Runners and bicycles...

Last Monday, November 9th, I was running my normal route at around 5:30 in the morning.


It's a dark road, which doesn't worry me much, since I run with a reflector and since it's dark, I can easily see cars at that hour.


I was running with traffic on a pretty busy street that has a yellow divider line, just about to pass my neighbor's house for mile 2 of my 10 mile run.


My neighbor had a bunch of branches and leaves in his gutter, so I thought it might be a good time to switch street sides and go from right to left in preparation for a left turn about a quarter of a mile up the road.


I glanced quickly over my left shoulder, didn't see anything, didn't hear anything (although my ears have been congested lately) and veered left.


Just then, I heard someone yelling "yo yo yo". It was a man, whom I've seen before, peddling an old bicycle on his way to work on Church Road. His bike didn't have a headlight, which probably explains why he didn't see me or my reflector--that particular section of the street is without lights.


He veered a bit to his left, and flew by me---a very close call.


I yelled out "sorry"---it was more my fault than his. I had veered directly into his path. I'm glad he was paying attention and took diversionary tactics, or I would have been struck by his bike.


I thought about it a bit during the week and figured it would have been a minor collision. But considering that Force = Mass x Acceleration, and he and the bike probably weighed about 250 pounds versus my 150, and he was going 25MPH, it could have been a very bad collision. Most likely I would have wound up in the Emergency Room of Cooper University Hospital again (see my November 6, 2008 post regarding my broken nose).

Today's Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer has an article about bicyclists and pedestrian collisions. During the last year, 2 pedestrians have been killed and a jogger seriously injured in collisions. It's a growing problem with the number of bikers increasing, and in many cases, violating traffic regulations by riding on pavements, against traffic, and through lights and stop signs. Here's the link if you would like to read more...

http://bit.ly/1bTzOS

All I can say is that tomorrow, when I venture out on my dark, mooring run, I'll be looking out for my friend on the bicycle.