Danger Zones

[rdp_au]

There are some places we ride through that are just plain dangerous. Busy roads, high speed traffic, multilane roundabouts, badly planned merges are all the things we know to avoid if at all possible. Even though it is none of those, and with due respect to the fine folk who live there, I’ve found Eastwood in Sydney to be a pretty potent danger zone. During my regular commuting trips, the highest concentration of erratic behaviour, foolishness, and plain bloody mindedness that I experience seems to be concentrated in the area in the general vicinity of Eastwood station. It’s not just motorists, but pedestrians and bike riders as well. Here’s a few recent examples;

Dark night, not raining, but roads wet. Outside the station entrance, a bike rides off the footpath between two parked cars and onto the road without looking, nearly collecting me. Bike was black, rider dressed in black. No lights, no helmet.

Another dark night, riding along a quiet (and relatively dark) street near the station and a pedestrian steps off the curb onto the road without looking. He was dark skinned, and dressed completely in black. Even with Ayups and fenex torch blazing, I didn’t see him until it was nearly too late.

Morning, good conditions. Car pulls up abruptly directly outside the station entrance to offload passengers. Not an unusual occurrence at that time of day, and I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve been passed by a car only to have them hook left straight in front of me to drop off passengers. But this driver made no attempt to pull over and chose to stop the middle of the road, completely blocking it while four passengers gathered all their gear and disembarked. This was just around a blind corner.

Another morning, also good conditions. Bus on the other side of the road moving slowly as it tries to get into the bus stop that is blocked by a car dropping off passengers. Car behind the bus pulls out onto the wrong side of the road (my side!) to pass, nearly collecting me and the car behind me. The driver did have the kindness to offer me a peace sign as he went past.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the drift. Needless to say, I’m on full alert heading through the area and always take it very easy.

[find_bruce]

Aww great, now I have Kenny Loggins in my head and visions of Tom Cruise cycling through Earlwood

[rdp_au]

Never thought of that. Now I'll be humming that through Eastwood..

[wombatK]

Eastwood ? I'm thinking more of this great movie one liner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOxGL5G8Pbk.

[jules21]

Aww great, now I have Kenny Loggins in my head and visions of Tom Cruise cycling through Earlwood

or the iceman...