Five Boro Founder Killed by Hit and Run
03-24-19, 10:21 AM
#26
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In my experience, most people drive at or a little above whatever speed limit is posted, but few drive at unsafe speeds. As far as I know, traffic engineers understand this and set limits accordingly.
03-26-19, 12:49 PM
#27
20+mph Commuter
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This took place nearly 2 hours after sunrise. The sun is truly challenging for about 30 minutes after sunrise or 30 minutes before sunset, and that's being liberal. Now if a motorist wants to use it as an excuse, its very presence in the sky can be used as an excuse anytime between sunrise and sunset.
^^This is the imperfect world we ride in, regardless of where the sun is exactly. When did you clean your windshield the last time?
Last edited by JoeyBike; 03-26-19 at 12:54 PM.
03-27-19, 09:06 AM
#28
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The sun is lower much later at northern latitudes this time of year. And many people never wash their windshields. The sun ahead of me, even high up, hitting a filthy windshield is an issue for me every time I have to drive my wife's car.
I just hit the squirters and wipers but she can drive through a fog of filth I can barely see through, as do other friends of mine.
Sun hitting a dirty windshield increases the amount of time there is issue with seeing perfectly.
Then there are the sun visors on cars. I can pull most rental car visors down until I can only see one inch of the road ahead. Add a filthy windscreen with the sun anywhere in front of me I can easily see how a cyclist in the road might go unseen until he/she was in my lap.
And nobody's perfect even sober and undistracted (other than the danged sun blinding them)[.
^^This is the imperfect world we ride in, regardless of where the sun is exactly. When did you clean your windshield the last time?
I just hit the squirters and wipers but she can drive through a fog of filth I can barely see through, as do other friends of mine.
Sun hitting a dirty windshield increases the amount of time there is issue with seeing perfectly.
Then there are the sun visors on cars. I can pull most rental car visors down until I can only see one inch of the road ahead. Add a filthy windscreen with the sun anywhere in front of me I can easily see how a cyclist in the road might go unseen until he/she was in my lap.
And nobody's perfect even sober and undistracted (other than the danged sun blinding them)[.
^^This is the imperfect world we ride in, regardless of where the sun is exactly. When did you clean your windshield the last time?
IMO, my main strategy to more closely monitor the behavior of drivers behind us also facing into the sun, is even closer than usual scrutiny of my rear view mirrors.
A converse problem with rearview mirrors occurs when the sun is behind:
I use both left and right rearview mirrors, in my case Take-a-Look eyeglass mounted ones. I got the idea from a cycling companion who used only a right hand mirror. The additional right hand mirror affords a pretty good rearward view, but is particularly useful:
1. Riding on the left-hand side of a one-way street
2. Riding in the middle or left lanes of a two-way thoroughfare
3. In a rotary
4. On a curved road to the right
5. When passing entrance/exit ramps from a freeway, with the right hand mirror, I can view the ramps to my right, and stay wide of them, while watching upcoming traffic on my left, all while almost continuously looking straight ahead
6. When the sun is directly behind, usually one mirror can be positioned away from the glare of the sun.
As a corollary, this morning (2/5/18) at about 7:30 to 7:45 AM on mysouthbound commute, the bright, low-lying Winter morning sun was directly at the level of my left hand rearview mirror, and the sun glare made it difficult to get a fix on that mirror. My right hand, west side mirror was free of glare, with a good rearward view.
That was auspicious because on my otherwise straight 14-mile southbound ride, during that interval I had to proceed from the right side of the road to make three left hand turns,and on two occasions I was closely followed by trucks...
1. Riding on the left-hand side of a one-way street
2. Riding in the middle or left lanes of a two-way thoroughfare
3. In a rotary
4. On a curved road to the right
5. When passing entrance/exit ramps from a freeway, with the right hand mirror, I can view the ramps to my right, and stay wide of them, while watching upcoming traffic on my left, all while almost continuously looking straight ahead
6. When the sun is directly behind, usually one mirror can be positioned away from the glare of the sun.
As a corollary, this morning (2/5/18) at about 7:30 to 7:45 AM on mysouthbound commute, the bright, low-lying Winter morning sun was directly at the level of my left hand rearview mirror, and the sun glare made it difficult to get a fix on that mirror. My right hand, west side mirror was free of glare, with a good rearward view.
That was auspicious because on my otherwise straight 14-mile southbound ride, during that interval I had to proceed from the right side of the road to make three left hand turns,and on two occasions I was closely followed by trucks...
...In particular though, I rode about 4 miles this morning (2/27) at 13 ͦ F without discomfort. On my ride, I noted these two seemingly February-specific phenomena that I might consider harbingers of Spring:
this morning [2/5/18, and 7:30 AM, 2/27/19] at about 7:30 to 7:45 AM on my southbound commute, the bright, low-lying Winter morning sun was directly at the level of my left hand rearview mirror, and the sun glare made it difficult to get a fix on that mirror.
Last edited by Jim from Boston; 03-27-19 at 06:58 PM.
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