Saturday, March 29, 2008

Benefits

The benefit of the doubt:
Unfortunately, Ms. White SUV will not be issued a citation. I won’t say I’m happy about it but I’m O.K. with it. I’m giving the benefit of the doubt to Officer Morris of the New Berlin Police Department. She handled the incident. She is also the officer who handled the first ticket I’ve successfully pursued.
After carefully reviewing the video, she couldn’t be sure that the distance between the SUV and me was less than 3 feet. I still disagree, but I’m giving Officer Morris the benefit of the doubt. I’m happy to do so because of the professional manner in which she handled this incident. I followed my wife’s advice and tried to see things from the other person’s point of view. I think Officer Morris did the same when I left her with some things to consider (the size of the mirror considerably lessens the distance that is evident on the video between the wheels and me.) should another incident like this present itself to her. I believe she will consider this point along with all the pertinent info as she did this time. She also believes that Ms. SUV will not make such a dangerous pass again. That is all I really wanted in the first place. Thanks Officer Morris, you are a good cop.

The benefit of the wind:
I missed the Ronsta ride on Saturday, so I went solo. I was hoping for a little benefit from the wind on the way back from my 76 mile out and back to Union Grove, but it wasn’t to be. It was a draw as far as the wind was concerned. I did get a little shelter from the wind when Russell and his band of merry men came by on 7 mile road. I became the caboose on their train for about a mile, then turned south for my solo headwind slog. It was a good ride, albeit a little slow, but hey it’s base miles, right?

The benefit of friends with good eyesight.
Or good memory I guess . It’s been so long since we’ve seen Ty and Christine, that they almost didn’t recognize us in the parking lot of Mayfair Mall. Christine did, and it turns out they were having dinner at the same place we were so we caught up on all the Alterra news and gossip. Great to see you guys.
P.s. It’s not only cars that don’t look out for bikes, a dumb deer almost got t-boned on Wednesday. It’s at the end of the Russell video.
P.P.s. There may be some big news coming soon about how to make drivers aware of the 3 foot passing law. Stay tuned.

Bikesafer
Jeff

1 comment:

Der Geis said...

I just had a thought about how you can determine if cars passing you have observed a three foot clearance. In addition to the rear facing camera, mount a laser pointer on the read of your bike so that it marks a point on the street three feet away from the wheel. If the experiment is a success, you will be able to see the point in the video footage.