This morning someone heading to Franklin Square Hospital could not be bothered to wait until I was clear of parked cars. I had to move out into the lane because people parking along Franklin Square Drive don't look before opening their car doors or crossing the road. Luckily, for this driver, no one was crossing the road, because they would have, in their haste, likely caused an accident with a pedestrian. As it was, they nearly had a head-on collision with another vehicle approaching from the other direction.
iodaniell
HI, Hope you all fine, its nice to be here,
i m sharing with you spmething
Psycho driver : MD Plate 159M099 by ratherbebiking.
I was riding up falls rd minding my own business. I'm almost all the way on the right as usual, so nobody should have much of a problem passing me. this lady accelerated past me and cut me off to pull into the DOT facility on falls rd, almost hitting me. luckily i wasnt run off the road and i was able to slow down before hitting the van or going off the shoulder.
i wanted to know if it was a deliberate move or not, so i asked her what she was doing. she said i should have been more careful riding - what? she picked up her daughter and followed me to try to get a picture of my face, then turned around and went back south on falls rd. ahh... mother & daughter spending quality time harassing that white boy on the bike. i hope the girl doesn't grow up to drive as recklessly as her mom does.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lpq/3332054010/
Thanks
michael123
Less than 3 days after a fatal incident written about here:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bal-cyclist0407,0,7004676.story
...motorists in the area still drive as if they don't care who's life they may endanger whether it is a bicyclists trying to get to work or other people on the road in their motor vehicles doing the same.
At this approximate location:
I had three vehicles pass me as they crested a hill. From my elevated vantage point on the bike, I can not see how these people could determine with 100% certainty that another vehicle wasn't approaching from the other side.
I try, to the best of my ability, to look ahead and signal to these motor vehicle operators that it is clear to pass, but this time, they could not wait the second it would've taken for me to crest the hill and signal. Instead, they defied death and passed while approaching the crest.
Someday someone is going to get creamed there.
iodaniell
This has to be prevented at all costs even if false negatives happen forcing people to cross against a red light. Seriously, I understand the desire to get sensors working accurately but if there has to be an error is should be with false positives and not with false negatives and unfortunately statewide standards essentially say that magnetic sensors (rectangle cuts in the ground) do not (should not???) detect motorcyclists or bicyclists.
a+ braindumps | braindumps | ccie dumps
cindy82
Cindy, Nice post! The truly tragic bit with traffic sensors is that we have a state law that says the needs of cyclists MUST be considered, yet with traffic sensors at best it by request only, even then there are plenty of traffic engineers in the different SHA districts and in the various Counties that will emphatically defend the position for public safety false positives must be avoided at all costs so detecting bicycles is out of the question, in defiance of state law.
On one of my routes where I do a zigzag across a busy 4 lane main arterial, if the light is red as I approach I will get into the left lane as it will get a left arrow, so traffic can go straight and turn left from that lane (I'll note that if the light is green I will do a box turn.) The other day I was first to arrive so all the cars moved to the right lane and I did not get a left arrow so there I was stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic trying to make a left, yuck! Seriously what would be the harm of detecting a bicycle or always doing the left arrow turn phase? As it is now the only time it will not cycle is if traffic is only in the right lane (not likely during normal travel times) or if a cyclists is in that lane, this makes no sense to me what so ever.
Update 5/21/2010:
This is a couple days late, but on Tuesday (I believe), I spotted the "road terrorist" from 8/3/2009. Once again, he was in the right-hand short merge lane ready to pass everyone to his left at high speed on a road marked 30 MPH. Luckily, this time, I was behind him, so no close passing incident, but from a dead stop at Perring Parkway, he had to of been doing at least 60 MPH by the time he reached the intersection of Oakleigh Rd and Taylor Avenue.
The police needs to catch this guy before he kills someone.
iodaniell
Update: 6/1/2010
There seemed to have been a lot of hate toward bicyclists on the road during my evening commute home:
http://bimactive.com/ba/journal/post/10783/33315
iodaniell
Update 7/21/2010:
This is nothing stupid, but more of an observation over the past few months--that is, I suppose due to government (state, city, ...) budget cuts, the roads are beginning to show it. The incidence of finding glass shards in the road has increased substantially, as well as piles of gravel and other sundry road debris. Apparently, the periodic t-storms passing through the area is not enough to wash the debris off to the very edge of the road.
What would really help, too, is that folks picking up the recycled materials during the week clean up their mess if they happen to break glass during the pick-up.
iodaniell
Update 7/29/2010:
When has become the duty of the garbage collection people to leave debris scattered all over Baltimore streets?
For what I guess has been about a year, they have been doing such a good job, but lately, there's "spillage" ranging from toxic liquids, to broken glass, nails, and entire kitchen bags of crap left on the roads!
Sheeesh!
Hmmmmm--how stupid.
[wink]Did you get any pictures?[/wink] Just kidding, folks. This channel is rated PG13.