Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Let go and focus

Marine parachuting at Parris Island, S.C., Palmer, Alfred T., The Library of Congress

The most dangerous times on your bike commute might not be what you might expect. They're not the moments where a car abruptly makes a right turn in front of you, or a pedestrian on their headphones crosses in the middle of the road without looking. They aren't even the times when a fellow bicyclist blazes through the red light perpendicular to your green.

The most dangerous times are when you lose your focus.

In drivers ed, I had an instructor who really took to heart the purpose of the course. I don't remember his name, but he was probably a teacher either retired or off for the summer. He was an older man who carried himself with a hint of military background, and while kind, took his job very seriously. He corrected the small mistakes of all of us student drivers, and told us strategies to stay safe on the road.

The kernel of wisdom that has stayed embedded in my memory was where your eyes should be while driving. Not just on the road. He ingrained in me a habit of focusing on the road most of the time, but flicking your eyes to the rear and side mirrors every few seconds. This way you were able to monitor the area in your car's general vicinity. If a car came up behind you, you would know it was there, instead of realizing too late it was in your blind spot when you went to change lanes. Constant caution and awareness were the rule.

Try carrying that lesson on to your biking. You can mount a rearview mirror on your helmet or handlebars to increase your range of vision. While biking, try to look straight ahead with periodic glances to your sides and behind you. It will keep you safe and aware.

The caveat, of course, is to remain focused. If you get rushed or angry at some idiot (and sometimes that idiot might be yourself), it's harder to maintain that focus. It's telling that my own first bike crash was caused a moment where I was so excited to bike out of work on a Friday that I was going too fast and I forgot about the monster pothole that I'd passed numerous times before.

If a car door gets kicked open right in front of you, if a commercial truck cuts you off like a crazy person, you can't dwell on the "wrong" handed down to you. Holding on to anger, however justified it may seem, will only hurt yourself in the end.