I saw something last week that totally blew me away.
I was in Jackson, TN doing some traffic engineering work for a friend which included recording the movement of vehicles through intersections. I was standing on the sidewalk, maybe 100 feet from a busy intersection doing my work. In the direction past my position the divided, four-lane road went slightly down hill and straight for 0.6 miles before turning gently left. There was very little development, if any, in that direction...clear road, no driveways as far as you could see.
The light controlling traffic coming toward my position turned red and a motorcycle stopped followed by maybe 10 cars, all going straight through the intersection. The motorcycle was one of those neon-colored, fast rockets with the super fat back tires. The cyclist was looking at me the whole time he waited...probably, like everybody who drove by that day, trying to figure out what I was doing. When the light changed, he accelerated like only those bikes can followed by the other vehicles. As he went by me, he looked directly at me, nodded, and then executed a standing wheelie for the next 0.3 miles(I went back and drove it to see how far he held the wheelie)...accelerating the whole time. I don't just mean the bike was on it's back tire, he was standing up on the foot posts while riding on the back tire for that distance. He had probably a quarter mile of separation from the pack before he finally put it back down and made the turn.
I was like, "That guy is totally out of control! Absolutely unbelievable!" I've never seen anything that crazy on city streets before.
I have to say though, that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen...incredibly dangerous and stupid...but cool!
2 comments:
Ed,
I witnessed this in Atlanta. I was cruising along at about 70mph and the motorcyclist next to me (he was in the fast lane) stood his bike on the rear wheel and left me. I was traveling 70!
I was impressed but for all the wrong reasons.
About a week ago my wife and I were the first on the scene of a low-speed (approx 20mph) motorcycle-only accident. My slow motion playback reminds me of an Evil Knieval(sp?) crash. The dude was unconscious at first partially due to his stupid-looking half-helmet. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth. He came to, tried to panic. We had to restrain him until the ambulance arrived. He was airlifted via helicopter. I don't know the outcome but I expect he's allright.
Yeah, I thought that guy would surely crash and I would have to make a decision: do I continue to work the intersection and let the motorists following him handle it, or do I run and help out? Luckily I didn't have to decide as he was clearly a skilled rider.
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