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I noticed this a lot lately in many NJ towns that late at night in pitch dark there are people biking with no reflectors on their clothing and tiny reflectors on their bikes.
I was driving the other night and it was raining and a woman was on dark bike hidden by all the trees and leaves. I wanted to make a right turn and she just happened to be in my right windshield pillar. Luckily I saw a dark object and I stopped.
One other night some teenager was riding close to the road at midnight in a powered skateboard. Also in total dark clothing with no reflectors on except for some markings on the skateboard.
I've encountered atleast a dozen examples in the summer where adults in bikes late at night pitch black rides close to the roads.
I don't think 25mph limit matters if you get hit even at 5mph without a helmet on you can get brain damage.
This happened to me a few weeks ago, too. Terrifying. It was a minor miracle that I saw him at all. Pitch dark, dark clothes, not one reflector. Are they assuming that because they can see us, we can see them?! Tragedy just waiting to happen.
She must have been a tiny woman to fit in your pillar.
I don't think it's the size, it's that angle when turning and many dark roads in NJ have no street reflectors and many houses have no lights that a biker could be more visible if the streets were better lit.
I think that's the main issue is that NJ neighborhoods are very dark except for downtown areas. These bikers should have LED blinking lights they are cheap and I often see night time joggers wearing them.
It's even day-time bikers in my town. Mostly headed to or out of Princeton.
They ride on historic "country roads" which are full of blind curves and have no shoulder. In their Tour De France wanna be outfits. The 6 inches of a shoulder before you end up in a ditch (or the canal) I don't count as a shoulder.
Yet they think they own the roads - riding double or triple & don't go down to single when a car comes up behind them. And they are serious bikers, I have to step on the gas and hard, when I think I can get around their pompous asses who "wave" me around them.
It's even day-time bikers in my town. Mostly headed to or out of Princeton.
They ride on historic "country roads" which are full of blind curves and have no shoulder. In their Tour De France wanna be outfits. The 6 inches of a shoulder before you end up in a ditch (or the canal) I don't count as a shoulder.
Yet they think they own the roads - riding double or triple & don't go down to single when a car comes up behind them. And they are serious bikers, I have to step on the gas and hard, when I think I can get around their pompous asses who "wave" me around them.
I feel a tiny bit bad for cyclists because there aren't really any bike-friendly roads around here. I agree with this, though. They love to ride through the Great Swamp, but there is no shoulder at all along most of the road. That white line IS the shoulder. Then, like you said, the blind curves. I've seen two accidents involving cars and bikes in just one year.
My night-time peeve is the dog walkers. There are no sidewalks in our neighborhood, so they have no choice but to walk in the road. Some attach a blinking light to their dog's collar, and one lady wears a yellow jacket with big reflective stripes on it like a road crew coat. (I actually stopped one day and thanked her.) Most don't wear anything, though, and even with our 25mph speed limit, I've had some close calls - mostly when coming around corners. I would be gutted if I ever hit someone's dog.
Sounds like NJ is, on the whole, not too pedestrian-friendly, despite its generally suburban nature. Aligns neatly with my view of the state as hostile to human life in general (I'm half-joking here). I'm assuming the presence of sidewalks at least might vary regionally, but....
In my neighborhood, people jog in the middle of the street, in the dark, sometimes wearing dark clothes - even though sidewalk is only 3 ft away. I run myself and can tell you that there are no benefits to street vs sidewalk.
Re the daytime bikers, I felt this way yesterday. There must have been something going on for cyclists, because they were everywhere, and I saw them several times. Large groups of bicycles on the main roads around eastern Monmouth County.
I don't see how they think it's OK to ride two or three abreast on a heavily-trafficked road. It could be dangerous for them, and even though their presence is a huge annoyance and slows down traffic, they have the right to be on the roads. I wish they would be more safety-conscious, though. They appear to expect the people driving cars to look out for them but not that they have to look out for automobiles.
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