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

[GLC1968]

Oh yuck...that is awful!!

I was complaining about commuting on garbage day yesterday, but not because of the trucks. I was having issue with all of the crap on the side of the road! In our city, we are provided with these HUGE rubber bins that the trucks pick up and dump (so we have no garbage men except for drivers). There are two bins, one for garbage in a dark green and one for recycleables in brown and they are both damn hard to see when it is as dark as it was yesterday. Top that off with the idiots who leave long items sticking out the top and sides of these bins, and it's a major road hazzard for cyclists! I was whacked in the shoulder more than once by crap sticking out of a bin!!

But at least nothing that hit me actually smelled bad. That would truly suck.

[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.

[Lise]

I have both heaven and hell in terms of smells on one of my rides. There's the chocolate factory (heaven), and the leather processessing factory (hell). Unfortunately, I'm usually cruising through the intersection at heaven, and waiting for the light at hell! Mouth breathing is where it's at.

[Geonz]

Depending on your community, not having control of what oozes out of your back may be illegal. (Oops, I would have been breaking the law that one Tuesday...) I'd at least want to know the company and let them know...