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As I got ready to leave work, the rain that was in KC this morning was in the STL area now. The patio outside the door was wet, and a light rain was still falling. I checked the radar, and it was mostly over the northern portion of St Louis, north if Hwy 40/I-64. I thought I could get the Thursday night ride in, so I changed my clothes, prepared my bottles, and left work heading for Des Peres City Park.
There are a couple different ways I could get there. I could head south on I-170, to west on I-64 to south on Ballas Rd which would take me to the park. But today, I decided to stay off the highways, figuring the I-64 interchange would be more jammed then usual. So I headed south from the parking lot to Olive to catch Price Rd down to Clayton Rd where I would hit some traffic where it intersects Lindbergh, but then I’d be OK until I got to Ballas Rd.
Approaching Ballas, I could see the skies in the west were getting darker, and figured I’d get to the park early enough I could watch the cloud movement and make a more informed decision about riding – guessing how wet I would get. Also, approaching Ballas, traffic was backed up quite a ways – I’m guessing at least 3 dozen cars lined up between me & the light, which only allows a few cars through at a time. So I decided to use the center-turn lane to pass the traffic and reach the left-turn lane sooner, rather than later.
After I pass a handful of cars – thinking to myself, "you know this is wrong" – I notice a car waiting to pull out from a driveway/parking lot just ahead of me. As I continue along, I realize that the car is starting to pull out into the space left by a polite motorist that has left a space in front of him for the car to enter. Anticipating that the car would wait a couple more seconds for me to roll through I continue making my way up the ‘suicide’ lane. Then, I realize that the car is still coming, and we are on a collision course – so I lay on my horn and start to veer right giving them more clearance, without running into the cars to my right that I am trying to pass…no avail. Her right corner of the front bumper catches me right in my driver’s side door.
I proceed another 100 yards or so up to the gas station, and she follows. After regaining my composure, I call Jacque to give her a heads up of what just happened, and then check on the other driver to make sure she’s OK, and she calls to get the police to come. Upon arriving, the officer from the Town & Country Police Department hears our description of the event, and then tells us that he could give us both a ticket. My ticket, of course, would be for the illegal lane usage. And, he could cite her for failure to yield right of way, along with the fact that the kind motorist waving her out could be sited along those lines. We were both surprised that he could give her a ticket, but it does make sense now (of course), even though there are a lot of drivers out there, including me & her, that offer a courtesy to another motorist. And, like I said before, I know the center turn lane is not to be used for a passing lane like I did, but I’ve done it before and seen others, too, sometimes for a car length or two, and sometimes for longer distances like I had to cover to get up to the actual left turn lane.
The officer filled out the report, the other motorist & I conferred to review our info listed on the report and our plans of action to get our respective insurance companies involved and let them hammer out ‘fault’ and pay the claims.
As the evening rolled on the rain continued to roll in, with some areas receiving a few inches of rain in about 2 hour’s time. So, a bike ride would not have been a good thing to do. If only I had reached that conclusion before leaving work, or chosen a different route to get to the park.
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