Almost sideswiped by a... Miata
Friday I was riding my MTB along a quite city street - a street where old craftsman style homes are slowly being repurposed as offices for paralegals, architects, and so on. Suddenly I felt a whoosh of air, glanced to my left, and noticed a Miata passing almost under my left elbow. :eek: Had the driver actually hit me, I'd probably have fallen into the passenger seat.
There was no other traffic in that block. The street was nice and wide. It was a sunny afternoon. We were both heading north. The car was probably only going 15 MPH. I'm not exactly small. How can a driver of a convertible not notice a cyclist in those conditions? :confused:
Also, earlier in the ride, I encountered a wrong-way-cyclist. This was on a moderately busy ocean front road that climbs from beach level to bluff level. The narrow marked bike lane has (of course) traffic on one side and a vegetation covered steep hill on the other. Close to the top of the climb the road bends to the right. The vegetated hill makes this sort of a blind turn. In other words, not a place to dilly-dally.
I had reached the turn and was starting to get the lactic acid burn in my legs from hurrying to the top. Suddenly, a wrong way rider came around the blind corner in the bike lane! I had to break cadence and lose momentum. :mad: Instinct made me steer to the right forcing the wrong way rider to find a way around me (presumably by going into the traffic lane).
