Yesterday was an odd day.
From encountering, for the first ever, a relative of a hit-and-run who didn’t want the incident publicized and attempted to censor my work — and no, I’m not the least bit sure I made the right choice. To a Hollywood tour bus scaring the crap out of me in Santa Monica by buzzing past at far less than arm’s reach.
And I’m not sure which one pissed me off most.
No, actually, I am.
Meanwhile, here’s the other one.
I hope you called and reported the driver to the tour company.
Why don’t you send the video to them? (complete with dialog)
Be safe!
Also–two orange traffic cones illegally in the bike lane–looks like for a valet stand at Chez Jay?
It’s a classic case of bad bike-lane design. You’d have been better off without the bike lane. There’s not enough space for a bike to safely operate between the parked cars and any bus driving in the adjacent lane. The bus driver figured he was entitled to “his” lane, and that it was up to you (at your peril) to stay in your bike lane. You really should have anticipated the close pass after squeezing past the bus on the right at the prior intersection. If I were you, I would have been riding several feet over to the left into the right-hand driving lane. Unfortunately, this might have caused some drivers to buzz me to “teach me a lesson” about “staying where I belong” in the bike lane. But at least I would have had a larger cushion of escape to my right. Again, it’s a badly designed (but common) bike lane.
The only law that matters is Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion. Car/bus/train vs. bike never ever ends good. If you don’t believe me, ask the 50 area bike riders who are not here anymore. You can hear the sound of larger vehicles and that is an immediate, red flag. I would move to the right, let the 5000 lb vehicle pass, and go on my way.
Wow, that was scary. It’s sometimes hard to see how close a passing vehicle is in video, but that was right on top of you. I could practically feel the slip stream on my left side!
Simple example of why pain is not enough
*paint*. !
Does anyone reading this think a painted line on the road will protect you against a 3000 lb mass of steel moving at 35 mph?
Another example of how our society puts more priority on providing space on our roadways for parked empty motor vehicles than it does the safety of human beings on bicycles. Get rid of the on street parking and give bicyclists a buffered bike lane.
Maybe the cyclist who ran the red light was just trying to get away from the bus following behind you. LBT bus drivers used to honk at me in a wide open bike lane regularly, until several calls to their Supervisor finally got them to stop. Drivers of zoo cages don’t know just how loud their horns are on the outside. E-mail the video to the area Supervisor, and expect an apology. Maybe they’ll screen it at their next safaty meeting.