Fall Motorcycle Riding on the Alabama Gulf Coast: The Hazards Around Foley
Fall is when the Alabama Gulf Coast finally hands riders their reward. The summer heat breaks, the humidity backs off, and a run down Highway 59 from Foley to the water stops feeling like riding through a wet towel. October and November are the months you wait all year for around Baldwin County, and they carry a specific set of hazards, most of them the kind you catch a half second too late.
Shorter days put you in the worst light
The biggest change in the fall is not the temperature. It is the clock. Sunset creeps earlier every week, which means more of your riding lands in the low, flat light of late afternoon and dusk. On the east-west stretches around Foley and Gulf Shores, that sun sits right at eye level and turns a clean windshield into a sheet of glare. A driver pulling out onto Highway 59 or Fort Morgan Road may be staring straight into it at the exact moment you are the thing they are supposed to see.
Dusk is also when your headlight starts to matter and does not yet dominate. You are lit, but not lit enough to stand out against a bright western sky. Plan your loops so you are not threading the worst glare window, and assume the driver facing the sun has not seen you at all.
Storm season leaves the roads wet and gritty
Fall on the Gulf Coast is still storm season. A quick afternoon downpour can soak Baldwin Beach Express or the Foley Beach Express in minutes, and the first rain after a dry spell lifts oil to the surface and makes the pavement slicker than it looks. Standing water pools in the low spots, and wind pushes sand and grit off the shoulders and onto the road, especially on the approaches toward the beach. Read the road surface the way you read traffic, and watch for the fall-specific traps.
- ✓ Standing water in the low spots. Highway 59 and the Beach Express pool water fast after a hard rain, and a hidden puddle at speed can push your front end.
- ✓ Oil slick on the first wet pavement. After a dry stretch the first rain lifts oil to the surface, worst at intersections where traffic sits and drips.
- ✓ Blown sand and grit. Expect it on the beachside approaches, on Fort Morgan Road, and along coastal AL-182 where the wind carries it onto the road.
- ✓ Slick paint and debris. Painted crosswalks and stop lines turn slippery the moment they are wet, and storms leave limbs and debris on the rural county roads.
Tourist and snowbird traffic never really stops
The same fall weather that gets you out of the garage fills the roads with cars. Foley and the beach towns stay busy well into the fall, and the early snowbird traffic starts rolling in, much of it drivers who do not know the roads. A car slowing to read a sign, stopping short for a Tanger Outlets turn on Highway 59, or drifting across the line while gawking at the water is a real and regular hazard down here. Ride these roads assuming the car ahead may do something unexpected. Leave following distance you can actually use, set up wide so you can see and be seen, and be ready for the out-of-town driver who treats Highway 59 like a slow scenic drive instead of a highway.
Deer, wildlife, and cooler tires
Get off the main drags and Baldwin County turns rural fast. The rut ramps up through the fall, and deer that stay cautious most of the year start crossing roads without looking. The two-lanes north and east of Foley and almost any unlit county road after dark put you in their path. A deer strike in a truck is a dented fender. On a motorcycle it is a crash. Ride the dawn and dusk hours expecting movement at the tree line, and remember deer travel in groups, so if one crosses, the second and third are usually right behind it.
The Gulf Coast never gets truly cold, but a fall morning in the fifties changes how your bike behaves. Cool tires take longer to reach the temperature where they grip their best, so the first few miles out of the driveway are not the time to lean hard into a corner. Dress for the start of the ride, not the middle of the afternoon, because a rider who is uncomfortable is a rider who is distracted, and distraction is what fills the gap between a close call and a crash.
When another driver puts you down
You can do everything right and still get hit. When a driver pulls out of a side road, drifts into your lane, or rear-ends you at a light on a fall ride, Alabama law gives you a path to recover, but the rules here are harsh. Alabama follows pure contributory negligence. If you are found even one percent at fault for the crash, you can be barred from recovering anything at all. That makes Alabama one of the toughest states in the country for an injured rider, and it is exactly why the insurance company will try so hard to pin some sliver of blame on you: the glare, the wet corner, your speed, anything. Alabama also requires every rider and passenger to wear a helmet with no exceptions, sets minimum liability coverage at just 25/50/25, and generally gives you only two years from the crash to file. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is your real backstop when the at-fault driver has little or no insurance.
Led by Noel Leonard, Noel B. Leonard Attorney in Foley / South AL fights for injured motorcyclists. Reach out to their motorcycle accident lawyers in Foley / South AL anytime you need real answers.