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It's not a case of fault in an accident. It's a case of survival, and realizing how to steer clear of the worst among them, as well as the well-meaning, conscientious drivers who are simply distracted.
We can shake our fists in the air, or, we can prepare ourselves.
We can shake our fists in the air, or, we can prepare ourselves.
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I'm going to write down the result of 40 years of trial-and-error on the roadways. Mind, I'm going to rise from my chair in a little while to go bike riding, and I might not survive the ride. A vehicle may foil all my defensive maneuvers and take me out. However, this regrettable possibility is just as prevalent when we're behind the wheels of our cars, is it not? How many head-on collisions between two vehicles occur on two-lane roads? Once you exit your property, the risk increases. So you become an agoraphobe or you venture forth, and do what you can to lessen the risk.
ROAD SELECTION
You drive to your swim workouts, do you not? I recommend you also consider driving to your cycling workouts, if you don't have safe roads proximate to you. Since you're only going to ride two or maybe three days a week, it's not that hard to strategically plan a bike route, and execute your ride on roads both scenic and safe.
What's my idea of a safe road? First, sparsity of traffic. I'm going to use Los Angeles as an example. You might think there is no such thing as a sparse stretch of pavement in this town, but L.A. has great rural riding.
The city most proximate to the Slowtwitch headquarters is Palmdale (often a start stage city for the Amgen Tour of California). Palmdale is a city of engineers. It's the home of Lockheed Skunk Works, proximate to Edwards Air Force Base, and, plenty of Palmdale's engineers commute to Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. If I lived in Palmdale and commuted, I'd take my bike with me to work. On the way home I'd pull off the 210 freeway at Osborne Street and ride Little Tujunga Canyon. The next day I'd pull off the 14 freeway at San Canyon and ride that same fabulous, challenging road in the other direction.
The next day I'd pull off the I-14 at Acton and ride Aliso Canyon Road up to Mill Creek Summit on Angeles Forest Highway (often part of an ATOC stage).
All these are sparsely traveled roads, and cars have room to give you a wide berth. There are many low-density roads in SoCal. It amazes me that cyclists and triathletes who live in the L.A. Basin's South Bay (from Manhattan Beach to Santa Monica) ride north on heavily trafficked, stoplight-infested roads instead of simply driving their bikes to Malibu, where the good riding on challenging, scenic, spare and car-free roads commences.
BEHAVIOR ON COUNTRY ROADS
Yet, many of these horrible accidents actually do happen on sparsely traveled roads. So, even if you take my advice and find these roads, how can you remain safe?
Just as you never know who's going to swerve into you, creating a head-on accident while you're driving on roads like these, you never know when a motorist is going to cause a tragedy beyond your control to avert. It's a numbers game. Yet, there are a few tips I can share that increase my odds and that might increase yours.
ROAD SELECTION
You drive to your swim workouts, do you not? I recommend you also consider driving to your cycling workouts, if you don't have safe roads proximate to you. Since you're only going to ride two or maybe three days a week, it's not that hard to strategically plan a bike route, and execute your ride on roads both scenic and safe.
What's my idea of a safe road? First, sparsity of traffic. I'm going to use Los Angeles as an example. You might think there is no such thing as a sparse stretch of pavement in this town, but L.A. has great rural riding.
The city most proximate to the Slowtwitch headquarters is Palmdale (often a start stage city for the Amgen Tour of California). Palmdale is a city of engineers. It's the home of Lockheed Skunk Works, proximate to Edwards Air Force Base, and, plenty of Palmdale's engineers commute to Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. If I lived in Palmdale and commuted, I'd take my bike with me to work. On the way home I'd pull off the 210 freeway at Osborne Street and ride Little Tujunga Canyon. The next day I'd pull off the 14 freeway at San Canyon and ride that same fabulous, challenging road in the other direction.
The next day I'd pull off the I-14 at Acton and ride Aliso Canyon Road up to Mill Creek Summit on Angeles Forest Highway (often part of an ATOC stage).
All these are sparsely traveled roads, and cars have room to give you a wide berth. There are many low-density roads in SoCal. It amazes me that cyclists and triathletes who live in the L.A. Basin's South Bay (from Manhattan Beach to Santa Monica) ride north on heavily trafficked, stoplight-infested roads instead of simply driving their bikes to Malibu, where the good riding on challenging, scenic, spare and car-free roads commences.
BEHAVIOR ON COUNTRY ROADS
Yet, many of these horrible accidents actually do happen on sparsely traveled roads. So, even if you take my advice and find these roads, how can you remain safe?
Just as you never know who's going to swerve into you, creating a head-on accident while you're driving on roads like these, you never know when a motorist is going to cause a tragedy beyond your control to avert. It's a numbers game. Yet, there are a few tips I can share that increase my odds and that might increase yours.
