Almost--but I am a ninja and managed to remain upright.
[ 23 ] 82%
Total Votes : 28
n_claw
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:20 am
Joined: 02 Jul 2007Posts: 517Location: the only hill: Beacon
I know I have, and I know a lot of you have, too.
I'm trying to get a count so I can supply some of the figures to the Times's Mike Lindblom. If you have an account, I'd love to supply him with that, too.
The S.L.U.T. tracks, for those of you unfamiliar, are those of the South Lake Union Trolley, and run from downtown along Westlake.
EDIT: Goddammit, I had a "No, the ninja skills are strong in this one" option, too, but I don't know wtf happened to it or how to edit my poll.
Anyhow, details details.
Hope you're all upright and such.
-N*
the dreaded ben
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:23 am
Grumpy GreebJoined: 20 Aug 2005Posts: 5329Location: flavor country
a couple a no good honkies fell during critical mass.
i do believe one was a tall bike and it got a flat.
langston
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:26 am
Joined: 25 Jul 2005Posts: 5547Location: Columbia City
Last night, returning from REI. I had to perform laws-of-physics (inertia) defying maneuvers to get my rear wheel up and out of the track while trying to get over into the left lane with The SLUT behind me and gaining. Even more fun, I nearly merged into traffic on the left in my haste to not be run down or eat pavement.
Very difficult situation, and potentially catastrophic for less aware/skilled cyclists. Wait until one of the Times employees gets caught in the tracks and mowed down by the SLUT and you'll see front-page GROUND BREAKING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM wildly reinventing the proverbial wheel and scaring the suburbanites. Bikes are hard!
lantius
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:44 am
1337Joined: 22 Jul 2005Posts: 6705Location: right over
i haven't had a problem at all yet. but i give the SLUT tracks wide berth unless i've got tires wider than the slots.
ksep
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:46 am
Joined: 27 Jan 2007Posts: 1879Location: Westlake
Turning left from Valley westbound on to Westlake Ave N. southbound. My rear wheel went into the tracks and I had to put a foot down.
Poll lacks a 'no' option.
_________________ -Kevin
gsbarnes
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:59 am
Joined: 15 Aug 2006Posts: 2666Location: No Fun Town, USA
I vote Option 5: As a Mountain Bike rider, I'd like to thank Paul Allen for the new mountain biking facility so conveniently located near downtown Seattle.
_________________ I have always thought in the back of my mind: Cheese and Onions
snyd3282
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:36 am
could suck the fun out of a blowjobJoined: 23 Jul 2007Posts: 588Location: Ballard / Fremont
Folks, the times is doing a prominent story on this TOMORROW. If you'd like to have your crash featured, PM me or Nova soon, or get ahold of Mike Lindblom with the details of your crash.
Mike Lindblom
Transportation reporter
The Seattle Times
1120 John Street
Seattle, WA, 98109
Joined: 25 Jul 2005Posts: 5547Location: Columbia City
snyd3282 wrote:
Folks, the times is doing a prominent story on this TOMORROW.
Jeff, are you okay? Pink bike, hotpants & the fauxhawk still in one piece?
MikeOD
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:56 am
Joined: 04 Feb 2006Posts: 545
Last night on the way home from work I saw a crash on the tracks where the person's wheels got stuck. It wasn't a bike though, it was a car!
At the intersection of Fairview and Valley, heading west on Valley, the tracks go off to the right side of the road, right beside the sidewalk. It's a confusing intersection, especially for cars heading northbound on Fairview turning left onto Valley. They have to make more than a 90 degree turn in order to stay on the road. A 90 degree turn puts them onto the tracks. The intersection practically invites drivers to run off the road and onto the tracks and sidewalk.
The tracks next to the sidewalk are surrounded by shallow ditches filled with dirt. The car ran up onto the tracks, through the ditches, and got stuck half in the dirt and half on the sidewalk. Judging from all the tire tracks in the dirt along that section of track, it looks like the same thing has happened 3 or 4 times.
Are the SDOT engineers having a competition to see who can create the most dangerous intersection in the city?
vaticdart
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:47 pm
Joined: 02 Aug 2007Posts: 649Location: Inside a Bell
MikeOD wrote:
Last night on the way home from work I saw a crash on the tracks where the person's wheels got stuck. It wasn't a bike though, it was a car!
Was it a little blue two-door coup thing (might have also been a small sedan)? I saw someone do the exact same thing last night coming back from REI.
_________________ If the river was whiskey I'd turn myself into a duck, I'd dive to the bottom and never come up.
MikeOD
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:55 pm
Joined: 04 Feb 2006Posts: 545
vaticdart wrote:
MikeOD wrote:
Last night on the way home from work I saw a crash on the tracks where the person's wheels got stuck. It wasn't a bike though, it was a car!
Was it a little blue two-door coup thing (might have also been a small sedan)? I saw someone do the exact same thing last night coming back from REI.
I think so. When I went past around 7:30 the passenger was pushing and the driver spinning his wheels trying to get out of the ditch. I didn't stop to help push.
vaticdart
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 1:09 pm
Joined: 02 Aug 2007Posts: 649Location: Inside a Bell
MikeOD wrote:
vaticdart wrote:
MikeOD wrote:
Last night on the way home from work I saw a crash on the tracks where the person's wheels got stuck. It wasn't a bike though, it was a car!
Was it a little blue two-door coup thing (might have also been a small sedan)? I saw someone do the exact same thing last night coming back from REI.
I think so. When I went past around 7:30 the passenger was pushing and the driver spinning his wheels trying to get out of the ditch. I didn't stop to help push.
Yep, sounds like the same time. They made the turn just in front of me while I was in the left lane and they were in the right. It gave me a visual start because I was using them as my turn guide and suddenly they swung away, following other lines in the road, and I nearly followed. There was much honking and I wondered how bad of a situation they had gotten themselves into. Now I at least sort of know.
Damn funny to see though.
_________________ If the river was whiskey I'd turn myself into a duck, I'd dive to the bottom and never come up.
jeff
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:05 pm
SOC pussyJoined: 05 May 2006Posts: 4501
Mr. 75 Dollars wrote:
snyd3282 wrote:
Folks, the times is doing a prominent story on this TOMORROW.
Jeff, are you okay? Pink bike, hotpants & the fauxhawk still in one piece?
Still in one piece, thanks. I have commutted through this neighborhood for nearly 5 years. This neighborhood is littered with old tracks.
That said, I have never crashed because of the tracks. I may be retarded, but I do this crazy thing when I ride my bike: I pay attention to the road in front of me.
FieryIrie
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:16 pm
Joined: 25 Jun 2007Posts: 554Location: Wallingford
Yeah. I knew those things were going to be bad news when I watched them as they began building everything. I've been schooling in the South Lake Union area for the last year and have wearily been watching construction.I've been buying my coffee from KaPow! (next to the SLUT hub) where Jeremiah Johnston coined the phrase 'ride the slut!' and put it on a shirt that was briefly wildly popular.
Those tracks scare me witless. As a result I've never come close to crashing on them. Even when I'm traversing them at a 90 degree angle I fee like they're going to swallow my front tire. I get this sense of unsteadiness at any angle.
I actually saw the SLUT yesterday! Test run. It's big, purple and ugly.
Chris
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:18 pm
Joined: 18 Aug 2007Posts: 222Location: Seattle (Downtown)
FieryIrie wrote:
The SLUT is big, purple and ugly.
The SLUT: the flying purple people eater?
n_claw
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:20 pm
Joined: 02 Jul 2007Posts: 517Location: the only hill: Beacon
FieryIrie wrote:
Those tracks scare me witless. As a result I've never come close to crashing on them. Even when I'm traversing them at a 90 degree angle I fee like they're going to swallow my front tire. I get this sense of unsteadiness at any angle.
I actually saw the SLUT yesterday! Test run. It's big, purple and ugly.
Kind of like, umm...oh wait, your mom is none of those things. dammit.
I am respectful and mindful of the tracks, and have never taken a spill on them despite commuting over them for several months on a daily basis, EXCEPT the day of the first SLB ride in August. I'd barely slept all week and had been spending every free moment (and a lot of others that weren't free, too!) promoting the ride and I was running on PURE adrenaline. I took a nasty nasy spill but popped right up and continued to ride. I didn't even notice that I was bleeding (or how badly) until we were almost ready to ride. The largest gash literally took months to stay closed.
zuvembi
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:48 pm
Joined: 24 Jul 2005Posts: 942Location: Little Addis Ababa
I haven't gone down on the tracks, but I've been taken out by the shitty uneven roadwork around it. I'm not sure how that counts.
jeff
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:36 am
SOC pussyJoined: 05 May 2006Posts: 4501
I saw the craziest thing evar this morning. A cyclist was riding on Westlake!
How did he avoid getting chewed up and butt raped by the tracks? He took the lane.
That's some crazy shit right there!
Seven
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 11:22 am
suddenly quite whiny!Joined: 24 Aug 2007Posts: 345Location: Cap Hill
I've never fallen, but one I I was in heavy traffic with no choice but to cross 'em. When I did my rear tire got caught, but when I popped it out, it threw my chain and locked up my rear tire. So I just rode out the skid and jumped off to throw my chain back on. No big deal really, just kind of pissed me off more than anything. I guess if it had been wetter out I probably would have been fucked.
SKETCHY
Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 11:12 am
Joined: 25 Aug 2007Posts: 336Location: Everywhere
No, I haven't fallen on the SLUT, I like the SLUT. And I like the SLUT tracks and everything about there location because you people FUCKING Don't.
AHHHHH THE SLUT
_________________ Pissing the world off since 1973.
TrikerTrev
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:29 am
Joined: 23 Oct 2006Posts: 2303Location: FOCO, MOFO!!!
SKETCHY wrote:
balh, blah... I like the SLUT tracks and everything about there location because you people FUCKING Don't.
is that also why you like having sex with small, domesticated mammals?
SKETCHY
Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:30 am
Joined: 25 Aug 2007Posts: 336Location: Everywhere
TrikerTrev wrote:
SKETCHY wrote:
balh, blah... I like the SLUT tracks and everything about there location because you people FUCKING Don't.
is that also why you like having sex with small, domesticated mammals?
DON'T FORGET THE WILD ONES TOO
_________________ Pissing the world off since 1973.
snyd3282
Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:34 am
could suck the fun out of a blowjobJoined: 23 Jul 2007Posts: 588Location: Ballard / Fremont
Patrick posted this over on Cascade's forums:
We at CBC have heard concerns from many of you about the streetcar tracks. We have friends who've had serious crashes on them. That's why we're talking with SDOT now about the issue. Next year we'll be bringing together transportation officials from Portland and Seattle in a forum to create a set of best practices for making the streetcar system bike-safe as it is expanded.
It's obvious that the initial Seattle Streetcar line presents problems for bicyclists, but we know from Portland's example that it doesn't have to be that way -- bikes and streetcars can coexist peaceably. When done right, they benefit each other, just like bikes and buses or bikes and light rail.
-------------------------
Patrick McGrath
Advocacy Organizer
Cascade Bicycle Club
Eric_s
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:38 pm
Joined: 07 Mar 2007Posts: 1691Location: the dirty south
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