Round-about
So, I have been continuing with my daily moto driving practice, and have been focusing on specific skills. Today I covered busy streets, controlled slowing-down and stopping (as for a red light) and slowly navigating crowded places. I try to schedule my training rides for peak siesta time, like between 12:30 and 1:30 in the afternoon. And, my trips seem to be self-limiting. I aim for around 30 minutes of tooling around the neighborhood, and I plan to go home if I get bored or something scary happens. As it happens, I do not yet find the activity boring. The interesting thing is that the 30 Minute Point and the Scary Point seem to hit at about the same time. After 20 minutes of practicing the mundane, like shifting at the right time, not pressing the brake pedal and twisting the accelerator at the same time, and not panicking when there is oncoming traffic in my lane (a common occurance), I start to think about pushing my boundaries. So today after exploring the neighborhood for a while, I decided to try some busy streets. So I went up Monivong Boulevard, and over onto Sihanouk Boulevard. Neither were that busy, but they were busier and faster than other roads I had driven on. I was feeling pretty comfortable, though Sihanouk provided ample opportunities to practice my new-found controlled stopping skill.
The problem came when I hit the traffic circle (or round-about for some of you) at the Independence Monument. Thankfully, traffic was light. However, it was not light enough to keep me from missing two intended turn-offs (Plans A and B, respectively), being squeezed into the center of the circle by speeding cars, and engulfed in a swarm of other motos which complicating any changes in course (Plans E and F, respectively). As I approached the completion of my first revolution, I was sincerely concerned about being caught in the circle and never being able to get out. Luckily, I found someone who was headed in the direction of the same road which I had planned to use for my escape (Plan B, again). So, I stuck by him and stopped when he stopped and went when he went (pairs and groups are larger, easier to see and more likely to have oncoming traffic yield to them). This strategy got me out of the circle without going more that 1 1/2 revolutions. A close call. I am going to wait until I get a little better at riding before I head back up there.
Tomorrow is left turns, potentially including the turns into oncoming traffic via slowly merging into the other lane and against the flow of said oncoming traffic, then making your turn, thereby avoiding stopping in the middle of the street. That might be the skill which sends me home at the 30 minute mark, though.
Pictured bove is the Independence Monument, and the Traffic Circle of Doom which nearly entrapped me. I took this image back in December of last year. Not today. Too busy not crashing for picture-taking.
