road hazzards

After reading where some of you are from, I cant help but wonder if some of you might have a unique input;

Now please, I'm not trying to be a smart a## but I've heard that you folks (in florida) have to be on the lookout for alligators on the road while riding at nite . Is this for real or just bull?
And how about you guys down under...are there joeys at large on the roads. or other critters?
I know I can speak for most of our canadian freinds as well as myself that riding at nite up here can be like playing a game of dodgeball with the deer.
Make me a believer.
Jeff

 

Dang near lost a fight with a deer in San Diego late one night in '89. Down in Mira Mesa ravine outside the cemetery about midnight. I would never have expected the little blighter to be there. Does that count? Why would gators (naturally occurring phenomenon down there I understand) be any different?

 

gators are not prevelent to most of florida riders. I very rarely will see a gator, only if im out on lake okechobee. Sometimes they live in the canals, but they rarely every come out, and especially not onto the street.

the real obstecales down here are the drivers, there a special breed of New York drivers, mixed with more cautious old people from the midwest.

and the thing that really got me, since it doesnt rain too much in the winter and spring months. Oil build up on the road. Stay off the road during and after that first rain.

 

here in washington we have to watch for the three 'd's (deer, drunks, and dumb-asses) . i learned to ride in Wyoming dodging jackrabbits. during the day it wasn't bad but at night when they're in the road they start runnin and they only run where they can see. so they run right down the road in front of ya.... oh and i ran over a rattler on the road one night they crawl out on the warm pavement when the sun goes down.

 

Plenty of wildlife here; I'm always seeing raccoons and squirrels as roadkill. But the most popular item seems to be armadillos. Man, I'd hate to hit one of those on a bike...