I cant believe a simple 30 to 40 min commute could be so eventful. I mean in a span of maybe 20 min of ride to work this morning I had 4 near misses. Now, anyone who rides in LA is used to their fair share of near misses, but today was exceptional for me.
My ride started off fairly usual, stopped to fill up and get on the road. I get onto the freeway and get into my grove of lane splitting Hey this is California and a big reason I bought the bike was legal lane splitting. About half way into my ride, I come up to the 405/101 interchange. I always hate this interchange as many folks try to ride in the carpool lane until it too late, and then stop traffic as the merge over. But, it happens everyday so I am used to it. So as I am clearing the interchange there is a carpool entrance coming up, so I begin to slow down as it very tricky lane spliting with cars merging in and out. About a good 50 yards before the entrance I notice a big moving truck kind of riding really close to the double yellow line, which is kind of odd, not unusual, but enough to get my attention on him as I approach. And it was a good thing I was watching him because right as I am about half a car length from him, with no blinker and while he had yet to reach the the actual merge point he straddles the line taking his sweet a$$ time to merge. I had to jam on my brakes and luckily manage to slip to the left of the truck. To add insult to my near miss as I am riding past I look at the driver and he is on his cell phone. So now I am pissed, but this is LA, its understood that folks are just careless drivers.
So I continue on and now I am just passing Sunset on the 405 south and the carpool lane is ending and I am looking ahead as many drives immediately jump into the the lane once that happens. Well as I am lane spliting/passing a greyish Acura or Honda the car violent jerks to the right where I am riding, I hit my breaks to allow the car to get ahead of me. So attempt to pass again giving the car as much room as I can and I watch the driver he is trying to using his black berry while driving. Ok so now I am getting even more upset because thats twice this morning.
So I pass that guy and and have to deal with a guy in ford truck straddling 2 lanes. With what had already happened, I slow down giving him time to figure out what he was doing. So now that I am passing him, I begin to merge over to 10 east exit. As I am sitting in the lane, checking out how I am going to maneuver to the exit, out of the corner of my eye, I see a big a$$ Volvo station wagon moving over on me. I mean I must have stared at the driver for a good 2 to 3 min in disbelief. She didn't look at me until she was already in the lane, pushing me over one. An when she did, she kind of halfway acknowledge what she did. So now I am absolutely steaming. I mean I cursing up a storm in my helmet.
So I continue off the 405 on to the 10 still steaming, but trying to focus. My exist comes and I get off the freeway. There is a traffic light at the exit so I lane split to the front and sit the just stewing. The light turns green and I head across the intersection and on the other side of the intersection there is driveway where a guy is attempting to make a left turn, I see him, but its like he doesn't see me, once again hard on the breaks, and I let him go by. So now I am so pissed it just funny, I cant believe the drivers in LA are that bad, I mean you hear about it all the time. But today, I found out first hand, you have to look out for them cause they sure as hell aren't looking out for you.
My ride started off fairly usual, stopped to fill up and get on the road. I get onto the freeway and get into my grove of lane splitting Hey this is California and a big reason I bought the bike was legal lane splitting. About half way into my ride, I come up to the 405/101 interchange. I always hate this interchange as many folks try to ride in the carpool lane until it too late, and then stop traffic as the merge over. But, it happens everyday so I am used to it. So as I am clearing the interchange there is a carpool entrance coming up, so I begin to slow down as it very tricky lane spliting with cars merging in and out. About a good 50 yards before the entrance I notice a big moving truck kind of riding really close to the double yellow line, which is kind of odd, not unusual, but enough to get my attention on him as I approach. And it was a good thing I was watching him because right as I am about half a car length from him, with no blinker and while he had yet to reach the the actual merge point he straddles the line taking his sweet a$$ time to merge. I had to jam on my brakes and luckily manage to slip to the left of the truck. To add insult to my near miss as I am riding past I look at the driver and he is on his cell phone. So now I am pissed, but this is LA, its understood that folks are just careless drivers.
So I continue on and now I am just passing Sunset on the 405 south and the carpool lane is ending and I am looking ahead as many drives immediately jump into the the lane once that happens. Well as I am lane spliting/passing a greyish Acura or Honda the car violent jerks to the right where I am riding, I hit my breaks to allow the car to get ahead of me. So attempt to pass again giving the car as much room as I can and I watch the driver he is trying to using his black berry while driving. Ok so now I am getting even more upset because thats twice this morning.
So I pass that guy and and have to deal with a guy in ford truck straddling 2 lanes. With what had already happened, I slow down giving him time to figure out what he was doing. So now that I am passing him, I begin to merge over to 10 east exit. As I am sitting in the lane, checking out how I am going to maneuver to the exit, out of the corner of my eye, I see a big a$$ Volvo station wagon moving over on me. I mean I must have stared at the driver for a good 2 to 3 min in disbelief. She didn't look at me until she was already in the lane, pushing me over one. An when she did, she kind of halfway acknowledge what she did. So now I am absolutely steaming. I mean I cursing up a storm in my helmet.
So I continue off the 405 on to the 10 still steaming, but trying to focus. My exist comes and I get off the freeway. There is a traffic light at the exit so I lane split to the front and sit the just stewing. The light turns green and I head across the intersection and on the other side of the intersection there is driveway where a guy is attempting to make a left turn, I see him, but its like he doesn't see me, once again hard on the breaks, and I let him go by. So now I am so pissed it just funny, I cant believe the drivers in LA are that bad, I mean you hear about it all the time. But today, I found out first hand, you have to look out for them cause they sure as hell aren't looking out for you.
