0 comment Monday, July 28, 2014 | admin
I was riding north on Franklin Street on my way to work on Thursday, between Colfax and 16th Avenue, down a pretty good hill to the 4-way stop sign at Franklin and 16th. I stop at stop signs, mostly because I think running 4-way stops in front of cars really pisses drivers off, and thus makes them want to do shit like slam on their brakes in front of me or swing all 3,000 pounds of their vehicle in front of me when they want to turn left. Now I have another reason. Two cyclists, riding in opposite directions on 16th Avenue, both ran the 4-way stop at full speed, which was probably 10 mph for the eastbound cyclist and 12 or 14 mph for the westbound cyclist.
I can't say for sure, but if I, too, had blown that thing at full speed, going downhill, the three of us may have had a colossal collision. Or just two of us, T-boning each other. Or all three of us may have had to take some wildly evasive moves to avoid a collision, which would have probably ended with me in a tree, on the asphalt or under the wheel of a car.
Then today I read this article, which makes me wonder about the other two folks on the bikes. Maybe they're new at this, and they've seen everybody else running stop signs, so they just do it too. I know one thing, though. It helps when one of us stops.
I can't say for sure, but if I, too, had blown that thing at full speed, going downhill, the three of us may have had a colossal collision. Or just two of us, T-boning each other. Or all three of us may have had to take some wildly evasive moves to avoid a collision, which would have probably ended with me in a tree, on the asphalt or under the wheel of a car.
Then today I read this article, which makes me wonder about the other two folks on the bikes. Maybe they're new at this, and they've seen everybody else running stop signs, so they just do it too. I know one thing, though. It helps when one of us stops.
Labels: Storm