Almost in Hospital

I was almost put in the hospital yesterday.

Let me set the scene for you:

We had a rare warm day here yesterday.  It was 50 degrees.  It had been raining all night and finally stopped around 11 in the morning.  The rain had stopped, but the SW winds that brought it had no intention of relenting.  When it decided to be nice it was just at a solid 20 mph.  When it decided to be mean it was gusting up to 35 mph.

It was probably around 1:30 when the event occurred.  Despite the overcast sky, visibility was very good out on the Des Moines city streets.  My daytime running lamps were on and working well.  I was travelling down a long hill.  It was at least a quarter mile long, maybe as much as a half mile.  The speed limit was 30.  I was going a little bit slower than the limit, but not by much.

I reached the bottom of the hill with no problems.  It was flat for about a half a block.  I had not been accelerating while going downhill, but now that I was at the bottom it was time to start accelerating again.  I reach the end of the flat and there is just a slight rightward bend.  It was not enough of a curve for anybody to lose any sightlines because of it.

I could see my turnoff up ahead.  My upcoming left turn was 1.5 blocks ahead to be exact.  I was chugging along.  I wasn’t accelerating enough to match the loss of speed because of the hill, so I was slowing down a bit.  I continue along the street.  I get to about 3/4 of a block before the turn and I use my left hand turn signal.  There was no mistaking it.  The signal was quite clear.  If you know what a turn signal looks like, and see it, there is definitely no misconception about my apparent desire to turn left in the upcoming future.

I wasn’t able to hear anything at all at the time.  There was no radio playing, not even a CD player on.  The wind noise was just too much.

I couldn’t hear the car coming from behind at an alarming pace.  I was oblivious to it until almost too late.  I was slowing down and was only a few feet away from the beginning of my turn.  Thankfully I took a quick look over my shoulder into my blind spot to see the car.  It was overtaking me while I clearly had on my left turn signal.  I quickly slam on my brakes.  Please don’t hit me, please don’t hit me, please don’t hit me.  I missed getting hit by less than 9 inches.  After breathing a sigh of relief, I continue on my journey and pedal away.

YES, my fellow readers, I have been playing with you.  I was not in my car for this ordeal.

I WAS ON MY BIKE.

Every single bit of it is true though.  My daytime running lamps were my rapidly blinking taillight and solid headlight.  My left hand turn signal was my fully extended left hand.  I had on a jersey with a huge splotch of white right in the middle.  There should have been no problem seeing me.  There should also have been no mistaking my intentions by the early 20’s driver as she approached me. 

I just ask that all of you be aware of the cyclists out there.  Younger people and inexperienced older people just aren’t aware a lot of the time of the proper way to treat cyclists on the road.  This applies equally to cyclists and motorists alike.

Now, experienced cyclists like me will be aware of several things.  First, we’ll know how it is that everyone is expected to react.  Second, we’ll know how it is that everyone is likely to react.  Even if I am 100% legally correct, like I was yesterday, it still would have put me in the hospital given the speed the other car was overtaking me at.  A lot of the trouble with people like me and other serious bikers is that we are often traveling at much higher speeds than motorists think we are traveling at.  This causes their distance and time estimation to be off.

I had checked once behind me that I didn’t mention as I was starting the uphill and stroking hard to keep up my momentum.  I hadn’t seen anything during that look.  The wind obscured any chance of hearing the car.  The car must have either turned on to the street or was going extremely fast for me not to notice.  In hindsight, I probably could have looked back the final time a little bit earlier to avoid the problem.

I did go on to have a wonderful ride the rest of the time and was quite appreciative of the ability to ride outside.  This is despite my feet getting covered with road spray and feeling slightly warmer than two blocks of ice at the end.  The rest of me was warm and covered in plenty enough layers.