plittle2005

I ride almost exclusively on bike paths, avg speed limited to about 10 mph due to pedestrians and obstacles.

In August 2018, I just bought a Montague Fit, moving up from a 20" folder. Took it for my 1st ride, on a bike path, was making a loop through a school parking lot just out of curiosity, no moving vehicles around, was gawking at the scenery and suddenly was thrown on the asphalt, face-planting, breaking my neck and nose, and bruising ribs! Hurt like hell!! Crushed the front of my helmet, lots of road rash. Then had to ride home!

I had tripped over a speed bump that I just hadn't seen. Fault was all mine, should have been more observant.

Been riding on a trainer stand since, due to winter. Can't wait to get outside again.

Just goes to show ya.....even though your mother said don't play in traffic, accidents do happen!

JoeyBike

Don't feel alone.

I was cycling home from work during some minor flooding. Cutting across an empty college parking lot I hit an underwater concrete parking lot wheel-stop. Ate sheet bad, water didn't break my fall much, landed on another concrete wheel-stop. Didn't break anything but I hurt for a week.

Always nice to get filthy flood water in fresh abrasions as well.

DocJohn

I recently gave up skydiving after 40 years and 4,000 jumps. I spend more time road biking now. I actually feel like I'm in more danger now than I was skydiving. Danger to me depends on the number of factors out of your control. I can't control drivers who are texting and may kill me. But rather than stop biking because of the potential danger, I lessen the danger factor by using roads with less traffic and wider shoulders, riding in groups when possible, checking my mirror often, not using ear buds or playing music, wearing bright colored jerseys, etc.

Enjoy life, take reasonable precautions.

rumrunn6

I know! I heard him throwing rocks in the water riding the same place at night! super creepy!

AlmostTrick

Well, that does it. I'm re-convinced that cycling on the road is dangerous. For my new years resolution I vow to check this thread for wise information regarding risks and safety tips before I head out on the bike every day.

JoeyBike

Like allowing a total stranger to pack your chute while checking their Twitter feed? Road cycling does put your life in the hands of distracted strangers as a rule.

AlmostTrick

What about swimming with sharks? Some folks like to compare cycling in traffic to swimming with sharks. Is that safer than cycling too?

KraneXL

On the other hand, is not the presumption of control an illusion?

Daniel4

One would like to think that drivers are civilized human beings with reasoning and logic instead of wild animals out to hunt for prey.

Maelochs

And still I ride in traffic all the time and never get killed. What am I doing wrong?

livedarklions

I used to ride on Magazine Street all the time. It was a bit unavoidable as I lived on it.

I did, however, know it was the street you were talking about even before you named it.

jon c. 

I lived there 40 years ago. I lived on Camp St. for a time, but avoided riding on Magazine.

JoeyBike

My wife and i go to Magazine many times a year, day and night. We often get window seats in restaurants, and we enjoy walking so I have a nice, relaxed position to observe the clueless behavior there. I do sometimes see some savvy person hitting it hard keeping up with traffic, or staying ahead of them. 99% of them are just armadillos meandering on the roadway waiting for that vehicle grill with their name on it.

BTW...two of my friends who both work at bike shops had fiances smacked on Magazine so hard they never rode a bike again. One was taking the lane, dead stopped, waiting for traffic to go by so she could make a left turn. Motorist on the phone drug just steam-rolled her without even touching the brakes. I can't remember the details of the other woman except she gave up cycling as well.

The point here: Many, many people do things without any thought of safety or consequences. They just go through life cloud-gathering and falling off cliffs. Telling them that cycling on Magazine street is similar danger to walking down a staircase or taking a shower is just irresponsible.

AlmostTrick

It’s nice to hear that even Joey believes that it’s possible to ride even the most deadly magazine street with some fashion of "savvy." (and therefore safety)

When I read of "death" roads/towns/states on BF it often makes me wish I could instantly transport myself to the location in question and ride back and forth with on board cameras mounted just to demonstrate the actual or imagined risk. This ain't combat, sky diving, or swimming with sharks kids.

JoeyBike

Yep, all streets are created equal! So off you go now!

I'm getting tired of responding to trolls.

AlmostTrick

Who said that?

Just like most everyone who posted here, I too take steps to reduce my risk of becoming a meat lovers road pizza. Including picking and choosing routes. This doesn't mean I can't still believe that the risks of cycling in traffic is often over exaggerated. Even on a cycling forum!

Com'on don't give up now, Joey!

livedarklions

Like I said above, I didn't have any problem identifying the street Joey was talking about even before he named it. It's an incredibly narrow street for the amount of traffic on it, with parking on both sides of the street. It's really quite the obstacle course.

Oh, and Google Maps is your friend:
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.9205...7i13312!8i6656

jon c. 

And as Joey noted earlier, there isn't any reason to ride the street. There are safer parallel streets.

Strangest thing I ever saw on Magazine street was a small plane landing on a cross street. The plane was equipped for water landings and the pilot had engine trouble and was trying to get to the river. Came down on Washington, somehow dropping in between the trees and crossed Magazine, fortunately having the green light. The ends of the wings were clipped off as they hit parked cars, which themselves of suffered some damage, but no one was injured and the damage was amazingly minimal. The fuselage of the plane remained intact and the pilot climbed out unscathed. And all this happened about 5:30 pm, so the street was very crowded. There is danger everywhere, but sometimes everyone gets lucky.

JoeyBike

I try not to worry about meteor strikes and plane crashes too much but I admit, as vigilant as I am on a bicycle in traffic, I don't really look UP very much.

Rollfast

Google is always at least 1/2 block or more off the target for me. I learned to use Street View and guess.

livedarklions

And as I said before, I actually lived on Magazine Street, so riding on it at least a little was unavoidable. The google maps picture I linked to was approximately where I lived.

mr_bill

Camp has lots and lots of stop signs and the confounding jog at Joseph.
Constance has lots of stop signs, is one way, and Poydras Home is in the way.

Two blocks away is Chestnut which isn't a chestnut, and Laurel is one way (other way) too.


Then again, there's Magazine in the CBD, a totally different kind of road. Is that an approved road, or not? Are the approved alternatives Tchoupitoulas or St. Charles (eek, street car tracks of death!)?

And I've lost track, is Audubon a haven for people on bikes, or another of the scary places.

Magazine Street Hit and Run - 50 hours community service and $250 payment.

-mr. bill

JoeyBike

Precisely why people driving cars avoid those streets, unless they live on them and only travel one block to get to the house. I don't stop for stop signs anyway, unless something is coming and I have to grant them right of way. And no traffic signals! I can make better time on the back streets unless I felt like honking along at 20+ on Magazine, then stopping at every confounded red light.

I call those back streets the "C" streets. Camp, Chestnut, and Coliseum. I really like Perrier Street that starts near Touro Hospital and goes to Audubon Park. Except for one block Perrier is a rare two-way street.

So did you bike the entire length of Magazine "because you live on it" or did you take a back street and avoid Magazine except for that one block you lived on? I'm guessing you avoided it when you could but I don't know for sure.

mr_bill

This guy is in grave danger. (According to spoke critics.)

-mr. bill

livedarklions

I'm a little fuzzy on it because it's been 33 years since I lived there, but as I recall, it would depend on the time of day. It was not a fashionable part of town back in those days, and there wasn't a lot of traffic at night. I worked rotating shifts at Children's Hospital, and I know I generally took the C streets most of the way most of the time. I vaguely remember that some of the C streets tended to fog up in the early morning, so I didn't feel like I was gaining a lot of safety riding on them.

But yeah, if I was going from home on a relatively short hop to a Magazine Street destination (which was often) I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid it.