Bike/Dog Interaction

First of all, I should say that it wasn't my dog. In case anyone was worried. It wasn't my bike either.

Now it's dark when I ride home, there's a tricky decision to be made about where to ride. The bike path is very dark, with sharp corners, and slippery sandy patches, which means you have to go pretty slow. The boardwalk is wide, and well lit, but it has additional hazards, like people, skateboarders (who are people too) and dogs (who aren't). There's also the road, which is shorter, and is well lit, and is hellish.

I took to riding on the boardwalk pretty slowly and carefully, but one day last week, there was a woman who worked at CoCE who was riding home at the same time as me. She rode on the boardwalk, and rode pretty quickly - much faster than I would have ridden. But she was in front of me, and clearing a path as it were. People saw her coming and jumped out of her way, and then they would be out of my way. If they didn't jump out of her way, then she would crash into them, and I wouldn't.

Which is pretty much what happened. Except it wasn't a person, it was a dog. She was in front of me, on a darkish bit of road, and a woman had a small dog on one of those long leads, who was talking on a mobilecellphone. The bike hit the dog and the front wheel went right over it, at about shoulder level, and then the rider steered gently to the right, into a small grassy hill (a grassy knoll, perhaps?) and fell off (she was going very slowly by now - the dog had used up most of her speed). I had a sudden fear that the dog was dead, but it wasn't, it was yapping furiously, which was probably a good sign. The woman with the dog was screaming into her phone "Oh my gaaaad! A bike ran over your daaaag! Your daaag got run over by a bike!" She was so busy telling the owner about the dog and the bike that she didn't stop to investigate either the dog, or the cyclist. I felt split loyalties, but said "Are you OK" to the cyclist. She said she was, and so I rode over the grassy knoll onto the bike path, and rode off.

The other cyclist rode along the boardwalk (I guess) because she was in front of me next time we met, at some traffic lights. Interactions with other cyclists are strange, because you feel a sort of bond, as cyclists against the world, and I felt additionally bonded because we worked at the same place. But you can only talk to each other on the brief occasions that you are at traffic lights together, but then you are also slightly out of breath. We met at a set of traffic lights, and the dog incident felt like the proverbial 800lb gorilla. We both knew about it, but no one said anything.

"You going far?"
"Just over the creek, and left. And you?"
"Just over the creek, and right?"
[Green light.]
"You just ran over a dog!!!!" But it was too late.

Next traffic light.
"Nice weather for riding."
"Yes, quite warm. And I just ran over a dog!!!" Except that last bit didn't happen.

Where are paths split, we shouted "Bye". That was all the interaction we managed in about 5 miles. I haven't seen her since, and I ride on the bike path now. With two front lights. And slowly.