flangehead

Until COVID hit, I commuted about 8 miles one-way, with at least one leg in darkness. About 80% is on 40-45 mph posted, most of which has a reasonable shoulder. Balance is MUP.

I believe in doing all I can to augment my luck.

The only serious crash I've had commuting was on the MUP. A construction site had been placed in service over the weekend with really bright lights facing me, and I charged into the corner too fast and broke my collarbone. I was lucky; collarbones glue back together on their own pretty well.

I did do an endo once when I hit a pothole, which I attribute partially to having a heavy backpack. I didn't get hurt or break the computer, but that event helped push me to panniers on a rack.

As Bobbie G noted, good lighting helps. I run a shaped beam on the handlebars which spreads light all around in front of me. On my helmet I have a 300-500 lumen LED light which I can point at where I'm going, and it is also useful in signaling my presence and intentions to motorists.

I have two bicycles outfitted for my commute. My normal commuter is a touring bike on which I run 32-35 mm tires. My backup is a rigid fork, hard tail mountain bike. I know all the nooks and crannies of the pavement on my commute, but when I go on another route I'll use the mountain bike because the fatter tires are more forgiving to road hazards.

You should expect things to happen. I've had over 5 nails flat the rear tire. I lost a tire to a sawzall blade that my front tire flipped up and it did a number on the sidewall of my rear tire. When I find tire carcasses on my route I remove them. They get pummeled by the traffic and generate little tire wires that are the most common cause of my flats.