mokajasper
03-22-2007, 03:19 PM
i bike commute from my home in NE to PSU daily and have MANY near misses each day i ride in. subsequent to the earlier days of my riding, i now have 4 rear red lights that i use ALL the time, regardless of daylight/weather, etc. and 3 front lights - one mounted to my helmet so i can turn to alert drivers. i also wear a burley reflective jacket and wear a reflective helmet.
the most frequent locations are along broadway on the west side of the broadway bridge - cars turning in front, opening doors, parking in the bike lanes, etc. or along the east side of broadway at the I5 entrance ramp - where bikes have to move to the middle lane - sandwiched between two lanes of steel, human crushing machines.
however, recently, i had a very upsetting CLOSE CALL biking downhill on the East side of Broadway Bridge, after the I5 overpass where there are several side streets. A GIANT, double trailer truck passed me and without any signal turned onto one of these side streets directly in front of me. I watched in horror has his front end swerved around me, but his back end almost smeared me completely - i had to brake suddenly, swerve and stop on the sidewalk to catch my breath and regain my "legs" as my entire body was jello - adrenaline rush from my near death experience.
this was on a clear day, and at approximately 8am during the weekday.
I will do ANYTHING to help out with bicycle advocacy in pdx if it is more effective than preaching to the choir. it is so enraging to contribute in so many ways to pdx environment and get such lack of respect in return.
the most frequent locations are along broadway on the west side of the broadway bridge - cars turning in front, opening doors, parking in the bike lanes, etc. or along the east side of broadway at the I5 entrance ramp - where bikes have to move to the middle lane - sandwiched between two lanes of steel, human crushing machines.
however, recently, i had a very upsetting CLOSE CALL biking downhill on the East side of Broadway Bridge, after the I5 overpass where there are several side streets. A GIANT, double trailer truck passed me and without any signal turned onto one of these side streets directly in front of me. I watched in horror has his front end swerved around me, but his back end almost smeared me completely - i had to brake suddenly, swerve and stop on the sidewalk to catch my breath and regain my "legs" as my entire body was jello - adrenaline rush from my near death experience.
this was on a clear day, and at approximately 8am during the weekday.
I will do ANYTHING to help out with bicycle advocacy in pdx if it is more effective than preaching to the choir. it is so enraging to contribute in so many ways to pdx environment and get such lack of respect in return.