Today as I was leaving school I was grumbling about having to bike in the rain. I waved goodbye to everyone and one of my friends said, “Don’t get killed!”
Funny thing about that. As I approached the Dundas/Spadina intersection, I drove up the left side of the lane, beside cars that had their right turning blinkers on. I don’t really remember why, but suddenly it seemed like the first one was going to change its mind and go straight and cut me off. I got scared and my bike tire slipped on the streetcar tracks (there’s about a million at that intersection). I don’t really remember the exact chain of events but it went something like: my bike turned sideways in front of a car, I tried to jump off, the bike came about three centimetres from going under the oncoming streetcar with me still semi on it. Somehow I managed not to fall on the ground. I hit my leg on my bike and my bike fell on the ground but I hopped over and stayed upright.
It’s all pretty blurry. All of those things happened, but I’m not sure exactly how or in what order. I remember losing control of my bike and looking to see if I was going to get hit. I saw a white car coming towards me but I couldn’t really tell how fast or how far away it was (it must have been slow + not too close, because it managed to stop and not hit me). I know that the streetcar was a close call, but I didn’t even look to see how close the car was. I picked up my bike and my purse, which had fallen out of the basket, and started walking my bike across the intersection. Safely across to the sidewalk on the other side I stopped and looked back. I wondered if I should stop for a minute, but there wasn’t really any reason – no one had gotten hit, nothing bad had happened. At the intersection, it pretty much looked as if nothing had ever happened. The cars had all continued along on their merry way. No one had even asked if I was ok. (They did stare at me though! Thanks jerks!) For the record, I’m ok. I skinned my ankle a bit, but doesn’t count when the alternative was getting run over by a car.
Anyways, that was the single most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me. It’s pretty awful to know that you are heading for the path of a large vehicle, but can’t do anything about it. I remember wondering (in a split second kind of way) if I was going to stop sliding or get out of the way before anything hit me. When I stopped on the other side to rest, my legs were shaking. Not just trembling, but full-out jumping up and down uncontrollably. I called my mom and dad at the hospital and cried. I thought I was going to walk my bike home, but after a block of doing that I remembered how inefficient walking is. So I got back on my bike (and hopefully soon it will be the lovely Giant Cypress I had my eye on when I picked my bike up at Sweet Pete’s today). Mostly because I can’t afford the TTC’s exorbitant metropass prices.
I just won’t be biking in the rain anymore, ever.
