Caught on Video

[q`Tzal]

Originally Posted by setha

instead I said, "Good afternoon. How are you today?"

That's good.
I'm partial to "SMILE! YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA!"

[setha]

Now that the weather has turned cold, maybe I can get caught up on posting videos.

I encountered a bike salmon on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, eastbound, near Cactus Jacks, on 8/29/2011:


Bike Salmon, BH E/B, near Cactus Jacks, in the Rain by pdxcommuter, on Flickr

From the description of the videon on youtube:

Here's a non-motorist road user who is behaving badly: a bicyclist going the wrong way in the bike lane. This happened 8/29/2011, about 8:40 AM, eastbound Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, next to Cactus Jacks. As you can see from the water droplets on the lens, it is raining. He went up onto the sidewalk. My headlights were on at the time, which I think helped.

Finally, here's the link to the video itself.

[Dovestrobe]

Originally Posted by setha

Now that the weather has turned cold, maybe I can get caught up on posting videos.

I encountered a bike salmon on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, eastbound, near Cactus Jacks, on 8/29/2011[/URL]

Such an insidious strip of roadway to chose an upstream route. I've had several left hook scenarios on BH, avoided them by my vigilance of looking at the oncoming traffic and luck. Glad not to have met up with a salmon runner!

I will never Ninja again!
On Sunday the 4th during the twilight hour 4:45pm, I was hit traveling up SW Garden Home at SW71st by a Nissan coup. Flew over the hood. I have reflectors on my handlebars and helmet. The driver didn't have his headlights on, so of course "he couldn't see me." I saw his left hand turning light blinking and his remaining still as if he saw me till I got mid 71st, wham. No excuse really. Stupidity and laziness on my part. I had lights in my daypack, but I figured I was close enough to home not to run into trouble. Trouble meets you when you least expect it. Police officer didn't cite anyone since the driver " didn't see me" and I didn't have lights. Well, neither did he (have his lights on!): difficult to prove though! Shucks! My second bike made unridable.


And the moral of the story: I am giving up riding a bicycle on Portland streets all together! But I will remain a steadfast bicycle advocate!!!!102_1228.jpg

[tonyt]

The RESULT may be that you don't want to ride in Portland anymore, but, as you said, you should have had lights. That's the moral of the story.

Reflectors are a legal option for the rear, but the front requires a light. And of course the driver needed to have lights on.

Blinky on the handlebar and helmet light is my choice. Wouldn't tackle winter without the helmet light. Being able to aim it at a driver to get their attention has saved my a** on numerous occasions.

Blown away by how many people ride around with no lights and little or no reflectors.

Glad you're okay, and hope you mount up again soon.

[Dovestrobe]

Originally Posted by tonyt

Glad you're okay, and hope you mount up again soon.

Seriously though, even with lights I've had too many close calls. Never again!

[Simple Nature]

Lights are require only 1/2 hour -after- official sunset. The official sunset this time of year is ~4:27. So you were well within your rights to ride without lights. I'd take this up with an attorney. The cop was out of line dismissing this. This was clearly a traffic offense. Not a question about lighting.

[setha]

From the youtube description:

Bicycle helmet cam video, 12/16/2011, SW Meade and 2nd, Portland OR USA about 8:45AM. I was going northbound on 2nd. Northbound 2nd traffic is required to stop for east-west Meade traffic. So, I stopped. The driver of the silver SUV, Oregon plate 411-something, going westbound on Meade did not signal his left turn onto southbound 2nd. Had he signalled, I still would have had to stop and wait for him. So this is far from the worst traffic infraction in the world. But, silver SUV driver might do better to put his coffee down in the cup holder and use the other hand to work the turn signal. Or maybe not drive while holding a something. Or give his coffee to his friend in the passenger seat to hold. Toward the end of the clip you can see his friend is already holding his own coffee, too. I'm guessing friend could manage both cups.

You hear me say in the video, "no turn signal" and "holding coffee".

Why put up this video? To counter the myth that bicyclists are always violating traffic laws and running stop signs.

Stills from the video:







See the full video at http://youtu.be/uB8qFyvONgo

[Simple Nature]

Today I watched a youngster riding her bike on the sidewalk while texting. They're learning very young. ...and no helmet, of course.

[setha]

Ever make a left turn in a left turn lane, and have someone pass using the adjacent general purpose lane, just to save a few seconds so they won't have to wait behind the bicycle? Here's a video which shows happening to me last Friday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa12ig09tHA . Here are a couple of stills from that video:





Here's the description of the video:

Helmet cam video, 12/16/2011, about 6PM. (Full description, below.)

I'm negotiating the most interesting part of my bicycle commute: Beaverton-Hillsdale westbound to Scholls Ferry Road southwest-bound, suburban Portland, Oregon, USA. There are actually 2 intersections here: BH and Oleson Road, then BH and Scholls.

Although it is underexposed, in the first part of the video I'm positioning myself in the left of the two general purpose westbound lanes on BH. I need to be there to get into the left turn lane to get onto Scholls. At 0:45 I'm stopped for the red light at the first intersection: BH and Oleson.

1:29: the light turns green, I go ahead into the left turn lane to get to Scholls.

At 1:40 you see a Toyota, Oregon plate 044 DAK, decide that he doesn't want to wait behind me any more, so he goes around in the left, westbound, general purpose lane. Someone, I'm not sure if it's the Toyota, honked here. At 2:05 the left turn light turns green. Toyota and I go ahead. You can see where I move onto the shoulder as I get onto Scholls Ferry Road, just past the intersection.

How much time, overall, did the Toyota driver save by cutting around like that? Had he stayed in line behind me he would have still had to wait for the left turn signal. The only time he saved was the few seconds he would have had to wait for me to get onto the shoulder on Scholls Ferry.

Here's a link to what this looks like during daylight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16YXb4a-zyI The daylight video shows me merging into the left general purpose lane somewhat later.

The helmet cam is a ContourHD. Yes, I should have adjusted the exposure for low light conditions.

[Dovestrobe]

Hi Setha!

I've had that same I thing happen to me several times. Knowing that they are merging into a solid white-lined lane, makes it definitely an illegal offense. Have you showed your video to the police?