Last night I began crossing an intersection when my light turned green. A car sitting in cross traffic sat with it's bumper overlapping the cross walk (see diagram above). This was pretty mild, as bumpers nearly always ooze past the crosswalks and into the bike lanes during Seattle's evening rush hour, especially at major roads like Denny and Mercer. I am hyper-alert when I bike in the city, trying to anticipate every potential hazard that might be ahead, especially when I cross busy intersections. But who could expect this to happen? At that moment, the car to my right jumped into reverse and backed up into my path of travel. I swerved madly, braking would have done me no good. I didn't want to swerve into cars also crossing in the next lane, so it was a maddening second of swerving and trying to grapple my air horn to alert the reversing car. Where was it reversing to? Why? There was no where for it to go except into more traffic. The white of it's rear lights came within inches of my knees. I rode the following block slowly thanking the stars for my chance to stay upright. As the surging adrenaline slowly purged from my shaking body, an SUV passed with a passenger leaning out of the window. He hollered "Are you OK?" He must have been a few cars behind me. Shaken, but OK, I gave him a big "thumbs up" and beamed a huge smile attempting to convey the message, "Thank you for caring!"

That wouldn't be the end of kindness on that ride home. Later on, a Smart Car parked parallel against a curb burst out of his spot, in front of me in the bike lane. The second he pumped the gas he saw me and slammed hike brakes, making the little Smart Car look like a cartoon. He yelled out his open window (yay for sunny days!) "SORRY!" I yelled back, "It's OK, but thank you for stopping!" While he was right there, I am used to stopping on a dime for cars with much less warning. He had his turn signal on; good sir. I was ready for him.

A second later a pedestrian half way across the street bolted to a stop when she saw me coming on my bike. This always cracks me up (in a sad, shameful way). Pedestrians stop dead in their tracks when they see a cyclist, often in the path of oncoming cars. They will often not even look in the direction of cars, but a bike is a thing to be scared to death of. She was walking on a crosswalk and she had the right of way. I slowed and waved her forward, "It's OK, go ahead!" I said. I hope I translated the same kindness in my voice at the other two who extended kindness to me.

Fremont Bridge Bike Count: 87 (normal time, but it's a Saturday)

7.94 miles
34 mins. (50 minutes travel time so 16 minutes stopped at lights)
13.7 average mph
29.5 max mph
339 feet climb

It will be fun to compare these stats with a typical weekday.