Safety: Let’s Talk about Posts
There’s a bollard on the ramp in the middle of the path to the left before turning right onto the Springwater Corridor Trail.
Let’s talk about posts, and I don’t mean social media. Bollards, poles, that kind of posts… You may or may not know that I crashed on a club ride exactly one year ago. A post suddenly appeared in front of me, and I didn’t clear it in time to avoid the fall. You may wonder how someone could collide with a post. You see them all the time, and they’re so obvious. It wasn’t like there was a stationary post in front of me and I hit it head on. I didn’t see it, until . . . it was too late!
I was on the Monday Morning Meander, and we had taken an extra little jaunt up to SE Rugg Road for a few extra miles. We were enjoying the downhill heading west on SE Telford Road in Boring. At the T-intersection of SE Telford Road & SE 252nd Avenue, it’s not perpendicular but more of an S-curve back onto the Springwater Corridor Trail. We were making a left-hand turn from Telford, crossing 252nd onto a short, connecting segment before turning right onto the trail; however, I didn’t remember there was a bollard there.
We were all riding in a single-file line coming down Telford, and I was toward the back. The riders in front of me made the left-hand turn, and I followed. However, they didn’t stay in a single-file line. They spread out side by side as they maneuvered the transition. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m 5’2”. I don’t know how tall the riders in front of me were, but tall enough that I couldn’t see around them. Then, it happened! ✎
You can see the green post with red-and-white stripe in front of our group.
There were several variables that contributed to my accident. You may think when you’re riding that you don’t need to call out “Post,” and you may wish that others wouldn’t either. Perhaps it interrupts your commune with your ride, and you think, “I have eyes, I can see” and assume that’s true for everyone. As a short rider, I appreciate it when riders ahead of me call out things I might not be able to see before I get there. On that day, I did not hear anyone announce the post. If I had heard someone alert “Post,” I would’ve had more time to prepare; however, I heard no warnings.
Another thing occurred, perhaps because of our speed coming from a fun descent, as our group was negotiating the double turn on the S-curve, because there were no oncoming pedestrians or cyclists, our group split and took both sides of the path around the one bollard in the center. There weren’t two straight lines of riders, though, on each side of the bollard; the lines were staggered, which obscured the post from my vision. As the two tall riders immediately in front of me divided, one went left and one went right, I saw it! I didn’t hit the post directly. I tried to steer hard right, and my front wheel missed it, but my left foot hit the post and/or I was leaning too much to the right with my handlebars to maintain balance – and I struck the evil bollard and went down!
If someone had called out “Post,” I would’ve heard the warning. If all the riders had stayed to the right of the post, I would’ve seen the bollard. I suppose if I hadn’t been following so closely, I would’ve had the advantage of visual distance, but then again that’s part of the fun, riding with the group. The result was my first ambulance ride and a pelvis fractured in two places. If you ask me, I want other riders to clue me in when there are posts, particularly the ones that don’t appear predictably. If you ask me, it would help if other riders always ride to the right of bollards unless there’s an obstacle or a hazard and everyone is riding left of the post and communicating the change of routine to the riders in back. But please remember that the riders behind you are depending on you.
Everyone who was on the ride that day stayed with me until the ambulance came, and I think it only took about ten minutes. Mentally, emotionally, I don’t know who it was tougher on, me or the other riders who were there. I’ve had to work through some fears when approaching posts or going through narrow points on bike paths, but less now. I am grateful when other riders yell “Post” – not that I need every single post announced, for example, when we’re riding on a long stretch of the Springwater Corridor Trail, and the posts come in pairs every hundred yards or so. But I had ridden Telford Road in the past and on that day had forgotten about that one post in the middle before you get back on the trail. I am extremely happy to be back riding again, overcoming my fear of posts, and hope that you – and those you ride with – never collide with a post.
Lynn Blanchard, Editor