Cyclists beware
I could have been a headline last night. I was riding home on Silver when I heard tires screeching nearby, looked and saw a car flying up Yale drifting onto Silver, coming right at me. No problem, I will get out of the way and let this apparent drunk driver pass me by. I turn into the half gravel half concrete parking lot, not ideal for my street bike but there was enough concrete to avoid sinking into the rocks. I then hear tires squealing again, a loud engine revving, and gravel crunching. I realize this car just followed me into the lot. I take off pedaling as fast as I can and the whole time I can hear the car speeding up behind me. I eventually duck out of a pedestrian exit in the fence and get away across Yale.
I couldn’t look behind me for fear of falling, so I didn’t get a driver description or a plate number. By the time I was out of danger and processing what just happened, the car had sped off somewhere else. All I know is it was a large, all black SUV with some body work done, lifted with large tires and a loud engine. Looked like maybe a tahoe but it had all the branding removed. If it had hit me I would have gone under the tires.
If you ride a bike, especially at night, know this person is probably still out there and either intentionally tried to hit me, or was so drunk behind the wheel that they couldn’t even see me in front of the car. I keep trying to rationalize it in my mind, but I have a hard time believing it wasn’t intentional. They could have just gone straight but instead chose to take a hard left right after another hard left, into a fenced parking lot.
I really don’t want to believe that someone just tried to kill me but with the two recent stories of cyclists getting run down in broad daylight, I fear this could be the case. I pray they didn’t hurt anyone later on because they were driving so erratically it looked like a movie scene.
I do intend on going back to where it happened just to walk myself through the details and see if any local businesses have cameras pointed at the area. Be safe ABQ 🫶🏻