Time vs. Distance

An article in Bicycling Magazine a few weeks ago mentioned some of the hazards of commuting by bike - one of them was pedestrians. The article noted that people's natural instinct when they see something approaching quickly is to freeze for a second and then scurry forward in the direction that they were originally going. Watch for this it really is true, and interesting to look for.

I try to be considerate of pedestrians when I am riding. Lately, I have noticed that they seem easily startled when I go through a crosswalk full of people - even when it feels to me that I have missed them by a hugely safe margin...so today I was thinking: pedestrians judge near misses by actual physical distance, on my bike I judge a near miss by time. How close I am to hitting something has more to do with the time required for one of the bodies in question to cross a given distance - when a pedestrian is traveling relatively perpendicular to my line, a distance of 3' could take them several seconds to cross, a big margin of safety from my point of view since I might travel 20 times that distance in the same amount of time. Something to think about.




Thursday was beautiful in New York - I took my usual route to the office and then got to ride to a meeting at 78th and Park, then got to ride back downtown to the West Village for lunch and then, finally, back to the office. It always feels great to get in an afternoon ride.



I become a greedy rider at this time of year. Each day makes me more aware that the comfortable cycling days are dwindling away and I take every opportunity to wring the last drops of pleasant salty sweat out of the pavement. I met up with a friend in the Village and got to hang out on the piers during the sunset. There was a new pier open - the pier is actually old, but it is usually locked up. Cool.