Should be pretty straight forward here folks… If you want to walk out into the street, it doesn’t hurt to look before you do so. I had an interesting experience today while cycling along the shoulder on North Street. A woman attempted to get into a vehicle that was in line at a red light. I had no warning at all. She just walked out in front of me as if I wasn’t even there. If she had looked she would have seen me coming and might not have been struck down to the ground in the rain. I’ve never ran down a pedestrian before but it was pretty comical after I found out she was alright and not injured. She seemed upset but not sure how to put the blame on me. This could have been a much worse scenario for me had she been exiting the vehicle instead of getting into it. I like to call that scenario the “Door Prize.” It is quite scary to cycle alongside stopped cars for that reason. Usually I’m looking for people opening doors and getting out of cars without looking, so running down a pedestrian stepping off the sidewalk was a new one for me. May we get some bike lanes painted Mr. Mayor? —Hell on Wheels
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2012.
people forget to look when it’s raining, it’s a fact.
However, I’ve been hit by a car and it hurts. I expect getting hit by a bike hurts too. Sucks that she ended up in a puddle but I guess the lesson is learned from both sides….hope the bike is okay.
yeah halifax sucks. we’re a little behind in the times. almost every other major city in canada has bike lanes painted, maybe not on every street, but on all major ones that get you from point a – point b. This city needs a makeover.
My boyfriend is HOOKED on that show!
op, you say she didn’t look. i say you didn’t look.
all i gotta say is that some people are just like fucking lemmings.
Lemmings are very intelligent, your opinion is based on a fabricated situation that had the flock run of a cliff. Please leave Lemmings alone and make fun of Cows. They’re stupid.
sheep are stupider
A simple Google search consisting of “are cows stupider then sheep” proved sheeps are in fact stupider. Point taken. Make fun of sheep, not lemmings or cows.
fairly harmless unless they are following the leader. true story
Now for a comment directed to the OB. I fully support bike lanes and don’t understand why there arn’t more in this city. But even if one was there for the situation you encountered that person would still have walked directly in front of you. I’m glad she got wet though, hopefully learned a valuable lesson.
Really, the way i see it is there was no bike lane, then you are supposed to follow the rules of the road and NOT pass on the right hand side even if the car was stopped in the middle of the road!!!
Well bitch readers, someone has sent a massive pizza order to my apartment and the company has acknowledged that they didn’t have my home phone number and I have proved that I never dialed the number from my cell so who ever it was can fell great about costing a pizza business money (I’ve got no cash right now). Nice work great “prank”. The driver and cook would loove to know who you are. There isn’t even a sense of humor for it.
Dept of Homeland Security strikes again.
Ahhhhh OB …. just getting my breath back… very funny, I really enjoyed yer comment about how “she seemed upset but not sure how to put the blame on you” L L L L L L O L
Of course you are responsible for her stupidity ~:)
A frustrating situation, for sure, since it could have been avoided. I will never understand why a person wouldn’t look to ensure their safety when stepping out into a motorway! But painted lines don’t always help.
In Ottawa, one particularly popular street for crossing the city got it’s very own segregated bike lane next to the sidewalk, so that there’s a line of parked cars (and a high curb) between the cyclist and the moving cars. So now we avoid the danger of moving cars (except when the moving car is trying to pull into a driveway, and can’t see the cyclist over the parked cars), but we have the added danger of passenger side doors, pedestrians standing, and joggers, rollerbladers, and motorized wheelchairs, most of which seem to think this lane is their own private scenic route.
Bottom line, everyone needs to pay just a little more attention to what’s going on outside of their own bubble, especially when one’s health and personal comfort is at stake.
(Btw, it’s perfectly acceptable for a bike to proceed to the right of stopped cars. Cyclists may take up the lane as a car if there is a safety hazard that doesn’t give them enough room for a them and a car to pass. Basically, if a cyclist can’t go fast enough to stay with the flow of traffic, they should be as far right as is safe.)
Actually, cloggeddrip, the Motor Vehicle Act specifically and explicitly permits cyclists to pass on the right of stopped traffic. Just sayin’.