CR-A-NG or Things That Go Bump In The Night...

[can-o-phish]

So it was an awesomely blustery day in T-Dot yesterday and I'm headin' home yesterday evening on the ol' mountain bike CRUISING down College with the wind behind me and I mean I'm FLYIN'!!!...

Well, out of the blue, or black of night, low and behold what pops up directly in my path is an unlit, no reflectors, absolutely nuthin' marked well at all, metal gate on the BIKE PATH...

Yep, I CRASH-BANG right into this mutha and do the FANTASTIC ARSE OVER TEA-KETTLE LAND ON MY HEAD & SHOULDERS DROP AND ROLL ONTO MY FEET AND BACK TO STANDING POSITION...

Two dudes witness this and come running up to me saying, "MAN, THAT WAS AWESOME! ARE YOU HURT?"...

Naw, nuthin' but my pride and I was laughing as my bell was demolished and one of my derailer levers is toast but I'm basically in one piece with NO cuts but a few bruises...

Later last night I wake up as my wrist is THROBBING and I'm a little worried that it's broken as everytime I move it there is a nice little "clicking of bones" noise...I swallow a few IBUprofen float back to dreamland and today not so bad...

But the look on those dudes faces as they were runnin' up to me...man, it must've looked spectacular...whish I had a video of that!!!

Thank Jeebus I was wearin' my brain-bucket to protect what little I have left of the grey matter inside my noggin'

How's that for some Monday humour???

[Im going home Donny]

jebus...nice one.

[Velvet]

When cycling, your head is always your most striking feature.

Go see a doctor.

[Large Marge]

While I am so glad to hear that you're all right, I don't find your story funny at all. The city should be sued for shit like that. They are 4 years behind on a 10 year bike plan implementation program that was voted on by council in 2001. At the current rate, it’ll be 80 years before we see any significant advances to our cycling infrastructure, despite the exponential increase in cycle-commuters on Toronto’s streets. A 1997 coroner's report made a whole whack of recommendations to improve cyclist safety that have been virtually ignored.

Just last week Ryan Carriere, a 31 year old father of two was on his way home to take the girls trick-or-treating when some fucker right turned onto Gladstone plowing Ryan over and proceeded to crush and drag him under the back tires of his delivery truck. I had the exact same accident 2 years ago but was lucky enough to roll out from the path of the wheels on time to see my bike get sucked up into the undercarriage and dragged for 25 meters before the guy even stopped.

There’s a memorial ride and candle-light ceremony tonight if anyone else would like to come and ride in solidarity. 6:15 pm at the Peace Garden in Nathan Phillip’s Square to ride to Queen & Gladstone for a 7:00 pm candle light ceremony.

There’s also an initiative in T.O. to send your funeral bill to Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker in return for some of the lame-o pollution positive decisions he’s made while on Council; I’m sure the effect will be the same if you want to send in any medical expenses you may incur as a result of shoddy bikelane maintenance.

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Seeing as the Bike Plan acceleration plan is being voted on THIS WEEK, you may want to at least copy and paste your post into a quick email to your own Councillor. Too many cyclists are being injured and killed needlessly and stories like yours need to be heard.

Once again ToT; I’m really glad it wasn’t worse! I hope your wrist is OK.

Cheers,

Margaret

[can-o-phish]

Hey LM, thanks for your well-wishes and I seem to be able to bang off the same amount of keystrokes on the com-pooper and the wrist, though swollen, is intact and doesn't have any extra joints/cracks...

This past couple of weeks I've been cut off numerous times...I think it has something to do with the change in time and getting darker sooner and people in a rush to get home 'cause it's dark...

The idiots out there drivin' around like morons...so I'm always cautious and careful when on the streets but the bike paths in T-Dot SUCK!!! This summer I was biking with Velvet in O-Town and the bike paths there are awesome though I must warn anyone out there that biking with Velvet is an adventure and you're responsible for whatever bushes or canals you end up in!!!

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Glad to hear you're ok, even if you didn't get any decent footage out of it .

My favourite bike lane in TO is the eastbound one on the Danforth that would put you on the DVP if you're not paying attention. There seem to be a lot of little stretches of bike lane in the city that seem to have been somebody's grudging concession to people clamouring for lanes ("Here's your stupid bike lane, now leave me alone while I get back to figuring out how to incarcerate the homeless").

Ottawa does seem to be very much on the right path as far as cycling goes. Can't say as we need more bike lanes here in Osgoode (there is one that I know of, to the village's credit), though it would be nice if River Road, which heads towards Ottawa alongside the Rideau, had more than big scary gravel on the sides that you need to turn into for refuge when two trucks are passing one another. That, and more pubs to stop off at along the way would be nice.