Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Dude, I Should Have Used My Car

I've been posting about the poor state of bicycle transportation opportunities in Springfield and that I find the prospect of riding a bike to work too dangerous. But sometimes the infrastructure isn't the main hazard, rather it is the cyclist making things dangerous. I saw such a hazard on wheels today.

Coming home from work, driving west on West Washington, I came upon a cyclist riding in the street, going my direction, with a full golf bag on his back. It hung on him mostly horizontally, greatly increasing his width profile and making it harder to avoid hitting him. As I passed him, I was half in the left turn lane. I looked over and adding to his dangerous load was what he was carrying up front. He had one hand on on the handle bars and the other was balancing a CASE OF BUDWEISER on top of the handle bars.

I appreciate the guy's conservation efforts (or blind stupidity) but riding with that load on a busy street, up hill and into the sun no less, just seems to be a little over the top. I say it's still OK to drive a car under those circumstances.

5 comments:

JeromeProphet said...

Wouldn't be the first person to die for a case of Bud - very sad indeed.

Anonymous said...

i've used bikes as my main form of transportation, since i was a teenager, i'll be 25 this year and have only had a license 2 years and a car for 1 year. i've seen some pretty crazy things related to bikes, one night i saw an intoxicated man riding east on standford, between 5th and 6th, swerve south onto 6th, with a case of beer, as he swerved the movement was too much for the case of beer to handle, and cans were going every which way, lucky for this man, he was in the southern view jurisdiction and was "pulled over" almost immediately.

if you want to see some crazy cargo, go thru the "gallery" on this website: http://cetmaracks.com/

or check out this photo: http://flickr.com/photos/peng1/2423606875/in/set-72157604625271889/

i wont carry anything i cant fit in my backpack, but i do get pretty defensive when people driving vehicles disobey the rules of the road in regards to cyclist.

Anonymous said...

My wife and I like to infer that everyone riding a bicycle while not in biking tighties are convicted DUIs. I know this not to be true but it is still fun to tell her 'DUIs are a bitch'.

Anonymous said...

That's pretty good, gish.

John said...

I've been riding my bike more and more lately. Not so much for fuel conservation. Working from home, I don't spend anything on my commute. Most of my little errands, I can do on bike. I've found that for my own sanity, I try to stick to the roads less traveled. Plus, I always ride with traffic (never against), and, like Allie, I don't carry anything I can't put in a backpack. That's just asking for trouble.