“I saw the whole thing,” says the skateboard guy. “He ran you over.”
My head. Can’t think. Good thing Jim and Warren goaded me into wearing a helmet: “Bill, for Chrissake, you’ve got a three-year-old kid!” they said. Bucket’s cracked like an eggshell. Could’ve been my skull. Three-quarters of the riders who die in accidents don’t wear helmets.
“I-can, get-up, on-my, own.”
In fact, I’ve been knocked a few rungs down the evolutionary scale, and, for the moment at least, I can’t do anything.
“I’ve got a cell. Want me to call the cops?”
I’m shaking. “Guess so.”
I look around, wild eyed. An off-duty Toronto Transit Commission bus driver cordons off the accident site. “I’ll radio it in. Where’s the driver?”
“Took off,” says the skateboarder.
A motorcycle cop rolls up.
“You all right?”
“Don’t know. It was a white van.”
the utilitarian
My friend Jeff used to wonder why I keep riding, why I couldn’t outgrow biking as I settled into marriage, a career, house, family, and five kinds of insurance. The bike is for recreation. You want to go to a grocery store, take the car, he’d say.
Comments (6 comments)
John Laidlaw: A wonderful article - and staring out with as good a description of why us "utility cyclists" ride as any I've ever seen or come up with.
Yes - cycling has its dangers. though I've not had the run of ill luck Bill reynolds has, I've chewed my own fair share of asphalt over fifty years and more.
I've had at least one wipe-out that was directly attributable ot my torquing through a corner, trying to make the advance green. The intersection of Cook and Finlayson Streets, in Victoria, slopes from NE to SW, and I was coming from the Norht, turning East. A poor situation, with a lot of reverse camber. As I flew around the corner, my rear wheel must have hit a bit of sand on the road - to the best of my knowledge, there was no pedal strike - and I went down, sliding on my yellow jacket. I realised that I was now in the middle of the road, with cars going past north and south, on either side of me. I must ahve been out for a couple of seconds. When I tried to move, my legs, for a moment, went on strike - most disconcerting. I got up, shaken but unbloodied, and then realised I'd put paid to my rear wheel - already on a fourth or fifth incarnation. I carried it to the first corner I could reach - the NE one, where I was approached by a lady, who fearfully asked if I were OK. She'd been behind me, in her mini-van, and feared she'd clipped me as I went down. I assured her I was shaken, but otherwise OK, and she offerd me a lift home, which I accepted. When I finally took my helmet off (I wore them, then, because I'd been doing so, to get my daughter to do it all the time, and felt naked without one.) I found an alarming crak in the foam at teh front, and then discovered the back had been crushed. I'm now a believer.
I ride, almost all the time, in traffic, and have always been aware of what's behind me. I've taken to using lights, even in bright daylight, as every little bit of visibility helps.
What I have discovered is that, with the usual lamentable exceptions, traffic (drivers) have become much more accepting of cyclists in general. Now - if only the cyclists were themselves, as accepting of drivers on the roads, as willing to make sure the drivers have the best chance of seeing them, and avoiding them, as they could wish.
May 13, 2008 09:47 EST
Pat T: My thoughts here: http://freedomisacupcake.blogspot.com/2008/05/2-wheels-good-4-wheels-bad.html May 15, 2008 09:51 EST
Anonymous: Never bother to call a cop when you get hit as a cyclist. They don't care and they don't do a thing.
Last time I got cut off twice by the same driver in a goddamn minivan, the second time sending me head over habdlebars as I braked hard to avoid being a hood ornament, I called the pigs and after 7 and a half hours the wench rolled up and told me there was no traffic violation since I didn't hit the van. Just me falling off my bike she says.
She didn't want to check the video cameras of the stores in the area or do any "police work".
Got sideswiped in front of a cop, tell her what happened and she writes the licence plate down, hands me the paper and says call the police! My mistake for thinking she was the police. A hat, badge and gun will do that.
Stupid cops. Don't even get me started about the lazy thugs as they drive or even ride by cars parked in the bike lane or driving cyclists off the road and do nothing. Can't expect a cop to do his/her job. I have learned that from nth number of encounters involving more than just cycling (i.e. being threatend with a gun, assualted, etc.)
U-lock justice friends, that is all we really have.
Hope you are okay, my encouter with the van left me limping for a week.
One night I would love to put one of those metal bike poles for locking up your ride in the middle of Dundas and lock a bike to it. See how the drivers like their lane being taken by someone with no consider