He was an old white guy, driving a black BMW 528i just ahead of me, with a “Vietnam Veteran” license plate. So he had my immediate respect, because my father is also an old white guy (#AskRachel) who went to Vietnam and who drove a 528i back when you got six cylinders for your money. As we headed single file down the alley towards where I park my bike downtown everyday, he came to a hard stop. My CB550 couldn’t stop like his Bimmer but I’d been giving him room so I ended up halted about five feet behind him.
Then he put the Fiver into reverse.
I did a quick 360-degree scan. To my right: the metered parking spot that he wanted to back into. I’d never seen that spot empty before. Mr. Bimmer must have good karma. To my left: half a lane’s worth of alley. Behind me, someone in an Altima pulling up. I was about to be part of a sandwich.
So I beeped the CB’s horn, which made a noise but caused no reduction in the BMW’s reversing.
I then leaned on the horn, yelled “HEY!” and reached out past my handlebars to smack his trunk with the outstretched edge of my fingers. That produced the desired result. I backed the CB up around rode around him. He was looking down at his seat in what I dimly recognized as “shame”.
shame: noun 1. a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. 2. Some shit that people used to feel before we were all taught that we had the right to self-esteem no matter what we’d recently put in our mouths, as long as it wasn’t fast food.
So I beeped and waved in what was meant to convey “No problem, thanks for not killing me!” But he didn’t get out of his car even as I parked my bike and shut the fuel off and fussed with my bag. I thought that perhaps he was vaguely concerned that I, your typical Overweight, Long-Haired Biker In Excess Of Six Feet Tall, would have some kind of issue with him. But as I rounded the corner towards work, I looked back one last time. He was seated in the car still. His head was in his hands.
All of a sudden I remembered that my father is seventy years old now, and this man was probably around that age. Then I wondered if he, being of a different generation, didn’t automatically blame me for having the nerve to be behind him on the road. I wondered if perhaps he wasn’t worried about the fact that he looked in the mirror and didn’t see me. I wondered if today was the day when he realized that he wouldn’t be driving forever, if today wasn’t the day when he had a sharp glimpse of his fast-arriving mortality.
Then, as I thought about the fact that I’d be sharing the road with him on the way here tomorrow, as well, I thought about my mortality, as well.
We’ve all made driving mistakes, so I know that feeling of shame. More than once I’ve put my hand on my chest and looked down to indicate to another driver that I know I messed up.
*This* is why autonomous vehicles can’t arrive soon enough. Our rapidly aging population deserve the freedom that a vehicle provides, even when their own sight, reaction time, etc. etc. begin to fail them. An autonomous vehicle’s LIDAR or whatnot would not have missed you being there. Moreover, it probably would have signalled intent at least, with a signal.
Not everyone has the situational awareness you do, Mr. Baruth, so I’m glad that in this instance you were the one behind the car.
Absolutely not. What effect would horn honking have on the failed sensor that allows an autonomous vehicle to back into an unrecognized bike and rider?
Here’s a clue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8nnhUCtcO8
“Absolutely not. What effect would horn honking have on the failed sensor that allows an autonomous vehicle to back into an unrecognized bike and rider?”
Right, because a failed sensor wouldn’t cause the vehicle to not function in autonomous mode in the first place. Our cars *today* throw CES lights when that happens. Come on.
The older you get, the more you will appreciate what the elderly lose when their mobility is restricted, and how much mobility aids, including autonomous vehicles, matter.
Fiamm Air Horn.
You’re really lucky the guy didn’t panic and jam his foot on the gas. Very narrow escape.
Nice writing;everyone makes mistakes and thankfully no one is the worse for this one.
Your last 2 paragraphs sum it up.
How close did the Altima get?
This kind of thing is what keeps me on the dirt and off the street when it comes to motorcycles. There are just too many variables beyond my control on the street; running all the possible contingencies and the escape route for each in real time is a lot to stay on top of.
The Altima came to a halt about ten feet behind so in that respect there turned out to be no problem.
That’s good. If he hadn’t, and you had to make an emergency maneuver, which bike would you rather be on? The CB or the VFR? I could see the CB being easier to turn around quickly from a stop…
I’d have dropped the bike and run.
so, the (unfaired) CB!
this is why I still am apprehensive every time I go to get on the bike. I know I’m watching every cross street, parking lot, and intersection like a hawk.
one really good thing about being a novice rider is that this apprehension carries over to when I’m in my car. I make damn sure to watch for motorcyclists while I’m driving. I always signal, check mirrors, then shoulder-check before changing lanes and so forth.
It wasn’t your time.
One of my buddys had a classic “left turner” a couple of weeks ago. Old timer just turned in front of him, nowhere to go but into the fender, over the hood and onto the pavement. He was traveling slow enough, which is surprising for him, and was relatively unhurt ( broken finger and some road rash). He was ready to beat the man like a rented mule when he noticed he was an old timer wearing a Korean war hat. Turns out he was 84 and swore he never saw my buddy.
Head on a swivel, all the time.
“I didn’t see him” can safely be assumed to really mean “I didn’t look.”
Glad you’re O.K. ! .
I’m surprised you didn’t walk over to make sure he was O.K. , it sounds like he was really shook up .
I’ve BT & DT too and I ride , it’s always terribly embarrassing when you make a serious goof you should know about because you ride too .
Always RIDE SCARED ! . it’s a good way to remain alive .
I survived a fatal moto collision in 2008 and am crippled for life ~ I hope this doesn’t happen to you Jack as you have a SON who needs you plus once your spine gets kinked you may not be able to play the guitar anymore , a sad thing indeed .
I hate Fiamm horns , I usually install a LARGE vintage Bosch or Hella horn , low tone so they can hear it through the glass when the windows are up & stereo on loud .
-Nate
I was about to comment about the Bosch ones above.
My dad is about yours age, i.e. pre-1945 so not a piece of shit boomer. A real warrior too, but time and tide wait for no man. I think he has a lot of those fucking days lately, it is hard to countenance.
I’m getting up there in years, as the saying goes, but like Dingus suggests, the head is always on a swivel, a point I stress repeatedly to my twenty one year old son, near the beginning of his driving career.
I also have been told by my MD that I have very quick reflexes for anyone, and not just for someone my age.
As a further safeguard, and since I am often in the car with my son, I deputized him as my navigator and “shotgun” a decade ago, with full responsibility for identifying any and all potentially dangerous situations, and with full authority to tell me not to make certain moves, based on his risk assessment.
It will help his driving, and also has helped mine, as he occasionally sees one or a few children playing behind the fender of a parked car, for example, who had escaped my continuous scanning the sides of the road.
I would have enjoyed owning and riding another two wheeler, riding alongside my son. But my wife is vehemently opposed, both to my doing so, and to my encouraging our son to do so. And as much as I would like to, I just can’t make a strong enough case in my own mind to press the issue.
But regardless of the situation, I try to use the “bonehead” rule, and encourage my son to do the same. The bonehead rule says “what kind of bonehead move could the other driver possibly do, and what is my defense against it?”
I feel sorry for the old man, because as you pointed out, it was probably the first clear indication to him that he might have become a danger to himself and/or to others on the road.
As it is, there are certain driving situations that I avoid now, which I could easily have done in the past. Driving fast for ten hours, for example. But I hope I will have the awareness and the willingness to hand my keys to my (younger) wife and/or my son, when the time comes that I have become a “clear and present danger”.
But as to the bonehead rule and its ramifications, I do not assume that a car facing me in the left turn lane will wait for me to pass. Instead, I slow down to where I could at least lessen any impact, even at the expense of increased travel time and possible annoyance to cars behind me. I do not “assume” the other driver will do the right thing, in that, or any situation.
And in highway traffic, I will risk a speeding ticket to get out of a pack of cars, and into a “cradle” with no one ahead or behind me for about a quarter mile, and I tend to gravitate toward the middle of three lanes going in the same direction, in order to increase the amount of room to maneuver in the event of a blowout.
Extremely small percentage edges. But one time, as a younger man, when given a muscle car company rental car and a busy schedule, I was tearing it up on a four lane divided, when the left front tire blew out. I had just settled into a lane straddle, with no one near either of my bumpers when it occurred. The car stayed on the hardtop for a rapid slowdown from about a hundred to zero, but if I had been fully in either lane, I likely would have put a wheel into the grass and dirt.
I maintain that it is better to drive hard but to be careful in one’s choices, than to cruise along mindlessly in a pack of cars at 55 or 65, hoping no one will have a problem that will magnify for all of us. YMMV, but it has worked for me.
As always, your article ends with some thoughtful insight into the circumstances surrounding the event, and not just an analysis of the event itself. Keep up this example of going above and beyond the call of duty in covering the events of the road.
jz78817 ;
I’m not so sure about that ~ .
I’ve been riding for decades and many times I have locked eyes with a cage driver and they still turned in front of me or occupied my lane……..
Motocycles simply do not register to some folks .
-Nate
-Nate
True. As a motorcyclist, I’ve failed to see an approaching motorcycle…in a motorcycle dealer parking lot. The frontal area is small, and headlights often end up obscuring the profile further.
Jack, like myself, is smart enough to don garish high-visibility riding gear, which is the best that one can do.
Brilliant little piece about a really huge existential deal.
Definition of Shame, sub 2. Nailed squarely.
@ Rambo ;
.
One of my Elderly buddies @ L.A.P.D. Motor Transport was a Moto mechanic back when we had Harleys ~ PanHeads & Shovelheads ~ he took one out on a test ride after a routine repair and some lady in an Oldsmobile pulled up next to him on the freeway , looked out her open window and locked eyes with him then merged into his lane , physically pushing the Harley with him on it , into and over the curbstone , the Harley went one way , he slid down the ice plant , legs splayed with the steel sprinkler risers whizzing past him on both sides , he slid to a stop at the bottom of the embankment , realized he wasn’t hurt and puked ~ he never again rode any Motor .
-Nate