From Now On, I'm Walking Down That Hill

I almost got plowed by a bus 10 minutes ago. I apologize to my family and friends, I'll be more careful from now on.

Every day, at least twice a day, I ride about 100m in the bike lane against traffic to get to my house. No big deal, cars stay to my right, I stay left, everyone goes about their business. Same deal today, I'm going down the hill in the bike lane, against traffic, and I see the public bus is rolling up the hill at about 30mph. The bus takes up every inch of it's lane, which leaves me about 3 feet of the bike lane to myself. No problem, but I move all the way over just to give the bus some space as it passes me going up the hill. Just as the bus is about to pass me I come on to a pothole, one that I see every day coming and going to my house, and I have to move out about a foot to the right to get around it. As I'm going around the pothole, my front wheel slips on the sloping edge of the pothole and my bike falls out from under, sending me hurtling over the handlebars headfirst out towards traffic with perfect timing to make my face connect with the bus headlights. Somehow I managed to ditch my bike, land on my feet and keep myself out of the bus' path...I still have no clue how I did it. I came within 6 inches of getting squashed by the 209 RTD bus.

Some kid riding his bike on the sidewalk stopped as the whole thing happened. I ended up right next to him, standing on my feet, in one piece. I had to restrain myself from hugging him, but I still didn't stop myself from giving him a squeeze on the shoulder and letting him know that I was "OK". I walked myself and my bike the remaining 20m home with nothing but a little mud and a raspberry on my calf from my front tire.

From now on I think I'll walk the last 100m to my house on the sidewalk.


This is the pothole, and there is the 209 RTD bus that runs by my house.