Mountain Biking With Moving Trees

That's my definition of biking throughout campus, and any inner city biking. Most people would consider mountain biking the more dangerous of the two, but I'll be the first to tell you that it isn't. First off, trees don't move, so the only way you're going to hit one is by losing complete control and slamming into one. I've never hit a tree while mountain biking. On a side note, my first bike was mercilessly split in two by my sister running it into a tree. In all my life, I've never seen that again. Anyway, on campus, everything is moving, and none of it goes where you would want it to go. So far my record is hitting two cars, one pedestrian, and so many near misses that I can't count them all. So I'll give a quick recap of the stupidness involved in all of this.

Alright first off, the two cars I hit. Neither of these were my fault. The main road through campus is Rose Street. Traffic is always at a standstill, there are more pedestrians than anywhere else, and bike lanes that remain fairly empty most of the time. Biking here is the worst obstacle course you'll ever be on. Actually come to think of it. Every accident I've hit somebody has been on this road. Anyway, both car accidents were really stupid. There's a section of road that allows cars of to the side to drop off passengers, yet cars do not like to lose their place in line. So everybody who drops somebody off just waits till traffic stops, then passengers step out in the middle of the road. Gee, when they open their doors, where do the doors happen to be. In the bike lane. Normally, there's enough room for me to avoid these doors that appear five feet before I pass them, but when it snows and the snowplows come through. Guess where all the snow piles up. Yep, you guessed it, the bike lane. So with three feet of snow in half the bike lane and a door covering the other three feet. I'm left with virtually no choice but to take out somebody's door.

Alright the pedestrian. For an amusing(morbid) account of this one checkout this board question, which somebody brought up today on the board. Yes, that was me. I didn't sign it my usual name because I knew some people would take it the wrong way. I explained it a little better on a different post. My sister read the account, and laughed her head off, she knew it was me who wrote that right off the bat. We can be a VERY morbid family at times. Speaking of that, The Redhead might know my sister. If you understand this next statement, you know who my sister is. If a nuclear bomb were to drop _____(somewhere), my sister would be the one who would laugh maniacally about it(or to drop it, I don't remember). I think she did orchestra at some point too. I wouldn't be surprised if FCSM might also know my sister also, since she's also a FCSM, and doubling in Chemistry.

Next is this year's adventures. I finally got a good bike with really good brakes. If that didn't happen, I would be dead right now. Alright the first one. This one, I might be at a partial fault. I'm flying down a hill on the sidewalk. The light has changed green beforehand and traffic has started to move, but I'm still faster than them. I watch all cars in the right lane. I focus on every single turn signal that is on so I know if I can cross the intersection. Well about 10 feet away from the curb a car without a signal turns right. I'm going about 20 mph or more at this point. I slam on my brakes and turn my bike hard to the right. That will be the first and only time that my bike will BOUNCE to a stop. I bounced at least ten times on my tires before I came to a stop. It was so jarring to the bike that the chain had fallen off. Of course the car that hadn't signaled didn't notice a thing, and while I'm putting on my chain, people driving by had the courtesy to yell obscenities at me.

Next near miss I actually did wreck, but at least I missed the car. It was close to 10 at night, and I'm pulling into the road of my apartment complex. The parking lots are immediately to the left and right on this dead-end road. Well I turn onto the road and a car is coming up the road. I figured the car was going straight and leaving the apartment complex. I even waited a couple of seconds to make sure he wasn't turning. There was absolutely no signal on, so I started pedalling straight when the car suddenly makes a left turn right in front of me. Now I have a bad habit of putting my front brakes on too hard. So I slam on the brakes, the front one catch and I flew over the front handle bars about a foot away from the cars. At least the guy apologized, quite a few times actually, since he was totally at fault. After I said it was fine and he left, several black were telling me that I should have sued him or something but I'm too nice. I just told him to make sure he signals from now on.