 |
| Truck goes into hole, 1931; Boston Public Library |
No one likes potholes. These fractures caused by water and weather are a bane of the road, tripping up unsuspecting tires. While to drivers, potholes are an annoyance, they are far more dangerous for bicyclists. Moving on two wheels instead of four means that it's far easier to get unbalanced-- something any 10-year-old learning how to ride a bike would tell you.
Hitting a pothole on a bike is always a jarring experience. And further, if you hit a big one, your front wheel could get stuck in the pothole while you, the rider, continue on at velocity off the bicycle. This happened to me. I was going a bit too fast on a Friday after work in the Chinatown area of downtown Boston.
Chinatown is a minefield of potholes, and I had ridden down its streets often enough that I was familiar with the biggest ones. Maybe it was my joy at getting off work for the week, or a silly desire to look good biking fast in public. But whatever the reason, I totally forgot about the grandpappy of potholes in the middle of one of the intersections. I saw it with too little time to swerve out of the way or even try to pop the front wheel over it. The front wheel stuck firmly in the pothole and I went flying.
Thankfully, very thankfully, there were no cars around. The people on the sidewalk helped move my bike to the side as I shakily scooted on my butt off the street. My dignity was gone but I didn't care. In addition, I had managed to crash a block away from a hospital downtown. An off-duty doctor and nurse couple materialized in front of me and checked me out. I was ok and my bike was ok.
Here are a couple pointers for avoiding the pothole:
- Bike carefully. Know your limits, and don't bike at a speed that you aren't in complete control.
- When biking behind a car, don't follow too closely. Give yourself a good distance that will give you enough buffer time to steer out of the path of a pothole or other hindrance.
