Antique & Classic Cars Blog

Beautiful weekend and as always motorists galore on the highways.

Here are three unsafe things I observed…. how many times can you do each one before something happens?

1.  Slowing down to merge. Going slower is generally safer–you overtake things more slowly and have more time to react to problems. Merging is different. I exited 77 south (Cedar Avenue), which then loops around and becomes an entrance ramp onto 62 (east in this case). A woman in a Toyota was in front of me and at that critical moment when the ramp begins to straighten out and you need to get on the gas so the difference between your speed and the speed of the cars you’re trying to merge with is minimal, she started looking over her shoulder and braking.

Not safe.

Merging at highway speed leaves lots of time and options; creeping up at 40 miles an hour gives you less opportunity to fit into a gap and encourages further braking and problems for people on the ramp and the highway.

2. Entering oncoming traffic to pass a bicycle. Some drivers are overly cautious of passing a bicyclist, so they go all the way to the opposite side of a two-way road, fully into oncoming lanes. That works when you can see a mile straight ahead. It’s dangerous on hills and curves. Three feet, carefully taken, gives the cyclist and driver room to get along. Way more takes away all of the motorist’s options and requires a major swerve to avoid approaching traffic. Guess who’s in the way of that two-ton swerve? A man, woman or kid on a 30 pound bicycle. Note that we cyclists have a duty to stay by the side of the road and not steer erratically.

3. Motorcycling without a helmet. I’ve seen parents and children on motorcycles bareheaded. Survey emergency-room doctors on the wisdom of doing that. Saturday I saw a guy on a wicked cool lime-green custom frame V-twin. He was bareheaded; his young daughter (presumably) on the back had a helmet. That’s 50 percent right. If you’re wearing eye protection adding a helmet won’t make it harder to crash. But it’ll make it easier to get back up–and the girl on the back really wants you to.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 7:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.