We share the roads with motorists, but they are not the only menace we face when we ride. There are other surprising dangers that can get you hurt, and we need to watch out for them.

The following list is drawn from personal experience, and reports from friends. None are fabricated, and all qualify as having the potential to cause harm:

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• A playful dog, not on a leash, sees you spinning along, and does not realize there are spokes in your wheels. It thinks it can hop through the wheel and enjoy a playful romp. Because you have to be moving fast for the spokes to be invisible to the dog, it’s an encounter that can end badly for both of you.
• You are moving along on a wooded country road, unaware that a rotted tree has lost its stability and is about to snap and fall across the road. It’s just a matter of luck and timing if it doesn’t smack you on the head.
• The road was recently paved so you become more relaxed not noticing an unexpected crack that will snag your front wheel and force you to the side.
• It rained recently and there are puddles everywhere. You don’t realize one of the puddles fills a deep hole and you get caught in it.
• You are crossing a busy road and look left and right before crossing. There is a traffic light on one side, and a vehicle decides to squeeze by a light already red.
• Beware of squirrels. They can dart out from bushes on the side of your path, and hitting one is trouble.
• When a driver parks and without looking opens the door in a rider’s path, this is known as “dooring.” Cyclists moving at high speeds frequently do not have enough chance to react before colliding with an open car door, which usually results in severe injuries.
• The weather says it has warmed, and the snow/ice from a previous storm is gone. However, one road is low and shaded, making it a few degrees colder. A patch of ice you didn’t expect hasn’t melted and your wheels lose traction.
• A rider comes upon a road construction project where the road was closed to cars, but a police officer waves him through.  What at first seemed like good fortune that avoided a detour, turns into a major problem as he can no longer steer the bike due to about a one-inch build-up of road tar on his tires.
• A cyclist approaches a T-intersection with a busy road where the route turns right. A car is approaching from the left but there appears to be plenty of time to make the turn. Keeping a wary eye on the approaching vehicle, the rider doesn’t see a 4-inch-deep pile of sand on the corner and goes down.
• It’s a windy day and you’re riding through a neighborhood shortly after the trash truck came through. As you pass a home, a gust picks up an empty trash barrel and sends it sailing across the road in front of you.
• The two riders were on a country road in Sudbury, and decided to take a break. Ahead they noticed a truck with a worker on a ladder or crane, and he was dealing with overhead cables. The truck was off to the side, out of their way, so they ended their break and started off when they heard a loud thud by their side. The cable had slipped out of the utility poles that held it, and a long stretch fell just a few feet from where they were riding. It’s many years later and I can still hear that thud, but we escaped injury and went our merry way.

This article is not meant to frighten you or discourage you from riding. Its purpose is to encourage you to keep in mind there are potential dangers you can encounter on a ride when you least expect it. The fact is, we face risks each day from the moment we step out of bed. But if we stay ready and alert, we can avoid many of them on and off the bike.

 We are grateful to Tim Wilson who edited this article.

This summer myself along with two others biked from Pittsburgh to DC, along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Trail, and the C&O Canal trail. The two trails combined are 334 miles, and we had 6 riding days, 3 on each trail. In this article I’ll review the first half of the trip along the GAP trail, which runs 150 miles from Pittsburgh to Cumberland MD.

The night before the ride start we stayed in a hotel in Pittsburgh, and enjoyed Sandwiches at Primanti’s for dinner. We primarily camped the rest of the trip, and we took the approach of one person driving the sag wagon each day. Of course that meant one person missed biking each day, but they it was nice to have the flexibility of a car. Many people alternatively carry everything with them, which certainly has its appeal as well.

Before the ride start in Pittsburgh it might be nice to take one of the historic inclines up to the ridge with a nice view overlooking the rivers and city. The ride itself starts at Point State Park, where the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela form the Ohio river.

Pittsburgh has an enormous number of bridges, many of them historic, including this hot metal bridge, which was initially used to transport molten metal across the river for further processing.

Getting outside the city limits we spotted some goats relaxing, after happily eating vegetation along the river.

The trail itself is predominantly a rail trail, largely with a stone dust surface, and for the most part was in excellent condition. It’s fairly wooded, and therefore shady, and we all noted that even on hot summer days of it was surprisingly comfortable. In fact we were rarely hot while riding. Lunches in the sun, or camping could be hot at times.

We made sure to stay hydrated with water, and of course, craft beer:) The Bloom Brewery draft wagon in Newton PA was a nice stop.

Cedar creek park was a nice stop for a swim, and would make an excellent camp area.

We camped out first night in Connelsville PA, and had breakfast at Connelsville Canteen, which is combined with a neat free museum to see while there. They have an incredible model train exhibit, and a WW2 exhibit, including a paratrooper bicycle, which would be folded and strapped to soldiers when jumping out of planes.

For lunch we stopped in the very scenic town of Ohiopyle, which would also make an excellent place to stay.

We enjoyed watching the Kayakers going over Ohiopyle fall. The River bends around so sharply there that kayakers can make a run, and walk briefly back on the GAP trail to the beginning to go again.

If you have time you can also take a detail for a few miles to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water house, or pictured here Kentuck Knob.

The second night we camped at Meyersdale PA, at festival park campground. They have a large covered stage area which came in handy to put our tents on since it rained that night.

On the third day we crossed the eastern continental divide.

There are some nice views from the divide into the valley.

Coming down the hill towards Frostburg there is a cave where bones of a saber tooth tiger was discovered, now on display at the Smithsonian. The town of Frostburg itself is also fun to see, although it does require biking up a half mile hill.

We arrived in Cumberland MD at the end of the GAP trail, and where it meets up with the C&O trail. I’ll cover that portion of the trip in a future article.

You may be waiting to cross a big street with heavy traffic. Or you may be waiting in a left turn lane. The traffic light is red as you approach.. Then the traffic signals go through an entire cycle, but they skip the one that applies to you.

This is a safety issue. Why does this happen, and what are you to do?

This isn’t the first time I have written about the problem. I had an article in the October 2013 WheelPeople, accompanying a video,

The video shows CRW members, waiting, and not waiting, for a traffic signal on Boylston Street on the Climb to the Clouds Ride

I think that it is fair to repeat the content of the article here, because little has changed. So here goes, lightly updated.

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Most people on CRW rides know how to turn left (just as motorists do) – first merging to the left-turn position on the roadway. Everyone in this video I shot during the July (2013) Climb to the Clouds ride did that. 

The left turns on red shown in the video are by no means entirely the bicyclists’ fault. The left-turn signal is triggered by a metal detector buried in the roadway, which in this case did not detect bicycles. The bicyclists who ran the red did wait -- but when the signal did not change, they lost patience.

Still, if the bicyclists had known to line up carefully over the pavement cuts that indicate the locations of the detector wires, the signal probably would have changed.

A motorist was waiting behind the bicyclists, but too far back to trigger the signal actuator. The motorist appeared to be staying out of the way of the group of waiting bicyclists -- and waited through an entire extra light cycle. Perhaps the motorist was trying to be considerate.  On the other hand, the motorist could have resolved the situation without anyone’s running the light, by pulling forward over the detector –and probably didn’t know that.  After the first group of bicyclists left, I motioned to the motorist to pull forward, and the light did change. The remaining bicyclists then proceeded on a green signal.

But he most effective time for a teachable moment about signal detectors isn’t while waiting in a group of bicyclists who are arriving at random. Even more so for a motorist, who is out of earshot inside a vehicle. My failed attempt in the video demonstrates that well enough.

So, what can you do to help?

If you are a ride leader, be aware of these issues on your route. You can discuss them briefly in the pre-ride talk. More effective is to improve on the generic bare-bones cues in RidewithGPS. Your cue could, for example, say “form a double line in the left-turn lane, with your wheels over the wire cuts.”  Traffic-signal troubles are only one of several reasons to check and revise RidewithGPS cues.  They often come too late to allow correct preparation for a turn, and sometimes they are simply wrong.

If you ride a Club route on your own, alert the names ride leader to problem spots.

Spread the knowledge of how to trigger signal actuators when talking with other cyclists

Develop a culture of orderly assembly when queuing at intersections. This includes not only avoiding sloppy, risky moves like the close passes of a moving motor vehicle shown in the video, but also stopping in a neat formation over the wires of the metal detector loops.  An orderly group also might encourage motorists to feel more comfortable in pulling forward to help trip signal actuators.

A final point about neatness.  Note the motorcyclists in the video. Both bicyclists and motorcyclists have problems with public image, but the motorcyclists in the video were doing a fine job of dispelling their image problem. Even if bicyclists must proceed on red, orderly appearance conveys a more positive message than the ragged group of bicyclists in the video.

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End of the 2013 article. But let me take this discussion a bit further.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has been fairly good about installing bicycle-sensitive actuators. Some cities and towns also have been, notably Watertown. When main streets are state highways, often the signal installations are by MassDOT.

But In 1989 I sent a polite letter to the traffic director of the City of Waltham, where resided then – and still do now.  I described the problem of traffic signal actuators that do not turn the light green. In 1991 I sent a less polite letter. And I have raised the issue several times since.

Now in 2022, the City of Waltham constructing a section of the Mass Central Rail Trail. And repaving a number of streets. I’m all in favor of both of those initiatives.

But I rode a couple of those recently repaved streets last week and Waltham still is laying the wires for its traffic signal actuators in a pattern which does not detect bicycles and motorcycles. We have the frosting, so to speak, but no cake.

Perhaps in the light of the millions of dollars of local and state funding that the City of Waltham is spending on these projects, I’ll finally be able to shame city officials into laying the wires in a different pattern in the street next time. (That’s all it takes -- it costs nothing.).

The city might consider its Complete Streets policy, to wit:

 In the City of Waltham, Massachusetts, Complete Streets are designed, operated, maintained and enforced to provide safety and accessibility for ALL users of our roadways, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit users of all ages and abilities.

And please also look into this issue in your own community!

My riding habits and routes are no secret to my friends and family. In fact in this very newsletter, I have reported on my transition from road bike to electrical-assist trike. It came as surprise to me, however, when I received an email from Ride With GPS (RWGPS) inquiring about one of my routes and asking whether it would be appropriate for other riders. I did not know I was being watched.

Excerpt from RWGPS Email

It turns out that this was not unauthorized surveillance by evil forces, but an effort by our friends at RWGPS to make route finding easier for their members. The RWGPS library has grown to millions of routes, and sifting through them can be overwhelming. They felt that indicating favorite routes would be helpful, and allow them to deliver better results. This is still a Beta feature, and only a small selection of riders have been contacted. Don't be surprised if you are contacted, and we ask you cooperate to enhance the ride prospects of the members of this club.

And how about that route.  I ride with a group of locals who wanted a ride for winter that was short but challenging, and had a food offering at the start. This route fit the bill. The restaurant has plenty of parking and offers an "all you can eat" buffet. Perfect for hungry riders. The Sky Buffet route was developed before Covid, and we are no longer comfortable with a buffet offering, but I still ride the route and skip lunch. The route has a short stretch on a bike path, and then winds on pretty New England roads, with a few hills, and unfortunately some major road crossings. The other day I saw a field full of cows. We will return to the buffet after Covid.

This is the route https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40019583 and feel free to contact me if any questions Eli [at] crw.org