Sunday, November 22, 2009

Cycling

It was a chilly ride today but nevertheless a good ride. I ride because it makes me feel better and keeps me healthy. I try to ride on lightly traveled roads and avoid riding during commute times. Staying away from traffic is of major importance but sometimes it is unavoidable. As a cyclist you get to see the number of people who run stop signs and make unsafe passes. A scary situation is the driver who has to pass me only to turn right, right in front of me. This happens more often than it should. People are always in a hurry and don't realize they are only saving seconds, minuscule ticks of the clock that mean nothing in the average day.

One situation I've labeled the Law of Triple Convergents. Picture a narrow road, one cyclist and two cars approaching from opposite directions. All too often they will all pass each other at exactly the same time. It could be a narrow bridge, cyclist and one car or a parked car, a cyclist and one car going in the same direction, the results are the same. For the cyclist this is a potentially dangerous situation, I doubt the drivers view it as such but then they have all that iron surrounding them.

With that said I want to say I appreciate all the curteous drivers who slow a little when they see me and pass with caution. There are many such drivers out there but we can always use more.

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