Traffic Etiquette

As Indian Summer gives us a few extra weeks of biking before the rains set in, I've collected some incidents for my work in progress on the ethics of traffic.

Apologizing too quickly

A fast right turn on red (I spend a lot of time in California) caught a driver by surprise; she was planning on driving into the parking lot at full speed, I guess. In any case, she sought me out, quite distressed, to tell me I could get killed doing things like that. I tried to apologize. She wouldn't let me -- she wanted me to really understand that I could get killed. Rarely have I seen the performative aspect of apology taken so seriously.

Harley down; Community up

Background: I live in West Vancouver, close enough to Marine Drive to suffer the local Harley crowds burping, farting exhaust and noisy acceleration all summer long. So I wasn't excessively sympathetic when a Hogger fell over (I guess Harleys are pretty heavy and awkward in bumper to bumper bridge traffic) blocking the Lion's Gate Bridge yesterday. I arrived just after the tumble. Neat how the bridge, now a long parking lot, turned into something like the  BC ferries summer lineup. People were out of their cars, watching the fishing boats and freighters. It was the friendliest ride over the bridge all summer, as stranded car folks asked me for news about the blockage, took pictures, and relaxed.

Cats fighting through the window

Approaching the Lions Gate from Stanley Park, I shouted "Watch Out" (honestly, nothing stronger; and my air-horn was out of air) at a driver blocking the bike/ped crossing while she waited for a break in traffic. Later, on the bridge itself, the three large guys in the back of her small car shouted obscenities and they all gave me the finger (hard to do; it was a small window in a small car).

The point: they reminded me of our cat Darla, who fights furiously with the neighbour cat -- but only when protected by a window. Cars isolate us and raise the emotional ante, as it were. Would those three thirty-somethings jump one old guy on a bike? I doubt it.

There are other factors too. They were likely frustrated, having sat in traffic for much of a what might be the last nice day of the year. I was riding free; traffic is my friend.

2 Summers of E-Bike Commuting

As the rain settles to remind us that Summer is over, it's a good time to review two summers of commuting by e-bike, from Ambleside, in West Vancouver, to UBC, on Point Grey.

1. I've had a lot of fun, cycling ~ 20 - 25 km each way in about 50 minutes.

2. The worst experience: getting the controller ripped off, busing home with a very heavy dead e-bike, and paying too much for a replacement, which was mis-configured by the dealer and almost fried my bike's computer. All's well now plus I've removed some of the constraints built in. Generally, security is my biggest problem. Bikes suffer from Vancouver's tolerance of a culture of petty theft; e-bikes have more to steal from. I can't shop on the way home, because rumor has it that the street knows how to break the BionX computer/battery lock, and lugging two panniers and a battery into a store isn't worth it, except at Costco. I wish BionX would build a secure bike; it would be even more useful.

3. Scariest moment: crossing the Lion's Gate Bridge in a 75 Km gale one morning in July. Another biker flew into me because he failed to foresee the vacuum effect of the call box I was resting behind.

4. Best accessory: 120 db Airzound horn -- a bargain at ~$20 from Mountain Equipment Co-op here on the North Shore. The surprise is that blasting away like a truck gets cars respect. I'll follow this up with a detailed post on the "experiment".

5. Risks: it's easy to neglect maintenance and the motor gets you there even with a dry chain or, in my case, only the highest gear working. At my average speed of ~ 30 kph lots gets shaken loose, so I've lost lots of fasteners.

6. I've put e-bike on a new Bell Motivator mag resistance stand (from Costco) so I could continue getting some exercise.

Bottom line: 15 pounds lighter and my WiFit puts my age at 19 years less than my birth certificate, plus all the new ideas -- mostly good, I hope -- incubated during my morning traffic wars.