Cyclist crashes straight into parked cop motorcycle.pic.twitter.com/mW4H9Zk0fg
— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) March 22, 2026
While it's tempting to attribute this to idiocy, I don't think it is. If you replay the video a few times, you see that the biker was in an uncomfortable position: he'd been using the shoulder as his bike lane (which, depending on the state, can be legal or not—freeway biking is not encouraged), and the traffic to his left was relentless. I think he was trying to thread the needle between the parked vehicles and the traffic, and he simply miscalculated. The alternative is ridiculous: You have to believe the biker simply wasn't paying attention, but that's all bikers do when they're biking! A biker's attention can't waver for even a fraction of a second because road hazards are everywhere, even when bikers aren't on freeways. And I'm sure the biker was aware of the cameraman's car, which was right on his ass, and which might actually have been the cause of the cyclist's difficulty. So while the scene is admittedly hilarious and feels like revenge for all of the rude bikers who stray into pedestrian lanes, in this one case, my sympathy is entirely with the biker.
While I'd like to say that he was focussed on the car and the hike just blended in, I think he would have hit the car anyway. It's more likely that, assuming that part kf the road woyld be empty, he had his head tucked in for aerodynamics just keeping an eye out a metre or two in front of him for any potholes, debris etc.
ReplyDeleteSo if I understand you correctly, you're suggesting narrowed awareness? Interesting. If true, then the video is a good object lesson.
DeleteIf you're worried about speed/time you need to keep your head down for maximum aerodynamics. So on roads where there's an expectation of no obstacles, top cyclists keep their heads down and only look up every ten seconds or so.
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