Some of My Favorite Roads

If a picture is worth a thousand words, video must be worth billions and billions. Here's some video from the ride that I lead Saturday for the Harpeth Bike Club.

This first is not actually the ride, but me going to the ride. Well, to be honest, I'm actually going directly opposite of the direction that I would have to go to get to the ride -- I'm biking to Panera before the ride to get a scone and a cup of coffee.

Ah, the things I won't do to get in an extra 20 miles.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite little roads for heading this way, because it's closed to cars. Hence, the only vehicles that I encounter on this stretch of road are the people that live there, and they tend to be nice to people on bicycles.

Notice the stop sign and bars. If there's a downside to this road, it is that sometimes the traffic is so light that it gets a lot of debris after a storm. I can live with that.

I shut off the camera partway up the climb. Here's the descent. I actually saw another rider going up this hill Saturday, even though it was just barely 6 am.

From here, I got on Edmundson Pike. There's video of that, and you can sort of tell how pretty the sky was, but it's kind of long. Instead, I'll give you video of the next road on my Path to Panera -- Old Smyrna.

The speed bumps kind of make it roller-coaster-y, don't you think? I tried to pan the camera to one side so that you could see some of the estates along this road, but the lighting wasn't right. Don't ask me about the weird way that the lady was running -- must be some kind of upper-body workout thing.

After this, I was getting close to Brentwood. There was a 5K at Maryland Farms, which is part of Brentwood, and there were a lot of cars driving past me along this stretch. Normally, it's pretty empty at this time of day. The good thing was that, since these were athletes on their way to a run, they passed me with lots of room. Athletes tend to understand that you should not crowd other athletes on the road.

With scone in belly and coffee cup full, I turned back southward towards Page High School and the ride start. A mild wind out of the south had come up, so I had to kind of time trial my way south for those 15 miles. It worked out in that I was on time, and I think Max Watzz appreciated the workout.

One last favorite road I'm going to show you here is Cross Keys Road, which we turned on just after going over Pulltight Hill. It's smooth and shady -- excellent attributes for any road with the way temperatures have been lately. At the end of the video, we're turning on to Choctaw Road, which may be even better.

Unfortunately, it's big so I had to upload it to YouTube.

You can just hear my nattering little voice in the background. Too many words.

Happy Anniversary

One week ago today marked the two-year anniversary of the sentencing of Tommy Lee Carroll to eight years in prison.

Mr. Carroll is the Friendsville, TN, man who ran over Jeff Roth in Maryville in 2006. This was one of the events that precipitated the passage of the Jeff Roth and Brian Brown Bicycle Protection Act of 2007, which makes it illegal for motorists to pass a bicycle without maintaining a distance of at least three feet. Breaking this law is a Class C misdemeanor, with the penalty being "not greater than thirty (30) days in jail or a fine not to exceed fifty dollars ($50.00), or both, unless otherwise provided by statute."

In the three years since the Three-Foot Law went into effect, I cannot find evidence that any driver has been cited for breaking it. This is even more interesting in light of the fact that a number of cyclists have been hit by automobiles during that time. Two cyclists -- David Meek of Chattanooga and Sharon Covington Bayler in Fayetteville -- were struck and killed by vehicles, but the drivers were not cited for violating the three-foot law.

Somehow, those drivers managed to hit and kill the cyclists while maintaining three feet of distance. Not only were they not charged with vehicular homicide, they didn't have to pony up $50 to the State of Tennessee.

In other anniversary news, one year ago today the Tennessee law that bans texting while driving went into effect. A locals news station this morning reported that 19 tickets have been issued so far.

Yes, that is state-wide that 19 tickets have been issued for texting while driving. I see more than 19 people texting while driving every morning on my way in to work.

Distracted driving accounted for 20% of the accidents in 2008. Cyclists -- because we are smaller and rarer than cars -- are more vulnerable to this because drivers are not looking for us, don't expect us, and don't see us. When you add to that mix a driver tweeting about the epic burrito he had for lunch, you get an equation that all too often yields an injured or dead cyclist.

Maybe it's hard to spot drivers texting. I'd like to know how many of the 19 tickets were issued after an accident, when the driver said something like "Gee, officer, I just didn't see him because I was watching this hilarious video of a dog on a unicycle on my iPhone." Most people sitting in traffic next to a cop probably don't whip out their cell phones and start text messaging somebody, just as they don't tend to take a long pull from that bottle of Jim Beam lying in the passenger seat.

Traffic cameras might be a better way to spot drivers texting, but there aren't very many of those (in spite of the way it seems on "CSI"). We can't expect the phone manufacturers or carriers to do anything, like report texting activity from a moving vehicle, since that could be bad for business -- although most parents would probably pay extra for a feature that would disable texting on their kids' cell phone when it's moving.

I don't necessarily want to live in a police state where my every move is being monitored, via hidden cameras or cell phone towers or killer robots. But I wouldn't mind local law enforcement doing a little more ... I don't know ... enforcement of the law?! At least the ones where it's obvious when somebody breaks it, as with the 3-foot law.