There were quite a few days of climbs, heat and distance this past week. So today was a day to recharge my body and energy as well as some maintenance on the bicycle. Some random thoughts thinking back on those days.
I understand the need for rumble strips – help out distracted and tired drivers. But couldn’t placement be a little more shoulder use friendly. This placement pretty much forces a bicycle to be very close to the flow of traffic. There have been shoulders 3-4′ wide only to be narrowed down to 1-2′ by rumble strips. Maybe DOTs (Dept of Transportations) need to redo some guidelines to keep rumble strips within 3″ of the white line. It really becomes interesting when there have been two or three overlays with the old rumble strips not visible but still causing a rumble. Why not re-rumble the same place at least. Multiple rumble strip locations on the same shoulder just about force the cyclist to the left of the white line. It would also be great if the rumble maker didn’t put so much Kahlua in their morning coffee. It would sure at least keep the rumble strips straight.
Horn toots. When I hear a quiet beep-beep or beep-beep-beep, I can usually guess it is a person say “Hi, good for you” and we’ll even at times wave to each other. But when it is a long beeeeeep, it will more often than not cause me to jerk a little wondering if I’m about to be hit. I only hope the long beeper isn’t trying to say “Hi”. My guess is it is more a message of “Get off my road!”
Yes, I know this day’s blog is a bit late. But I wanted to keep days consecutive.