I live on the side of a small hill, and the road going into campus from my house is all downhill. I get a very intense amount of acceleration for about a tenth to two-tenths of a mile before the road goes uphill again and I actually have to start pedaling. I usually don’t encounter much trouble until I get to the parking lot where sometimes cars pull out into the crosswalk that I speed through, or they pull in in front of me. I’ve been safe so far and have used my brakes to slow me down if I sense that one of the cars is slowing to turn.

Today, I was going to class, taking my usual route, when I saw far up ahead, a large Honda Pilot turn into the parking lot. I was still accelerating and I watched the other cars to see if any others were turning in to the lot and then the Pilot didn’t continue into the lot. He turned. At this point, I was within seconds of the crosswalk. If you’re unfamiliar, Honda Pilots aren’t well known for their small turn radii, generally because they don’t have small turn radii. To combat this and try and straighten himself out, he had to keep going into the turn. Into the crosswalk. Into my path. I swerved to try and avoid him because at this point, I was in the crosswalk and I knew he didn’t see me. He completely blocked both my path and the slope that would have allowed me to seamlessly merge onto the sidewalk. I swerved around him to the left. Into a 6-inch curb.

Now, while some people would label me a tomboy because I like to go on adventures and I am not afraid of getting dirty, I was never the kid to spend a day learning how to jump curbs. Today was that day. I felt my butt slam into the seat after not feeling it fly off in the first place, and found my feet not where I left them on the pedals. My knuckles were white from gripping the handlebars as I took a timid sigh of relief.

I didn’t look back at the car until later, but by then they were more concerned with making a left turn. I didn’t curse or scream or throw up any hand signs, but if I could say one thing to the driver, it would be no, you actually can’t make that U-turn.