This morning on my cycle work, I chose to go up a fairly steep hill, for the future glory of a long down stretch. Mistake. Today’s mistake wasn’t made by me though… it was by some tiny lady, in a car that was too big for her, a Chrysler Voyager.
As I was picking up speed (probably at about 20-25 mph) I was going past traffic in a cycle lane. The picture below details a 100m stretch of road on which this lady thought she could bypass said traffic, the red line being the travel of car, the blue being me… the issue being that she swerved into this road, without indicating, without checking her mirrors. I was about two car lengths back, had to slam on both sets of breaks, veer into a curb to help with the slow down, travel into the trees and produce a big gash in my tire wall and inner tube.
Dang.As I stood there in disbelief, having gotten out of the trees and examined the damage, I could only think of one thing to do… inform this lady of her dangerous manoeuvre. I picked up my bike, and sprinted down the road, by which time she was back onto the main road. I knocked on her window and proceeded to carefully, and calmly, explain the process by which I fell into the trees and damaged my bike. The only thing I forgot was to get her contact details so she could replace my broken parts.
Idiot.
The latter part of the conversation went like this:
Silly Woman (hereafter SW): I had no idea you were there
Me: That’s why you should check your mirrors before you turn
SW: But I didn’t even see you
Me: I know, I crashed to avoid you. That’s why you should check your mirrors and indicate before you turn,
SW: I didn’t see you… [by this time she seemed in shock and shaken up…]
Me: It’s ok, just check in future.
No less, I’m at work, unharmed, have a story to tell, but am out of pocket.
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