Ride home for Monday, 16 April

Went into MEC at lunch and picked up some cheap studded pedals and a mirror. Picked up my bike after work and put the pedals and mirror on, then headed out into the mess. As well as high winds and rain/hail, a major accident at the junction of Highway 102 and Joseph Howe Drive backed up traffic all the way downtown. I didn't realise what was going on, just that I was riding round an awful lot of traffic, until I tried to go up Elliott Street with the intention of carrying my bike over the barrier onto the sidewalk then riding off onto the street - until I saw the fire truck parked right across the intersection with police and ambulance crew working there. I doubled back and went up Spruce Street instead and came to the Bayers Road / Joseph Howe Drive / Dutch Village Road intersection where a police officer had taken control directing traffic through. I watched with amusement as the vehicles adopted a "deer in the headlights" approach, stopping and staring at the police officer even as he was yelling things like "I'm waving my arms at you to go, look where my hand is pointing, MOVE YOUR ARSE NOW!" The officer was rather surprised to see me there as nominally it wasn't possible for traffic to come through the intersection (although anyone living on the road could have come up); he called over and asked me if I was going straight through, and I pointed I was turning left. He pulled through a few more cars while waiting for traffic to build up on the opposite side ("come on, I know you've got a gas pedal in there somewhere, buddy!") then called back to me, "OK, GO!"; he seemed quite happy that managed to accelerate through without hovering on the line.

I was pretty wet through when I got home, but at least I made it in reasonable time, unlike most other people out there. I found out when I got home that a dump truck overturned, unfortunately crushing another car.

Distance logged: 12.532km
Time: 35:01
Average speed: 21.4km/hr
Max speed: 45.2 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, raining, windy, occasional hail
Cumulative distance: 2477.561km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.26
Monthly distance: 443.939km
Monthly cost per km: $0.73