyes forward and aware. The handlebar mounted display beeps and displays the location of cars coming up behind me. It works spectacularly well. I still have a nice mirror but the audio + visual display is instantly apprehensible. I posted a thread with more information about the Garmin Varia RTL510.

Hang in there and I look forward to your recovery so we can ride together one day soon.
 
ez3putt said:
I will be relegated to sidewalks and bike paths as it would scare the hell out of me ride these bike lanes.
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Totally. Just because they paint a stripe on the pavement sure doesn't mean that they've created a safe space for cyclists to cycle. I'm hoping a proliferation of ebikers will get cities re-thinking how they design (and redesign) roadways.
 
Richard-Heal quickly and be well! Our older bones take a little more time to heal than they did back in the day. We learn that being patient during recovery has to be our best friend. I hope you are back up and riding 'pain free' before the prime time riding season hits. I think you mentioned in another post that you had a Bosch equipped E-bike on order? We will be waiting patiently for your report with your new set of wheels. Take care my friend. Cheers!
 
Alaskan said:
I sit here so frustrated, nursing a badly insured left quadriceps.

On Saturday I was out for a ride. A car passed me mid-block on a designated bike route street, stopping at a 4-way stop sign just ahead of me. Even though there were no other cars around, they remained stopped at the intersection. As I rolled up on their passenger side, braking to stop at the stop sign, all but the drivers doors opened suddenly. The passenger side back door caught me in the outer, upper thigh and bringing my forward movement to an immediate halt and knocking me to the grassy curb.

It hurt like hell but I knew nothing was broken and was only five blocks from home so after dusting off I headed home knowing things would swell up making it more difficult if I waiting too long. That night my whole thigh swelled up as tight as a basketball with any movement impossible without a cane or walker.

The swelling is going down slowly but I am stuck at home with severely limited mobility for the indefinite future.

The driver was a mom with three teenagers she was letting out of the car. She had just passed me and knew I was coming up behind her. Instead of pulling off to the side of the road to let the kids out, where there was unlimited open parking space, she had them exit the car while in the roadway stopped at a stop sign...not safe for the kids or for me.

How do you defend your self from unpredictable idiots? I am puzzling as to how I should adopt a different strategy for getting by a car that does something like this in the future...ride the sidewalk or what?

Any ideas anhyone?
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Wow Richard, What a story. I'm so sorry to hear that you were injured. I really hope you mend quickly . You wrote...

"The driver was a mom with three teenagers she was letting out of the car. She had just passed me and knew I was coming up behind her. "

My two cents... Mom's situational awareness was limited to the inside of her vehicle. She may have seen you, but my guess it never registered. She was giving
the three teenagers last minute instructions, prior to dropping them off in the vehicle travel lane, even though she was stopped. I think discharging passengers in
that manner is illegal or at least worthy of a ticket ?? Don't know for sure.

As for the three teenagers opening the door into you, they absolutely had no idea you were near their vehicle, they were all on their phone the entire ride,
Texting, Snap/chating or whatever they do. Zero sense of situational awareness.

What can you or any of use do to reduce the chances of involuntarily getting into an auto accident while cycling.
I'm guessing you have and use a rear daytime running light. They do help to draw attention us cyclists.

I have a Bontrager Daytime Red Running Light which is very bright, but I think I'm going to look for an annoyingly bright version.
I do use a Daytime Running light/ headlight also, but not excessive annoyingly. That can lead to other issues. As for riding on the sidewalk,
it all depends on the situation, but if necessary I would have no hesitation in doing so if necessary.

Setting aside the extreme pain and agony you are experiencing, the entire street ( traffic ) riding to me is very scary today. It's amazing the number of
drivers that stare at their cellphones and look up every now and then to drive.

Good luck, all the best to you Richard and please keep us posted.
 
John from Connecticut said:
Wow Richard, What a story. I'm so sorry to hear that you were injured. I really hope you mend quickly . You wrote...

"The driver was a mom with three teenagers she was letting out of the car. She had just passed me and knew I was coming up behind her. "

My two cents... Mom's situational awareness was limited to the inside of her vehicle. She may have seen you, but my guess it never registered. She was giving
the three teenagers last minute instructions, prior to dropping them off in the vehicle travel lane, even though she was stopped. I think discharging passengers in
that manner is illegal or at least worthy of a ticket ?? Don't know for sure.

As for the three teenagers opening the door into you, they absolutely had no idea you were near their vehicle, they were all on their phone the entire ride,
Texting, Snap/chating or whatever they do. Zero sense of situational awareness.

What can you or any of use do to reduce the chances of involuntarily getting into an auto accident while cycling.
I'm guessing you have and use a rear daytime running light. They do help to draw attention us cyclists.

I have a Bontrager Daytime Red Running Light which is very bright, but I think I'm going to look for an annoyingly bright version.
I do use a Daytime Running light/ headlight also, but not excessive annoyingly. That can lead to other issues. As for riding on the sidewalk,
it all depends on the situation, but if necessary I would have no hesitation in doing so if necessary.

Setting aside the extreme pain and agony you are experiencing, the entire street ( traffic ) riding to me is very scary today. It's amazing the number of
drivers that stare at their cellphones and look up every now and then to drive.

Good luck, all the best to you Richard and please keep us posted.
Click to expand...

"the entire street ( traffic ) riding to me is very scary today. It's amazing the number of drivers that stare at their cellphones and look up every now and then to drive". I am also simply amazed at the amount of cell phone peeping while driving I see. This is on a regular basis while riding the local highway system at sometimes high speeds. Later, these drivers are then wondering how they ended up in an ambulance as a direct result.

I can recall one incident when a driver was slowing highway traffic in the middle lane up ahead. Once I was within clear view of their vehicle, I was able to read their license plate which had the letters 'ONDAFON'. I then changed lanes and rode alongside of the vehicle for a moment, and sure enough the driver was preoccupied on their cell phone not paying attention to their speed. I very memorable reminder how drivers behave today using electronic devices. Cheesh!
 
bob armani said:
"the entire street ( traffic ) riding to me is very scary today. It's amazing the number of drivers that stare at their cellphones and look up every now and then to drive". I am also simply amazed at the amount of cell phone peeping while driving I see. This is on a regular basis while riding the local highway system at sometimes high speeds. Later, these drivers are then wondering how they ended up in an ambulance as a direct result.

I can recall one incident when a driver was slowing highway traffic in the middle lane up ahead. Once I was within clear view of their vehicle, I was able to read their license plate which had the letters 'ONDAFON'. I then changed lanes and rode alongside of the vehicle for a moment, and sure enough the driver was preoccupied on their cell phone not paying attention to their speed. I very memorable reminder how drivers behave today using electronic devices. Cheesh!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the only thing you can do about cell zombies is ride (or walk) defensively. This means always being conscious of your surroundings (unlike the cell zombie) and trying to catch a driver's eye before riding or walking across their path. It also means being as visible as you can, in any way you can. Sadly the cell phone addiction is encouraged by the corporations that make the phones, and the handsfree devices, and the bluetooth earpieces, and the "infotainment" dashboards. Most drivers think all of these devices are safe to use while driving, so they use them. Other drivers think it's ok to check their phone at red lights and even stop signs. They don't look where they're going, so others are forced to do the looking for them if they want to avoid accidents. It's unfair that we should have to babysit these morons, but until the tide turns and being a cellular moron is no longer fashionable or encouraged, there isn't much else we can do.
 
These are all good points! One needs to keep their head on a swivel at all times for sure, but a distracted taxi driver could take you out in a heartbeat and it would be completely unavoidable on your part. It takes a lot of luck to grow old. My advice would still be to take the long way home (-"
 
you could improve your visibility with something like this.....????
1553206826419.png
1553206851276.png
 
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