Last night I had a high speed altercation with a motor vehicle on my ride home! ouch! A bit of a shock, to have someone pull out to do a u-turn from a park right in front of you…
Luckily, I’m OK and Rosie the bike seems only minorly damaged. She’s going for a post-trauma checkup as soon as the bike mechanics have time. It was a great reminder that the legal minimum of bike lighting is probably not enough… I was riding with a single LED flasher on the front, since my usual six watts of LED brightness lights are in need of repair.
So, I’ll be making sure I’m better lit from here, thats for sure.
The woman who pulled out was also quite shaken – I hit the car pretty hard, and went for a short flight. Onlookers were happy to see me get up and walk away…
The moral of this story?
Bike riders: legal minimum lights are not enough, you need to light up bigtime!
Car drivers: look, look again and make sure that little flash you see isn’t your imagination. Remember that bikes sometimes travel at 30+ km/hr – we’re not all nannas on the road.
All of us: share, and share alike. One road for all!