[SDCBC] avoiding hazards, what is reasonable...

[mark wolfe]

Yes, it's common sense, don't leave stuff in the road, secure your load 
if you're transporting stuff, etc.  In my original post I said it looked 
like negligence on two parties.  Both the rider and whoever left the 
debris in the road were negligent.

   At night it's referred to as overdriving your lights. If you're going 
fast enough that you can't stop if something pops up in your path, then 
you're going too fast for conditions.  This is why you see the offroad 
guys bolting sunlight on their rigs so they can put daylight a good 1/4 
to half mile in front of them.  This allows them to travel faster as 
they can see what's coming up.  I'm guilty of over riding my 10w light 
in the dark.  Many times I was flying through mission trails park at 
5:30am before the sun was up.  It was DARK, and I would hit 30+ coming 
down the hill.   Had there been something in the road I would've been 
screwed if I couldn't swerve/jump over as there wasn't going to be time 
to stop.

   Too often I see this attitude of well, if it wasn't there, they 
wouldn't have hit it, therefore it's the fault of whoever put it there. 
  When in reality, every time you swing a leg over your bike for a ride, 
you're taking a risk.  You have to assume responsibility and minimize 
that risk.  The roads you ride on won't have perfect conditions for 
riding, there will be debris on the road, most of it gets washed into 
the bike lane.   Had she hit a hubcap and gone down would there be a 
lawsuit against the owner of the car it fell off of?  I'm saying, yeah 
it shouldn't have been there, but at the same time, she was going too 
fast to react to something in the road.  "no time to react" translates 
to going too fast.  Whatever she hit wasn't moving, so it could've been 
avoided.

About the only thing I remember hitting in the roadway with my car was a 
matress, and that was because I didn't see it as I was following the car 
in front of me too closely.  It could've easily been avoided had I been 
further back.

Here's something for everyone, how are your bike handling skills?   Can 
you at least bunnyhop higher than a curb?  That skill alone can save you 
some road rash.

Mark



Kathy Keehan wrote:
> Ok, so let me get this straight. A construction company leaves a couple of
> large timbers in the road (either they dropped off the truck or were left
> there for some reason, unmarked) in the dark. It's ok for them to do that
> and expect road users to just avoid them? If someone left an unmarked
> obstruction in the middle of the travel lane, a motorist hits is and is
> injured or killed, you can be sure that the construction company would have
> some explaining to do. Why would it be different for bicyclists? 
> 
> I'm all for common sense, but come on.
> 
> Kathy
> 
>  
> 
> ------------------------------------------
> 
> Kathy Keehan
> 
> Executive Director
> 
> San Diego County Bicycle Coalition
> 
> P.O. Box 34544
> 
> San Diego, CA 92163
> 
> 858.487.6063
> 
> execdir at sdcbc.org
> 
> www.sdcbc.org
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
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