I attended the Million Pound Game this afternoon at Lamport Stadium, and after a disappointing Wolfpack loss, rode my bike west to enjoy dinner with the fam. On the Waterfront Trail, just west of Norris Crescent, I was set up to fail by the city itself.
I was cruising around 22 km/h in the new separated bike lane between Norris Crescent and First Street when I suddenly crashed to the ground. In my life, which includes approximately 50,000 km of city cycling, I have only ever crashed due to rain, snow, ice, or most recently, a bike-on-bike collision by the Palais Royale. This time, I hit the ground hard, and had no idea what caused the crash.
Luckily, unlike my last crash, no bones were broken. I scraped my leg and tore up my hand, but otherwise survived unscathed. An Uber driver and his customer witnessed my crash, and once they discovered I was okay, were quick to point out I had hit this stump where a sign was once posted. I took a couple of pictures of this stump I hit. I didn't see it, but it sure took me out.
I was so angry, because it's one thing to crash due to mother nature, and another thing to crash because a cyclist veers into you, but this is completely unacceptable. The city cut down a sign and left a six inch stump without so much as a pylon in place to alert cyclists like myself. Its pure luck that I didn't break anything and my bike is relatively okay. I put my chain back on and slowly pedaled home.
I'm contacting 311 and asking them to either remove this stump or put a marker on top so cyclists can see it and avoid it. It's tough enough to cycle in this city, we certainly don't need to be set up for failure.
