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rebeccmeisterThis morning, M, K and I went on a 50-mile ride around South Mountain. Okay, so it was 50.52 miles to be exact (according to Google Earth). We call this ride the Around-The-Mountain, which distinguishes it from our trips up to the top of South Mountain (Up-The-Mountain, about 35 miles long) or out along a nice road in South Mountain Park (can be combined with an Up, to make an Up-And-Out, about 40 miles). We managed to do it in about 3 hours, 10 minutes, complete with a pee break and a water refill stop. We moved fast.
The ride was quite fun, with one exception: at one point, we rode through the town of Laveen, which is a small farming community on the outskirts of Phoenix. The area is quite nice, with fields and cows and goats and trees and the like. This morning, as we biked along the two-lane road, two tractors were out, driving along in the opposite direction coming towards us at tractor-speed. Just as we neared the tractors, a compact car popped out from behind them and proceeded to use our lane to pass the tractors. There was only one small problem with the car's plan: we were in our lane, and there was no shoulder. All three of us are incredibly lucky that the lane was wide enough (barely) to let the car go by without a head-on car/bike collision (we're talking a foot of clearance between us and the car). Had we been any less careful, the three of us would most certainly be in an emergency room this morning and in very bad shape.
The three of us were quite shaken by the event. We're all very conscientious cyclers: we ride on the correct side of the road and use hand signals and obey the traffic laws. Passing on two-lane roads is *always* a risky undertaking, and I have a hard time believing the driver desperately needed to pass those tractors right that second--the fact that we were in the oncoming lane apparently didn't register, but there's not much more we could have done to be more visible. I'm angry at the driver, and unfortunately we did not have a chance to get the car's license plate number to report him or her to the police. Many, many cyclists use that road (we were passed by about 25 this morning, which is a relatively small number) and cyclists are incredibly vulnerable in accidents with cars.
It just makes me wonder, again (and again), what it would take to change road conditions here to make them safer for everyone, for cars, bikes, and pedestrians. I know some of what causes many of the problems (roads that are too wide and straight (encouraging impatient, inattentive drivers), speed limits that are too high, few/no traffic calming devices), but not what can be done about them on a political or social level, here in this place in this state. Tempe has scads of signs posted all over the city proclaiming the city to be a "Bike-Friendly Community," yet at the same time the design of the bike lane system here belies that proclamation.
The ride was quite fun, with one exception: at one point, we rode through the town of Laveen, which is a small farming community on the outskirts of Phoenix. The area is quite nice, with fields and cows and goats and trees and the like. This morning, as we biked along the two-lane road, two tractors were out, driving along in the opposite direction coming towards us at tractor-speed. Just as we neared the tractors, a compact car popped out from behind them and proceeded to use our lane to pass the tractors. There was only one small problem with the car's plan: we were in our lane, and there was no shoulder. All three of us are incredibly lucky that the lane was wide enough (barely) to let the car go by without a head-on car/bike collision (we're talking a foot of clearance between us and the car). Had we been any less careful, the three of us would most certainly be in an emergency room this morning and in very bad shape.
The three of us were quite shaken by the event. We're all very conscientious cyclers: we ride on the correct side of the road and use hand signals and obey the traffic laws. Passing on two-lane roads is *always* a risky undertaking, and I have a hard time believing the driver desperately needed to pass those tractors right that second--the fact that we were in the oncoming lane apparently didn't register, but there's not much more we could have done to be more visible. I'm angry at the driver, and unfortunately we did not have a chance to get the car's license plate number to report him or her to the police. Many, many cyclists use that road (we were passed by about 25 this morning, which is a relatively small number) and cyclists are incredibly vulnerable in accidents with cars.
It just makes me wonder, again (and again), what it would take to change road conditions here to make them safer for everyone, for cars, bikes, and pedestrians. I know some of what causes many of the problems (roads that are too wide and straight (encouraging impatient, inattentive drivers), speed limits that are too high, few/no traffic calming devices), but not what can be done about them on a political or social level, here in this place in this state. Tempe has scads of signs posted all over the city proclaiming the city to be a "Bike-Friendly Community," yet at the same time the design of the bike lane system here belies that proclamation.
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Date: 2007-04-08 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
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