Ducking the Right Hook

"An accident so common it has a name..."

Another great commute to work this morning; clear weather, strong legs and no headwind. Unfortunately, my happy Monday morning mood was broken by a somnolent lady in a battleship-grey RAV4 who made a right turn into a driveway.

Directly toward me.

I've developed a paranoid, look-over-my-left-shoulder twitch that has kept me safe from quite a few situations like this. Due to my quick right turn (to parallel Ms. RAV4's direction of travel) and her slamming on the brakes, we both avoided an unpleasant discussion.

In today's traffic adventure, I was nowhere near an intersection. But the "Right Hook" seems to be most common at green lights. Portland, Washington has recognized this problem and taken action. My strategy at traffic lights is to get as far out in front as possible to make myself visible. And to get a head start on crossing in front of the impatient right-turners.

Be safe and friendly out there, ya'll.

Amateurs talk tactics, professionals study logistics

Any successful bicycle commuter has to carefully plan out his supply lines and sustainment plan. Like a sherpa working toward the summit, he has to establish a base camp, intermediate camps, and supply caches along the way, without overloading himself during the uphill climbs. He can't just pile stuff in the trunk of his car, so he needs to carefully think out in advance what items must be carried on the daily commute, what items can be stored at work, and how to adjust for unplanned contingencies. Since I work in the logistics field, I thought that I would share some of my success factors:

• Like the proprietress of Girl Cycling, I'm a big proponent of my camelbak. Hydration and cargo, all in one convenient, retroreflective package. Yay.
• I'm fortunate to live in sunny Southern California so that my clothing requirements are simple; no raingear, and minimal outerwear, even during the winter months.
• I stage multiple sets of work clothing at the office, and store extra underwear, socks etc. in my locker. Gotta have fresh undies.
• Cycling clothing gets aired out during the workday so that I have a comfortable, mostly dry ride home.
• I never carry a laptop back and forth to work. I'm fortunate enough to be able to synch my important data to a thumb drive.
• Finally, I rely on a solid, repeatable routine. Same stuff goes in the same pockets of the camelback. Same route to work so that I know when to leave and how long it will take. Same sequence of storing bike, helmet, shoes, gloves. Same files and folders synched to the thumb drive so that I can take work home.

I sure love commuting on the skinny tires, and I'm not the only one. I love the multi-tasking feeling of having gotten 17 miles of exercise before my work day starts, without a time-consuming side trip to the gym. But it does take some planning.