Almost had a big one.

JPKalishek said:

This is the exit ramp, BTW.
Though, if there is a crash there, there is usually an ambulance sitting at the Shell Station just up the road a few yards.



Yes, but then I have had folks stop coming off the ramp, even when all the service road traffic was sitting still.




it was a close thing. The Ford was a Crew Cab long bed SuperDuty ... that's a lot of truck to miss



Now, Thanks Y'all.
I'm off to make the same commute to work again.

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I hate that type of intersection!!

Glad you found a way out!!!

Dennis

JP - Glad to hear your OK and bike is undamaged (Possibly need to check for pucker marks on seat tho). Hell of way to get the vacationing out of the system. Those are nasty intersections and even peering ahead to watch traffic developing still doesn't help reading the other driver's mind, assuming it is even in use at the time.

Congrats that U made the Save, and U'r OK. Nice work handling it all, and missing everything. It can get crazy at those intersections !
Always liked those Access Roads, BUT still can't believe they're 2 WAY!! They've been around for a long time, and there are a few here, but not like Texas. SO, from the Freeway, I always approach them VERY slowly, and play it like none of that cross traffic can see me, and try to let it all clear before I'm in the picture. Lots of those in ARK. too - LOL & Lookout !

Glad you got out of that situation ok,I had a close call today myself,not as bad as yours but could have been very serious and totally my own fault.
I'd been touring Achill island on the west coast of Ireland enjoying the great spell of weather we are having.
Anyway on the fast main road between Wesport and Castlebar I'm in the flow of traffic probably around 65-70mph.now I'm usually very alert but today I was a bit hungover and tired,had done a lot of sight seeing on Achill island, and had the St up some roads not fit for a tractor,such a great bike.stunning scenery too.
Anyway I'm in fast moving line of traffic and all of a sudden I see brake lights right in front of me,the car was braking and then indicated to turn right,rem we drive on the left here,luckily I was far enough to left side of the lane that I just shaved past the car by about a ft I'd say,I was absent minded,thinking probably about things to do at home etc. scared the life out of me.
I normally am very observant and keep well back or at least am totally tuned in to what's going on,but today I was daydreaming and had a lucky escape.

Glad to hear you are ok. Heck of way to start back to work. Sounds like you may another vacation!

Good job, thanks for the report. Always good to be reminded of idiots....

JPKalishek said:

This is the exit ramp, BTW.
Though, if there is a crash there, there is usually an ambulance sitting at the Shell Station just up the road a few yards.



Yes, but then I have had folks stop coming off the ramp, even when all the service road traffic was sitting still.




it was a close thing. The Ford was a Crew Cab long bed SuperDuty ... that's a lot of truck to miss



Now, Thanks Y'all.
I'm off to make the same commute to work again.

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Our ramps are a lot shorter down here. This is the exit for Main Street in Salado, the ramp may be 30 yards long and has a speed limit of 25 mph. Idiots come off there at 75 mph and because of the angles involved, its hard to tell if they are exiting or still on the freeway until they enter that last little portion before the access road! The on ramps are just as bad, almost a 90 degree turn then a very short acceleration lane to the main lanes.

JPKalishek said:

This is the exit ramp, BTW.

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Ah, now I understand your description of the incident. As I've never seen an intersection like that before (and can't imagine why anyone would design such an accident-in-waiting) I couldn't visualize the situation from your description. I'm very glad we don't have anything like that in Alberta.

Glad everything worked out okay for you.

MajorTom said:

Ah, now I understand your description of the incident. As I've never seen an intersection like that before (and can't imagine why anyone would design such an accident-in-waiting) I couldn't visualize the situation from your description. I'm very glad we don't have anything like that in Alberta.

Glad everything worked out okay for you.

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Welcome to Texas (though there are a few other states that do this).
Where my house is the service road has to be two way or one cannot get to it without going an additional 6-7 miles

MajorTom said:

Ah, now I understand your description of the incident. As I've never seen an intersection like that before (and can't imagine why anyone would design such an accident-in-waiting) I couldn't visualize the situation from your description. I'm very glad we don't have anything like that in Alberta.

Glad everything worked out okay for you.

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Since we are in Texas regularly I can tell you from personal experience that these ramps can be scary and they are not a very good design at all. If you are not totally sure of how they work it can be a problem.

Even the locals have accidents at them on occasion.

I'm always happy to have my own personal Texan (Jan ) with me when we are there. The first time I saw the ramps she had to explain how they work.

broc11 said:

...I was absent minded,thinking probably about things to do at home etc.
...
today I was daydreaming and had a lucky escape.

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Such are conditions one should a) learn recognize instantly (early acknowledgement arms you to snap out of such right now) and b) avoid riding at all...
(BTDT in '96, occupied mind due kinda "life crisis", running on "auto-pilot" on a way too familiar route... and the anomaly traffic situation waiting for me... learned a lot there about how the mind works though...


I wonder why those access road/ramp merges are not at least secured by yield or stop signs?
The sharp intersection angles make it pretty hard to spot rearwards, over your shoulder...
In the bike (and the panel van) I swerve to place myself at a nearly 90? angle to get proper view.

ST1100Y said:

Such are conditions one should a) learn recognize instantly (early acknowledgement arms you to snap out of such right now) and b) avoid riding at all...
(BTDT in '96, occupied mind due kinda "life crisis", running on "auto-pilot" on a way too familiar route... and the anomaly traffic situation waiting for me... learned a lot there about how the mind works though...


I wonder why those access road/ramp merges are not at least secured by yield or stop signs?
The sharp intersection angles make it pretty hard to spot rearwards, over your shoulder...
In the bike (and the panel van) I swerve to place myself at a nearly 90? angle to get proper view.

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There are yeild signs. Here is the Google Street view of the exit and for a view of the sign Look Here
a few do have stop signs (the opposite side of that exit on the southbound has one for the northbound oncoming traffic at the entrance to I35w. The hill makes it blind so they have the stop sign there). All the rest have yield signs for the other traffic. the issue even at the Stop sign is people just plain not paying attention. Nearly every person who has pulled in front of me, or squeezed me off, or otherwise made me nervous had a (expletive deleted) cell phone stuck to the side of their head, or worse, texting on the !@#$! thing. The others were just not paying attention.
I went down on my XL250S once because of autopilot. They had "repaired the road with tar and gravel and I was sleepy and tooling home on autopilot. As I bent into the corner my mind finally caught up to my riding and screamed "loose gravel in this corner moron!" I made the corner but was well out of position to make the next, so I had to lay it down, as that was the best option I left myself. That or hit a mail box (large bricked over one), a power pole, or the signage for the oncoming traffic.

JPKalishek said:

There are yeild signs. Here is the Google Street view of the exit and for a view of the sign Look Here
a few do have stop signs (the opposite side of that exit on the southbound has one for the northbound oncoming traffic at the entrance to I35w. The hill makes it blind so they have the stop sign there). All the rest have yield signs for the other traffic. the issue even at the Stop sign is people just plain not paying attention. Nearly every person who has pulled in front of me, or squeezed me off, or otherwise made me nervous had a (expletive deleted) cell phone stuck to the side of their head, or worse, texting on the !@#$! thing. The others were just not paying attention.
I went down on my XL250S once because of autopilot. They had "repaired the road with tar and gravel and I was sleepy and tooling home on autopilot. As I bent into the corner my mind finally caught up to my riding and screamed "loose gravel in this corner moron!" I made the corner but was well out of position to make the next, so I had to lay it down, as that was the best option I left myself. That or hit a mail box (large bricked over one), a power pole, or the signage for the oncoming traffic.

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I can't believe you said that. An experienced rider will know that "Laying it down" is never a "best option". Sounds like something a Harley rider would say.
Or an inexperience newbie rider.
"I had to lay her down". What a joke.

Blue One said:

I can't believe you said that. An experienced rider will know that "Laying it down" is never a "best option". Sounds like something a Harley rider would say.
Or an inexperience newbie rider.
"I had to lay her down". What a joke.

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Likely not a joke as it probally really hurt. Correct termonology would be: "I crashed".

Blue One said:

I can't believe you said that. An experienced rider will know that "Laying it down" is never a "best option". Sounds like something a Harley rider would say.
Or an inexperience newbie rider.
"I had to lay her down". What a joke.

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Right, then I should have impaled or impacted myself on the scenery? There comes a point when you've messed up it is "Can I ride this out? Or am I going to die trying to do so?"
If it is the later .... In the words of Guy Martin at Ballagarey in 2010 "Jump Ship" (but I wasn't about to low side at 165 mph, thankfully) ... but you think it is better to say "Well, I lost an arm, broke a leg, and had brain damage ... but I rode it all the way!"
Of the alternatives available to me from my lack of attention, staying upright was not one of them (I was totally out of position on loose pea gravel on hard chipseal) ... I had a choice head ons with a bricked in Mailbox, a culvert (with a Tpost & sign for added meat removal not to mention the deep ditch I was going to drop into and likely cause an endo into said Tpost), and a power pole ... Or slide me and the bike on the chip seal by turning with the corner I wasn't going to make and cause the bike to low side (also known as laying it down ... far better than a High Side but the pea gravel assured I was going to crash) and each take their chances. The bike did slightly contact the mailbox, and I was surprised it stayed out of the ditch. I just had a slight bruise from hitting the chip seal.

But hey, if you think it is better to stuff it into Brick wall (or in this case, a mailbox) or what have you, yeah, you go right ahead. I'll weigh my chances and try for the least damaging course of action. Even better, I'll try not to ride on autopilot so I make stupid mistakes. That works best anyhow.

Brant said:

Likely not a joke as it probally really hurt. Correct termonology would be: "I crashed".

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Got off with a minor bruise. But in describing a crash, how best does one say they were knowingly taking a course that guaranteed a lowside vs not going down ....until you hit hard into immovable objects? Sounds to me like I HAD to do something ... letting the bike skitter along on its side was my least worst choice. I guess I really coulda just jumped off and let it ghost ride into the landscape ... hard to avoid hitting stuff people want you to pay for when you do that though.

JPKalishek said:

Got off with a minor bruise. But in describing a crash, how best does one say they were knowingly taking a course that guaranteed a lowside vs not going down ....until you hit hard into immovable objects? Sounds to me like I HAD to do something ... letting the bike skitter along on its side was my least worst choice. I guess I really coulda just jumped off and let it ghost ride into the landscape ... hard to avoid hitting stuff people want you to pay for when you do that though.

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Makes perfect sense to me what you done,common sense to avoid hopping yourself of a brick mailbox.

broc11 said:

Makes perfect sense to me what you done,common sense to avoid hopping yourself of a brick mailbox.

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Glad that isn't my route to work any longer, going through those corners reminded me of being a bozo and blundering in too fast, It was also the route where I tossed the Black down a ditch (the last time I took it I stepped in spilled gas and had a tip over )

sounds like I should slow down ...
nah.