There was more traffic this day as I had left work a bit earlier then normal. Anyway I was past the most difficult portions and was riding in front of some strip malls when this woman past me then turned off right in front of me. A car across the street witnessed this and honked. I say the car and veered right and grazed the edge of the car with my front tire. They drove on and I rode on. I could have followed them into the parking lot and confronted them or at least gotten the license plate but I just rode on. I was just starting the ride really so I had to get over it pretty fast and I did - I haven't really slowed down in my riding since including riding in traffic.
Yesterday I took the hilly and short route home as I wanted a more strenuous ride but I had to run errands when I got home and couldn't lose the time. Not far from my apartment there is a pedestrian activated crosswalk that allows easy access to the park I live next to. Riding past this island it became obvious that some had had driven onto the median hit the light stand then it look like they drove off. Now I didn't see the accident and it certainly is possible they were towed off, but who knows? But these two cases I think are just more evidence of the malignancy of our car culture. In the first case we see the all too common instance of a person who must pass the bicycle before the turn off the road. Cause you sure as hell couldn't just slow down for that turn wait a moment and then turn. In the second case, we don't know the circumstances but obviously a lack of something - attention, control, skill caused the driver to veer off and hit the pole hard enough to knock it down. Were they swerving to miss pedestrians crossing? There is a high possibility of this. Any of this cases just witness the damage caused by a large mass at a decent velocity that is a "right" for everyone to wield. Finally we can learn that in both of these cases it is the poor design of our suburbs for any but automobiles lead to these "accidents".
