Post #222,144
9/1/05 5:01:14 AM
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Shiny things. Look in them occasionally.
Was the fire engine teleported in behind you?
Or did you, like most drivers (including me) not look in your mirrors regularly enough (every 4-7 seconds)?
People who have things "suddenly appear" behind them cause a lot of SMIDSY* accidents involving bikes. Having witnessed the regular near-misses at one of the roundabouts en-route to work, I'm very careful about bikes. Your wing mirrors are your friends.
Mind you, some bikers don't help themselves; I saw a spectacularly bad piece of riding this morning.
I was approaching a roundabout, saw it to be clear, and joined it. As I passed the entry on my left, a scooter attempted to cut me up+. Yes. A vehicle capable of a stonking 35MPH attempted to carve up a car that was already doing 35. I saw him in plenty of time and made an annoying but not dangerous move to the right (this inconvenienced but did not endanger the car behind me and to my right, which was turning right) and gave Mr Teenage Halfwit a good blast of my horn, because he either didn't know or didn't care that I was there.
* SMIDSY: Sorry Mate I Didn't See You. A common excuse used by car drivers for splattering bikers all over the asphalt. + On UK roundabouts, you yield to traffic on the roundabout and to the right (remember, we drive on the correct side of the road). Traffic on the roundabout does not yield to traffic joining the roundabout unless there are traffic lights. It's the principle of "hard to join but easy to leave" which makes them safer.
Peter [link|http://www.ubuntulinux.org|Ubuntu Linux] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal] [link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #222,169
9/1/05 10:11:40 AM
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That's what I'm telling you
There are on some ramps here that are so bad, with merge lanes so short, that you can have things appear right behind you.
===
Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link|http://DocHope.com|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link|http://DocHope.com|http://DocHope.com]
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Post #222,207
9/1/05 12:42:33 PM
9/1/05 12:44:21 PM
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Exactly
And worse even, was the fact that the Fire Station was RIGHT behind me (around the corner to the left), so that I heard the siren while entering the long curbed turn lane (more like a huge Y road), and glanced back to see it turning behind me.
I got out of the way, I just had to move forward, I couldn't go sideways, no where to go there.
Brenda
Edit: Peter, I'm not saying I NEVER am at fault. Of course I am, everyone is sometimes, we're only human. But in this case, he was out of the station and behind me just as I entered the Y-road and there was virtually no time or warning.
"Excel is to math what a Microwave Oven is to cooking!"
Edited by Nightowl
Sept. 1, 2005, 12:44:21 PM EDT
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Post #222,230
9/1/05 1:56:54 PM
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Some of the worst one *I* know about...
Were within 3 or 4 miles of Beeps House.
Let alone, New York... where you best have a car that can go from 0-50 in a heart bea and 50-0 in less than a heart beat.
That's just to get out of your driveway/alley/service road. Trust me when I say you just ain't seen aggressive driving until you are right in Jamacia, Queens in New York on the main drag in Queens.
-- [link|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net|greg], [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ iwethey [image|http://www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg||||]
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Post #222,232
9/1/05 2:04:39 PM
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I'm thinking PA Tunrpike
Some of them have the 5-foot barriers between the lanes, which you can't see over unless you're in a semi, and merge lanes sometimes about two car lengths.
===
Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link|http://DocHope.com|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link|http://DocHope.com|http://DocHope.com]
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Post #222,236
9/1/05 2:10:12 PM
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Buncha wimps
Just call it accelerated evolution.
Darwin in action. Driver incapable of handling the situation, you die. And there is a good chance your kids die with you, which means your genes won't spread any further.
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Post #222,330
9/1/05 6:33:59 PM
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Might just be Darwin in action...
...Because it sure wasn't intelligent design....
jb4 shrub●bish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #222,363
9/1/05 9:08:22 PM
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There are multiple evolved strategies for this problem
The one that I've evolved to use is called "avoidance".
Cheers, Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #222,419
9/2/05 7:00:18 AM
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Hmmm - spent a couple summers at 119-14 Union Tpke
in Queens. BMT, IRT, IND.. too young to have a car; didn't realize that the traffic zooming near the sidewalk I learned to skate on {Ouch!} was destined for such infamy!
Would skate to Forest Hills (didn't know about 'tennis' either) for a movie {sniff}.
(in early '90s, enroute Boston RT to Miami - I drove past that Tpke, had a few seconds to glance: yup that brownish building stood!)
Time.. wounder of all heels.
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Post #222,366
9/1/05 9:21:08 PM
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Bikers in all-black on black cycles should be banned.
Some years ago I came out of a side-street near where I worked onto a not-busy connecting road, both fairly flat and quite straight. Checked both ways before turning left, went round the corner to find a motor-cyclist skite past. I *know* never saw anything before I turned - the only explanation was that he was almost impossible to see because he was in 100% black leathers.
And I bet he was wondering how I didn't see him, too.
Wade.
d-_-b
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