Let's be careful out there

Vancouver Police Department Media Release

Off-Duty Police Officer Injured in Traffic Collision

2007-10-02

October 1, 2007, 8:00 pm An off-duty member of the VPD was cycling through the intersection of 10th and Highbury when he was struck by a car. The officer was thrown in the air and subsequently landed on the hood of the vehicle.

The officer suffered non life-threatening injuries and is expected to be released from hospital today.

"We find this increase in accidents because roads are slippery at this time of year," said VPD media spokesperson Howard Chow. "We ask pedestrians to take that extra time to cross the street. Motorists, slow down and give yourself time to get to where you have to go."

The police are currently interviewing witnesses to the incident.

I'm not sure the advice given by Howard Chow is helpful. Take that extra time to cross the street? You're better off looking both ways and then running across as fast as you can. That's what I do. Also notable is the lack of specific advice for cyclists.

Asking drivers to adjust their driving to accommodate weather conditions is cute.

Catch Up

I haven't posted anything here in a while, but now that I am well on my way to a complete recovery from my many and varied vitamin deficiencies (knock on wood) I believe that I can bear down and focus for a few minutes and touch-type out a paragraph or two before the hundred-yard-stare sets in.

First: There is such a thing as moustache handlebars for bicycles. What do moustache handlebars look like, anyway? Well, like handlebar moustaches of course. Which came first?! This has been bothering me for days.

Second: A set of commuting observations and occurrences:

• I nearly hit a cat on 2007/05/09. Riding along 37th, I saw something out of the corner of my eye, it's moving fast from left to right. I look down and it's an orange cat and my front tire is just about to slice it in half. No collision, though. After completing that daring feat I assume that "Red" is now the unchallenged leader of the neighbourhood cat gang.
• Also on the way to work that day: I'm approaching a speed-hump/cross-walk and an old man is waiting there to cross. I slow down and give him the "go ahead" nod and wave. But the truck behind me has other ideas. It guns its engine and flies over the speed-hump. The old guy and I look at each other and come to an agreement that the driver of the truck is truly one of the world's greatest a**holes. Bonus: I lane split and jump the yellow at the next light and make it through the intersection before said truck.
• It was extremely windy on the afternoon of 2007/05/08. It was gusting up to 60km/h DIRECTLY IN MY FACE for my entire ride home. At Beach Crescent I caught up to a woman who was also battling the wind on her bicycle. I said something like "this wind is annoying, eh?" She looks at me and stretches a single syllable for about 5 seconds: "fuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccckkkkkk".
• Rain started about 5 minutes into my ride home. Got completely soaked. Could see clear blue skies in the distance, and was riding toward them. But at that time was under a large downpour. Also ended up underneath some hail for about 1 or 2 minutes. Very painful on my bare hands.
• Quite a while ago, I'm not sure precisely when: I cycled through a California crime scene on Beach Crescent. I approached the scene cautiously, and a Vancouver Police Department officer told me that it was OK to go through because they were not shooting currently. It was a film set, of course. So I went through, weaving in and out between several Los Angeles Police Department cruisers and an ambulance.
• Here's an oldy from 2007/01/30: At Nanaimo/40th, a guy in a jacked up SUV came around the traffic calming circle and gunned his engine. It was quite frosty and he fishtailed pretty dramatically (I would characterize it as "losing control of the vehicle"). I gave him a big smirk and an enthusiastic "thumbs up" as I rode by in the opposite direction.

Tailwind

I made excellent time on the way to work this morning. Roughly 15 to 20 percent shaved off the commute minutes. I think there must have been a pretty good wind pushing me along. Environment Canada says WNW 28km/h right now, which is not that huge. The real difference is that the wind is more often NE or E in the morning. I really felt like I was flying along without that usual headwind.

There isn't much of a chance that the wind will switch around to be from the W in the evening, though.

A vague recollection

About half-way to work today I stopped and took off my jacket. I rode the rest of the way in a T-shirt. After months of clouds, rain, wind, and low temperatures, it was really great to have the sun on my arms. Temperature: +12C.

It's going to start raining this afternoon, though. And it is not predicted to stop until sometime beyond the horizon of the 5 day forecast.