I got hit by a car last week. I survived (you'll not be rid of me so easily). I was riding back from Publix with my groceries in a backpack. I was on the sidewalk like the two old geezers riding in the upper right part of the image. You can tell I hope, that a biker has trouble seeing any traffic on the road intersecting from the right and so you must go slow at the intersection, not stop but go very slow. Another reason for the slow go is to be seen in the image part that shows how the opposite sidewalk takes a 90 degree left turn immediately. It also only has a 4 ft wide entry ramp unlike the 8 foot wide one I entered the crosswalk from. I laid my bike down where I had ended up. It shows I was well into the crossing when the car came from my back left side, hit my front wheel, knocked me and bike to the ground under the front end of her car. My face was about 3 ft from the front tire. There was a car coming from the right that stopped. that driver came over and helped me up. Then the driver of the car that hit me got out and asked if I was alright, could she do anything to help me (I said yes, stop driving because you don't know how.) Then said why did I try to cross in front of her? The Samaritan driver said "Good luck with that story" and left. If you look close enough in the bottom images you can see the tire marks from her having jammed on the brakes at a high speed. Her delay in coming to see if I was alright I attribute to her being on a cell phone and having to say "I gotta go, I just hit a guy on a bike. I'll call you right back, bye"

I don't know what that diagonal third line at the beginning of the turn lane is all about.They just repainted the street lines. The purpose of a hundred yard bike lane with no entries at either end that's a narrow half width lane outside the turn lane is usually a bike lane elsewhere but here it starts from a grass swale and runs a few hundred feet into a canal crossing bridge on the other side of the intersection (ergo the left turn in the far sidewalk). These images were taken at the same time of day so the lighting is the same as when I was hit. Having the Geezers go by was fortuitous to my story telling since you can see that I was surely visible. Back a few hundred yards is a middle school (grades 7-9) and immediately to the right is a TV station school and broadcast antenna for what used to be Cuban aimed transmissions of American TV to the communist island nation. The road on the right serves as access to the station and as the backroad entrance for the school buses making this intersection one frequented by many students walking and biking home. Anyway short story long as I can drag it out, I left her with the words, "You're lucky I'm alright and that your Insurance Company will never hear of this." How stupid? I should have asked her for a date. No wonder I'm still single.

National Museum at the end of Wenceslas Square in Prague.

Mehaul - glad you are okay. Having been rear-ended because another driver was on a mobile phone at the time, I have been in your shoes (although I was in a car and not on a bike). You were lucky you weren't seriously injured.

MotherGoose,
Thanks for the care bear. She was probably in a committed relationship anyway.

I was knocked off my bike when I was a child - they drove off and didn't even stop to check I was alive. You should have taken her insurance details, mehaul, in case you develop a case of litigation or some other consequential ailment. I bet your bike would have liked a paint job! Still, I'm glad you're all right.

Thanks, It's probably too late for any of that paper exchange stuff. I was so shook up I just needed to return to the womb of my home. There was no blood drawn. Another thing I said to her was that "really, I didn't hit my head so this anger is not from analyzing the actions, but from here (tapping over my heart) and it tells me that you are not committed enough to the task of driving or you'd be doing it right. Put yourself in the other person's position when you drive. Care about what is their world. Don't just live in yours. I could be dead now because you were living only in your world. We need to share this world. Act responsibly. That's when I left and said the stuff about Insurance companies. We don't need to have insurance to ride bikes in Florida so it's a mystery if changing data is even a law. My State Biker's handbook doesn't even address the event of an accident!

Glad you're OK mehaul, you should get compensation regardless for that if you've got her car number.

Theale church in Berkshire

Cyclists don't have to have insurance here either but if there's an accident it's as well for them to take a motorist's insurance and other details; if someone is injured the police and if necessary an ambulance should be called, if there are no injuries, the police must be informed of all accidents involving cars within 24 hours.

The tricky bit for cyclists, and the reason they need the car driver's insurance details, is what happens if they need medical attention. We have universal healthcare here but it's quite legal for hospitals to charge for treatment resulting from car accidents - and charge they certainly do. For the ambulance, for emergency treatment, and hospital care. I discovered this when my father was knocked off his bike by a hit and run driver and had to be taken to hospital. He was quite elderly by that point and I think the shock was the worst thing... until he got the shock of getting a bill. If he'd known who the driver was he could have passed the bill on but he didn't. He would have paid but I happened to go home for a few days and told the hospital where they could shove it... and as it was a hit and run, properly reported to the police, they forgave the debt and did shove it!

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath for news of my hedgehog... and even if you haven't I'm going to tell you anyway... well, the other day I discovered that my huge hedgie was not very discreet and had leaked details of the new hedgehog's restaurant at the end of the universe so there were now two nightly diners. The second, presumably female, wasn't as big as he was but she could certainly scoff a dish full of expensive hedgehog food. So this evening I put out two bowls of food and after it got dark, I played my torch over the restaurant entrance and there was Ms Hedgehog busily munching away, no doubt trying hard to finish before Mr H got there. She turned suddenly and ran into a nearby bush, and then went back to her dinner. She turned again, ran at the bush, and returned to her food. I had just worked out that maybe she heard a worm or slug under there when another hedgehog emerged from the bush and walked away very carefully. This third one is the smallest, probably one of last year's juveniles. But with three hogs to feed, I'm ruined!

What were they subsisting on for the past year? I could possibly arrange for a driver to run a stop line and clear that hedge out for you (but only if you agree: no paperwork exchanges afterward). If that doesn't interest you, try plastic flamingoes turned upside down and some uniformly placed wickets. That might effect their activities. Occasionally shout "Off with their heads!"

The driver who did the damage shown below might like the job. This vandalism occurred almost a month ago. I have the image because I published it in a local blog to try and shame our community leadership and manager into taking action to repair the sign and to catch the culprit. The other day a drunk just up the road ran into some palm trees and other things. (Witnesses caught that he had Quebec plate/tag/license - we have many Canadian Club drinkers who winter in our community and they should be out finding him) I fear the damage he is causing could escalate into hitting a biker or even an elderly walker.

WARNING! Any Satguru types that see sign damage hard to bear, please turn away now.



The area is our community which is patrolled by senior volunteers who patrol the community in city provided cars that are equipped with police connected radios. That's all they have to do is drive around and call the police if they see something suspicious.

PS: On the bike issue, even with name and tag numbers, I would need to prove the incident took place (my witness left the scene without leaving name and number) and I would have to hire a lawyer to bring the case to court. It isn't an Insurer to insurer case as with automobiles.

LOL, it's not unknown for a single garden to host several hogs - the most I've read about is thirteen. My garden isn't particularly hog-friendly, since I got rid of the grass and put membrane down - so there aren't tall grasses or high weeds or general garden debris for hogs to hide in. But the mulch does provide a habitat for worms and insects which hogs like to eat - and there's a hole on the fence they can get through! I like them - in fact most Brits do, a poll conducted a few years ago put hedgehogs as Britain's favourite mammal. Hedgehogs have been around for at least 15 million years, before the sabre toothed tiger or the mammoth, and where are those now, eh? Long gone, the hedgehog has outlived them all.

I think your sign got eaten by a giant crocogator that bribed a burmese python to swallow it in order to get rid of the evidence.

Love the hedgehog update, Flopsy

Glad everything is alright, Mehaul!

My healthier options lunch ...

Me again

Chip sitting on an old old old fenceline. We're getting ready to put a new one in next to it.

Nice sandwiches, just the sort I like (minus the avocado).

One of the various motorways around Reading in Binfield

Tasman Sea from Arai-te-Uru Recreational Reserve, South Head at Hokianga Harbour.

That looks very Cornish, Howie. I hear that parts of New Zealand and Tasmania do.

Another view of the centre of Oxford

Could do, Ren, though I have no idea what the Cornish coast looks like .

A view from above of Mt Taranaki-Egmont from a foggy plane window when approaching New Plymouth Airport. I could not see the volcano at all after landing due to the cloud cover.

More Oxford colleges

Another shot of Victor

Timaru Lighthouse from the walkway by Waimataitai Beach, not far into the lengthy walk to Jack's Point

There's an area in South Australia, Ren, called Moonta that markets itself as Little Cornwall.

I was leading the rams away to a new place to feed them. Kinda like the Pied Piper

Well obviously that's your next trip Howie. Let me know and I will give you a Cornish lesson.
Jill yes, I heard of that. Wonder if it's really like.I cant imagine all that heat in Falmouth.
As to leading the sheep I had a fleeting vision of you in red and yellow suit , a whistle and yet another silly hat.

Well honestly, I do not know what happened when I transferred this from my phone to Photobucket. All the top right disappeared. Just like that.
I still like it as it is a gateway in our village,but it isn't complete(????)