That record just ended.
San Francisco has a couplet of one-way streets: Fell, and Oak. As they cross Van Ness (US 101), they jog up a block before crossing Market (main street) and bending south to become 9th/10th.
I was riding to work at the end of last week. I had just swooped up from EB Oak onto EB Fell, about to cross Van Ness and hit 10th. As I filtered through traffic, I noticed the woman in the white SUV ahead of me on the right was staring at her phone in her lap. I slowed to a crawl, keeping my attention on her until she put hers back on the road. The light turns green. A black SUV comes whizzing past my left shoulder and 💥 high-fives my mirror with his. He kept going and hung a left on Van Ness (the intersection I was about to cross).
I followed him, rolled up to his passenger window, and got his attention: "Hey! You just hit me!" He roars back "No, you hit me!! You were between lanes; you were in the wrong!!"
I felt like I was being gaslit. I clearly remembered him speeding by my left shoulder and colliding with my mirror. He looked like a regular, upstanding dude - he was probably somebody's dad - and he was adamant that I had hit him. I check the mirrors again: mine is spun around, and his is folded back towards his passenger window. The mark my mirror left on his black paint is obvious. As the mirrors testify, he was clearly the aggressor. I glance down my left side, and don't see any other evidence of the crash on either vehicle. A shouting match over a scratched mirror (plus having to deal with Shouting Match Guy in any capacity in the future) doesn't feel like a winning move. He had already driven off once, so he clearly doesn't want to file an anything. I let it go, and we go our separate ways......our metaphorical separate ways anyway: because I had turned onto Van Ness to chase him down, I missed my turn. The next turn was one-way the wrong direction, so I ended up behind him again at the following light. My phone was in my pocket, so I snapped a quick photo of his plate. His door slams, and he starts marching towards me. I'm afraid the situation is about to escalate, so I make my turn and head towards the office. As I do, he gets out his phone and shouts "TWO CAN PLAY AT THIS GAME!"
I was disoriented the whole way to the office. I realized I should have found a safe place to stop and collect myself. The joints in my left arm: wrist, elbow, and shoulder all hurt. I'm guessing they got a non-consensual stretch when he hit my mirror (while my hands were on the bars). Five days later, my left shoulder still hurts (although I imagine the injuries people get e.g. snowboarding or mountain biking are about the same level of sore).
I'm not sure if I handled it well. The aggressively unaccountable guy scared me. I never imagined I'd be in a wreck without exchanging info, but in the moment it seemed like my scratched mirror was the worst of the damage, and he was ready to escalate it into something nasty. I don't know if it resulted from the physical injury or just the mental shock of being hit, but my cognitive faculties were impaired, and being boldfacedly lied to about what had just happened certainly didn't help. In retrospect, I don't know if Irate Dad was really about to pick a fight with me, but it felt that way in the moment. Could I have calmly approached the situation in a way that de-escalated his rage, and allowed us to exchange information in a civil way? I don't know, but it unfortunately wasn't accessible to me at the time.
I had a nice weekend. There's a local diner called Alice's. It's a legendary hang for motos and fancy cars, up on the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. I haven't been in a while, and I've been meaning to go back. A friend just bought her first Vespa - it literally had 50 miles on it Sunday morning. We probably rode about 100 miles round-trip. Alice's retooled itself: table service is gone - now you order at the front, and then go find a picnic bench. It's the perfect setup for that kind of place, and the burgers were great too! I was proud of her for saying yes to the ride and making it the whole way. Was a really lovely day.
I was back at work again yesterday - first day back with Daylight Savings Time. I was still a little spooked from Thursday, and definitely aware that the sun is right in everybody's eyes on the way home. I'm approaching that section where the couplet shifts, one block north of where I was hit Thursday. I'm in the left turn lane, riding towards the stoplight. Just before the light, a presumptive Uber driver stops in the middle of the onward lane and flips on his hazards. The person behind him swerves into my lane, without using his blinkers or checking if the lane is clear. I grabbed my brakes and felt the ABS kick in. I needed about six more inches of stopping distance. My fender cracks against the bumper of his brand new Rav-4.
I got his attention, and he pulled over. The curb lane on this street has been converted to outdoor dining, so we're now stopped in the road where the Uber driver was. He gets out. I explain to him that I was in the lane he swerved into, and that he didn't use his blinker. He insists he was already in the left lane. I tried to remind him about the stopped car that he swerved around (and into me), but he's still confused. We calmly traded information. I checked for cameras nearby (I didn't see any), and made my way home to file the insurance claim. Traffic kept flowing around us, so I don't think there were witnesses to check with.
I still can't believe I was in two wrecks on two adjacent commutes, especially after 25,000 problem-free miles. It sucks that my fender is cracked, but the second encounter was so much better. Nobody got hurt, and we calmly traded information. It's what's supposed to happen.
As it happens, I renewed my insurance policy yesterday morning, before the guy stopped short in front of me. If it's less than $1000 in damage, the claim doesn't affect your record. We both have State Farm, and there's barely a scratch on the other guy's bumper. Hopefully the process going forward is relatively painless.
I feel like I'm a good rider: assertive, but not reckless, and definitely not the 100mph-crushing-monster most motorcycle riders seem to be. I anticipate what the people around me are going to do, and behave accordingly (although I didn't slow soon enough when that guy cut me off yesterday). Riding after the slip in Italy felt weird - I didn't have as much confidence in turns, which is not a good spot to be in when you're riding.
After this past week, I should probably reassess riding in the city. Do I need to change my approach? Are there too many distracted/oblivious/entitled people staring at their phones and stopping in the middle of the block that make these sort of crashes inevitable? Am I going to end up getting properly hurt if I keep relying on a motorcycle as my primary form of transportation?
It's hard to imagine changing my riding habits - I really love the mobility, the ease of getting around, the access to nature - everything that comes with riding. Alice's, for instance, was great; and I wouldn't have done it without the Vespa. Then again, I don't want to be permanently hurting because I decided Vespas were cool when I lived in SF.
I've also got to think about gear:
The mirrors are the widest part of a Vespa. I pay special attention to them when I'm filtering past an SUV to make sure our mirrors can clear each other. I hadn't considered that one might try to pass me and clip mine. I wonder if I should be looking into shorter mirrors, and what the visibility tradeoffs would be.
I also wonder about riding cameras. I've heard people say they're essential for insurance claims. Without having filed any claims, they seemed like more hassle than they're worth, but now I've got two situations that are primarily my word against the other person's. The damage in the first case is clearly the other guy's fault, but in the second case, there's no physical evidence for "this guy cut me off."
I talked to someone at my insurance agent's office this morning. I told him there was another wreck last week, that the other guy intimidated me, and that I didn't like the optics of "I got in two wrecks and they were both the other guy's fault!" He reassured me that sometimes life goes that way. He also told me I did the right thing by not engaging with the irate driver. He's gonna talk to my agent. I should probably get my shoulder looked at, and then decide if it's worth opening another claim.
Funnily enough, there's one more claim that I've been putting off. In Sept 2020, someone knocked my Vespa over. The only obvious damage was to the fender and the mirror. I've hesitated to file, because I don't want to be out-of-pocket if it turns out the other car is uninsured. Now my fender is certainly going to be replaced, and I might end up replacing the mirrors too. I won't have those scratches nagging at me, and I don't have to file that claim.
