Garbage trucks!!!

[light_sabe_r]

ARGH! I didn't know whether this should go here on in crazy drivers section

I was powering along my favourite stretch of ON ROAD today... lots of cars and trucks etc... regular commuting hazards...

pretty quickly I could smell something ROTTING.

Next thing I know there's a garbage truck overtaking me and pulling up into my lane to stop at the lights...

"Well that's just great" I thought holding my breath as I stopped behind him. "Oh look and he hasn't shut the back of the truck... Oh f*dge!!!"

I tried to get off the road before and onto the footpath before he took off again but the light turned green.... So coffee cups and some sorta strange liquid fell outta the back of the truck and onto me as he took off. Ewe!!!!

I spent SOOOO long in the shower when I got to work.


Is this a common occurance?? Or am I just unlucky?

[divingbiker]

Garbage trucks are the worst! I hate garbage day in Washington, DC. If they're efficient and have two guys loading them, and there's not too much garbage for them to pick up, and if the traffic and lights are just so, I can be stuck next to them for a couple of blocks, and it's disgusting! Especially getting stuck at a light next to them. I swear city garbage smells worse than suburb garbage.

I can't imagine how gross it was to have garbage fall on you. Ick just isn't a strong enough word.

[DebW]

Our town doesn't have garbage pickup. So no garbage trucks on the road. But there are occasional septic trucks. Luckily they don't leak.

[Lise]

Beyond ICK. So sorry you had to start your day that way.

Also awful are the street cleaning trucks. They go at about the same pace as I ride, so it's hard to pass them. They're essentially two big round brushes that sweep the street and pick up garbage. But they also spew garbage and dirt and gravel out behind them. I've gotten caught behind one twice. I just changed routes as quickly as possible.

[Haudlady]

Ugh... that's disgusting!

I have travelled behind (and around) dump trucks, and the smell (alone, without the dumping on your head!) is awful.

I've noticed that I am more sensitive to smells when I am riding... and the more tired I get, the worse things smell to me. Nothing smells good - dump truck, barbeque, restaurant - although it makes a good incentive to go faster to escape the odor! It's funny, because DH says that a BBQ smell on a ride makes him REALLY hungry... it makes me feel a little ill. Anybody else like this?

[betagirl]

Gross. I had one riding in the lane next to me yesterday for a while, stopping at the lights as well. I was like dang that stinks. But thankfully I've never had trash fall out on me. That would gross me out so bad. And I don't have a shower at work. I do work in a hospital, so I could go to the surgery dept or something and ask them to swab me down with iodine

[Tater]

I've noticed that I am more sensitive to smells when I am riding... and the more tired I get, the worse things smell to me. Nothing smells good - dump truck, barbeque, restaurant - although it makes a good incentive to go faster to escape the odor! It's funny, because DH says that a BBQ smell on a ride makes him REALLY hungry... it makes me feel a little ill. Anybody else like this?

YES!! Any kind of strong smell will make me want to hork, riding or running! Here lately it has been the greasy smell of fried something-or-other as I pass the fast food joints along the way. Diesel fumes will do it, as will cigarette smoke. Garbage trucks are, by far, the worse though.