Lost, and Found Again

Brand New Pearl Izumi "Ride Thermal Lite" Gloves with Decade-Old Gloves a Saint Returned and my Orange Hat
While the Orange Hat is "Just a Hat," its Color Probably Helped Find the Gloves

Nearly ten years ago, in a post, here, I related how I bought a pair of good winter cycling gloves (Pearl Izumi Softshell Gloves) at a bargain price at the Hotter 'N Hell 100. Unlike the shoe covers I also reported on at that time, I've gotten almost constant use out of the gloves in colder weather. They're good from about 25 degrees (-4C for any Canadian friends that use French temperature units) up to about 55 (13C). Outside that range and things are either a bit chilly or a little sweaty. For $15 gloves (they sell for about $60 on Amazon), they have proved exceptionally durable and versatile. While they no longer look new, they remain in good overall shape, with only a some of the extraneous rubber non-slip dots falling off through the years. The gloves are a size too big, which turns out to be perfect, since they're easier to get on and off; pretty much mandatory at coffee stops.

Well, they WERE until all this Coronavirus stuff cropped up. You see, as things started to ramp up (while the NYC Mayor was still working out at his local YMCA), people got confused. Even I, grumpy as I sometimes am, elected to purchase groceries for an entire week rather than my usual every-couple of days routine. Well, to make a long story short, that entailed using a shopping cart, and I left my cherished gloves behind, along with an orange hat I frequently use to keep my head warm.

I rode back to see if I could find them, or if they'd been turned in. Alas, I was out of luck. I even looked in the store garbage can in case someone had taken it on themselves to dispose of items that might be contaminated. No luck there, either. Sigh.

Later, at home, I was resigned to purchasing another pair as much like the originals as I could find. I was somewhat dismayed to find the "non summer HH100 price" was $60. In an attempt to be frugal, I bought a pair of lighter gloves, figuring I could always use a liner with them. The cheaper Pearl Izumi gloves were still $20, and, as we will find later, work more in the 50-60 degree range.

The day after the new gloves arrived, I inquired one more time at the grocery store lost and found. Hallelujah! They had them and the mention of the orange hat helped them pick them out of the pile. For the remainder of my ride home, I put those new gloves in the pouch of my hoodie and thought kind thoughts towards every one and every thing. What can I say, I'm not grumpy all the time.

Still, the new gloves were not a waste of money. They do work in the warmer ranges of what we see in Ocean Shores, Washington. Now that we're headed towards May, I can see myself using them frequently. They are called "Pearl Izumi - Ride Thermal Lite Glove" and the blurb on Amazon claims "A top seller, these lightweight unisex gloves are ideal on their own when the weather gets cool. Or use them as liners under our P.R.O. Barrier WxB Gloves in truly cold temperatures." More importantly, the new gloves gave me hope for a brief period that Pearl Izumi made good "not quite so cold" gloves.

Well, they certainly ARE lightweight, but there is no noticable insulation on them. They're just another pair of non-waterproof, full-finger cycling gloves. While I've not tried it yet, they might work well as liners for my softshell gloves for those rare "really cold" Ocean Shores or North Texas mornings. We shall see. OTHO, such mornings also seem to work well with ski gloves.

Sometimes They Act Like Jerks, Sometimes they Don't

One principle of staying safe as a cyclist, or as any sort of road user, is to keep your eyes and brain engaged. Last week, I was cycling along in Aberdeen, Washington. Suddenly, a lady ran a stop sign (there was no stop sign for me) without slowing and cut me off. Momentarily forgetting it wasn't a teachable moment, I yelled out the obvious as she zoomed by: "Hey, you just ran a stop sign!"

A few blocks later, another lady came up to her stop sign and I was able to proceed without any danger of impact. I waved at this second lady. The situations coming up to the intersection were pretty much identical in both situations. As the title says...

It was a fairly low stress reminder why you do not ride on autopilot. It is also a reminder of how cycling is fun and safe if you simply pay attention. I'd probably have been going ten MPH faster had I been motoring and avoiding the first collision might have been much more dramatic.

Down the Slot

This Road Encourages Faster Riding

Monday, I encountered the conditions in the photo above upon departing from a coffee store of a major chain based in Seattle. Up UNTIL Monday, this was an exceptionally pleasant street to cycle on. It has four lanes, traffic isn't particularly heavy, and the pavement is smooth.

Monday, I rode down the right lane, as usual, in "the line of sweetness." However, it just wasn't the same. While I didn't delay any motorists as much as a single second, at THE OTHER END of this stretch, "the slot," so to speak, my heart rate was noticeably higher than when I usually commute. When riding to work, I rarely try to ride full speed, but rather "comfortably fast" in order to get there quickly without saving those last couple of minutes. If more roads were like this, I'd be in better aerobic condition because this road not only makes passing impossible, but there aren't many places to pull over. "The slot," other than the short stretch in the foreground is level to slightly uphill, and in contrast to last summer's construction, I ride this stretch at rush hour on a weekday. It might just be coincidence, but this is the same jurisdiction. Unlike the previous "slot," there are more decent alternate routes, which mainly make this an irritating road condition rather than a serious conflict situation.

Tuesday and Wednesday, I took advantage of the short commute and local knowledge to avoid all this nonsense and ride a quarter mile further. I thought about calling Bedford to complain about the lack of consideration for cyclists this construction lane marking showed. However, I think they simply wouldn't have understood, even if they cared. Even a lower speed limit would have sufficed. If, instead, they'd simply turned the street into two bike lanes and no car lanes, what do you imagine the motorist reaction would have been? They COULD have suggested a lower speed limit while the construction was ongoing. All they would have had to do is turn on the "school zone" flashing lights and advise people to go slow in the construction zone.
 

No Phone Number on the Contractor's Sign for Anyone that Might Think They Could Have Done Better

Waddle Waddle Pass on the Right - Or Not

The very first post I ever made on this blog; "Duty, Obligation, Courtesy," concerned much the same topic as I treat today. However, this time I actually made some photos to illustrate the principle, and this time the motor vehicle in question got treated a tad shabbier. I imagine a few readers have dealt with similar situations (or their mirror image), and some have not. Anyway, here's the story.

Typically, when stopping at a signalized intersection, or an all-way stop, I will stop roughly in the lane position as shown in the first photo below (we're talking about a "narrow" lane, meaning one that is under 14 feet wide in Texas). I stop there, rather than a position more to the right because any motorist coming up behind me is in ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT that my intent is to proceed straight through the intersection when the light turns green. If it is a 4-way stop, it reduces the temptation to pass me while I slow to a stop for the sign (who says it is only cyclists that blow stop signs?).


Where I Stop if I'm Proceeding Straight

On occasion, a motorist comes up behind me while I am stopped as indicated above. Sometimes, the following motorist will intend to make a right turn at the intersection. Sometimes, the motorist was simply not paying attention and failed to change lanes so he/she could accelerate ahead of the annoying cyclist when the light turned green. The clever and smart ones take advantage of the government-legislated equipment in their motor vehicle and actually signal a right turn. THOSE ONES get the full deluxe treatment, as documented in my very first post. They usually even get a "come on" wave, despite my now conflicted emotions about encouraging what may technically be illegal behavior by my motorists. Heck, the conflict is pretty small. A motorist that comes up behind me and actually has his/her RT signal on gets the full waddle waddle movement of my bike to the left, followed by a little "come on and make your turn" wave.

While passing on the right within a lane may or may not be legal for a motorist in Texas, and it CERTAINLY would be illegal if Texas had a three foot passing law, but it is perfectly safe for us both, even if there were only a few INCHES of clearance because I can always sketch over a tad more if needed. This is one of the problems I have with such a "feel good" law. It doesn't cover the variety of situations we all encounter in the real world. After these encounters, I have almost invariably gotten a "thanks" wave from the motorist as he/she makes the free right turn. We both know the situation. I figure the next cyclist that motorist encounters will get just a tiny amount of extra courtesy in return. Certainly, the next cyclist is not likely to be harassed by the motorist. Even if the motorist was clueless, the others stopping saw and registered a cyclist being courteous to a motorist. Or so I'd prefer to believe. While this may not be the "respectful level of political discourse" that the LAB and left-wing politicians ask us to engage in, it's at least a tangible contribution to more harmonious road usage by cyclists AND motorists.

Anyway, not to belabor the point any futher, I have a "illegal pass on the right wave policy." Specifically, I encourage the motorist to move forward if they have clearly made his/her intent known by signalling. If the motorist doesn't signal, I still will go "waddle waddle" over to the position indicated by the second photo, but I don't wave them forward unless I actually see a signal. Today, I didn't see a signal from the SUV so I didn't wave after the "waddle waddle." But it still inspired me to stop at a place where I could get a couple of shots to illustrate the situation without getting traffic all messed up.



Two Waddles Get Me From Stop Position to
"Come Forward and Make Your RT" Invitation Position

PS: In case you were wondering; the motorist in the bottom photo did wonder what the heck the crazy cyclist was doing parking his bike in the right lane at a stop sign and taking pictures. I waved nicely and got my bike the heck over to the side of the road to remove that conflict in the motorist's mind. One must admit that it is not every day that there's a bike without anybody aboard "blocking progress." BTW, there were no geese harmed in the making of this post and no honking, either...

Anonymous Points

Anonymous said...
Your position in the left-turn lane was a pretty effective signal in and of itself. Extending your left arm for the entire 8 seconds is not necessary (though it is a good idea to make that signal a couple of times.)

If someone waves me on, AND IT IS CLEARLY OTHERWISE SAFE, I graciously accept their courtesy. Rejecting courtesy for the sake of a stand on principle is also discourteous. The other guy doesn't understand my principle, all he knows is that he was trying to be nice and here this jerk is throwing it back in his face. So... I'm careful about that.

Item 1 - ME BAD! Without realizing it, I misled my loyal reader due to flatulent writing. In truth, the road south of FM1709 (facing toward the photo) is a simple two laner. The so-called "left turn lane" really isn't. It is ACTUALLY me being right next to the center lane so that any overtaking right turning traffic can do so while I wait for the light to change. Sloppily, I wrote as if being right next to the center line is a left turn indication rather than just being the smart place for a through/left turning cyclist to be. REGARDLESS, Anonymous made a luscious point, that being the protocol of a precise, but not tiring, left turn arm signal. If I understand him/her properly, I normally do pretty much the same; I hang my left arm out when pulling up to the stop, then I signal again periodically just so people remember I plan to turn left, and then I really hang the arm out again when I see the light is getting ready to go green so even those with really short memories know I'm planning on a left.
 
Item 2 - Anonymous makes a valid point, and PART of me agrees entirely with him/her. OTOH, insisting on giving up your accepted place in the traffic interaction in favor of someone who clearly intends to follow the regular rules is a bit discourteous as well. Who is worse, the one who insists on violating the rules to be "nice" or the one that insists on following the rules so that everyone moves along and gets along. That is part of the quandry I wrote about - the fine line before the cyclist acquires an offensive "chip.' It's also why I finally went, after making the point that "it's YOUR turn, go!" FWIW, there was enough other stuff going about (including crossing guards), that me going was not risk free, which the oncoming "nice" drivers probably did not notice, but I sure did.
 
THIS is why I tweaked my blog preferences to allow anonymous comments with captchas. Sometimes, the anonymous commenters give the rest of us things to ponder. Thanks!