Things In Front of Me that Make Me Cautious

[David]

a) Those little cement mixers towed behind pickup trucks. The driver usually can't see the trailer, and if s/he could, he'd notice that the tires suck and are out of round and/or underinflated. Watching those top heavy things weave around scares me to death.

 

b) Big loose things in pickup trucks.

 

c) Loads on flatbeds that are leaning to one side.

 

d) Ladders on bed racks with one little bungie strap at each end. Eek!

 

e) Any diesel motor home on a freeway entrance ramp with a license plate from a different state. Chances are decent that they've just filled up and forgot to put the fuel cap back on.

 

f) Any motor home, gas or diesel, climbing a long, slow grade. That's when you're likely to see overflowing coolant.

 

g) Right hand curves on narrow roads with gravel shoulders, as that's when long trucks swing inside and "track" the gravel back onto the road.

 

You?

[GelStra]

Man, I am looking forward to the responses! Great thread!

 

Me: Impatience. Usually reflected in tailgating or a speed a bit too much faster through traffic. I'm just WAITING for the sudden lane change.

[Whip]

Glowing green eyes in the woods....or just off the road..

[russell_bynum]

Gardener's trucks with rakes and stuff haphazardly stuck on them. (I had a friend who hit a leaf blower that came off of one of those.)

 

Trails of "stuff" in the road that's a different color than the rest of the road. For example, a dark streak running along the road that follows the road's curve. Even if I test it and it is dry now doesn't mean it will still be dry in another mile...I might be catching up to whatever vehicle is leaking.

 

Loads of "stuff" on a flatbed trailer. (Once, during a driver's ed practice drive I was following a pickup with a flatbed full of scrap lumber. All the sudden I saw a big piece (it turned out to be an oak door with frame) start to float. I made a quick lane change and just about the time the instructor started yelling at me, the door came off the trailer and smashed into the road right about where we had been. The car behind us hit it and did considerable damage.)

 

Tree-lined corners in the early morning or within 24 hours of a rain. The trees block the sunlight and can leave water in the corners even though the unshaded part of the road is bone dry.

[chrisolson]

18 wheelers on the freeway where you can hear the staccato "slap, slap, slap" noise of one of the trailer tires, not knowing which one it is or when the thing might just decide to shred itself.

[dhb]

1. wet wooden bridge decks

2. wet brick roadway

3. steel, wet or dry

4. wet concrete floored water crossings (gravel roads)

5. following any vehicle whose driver's head does not surmount the back of his/her driver's seat.

6. approaching a sharp hill crest on a narrow gravel road.

 

Take Care out there,

Dave

[David]

5. following any vehicle whose driver's head does not surmount the back of his/her driver's seat.

 

 

Which means a very old female or very young male. At least according to my observation.

[dhb]

...or someone bending over to adjust their CD player, light a cigarette, coo at a child in the passenger seat, try to pick up something dropped on the floor...

Dave

[Mike O]

...g) Right hand curves on narrow roads with gravel shoulders, as that's when long trucks swing inside and "track" the gravel back onto the road.

 

You?

 

"How to low-side an RT for Dummies". g) above got me on that one. Gravel, sand, mixed with aggessive driver on an RT.

 

To the list I would add:

 

- Any car carrying something to large to close the trunk lid (so they really can't see out the back window AND they probably thought it would fit and didn't bring along anything to tie it down if it DIDN'T)

 

- Vehicle blasting RAP music SO LOUD I CAN HEAR IT WITH MY HELMET ON AND AZ. AL EAR PLUGS INSERTED.

 

Regards,

 

Mike O

[leikam]

In addition to what's already been mentioned...

 

a) Sportbike (or sport-touring) riders with bad technique. Who knows how much margin they have left for the next blind turn?

 

b) Vans hauling carpet with the rear doors hanging open.

 

c) LEOs on the freeway. Not because I fear getting a ticket myself, but because people do stupid things around them out of fear that they might get a ticket.

[steve.foote]

Vehicles pulling boats. Cooler lids, flotation devices, etc. frequently pop out of these.

[SageRider]

In addition to the above...

1) Cross traffic! (Outside of the city there are actually gaps where there is minimal cross traffic... Imagine that! )

2) Young kids playing near street.

3) Older kids horsing around.

4) Anyone concentrating more on showing off than on driving.

5) Anyone going a significantly different speed than the rest of traffic.

6) On the motorhome theme... We get alot of them emptying their gray tanks as they drive down the road.

7) Sand from road de-icing.

8) Shadowy places in the road at cold (read near freezing) temperatures.

9) Hoons ( I didn't just say that did I ??? )

[lawnchairboy]

those darn slicker than owl-snot metal grating sheets between the tracks of rail lines which are like ice on a wet day...

[myshkin]

In traffic when someone in the left lane stops and signals to oppsing cager wanting to turn left that it is ok to turn in front of them through the traffic coming down the right lane.

 

People on cell phones especially in Walmart parking lots.

 

Any vehicle coming towards me.

[onmyrt]

a car moving noticeably slower than the rest of us - probable cell phone in use

[tallman]

Regular concrete trucks that drop their hardened globs whilst I dodge them.

Regular concrete trucks that slow and stop in a turn lane and drop their still wet goo in the wrong place.

Garbage trucks that pee a slippery noxious fluid behind them.

Port-A-Let delivery trucks. Particularly the combo ones that suck 'em out and carry a couple units on the rear deck.

Any vehicle with Student Driver or Driving school on it.

Any vehicle I see with smokers in it. The ash flicking is generally followed by butt tossing.

Any pick up truck with Easy Rider Had A Happy Ending bumper sticker.

[bmwscoot]

To expand on the truck/semi bashing ...err... observations

 

These fr*ggin' dump trucks, either belly, side or back dumps.

 

These guys (around here, at least) NEVER go around and clean off the overfills and spills that rests outside the beds. You know...

that nice 1"-2" diameter rock that's coming off the truck and headed for you at the first bump this truck hits. Usually it's with them entering a main road, merging.

 

Oh, and I know it's popular, but...people on their cells, in particular, how about this one:

 

Last Friday (or was it Saturday ) evening around here, a 17 year old gurl, drops her cell while driving...bends down to retrive it, and of course yaws off the road into two pedestrians. Bruised up one of them pretty good, and broke the leg of the other one...

 

It's dangerous out there!

[bobiverson]

Great thread...

 

1. Dew on the roadway in the early morning hours.

 

2. Twisties that are lined with 3/8" steel rope barricades, knowing that they would slice my head clean off if I low side.

 

3. Any type of slow moving traffic.

 

4. Damp and blowing leaves in autumn.

 

5. A group of riders (Harley, BMW, doesn't matter -- groups act unpredictably and I avoid them at all costs).

 

6. Vehicles parked on the shoulder.

 

7. Left hand turns just northeast of Larry's River in Nova Scotia.

[K^2]

1. sand

 

2. sand

 

3. sand

 

Guess what my front wheel washed out on in a low side? Now every time I see it I slow to a crawl. Yikes!

[Voodoo]

My mother-in-law.

[DieselDave]

My mother-in-law.

 

I'd gladly take my chances with most of the above if I could avoid the Mother-in-Law!

[WyreNut]

How about a Mother In Law named Sandy!!!!

 

I hate having to dodge the "black snakes" in the road where street crews have tried to seal the cracks.

 

In the CA summers here, they melt and become slick as STP...

 

WyreNut

[russell_bynum]

My mother-in-law.

 

LOL!!!!!!

 

You're going straight to hell for that one!

[Voodoo]

My mother-in-law.

 

LOL!!!!!!

 

You're going straight to hell for that one!

 

[Hijack]She negotiated that as part of my pre-nup years ago.[/Hijack]

[Albert]

Motorhomes pulling compact cars. Never quite sure if they have enough experience getting it hooked up properly.

 

Carnival trucks. Hell the rides don't even look safe, let alone the tow vehicles.

[lexxol]

I watch for most of the same stuff mentioned previously. I also watch for the driver behind me moving around traffic using all lanes to gain a few hundred feet. I have had close encounters with these idiots in the past. They are so intent they rear end people almost every day on I-75.

[RichM]

cattle trucks

[Kitsap]

A mattress atop any small car.

 

Any vehicle when the driver is the bobble head.

 

Any vehicle when the front seat passenger is visible in a rythmic fashion

 

Bicycles.

 

The never ending blinker.

[Mike]

e) Any diesel motor home on a freeway entrance ramp with a license plate from a different state. Chances are decent that they've just filled up and forgot to put the fuel cap back on.

 

This reminds me of an incident last week. I was riding some rural roads and, in the middle of a curve, was hit with an overwhelming smell of diesel. It was a clear day and I could see nothing on the pavement. It may have been a spill elsewhere or just something that wafted my way from a nearby farm, but it definitely got my attention.

 

Back to your original question, I'm pretty tuned into loose loads of any nature--it's remarkable how casually people strap stuff on their cars/SUVs/pickups. Also, I tend to watch drivers to see if they're straining to read signs, check maps, etc.--drivers who are struggling to navigate in unfamiliar territory can be pretty unpredictable.

[BereIsland]

Great thread...

 

6. Vehicles parked on the shoulder.

 

 

Don't look at the vehicle on the shoulder, worry about what caused it to park there, a friend gave me that tip the day after I just missed a lump of broken tyre, too busy looking at the truck parked up

 

Steve Carter

[litigator]

1. Any Mercury Marquis in that kinda pink color.

2. Cars with their blinkers on when they first come into sight.

3. Cars with Florida plates in the Northeast.

4. Mercury Marquis in pink from Florida with their blinkers on (Assume they bought the car that way).

5. Did I mention Florida?

[Gregori]

Handlebars.

 

Because when those are in front of me, all that other stuff becomes FAR more hazardous.

 

G.

[beamergirl]

1) manure spreaders

 

2) log trucks with full capacity

 

3) leaves/pine needles

 

4) crops (like corn) at full height grown right up near the edge of the roads.

[Doppelganger]

Cannabis smoke/smell from some vehicle ahead of me...

[steveknapp]

Turn offs, gravel roads, and the like that pull debris onto the road.

 

Farmers working, going from field to field they often spread this or that....

 

Any vehicle hauling livestock.

[Wooster]

Similar to bmwscoot, trucks hauling gravel are on my list. Funny, I don't see them as major threats; it's just their propensity for trailing pea stones in their wake and damage done to my bike or car.

In tallman's list is something called "porto-let" which I take to be portable toilets (alternate name for Woodstock the movie, "Port-o-san"). Once trailing a flat bed hauling port-o-sans, one door flapped in the breeze emitting toilet paper tentacle. Whether in a trance or otherwise fixated, I passively watched this white snake wind its way to me and my RT as if in this world, helmeted knights joust with portable toilets and their protrusions.

Lastly, here in the boonies, disrepaired-looking tank trucks haul septic waste; an olfactory offense for any open air rider's behind (or words to that effect).

 

Wooster

 

medical definition of 'dilate'; patient lived longer than expected.

[MrHondamatic]

Road Apples. You know, the kind that horses drop on the road. We now have Amish in the area and their horses leave gifts along the way. Talk about slicker than..... Wait a minute, it is S**t!

[Bobmws]

Usually it's pieces of sod, numerous sod farms where I live. Last nite on the way home from work, approaching a drive through EZPass toll there is a Police car with flashing lights on the side of the road. 18 wheeler ahead of me moves 1/2 way into the left lane where I was about 1/4 mile back, I figure he's giving the LEO room, it's FL law to move over or slow down. Imagine my surprise to see an aluminum extension emerge from under his truck! Fortunately he straddled it and didn't send it flying. I guess the LEO was going to remove it.

[Couchrocket]

RR tracks that intersect country roads at angles darn near parallel to the roadway.

 

Cattle guards on rural roads that haven't been maintained in 100 years that are missing pieces! (spell that HOLE).

 

Any two vehicles in front of me that seem to be having some sort of "contest of wills." One can almost feel the tension . . .

 

And what David Hough calls "multiple hazards" where there are several innocent things all happening at once in the same zone in the road ahead of you. They can turn into a major CF and danger in a heartbeat.

[FerdiWan]

Alleged puddles on the roads in upstate NY in the spring. They have a nasty habit of hiding RT traps...

[MrHondamatic]

Ah yes, springtime for field work does leave some dirt on the roads. Which reminds me, harvest time always seems to leave corn and soybeans on the roads at intersections. The one at the highway on the way to the elevator in our town is especially bad. It's like riding through marbles. You definitely slow down and proceed with caution.

 

Illinois drivers are another hazard around here. They will slow way down and sometimes actually stop as they go through an intersection with just a flashing yellow light. Yeah, I know you are suppose to back off some, but some of these folks take it to the extreme. It can make you nervous when following one of these folks and an 18 wheeler is behind you.

[Foot]

Here is some of my favorites

 

1. The bown cloud that forms when farmers spread chicken shit on their fields, low visability and a terrible damn taste!

 

2. 18 Wheel Coal Trucks coming down a twisty fully loaded, with the front wheels on one side of the road and the rear wheels on the other.

 

3. Fall temperature inversion. 40 degrees on top of the mountain and 28 degrees and black ice at the bottom. Had the brown streaks on the underwear that day!

 

4. Following behind old men with hats or the dreaded bee hive blue hair. Both can't make up their mind which side of the road they belong on.

 

5. Farm tractors pulling a combine with no turn signals, real narrow miss on that one.

 

Alan

[pbbeck]

California drivers.

[Wooster]

Hmm, California, Illinois, Florida drivers, Mercury Marquis, careful now, we are moving in murky water.

I admit to not adding real information to this thread, e.g., funny story about portosans and word play with septic tank trucks; sorry, my lack of meaningful addition to caution list won't stop me from cautioning others !

Some statements are so right on (overloaded trucks, for example) yet others seem mere prejudice. Surely, certain California drivers have their peculiarities (there's Russell_Bynum too busy tracking two year old to read road signs !) but damning a state in entirity is painting with too broad a brush. Many years ago, I'd tell anyone who'd listen that overweight women smoking behind the wheel of Ford Pintos would be the death of me. Only later did I recognize the mosaic I'd made from my personal prejudices.

So, let's lighten up on fingering an entire state's driving population as NM (my adopted home) may be next.

 

Wooster

 

barium ? that's we do to patients who dilate.

[litigator]

Doppelganger's post reminds me a time in Italy, when my wife and I went through a cloud of marijuana smoke where the local carbinieri (police) were burning a field of it. A few miles later, when I pulled into the hotel parking lot, I brought the bike to stop, and simply dropped it on its side, in slow motion. She swears it was the MJ, and loves to tell the story. I claim it was the new to me power brakes on the rented 2001 RT.

[GelStra]

let's lighten up on fingering an entire state's driving population

Oh, and did we fail to mention all those drivers from that state south of Colorado?!

I agree with respect to California. You can't generalize. This place has become so dang crowded who knows where all these people are coming from?

[pbbeck]

Hmm, California, Illinois, Florida drivers, Mercury Marquis, careful now, we are moving in murky water.

I admit to not adding real information to this thread, e.g., funny story about portosans and word play with septic tank trucks; sorry, my lack of meaningful addition to caution list won't stop me from cautioning others !

Some statements are so right on (overloaded trucks, for example) yet others seem mere prejudice. Surely, certain California drivers have their peculiarities (there's Russell_Bynum too busy tracking two year old to read road signs !) but damning a state in entirity is painting with too broad a brush. Many years ago, I'd tell anyone who'd listen that overweight women smoking behind the wheel of Ford Pintos would be the death of me. Only later did I recognize the mosaic I'd made from my personal prejudices.

So, let's lighten up on fingering an entire state's driving population as NM (my adopted home) may be next.

 

Wooster

 

barium ? that's we do to patients who dilate.

 

You've obviously never been on the roads in California.

Perhaps you're right, though. Indicting an entire state is a bit broad. I should narrow it down to Los Angeles drivers!

 

I've lived here for almost 15 years, and in that time I've seen all the things that I used to only see on television, watching CHiPs as a kid. I remember telling my younger self that those outlandish scenarios were only a thing of TV fiction. I am here to tell you - they're not. SOP for a Los Angeles driver is: phone in one hand, juicy burrito in the other, drink propped between the knees, no signals, no using mirrors, sudden lane changes while slowing on the freeway, etc.

 

It's time to move.

[Wooster]

You've obviously never been on the roads in California.

 

pbbeck,

 

To tell the truth (with bad memory, can't get away w/fabrication), my last California road experience was long ago in a powder blue F100 pick-up truck.

 

Wooster

 

cow eating in front yard ? lawn mooer.

[MrHondamatic]

So, let's lighten up on fingering an entire state's driving population as NM (my adopted home) may be next.

 

Sorry, but Illinois drivers are the only ones I have seen stopping for flashing yellow caution lights. KY, OH, MI, and other state's drivers tend to keep rolling. I'd actually like to hear from an IL driver and have them explain this to me. I know we all tend to think the drivers from the next state are idiots, while we are the picture of perfection, but this phenomenon has nothing to do with that.

[jackflash]

a) Those little cement mixers towed behind pickup trucks. The driver usually can't see the trailer, and if s/he could, he'd notice that the tires suck and are out of round and/or underinflated. Watching those top heavy things weave around scares me to death.

 

b) Big loose things in pickup trucks.

 

c) Loads on flatbeds that are leaning to one side.

 

d) Ladders on bed racks with one little bungie strap at each end. Eek!

 

e) Any diesel motor home on a freeway entrance ramp with a license plate from a different state. Chances are decent that they've just filled up and forgot to put the fuel cap back on.

 

f) Any motor home, gas or diesel, climbing a long, slow grade. That's when you're likely to see overflowing coolant.

 

g) Right hand curves on narrow roads with gravel shoulders, as that's when long trucks swing inside and "track" the gravel back onto the road.

 

You?

 

You read my mind. I've seen many a ladder come off a truck and get run over by, so far, cages.

 

I pay very close attention to who and what I'm around when riding. That IS something I can control.