Alas, a lot of local police agencies blow off anything that happens on the road as a "traffic incident". Even when there's criminal negligence, or possibly even intent, what would be considered a crime when done with a basebal bat or a gun magically becomes an "infraction" when done with a motor vehicle. Obviously a culture that has to change, but LEOs sometimes need to be reminded that injuring someone in a crash, then leaving the scene, is indeed a crime.

Sounds like the on-base cops are up for a CSI-esque challenge in this case, however.

It was either another thread here in Commuting, or over in the Winter section, someone posted an Amazon link to a $50-ish GoPro knock-off. Probably pretty low quality, but at least no worries about losing or ruining a $$$'y camera.

Good. Bike needed some love as it had been sitting outside in the rain for a week or so without usage :/

65F at 6am today. Warming to 77F, despite being overcast this morning. I wore shorts and short sleeve t-shirt for the first time on a morning commute since fall. Pretty windy too.

Advantage definitely went to the cyclist today at one "T" intersection. First 2 of about 5 cars were turning left. I wanted to turn right. I filtered up to just behind the front car where I could watch the traffic. A good, open break and off I went as everyone else still waited for the guy trying to turn left. #winning

those of you up north will be hating this but it was 59F and humid. I wore shorts and a long sleeve jersey but it wasn't really needed. It was a great ride. Roads were wet from rain overnight. Thank goodness for fenders!


oh yeah I saw a person go the wrong way on the round- a -bout

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9c01c5dada.jpg

they turned left instead of going around the circle. #wheredopeoplelearntodrive

Melt over the weekend / Monday released a LOT of moisture into the air, then the temps dropped to the 20s/10sF Tuesday and yesterday. So two days of freezing rain/drizzle. Plus, the snow had a chance to melt and drain partly, but the rest re-froze. Minimal ice on the MUPs and main road lanes, but lots of ice in the corners and near the curbs. The studs did their thing. Last night, more freezing rain, that's been accumulating as ice on all the paved surfaces. Some of the car commuters at the office are choosing to telecommute today; I'll prob. take the bus.

This has got to go down as one of the weirdest winters weather-wise in a long time.

India, Japan, Thailand, Ireland, UK, BVI, and the Bahamas come to mind where I've experienced it.

this is North Carolina in the USA

I should say that I only note that because I ****ed up and drove the wrong way (right side of the road like in the US as I spent 15 years driving there) around a roundabout in the UK recently (a double mini-roundabout), which does have on occasion when my brain goes into relaxed mode and there are no cars around.

Right here in fact:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Te...613!4d-1.09447

I'm aware of that but your question was open for interpretation and I was reminding you that it could've been someone that learned to drive somewhere. Especially in the RTP area there are shedloads of foreigners due to international pharma/biotech firms offering an easy transition to America.

oops. it's seems that I have confused The Triad with RTP.

please excuse my confusion.

Mid-60s here, too. Like @mgw4jc I celebrated this last day of spring-in-February by riding in wearing shorts and short sleeves. Cloudy except for a clear spot over to the west, so I could watch the sun ... well, I could see the sky over there get lighter as the sun came up. As if it weren't warm and humid enough, I was riding against a south wind bring even more warm Gulf moisture up before the cold front comes in tonight -- weather service is predicting a 45 degree drop overnight. (I hope we can skip the tornados that often brings!)

Strangely enough I haven't heard the spring peepers yet. Maybe tonight?

Kind of a sucky morning. -1F with a 20 mph headwind (-24F wind chill.) About four inches of fresh snow on the ground and still falling. The wind is blowing it everywhere causing complete white-outs at times. And that wonderful layer of ice is still hiding under the snow waiting to take you down when you least expect it.

Our new school superintendent is a lot more liberal about calling snow days than any of the previous ones we've had. He cancelled school today. Unfortunately for the rest of the world life goes on and businesses and offices are open, so I had to go in.

As the snow is still falling, the plows hadn't run anywhere but the main roads. I changed my route thinking that if I ride the plowed roads it would make my life easier. Well, it did make it easier in that I didn't have to ride through as much unplowed snow. It didn't make it easier as now I was sharing the road with every other vehicle who also changed their route so that they didn't have to drive through unplowed snow. Plus this route is a LOT hillier. Add to that that I'm still not feeling that great and I was barely poking up hills while traffic backed up behind me.

After a mile and a half of that I threw in the towel and hit a bus stop. Thankfully the bus came along just a couple minutes after I started waiting. I did have an "uh-oh" moment when the bike rack on the front of the bus wouldn't release to fold down. It had frozen in place. The driver gave me a shrug indicating he didn't know what to do. For a moment I thought I may have to just suck it up and ride the whole way when I have one last-ditch monster tug and the thing broke loose.

I know we're not supposed to talk to the driver while the bus is moving, but he was really intrigued by my bar mitts. He'd never seen those before and was asking me questions about them while we drove.

At the downtown station I pulled the bike off the rack and rode another 1/2 mile to the client location. The downtown roads were in pretty bad shape so I was sliding all over the place and had to ride my granny gear the whole time.

The snow is supposed to quit this morning. I'm hoping they'll have the MUP cleaned off for my ride home tonight. At the least I should have a tail wind.

More visibility is always better but don't be lulled into a sense of invulnerability. I was hit at an mup intersection crossing in November, the driver on one side stopped the other didn't. As a friend of mine commented, "you're lit up like Las Vegas!" I've also thought about a camera and immediately realize it's more hassle than I want to mess with. FWIW, there are a bunch of GoPro knockoffs on Amazon for around $50. I've used several for auto racing including ApeMan.

It is excused :) even if they were from somewhere else the huge arrows and sign pointing to go to the right should be enough of a clue to figure it out.

I never under traffic circles/roundabouts when I lived in the US as they're tedious.

After living in the UK, they actually make a huge amount of sense as the traffic density is ridiculous in the southeast and they actually work quite well. Also, you're almost never alone when driving, so it's hard to go the wrong way. I do get confused if I happen to be alone with the small ones in parking lots like in google maps above, as there aren't always signs over here (or they're broken off.)

I grew up in Washington DC, where there are a lot of traffic circles, many of them going back to the original design of the city, before cars (or even bicycles), but they all have unique traffic patterns. Some of them make a lot of sense, but others do not. The one I learned first was Chevy Chase Circle, so naturally the way Chevy Chase Circle runs is the way I think a traffic circle should run. Occasionally a bewildered tourist would get stuck in it, and be forced to drive around many times trying to figure out how to exit at the right street. Good times. I actually like the fact that they're becoming common now.

But I digress. My commute today did not involve any traffic circles, just very light rain, which I ignored. It's been warm lately, so the saturated surface of the ground has thawed, leaving a nice squishy layer of mud, but just below that is frozen solid.

16F, sunny. Got aggressively honked at by a jerk. That hasn't happened for years and years.

Chilly, damp, and breezy. Gross. My bones were cold by the time I got to work. I'm glad I brought my space heater in and put it under my desk, it's like a little personal fireplace. My boss sets the office thermostat at 68, that's a little on the cool side for me.

So the ice was every bit as bad as I thought. Freezing rain was still falling this morning, immediately sticking to the existing ice layer. So this was my traction-enhanced commuting option for today:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9611d1677c.jpg
(Well, this plus a big Gillig bus....)

Freezing rain has continued on and off all day, so I reckon I'll be strapping them on for the walk to/from the bus on the way home.

(My boss just walked by on his way out, playing "Slip-sliding Away" by Paul Simon on his phone....)

Good but a little windy. Overall, a very nice ride in. Off to get my beard trimmed in a half hour or so! So, back on the bike!

Had a nice tailwind on the way home yesterday pushing me to a 17.5mph average for my 13 mile commute.

64F again and only needed shorts and short sleeve shirt. And 64 is the forecast high as it is supposed to drop all day. That usually means wind from the north, looking at maybe 14mph strength for a nice headwind on the way home tonight. I'm probably going to wish I had brought a pair of gloves for that ride.

With this morning's frosty -12F ride it's now officially been three years since the last time I drove to work. 698 consecutive bicycle commutes.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f9772a6242.jpg

After being off the bike for two days because of flat tires and heavy rain, back on the bike this morning 6.2 miles of commute + errand running in 22F weather.

58km/h wind it seems from 220deg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cfd960f05f.png

Riding home yesterday evening, I reached the towpath just as it was getting dark, I'd say the sun had set maybe 10-15 minutes earlier, and light was fading fast. Just as I turned onto the towpath I saw a critter swimming, not far but headed away from me, and it hadn't seen me yet. So I stopped and got out my phone to see if I could get a photo of it when I got closer. When I got closer, phone in hand, I saw that it was a small mammal, its back just out of the water. The whole animal was about a foot long, not counting its tail. I'd say it was black, but in the fading light just about everything was black and anyway, most animals look black when they're in the water. Before I could get close enough to get a photo, the beastie saw me, and disappeared with an impressive flick of its tail, making a splash almost a foot high. I waited, camera at the ready, but I did not see the little guy come up for air again. Sneaky.

So, needless to say, this isn't my photo... but I'm pretty sure it was a mink. I' saw a mink not far from there last year, so I know they're around.

http://www.johnsmyth.ie/blog/gallery...ck/mink-1a.jpg

70s in February
 

Been nice commuting this week, 60s-70s all week in southeast virginia, I'll take it! Haven't used the car since Monday

28F (warm!), gray, then it started to snow, about 8 hours earlier than it was supposed to.

So I guess today wouldn't be a good day to attempt to pedal a giant wing across La Manche, eh?

Mink, otter, maybe a fisher. Prob. too small to be a woodchuck. They must hibernate around here; we see a lot of them in the lakes/rivers/creeks around here, but only in fair weather.

"A terrestrial day-active animal, the woodchuck hibernates in snowy climes....."

Oh, the woodchucks are not hibernating. I saw one just the other day, and I have seen them at the canal. But I'm told they don't like to swim.

Otter is a good point. I think it was too small, but what do I know, light conditions were poor and I didn't get a good look. I've wondered about them, but not sure I've ever seen one (I think not). I don't think fishers come this far south.

We definitely have beavers in this part of the canal, I almost hit one last spring! I last saw the beaver in early December. Much much bigger, really another order of magnitude.

Whatever it was that I saw yesterday, I have to admit: I'm partial to mink! My wife has a stuffed one in her classroom, which was roadkill I found about 20 miles from where I saw the one yesterday.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2862/...ba11fecc_b.jpg