Salmon Crush...

[K'Tesh]

Tonight I was involved in a bike on bike crash in Beaverton.

I was slowly riding north on SW Hall's sidewalk (SB side), between SW Cascade and the WES rail crossing. I was preparing to turn left, to catch a WES, when a salmon tried to pass (without warning) on my left. He hit me, and we both went down. He ended up sandwiched between the bike lockers there, and me standing on top of his chainrings, crushing him with his own bike.

I was not hurt, but I was mad as HELL!!! I let him have it (verbally), because he caused the crash. Had he been traveling at a reasonable speed, and yielded to me, the crash wouldn't have happened.

Another cyclist who had turned left from Cascade witnessed the whole thing, and I get the impression that he was a little amused to see the fool go down, without anybody seriously being hurt. Cops were not involved, but I'm sure that they would have cited him for careless driving, and riding without lights.

And for anybody who thinks that bikes don't belong on sidewalks, I'll remind them that Oregon doesn't have a law banning them on sidewalks, and this is not one of the two areas that Beaverton has banned. However, sidewalks do have an ordinary walking speed limit.

I hope that the salmon has learned a few valuable lessons.

• You need to let people know when you're passing them
• You need to travel at a reasonable speed on sidewalks
• You yield to the people ahead of you
• 300+ Pounds of angry cyclist is not something you want standing on you
• Stupidity Hurts

To cover my own backside I've reported it to the Beaverton police.

Be Safe Out There
K'Tesh

[zpl]

Yikes - glad to hear you weren't seriously hurt. Bike-on-bike accidents can be really ugly.

I was riding down NE Glisan this evening and saw a salmon coming my way. I was preparing in my head a warning to tell him before he turned off at the end of the block. It was a totally unnecessary way to execute a left turn, especially given that there was no traffic whatsoever in the vicinity.

Scott

[Haven_kd7yct]

September appears to be salmon month.

Yesterday I had two salmons-- one on Tigard St (very stylish in her furry fluffy coat and knee boots) and one on Tiedeman (standard hoodie and baggie pants teen boy).

The common theme for these two? (Besides that I made them pass me on the car-side of the bike lane?)

Both Tigard St and Tiedeman have bike lanes on one side of the road only.

There was a potential salmon waiting at the end of the sidewalk on Tiedeman, having just come off the Fanno Creek Trail from the Beaverton-side. But he waited for me to pass before salmoning on.

Salmoning: is that the verb for what they do?

Anyway. K'Tesh, glad you aren't hurt, and it was good to see you the other day. Sorry we didn't pause longer with you, but we were hungry for dinner-- and there was one more big ugly hill to gird up for.

[q`Tzal]

On Hwy 30 between NW Saltzman Rd and NW Kittridge Bridge. For about 1 mile it is fairly common to find cyclists, most on highly suspended mountain bikes, heading northbound in the southbound bike lane.
What is most aggravating about this, aside from the fact that they are salmoning, is the indignation they have for me being there. Apparently this bike lake becomes a MUP so they can ride 2 abreast. These salmon then expect that I should merge out in to the 60 MPH road traffic.
The excuse is wonderfully ironic: I’m only going up to Saltzman Rd. They are hardcore enough to bike up to Skyline Rd and then come bombing back down at full speed but they are afraid to cross a road
Luckily, this a warm season issue