My city is negligent for putting this type of grate taking up half of a bike lane and causing me to crash today. I would have gone around it, but a bus was passing me at the time. I’ve ridden over many grates on my other bikes with no issues, mostly because the tires on my other bikes are wider, but I think the smaller wheel size of the Brompton contributes a little as well.
Luckily I was going slow and fell after the bus passed me. I only have a couple scrapes and bruises.
Just wanted to let other newbie Bromptonites know about this potential danger you might not be used to.
by carfreepvd
3 Comments
This is obviously a stupid design beyond any excuse. Can’t you ask the city to maybe just rotate the grate? It looks square, maybe it can literally just be rotated 90 degrees by a work crew.
Email the city with the photo and explain that if you had fallen to your left, you could’ve been killed by an oncoming car. Having that type of information in an email is enough to prove negligence in the event that something worse happens down the road. you might even get lucky and have the person who reads the email be a cyclist who takes action for you
What city are you in? The grate probably existed before the bike plane was installed… not disagreeing that it should be changed, however.