Yesterday, a fear of mine came true. I was riding my bike to class around 4pm. I have to go over the bridge on Hampton Blvd., but I don't like to ride in the street there. The cars are too crazy, speeding, changing lanes, etc. so I always ride on the sidewalk on the same side of the street as our apartment.
I am on the sidewalk, going towards the upward part of the bridge, cars coming down the bridge towards me. I see a Jeep Cherokee that is losing control. I am still pedaling, but see this Jeep that is grinding it's tires on the high sidewalk about 50 feet in front of me. At this point it's scaring me, is he coming right towards me? We are still heading for each other, and his tires end up on the, at least 15" tall, sidewalk...as he still is speeding towards me.
At this point I have a decision to make, either stop or keep going, hoping to zoom passed him. Looking at those two options, if I stop, he may just crash right into me, and there I go, right over the bridge. If I keep going, at least I have a little control, and since only his right front and back tires are on sidewalk, I have a little room to zoom passed him up against the railing.
So I choose to zoom passed him. Riding slowly along the railing, he's lost control of his jeep riding half on the sidewalk, half on the road.When he passes, luckily not even touching me, I stop to look back. He finally got off sidewalk at end of bridge, and both his tires were blown. I saw him pull into my parking lot of my apt. and decided to continue on to class.
I ride on the sidewalk because I feel it's safer from the cars. Yesterday this wasn't the case. I really feel that I am fortunate and did get hit yesterday, it was scary and had potential for awful things. I decided to make a funny photoshop rendition of what happened for a visual.
9 lives-1 life=8 more lives left
4 comments:
Holy Macaroni! I'm glad you made it!
holy snikeys!! that sounds scary..whew. glad you're alright.
glad you're allright, i would have been scared to death and not able to calmly assess the situation and make a decision.
My 1st day of school at ODU I was crossing Hampton Boulevard, and the light for oncoming traffic was red - mind you, and some Montero driving loon decides to slam on breaks about twenty seconds before he hits the stop line on the road. His car literally stopped right where the bumpers could touch my knees- I could feel the heat coming out of the grille. I think that was my number one -- (of about 4 since I've been here). VA is filled with crazy drivers! Totally glad you're okay.
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