Thursday, April 24, 2008

Smith System

I apparently forgot to hit the Publish Post button on Thursday.

I had my Smith System driving class today. It's very similar to the segment of the MSF class dealing with traffic avoidance and strategies. The Smith class is geared toward commercial trucks that are much heavier than a motorcycle and so the time/distance allowances are larger than in the MSF. The major difference is the driving test is not a controlled course. We had to drive the truck with our instructor sitting in the passenger seat and give a running commentary of approach times, following times, potential threats, and traffic patterns. It was all quite fun, actually.



As far as the commute goes, the traffic this afternoon tried to make up for the light traffic of the past few days. I did get a chance to watch a lot of people merge into a solid line of traffic, of which I was a part. Fortunately for me, all of the drivers saw me and none tried to share the spot I was occupying. It goes to show that two of the most important aspects to tackling commuting on a bike are as follows: see and be seen. I need to not only do all I can to insure that other drivers notice me, I need to proactively avoid the drivers around me and assume that they don't see me.

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