Government proposal to double ebike power has received a mixed reception with brands questioning what it will mean for the UK bike industry
Government proposal to double ebike power has received a mixed reception with brands questioning what it will mean for the UK bike industry
Which one. I've had 2 major collisions. Both were due to u-turns. Both involved vehicles that appeared to be stopped while parallel parked, and both were in areas where u-turns are illegal.
The one that broke my neck and back was from a person making a u-turn directly in front of another SUV, on a downhill, in a turn.
It was like the most stupid situation you could never imagine actually happening. The person was stopped, double parked. As soon as I saw the blocked lane a SUV was passing me in the second lane. I merged into the number 2 lane behind the SUV, and that is where my memory stops for 3 hours. Because of court stuff I know all the rest. The SUV in front of me never saw it coming and did not even brake as they tee boned into the double parked SUV that made a sudden u-turn in front of them from a dead stop with no warning. My GPS computer showed I dropped from 36mph to 29.7mph before the next way point was a great distance backwards where it broke off and landed. I’ve passed stuff like double parked cars many hundreds of times, but you just can’t predict someone this stupid.
The driver was a foreign national asylum seeker from somewhere around the Mediterranean I’ll refrain from mentioning. They happened to be a first generation driver and had the measured competence of a US 3rd grader. Their license was restricted to work only, but they were self employed so the restriction was meaningless. Their driving record was atrocious, and they even got a DUI 2 days later while I was still under critical watch in the hospital ICU. In other words the poster child driver for fuck cars.
Predicting just how stupid some functioning humans really are is impossible. Intuition lies to us about what we have control over in our lives. If we always held awareness of the potential catastrophes, humans would be completely non functional.
I was known for riding safe. For a couple of years I commuted to my first bike shop job that was 26 miles each way by the most direct bike route. I rode that five to six days a week, the sixth being the group rides I lead out of the shop every other Saturday, and I raced a half dozen crits a year too. Even though the 26 mile route was considerably faster, and all was technically bike route, I rode a 33 mile version that maximized my time on dedicated bike trails even though it meant more hills too. I was also the guy that would fall back in the group ride to help newbies or help people learn to ride in a group. I was very cautious, a stop at all the stop signs type of roadie. I’ve been hit in other ways, but those are insignificant. U-turns are the biggest danger for the regular rider and commuter.
Damn man, that’s rough.
U-turns are quite a dangerous manoeuvre and really need to be executed properly to ensure safety.
I remember taking my Colorado drivers licence and it wasn’t covered at all in the written/practical exam. I practiced a couple times at traffic lights with a turn arrow with my parents but that was it.
For my Dutch lesson license (we rent a car a few times a year) u-turns and 3-pt turns were covered extensively. How fast you are going and which mirrors you’re checking in which order. They also test these “special manoeuvres” in the practical exam in a very healthy way. The roads also have a lot more medians which helps blunt driver stupidity.
Cars are the worst…