Today, I almost got to stop worrying about my upcoming 40th birthday.
I was on my bicycle making a trip to my bank. As usual, I was wearing my neon windbreaker to increase my visibility. As I got close to my destination, I was wondering to myself why more bicyclists don’t wear a helmet, because once you put them on they’re so light that you don’t even really notice them. Less than a minute later, I was reminded of why I always wear my helmet.
I was moving at a fairly good clip, downhill. I needed to make a left turn into my bank’s parking lot, so I was riding fairly close to the yellow center line of the road. There were no cars behind me, and no cars approaching from the opposite direction, and no stop signs for me.
The problem was the cross street. I really didn’t expect that white SUV that was stopped at the stop sign to my right to pull out when it did. Especially since the driver was still staring off to his right. In fact, the stupid motherfucker was still staring off to his right as I was coming from his left. He was still staring to his right while his truck was completely into the lane of traffic and I was swerving into the other lane about three feet in front of his grill to avoid getting creamed!
What the fuck? Do these idiots think that knowledge of all those rules of the road and driving techniques is only necessary to pass the written and driving tests? That once they have the license in their wallet they can forget everything? Good fucking grief! I haven’t driven a motor vehicle in fourteen years, and yet I can still fucking remember that you’re supposed to look to the left, then look to the right, and then to the left again before moving into an intersection! And I can remember to keep looking back and forth as I proceed through the intersection!
Okay, I realize that, even with my neon windbreaker, I’m still on a bicycle and I’m a bit harder to see than a car. Even in broad daylight. And you know what? I would give this driver the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t see me … if he had fucking looked in my direction in the first fucking place! It’s a damn good thing that I’ve always got my eyes open, watching out for these idiots.
This wasn’t some dumb kid, either. The driver was older than me. Old enough to know better.
Make it your practice to always carry several kilograms of TNT attached to the front and rear of your bike. That way you can at least take the MOFO out with you
This is the value of defensive driving. That is, assuming every car on the street is about to do something incredibly stupid. More often than not, it’s true.
The closest call I ever had was driving down a busy city street, when I saw some guy about to pull out of a parallel parking spot, and I thought, “You know, I’ll bet that person pulls out without even looking.” So I slowed down a bit…and sure enough, Idiot Person suddenly pulls out RIGHT into my lane. It was a much closer call than I’d anticipated – brakes squealing, hard swerve to the left, everything. If I hadn’t been expecting him to do that, I would have plowed right into the doofus for sure.
I live in the cycling Mecca of the state and and over half of my rides there’s still some dumbfuck that never ceases to amaze me.
Be careful, good on you for the helmet, and take satisfaction in the fact that eventually there will be a cop sitting right there that you can ham it up for. That’s what I did last week when some asshole that actually did see me but decided that I could stop for his convenience to make a left turn into traffic failed to notice the cop sitting one driveway down. A brief wave to that cop as he turned on his lights and went out after that guy was awesome.
People who are with me in the car or who I’m riding with always think I’m nuts when I’m crossing a one-way street, and I look down the opposite direction as I cross or before I cross.
“Uh, that’s a one-way, niblet_head.”
(Subtext: Are you a moron???)
But, man, you just never know when some eejit is going to be going the wrong way down a one-way street. Especially those that are only one-way for certain parts of the day. Plus, I generally assume (even early in the morning on the way to work) that there’s some dumb-ass drunk driver on the road with me.
My close call came last year on my way to a hockey game. I had just stopped at a three-way stop, when I noticed a car coming from the right at a decent clip. My first thought was, ‘Don’t go yet, because that person looks like they’re going to blow right through their stop sign’. Sure enough, the driver blew right through. If I had assumed the person was going to stop, I would have been up kimshee creek without a paddle.
Phase42, I had exactly the same scenario happen to me once - downhill, idjit driver, everything. The exception was that she did look in my direction, but didn’t see me. And it was daylight and I was wearing an electric chartreuse-colored jersey. Same as you, I assumed she’d pull an asshole move, and she did. But I was already braking and narrowly missed getting creamed by her.
I sorta had that happen a few months ago, while I was walking down the main street of town. I had just been shopping at the Office Depot, and I trotted across the avenue to grab lunch at a restaurant. Yes, I jaywalked, but traffic was completely clear for a good distance in both directions so I didn’t worry about it. Except as soon as I started down the sidewalk, there was a cop, turning on his turn signal to turn into the parking lot I was about to enter. I assumed he was going to have words with me for jaywalking.
But, as luck would have it, a guy in a pickup truck pulled out of the parking lot just then, right smack in front of me, coming to a stop on the sidewalk. He was making a right turn, so he was looking to his left, and I was on the other side of him. He never saw me until he had already turned onto the avenue. Cop flipped on his lights and pulled the guy over at the next intersection.
I don’t know if the driver got a ticket, but he did circle back around to find me in the parking lot and apologize
I had the same happen just a couple of days ago. I was fortunate enough to catch up with the driver at the next junction, and as it was a hot day he had his window down. Somehow I restrained myself from swearing/spitting/physical violence and advised him to take a better look next time before he killed a cyclist. He did at least seem suitably contrite.
I was just thinking the same thing. Maybe I’m psychic.
Seriously though I think you do get a kind of sense of what others are about to do. I can usually tell when someone wants to get over into my lane with no turn signal in heavy traffic or when someone’s about to cut me off like this morning. That guy got the horn and the finger not that he cared or noticed.
I don’t know about the rest of you but I think about dying every day (yes, every single day) when I’m driving. I think about how easy it would be to go from alive and happy to dead in a second. It’s only slightly upsetting and it certainly has the effect of making me pay more attention.
Gah! This has happened to me so many times. The first time involved a completely clueless pedestrian who didn’t look and just stepped out between two parked cars. I ended up wiping out myself in my efforts to avoid the idiot. Me: two broken ribs, a couple more cracked, a bunch of road rash. Stupid piece-of-crap pedestrian: look of utter surprise that someone else was on the road at the same time he was.
I got some good advice from my doctor (also a cyclist) who advised me to just hit the pedestrian next time (and I know there will be a next time). Doc says they’re considerably softer than pavement and it might help teach them to actually look before they cross the street. Obviously this won’t work with actual motor vehicles.
I have a theory that drivers don’t really consciously notice things that aren’t big enough to kill them.
I saw a pedestrian come this close to getting killed an hour ago. He was crossing a street that had three through lanes and two left turn lanes, and I was the second car in the left-hand through lane with a panel truck in front of me. This guy comes wandering across the street and steps out from in front of the panel truck right into the path of traffic in the first left turn lane that had a green turn arrow. That driver was able to stop, but the idiot kept walking without even slowing down, and nearly got wiped out a second time by the people in the far left turn lane. They noticed just in time that the car to their right had come to a screaming halt and were able to barely stop in time as well. And the idjit pedestrian? Just kept on strolling across the road. Never even turned his head to look at the cars.
Some people apparently have zero sense of self-preservation.
Gah! This has happened to me so many times. The first time involved a completely clueless pedestrian who didn’t look and just stepped out between two parked cars. I ended up wiping out myself in my efforts to avoid the idiot. Me: two broken ribs, a couple more cracked, a bunch of road rash. Stupid piece-of-crap pedestrian: look of utter surprise that someone else was on the road at the same time he was.
I got some good advice from my doctor (also a cyclist) who advised me to just hit the pedestrian next time (and I know there will be a next time). Doc says they’re considerably softer than pavement and it might help teach them to actually look before they cross the street. Obviously this won’t work with actual motor vehicles.
I have a theory that drivers don’t really consciously notice things that aren’t big enough to kill them.
My story was me riding in the bike lane along side of a car in the road. The driver got to the entry driveway to her apartment complex, and proceeds to make a right turn in front of me. I try to turn with her, and almost make it, until my front tire clipped her right front tire, and over the hood I went. Only a minor concussion and road rash to go with my bent tire and front fork.
We worked in the same mall, and when I asked her to pay for bike repairs, and the quick trip to the hospital, she tried to claim that I rode down from a small hill in front of the apartments and ran into her car. A quick call from a laywer got the $300… Sigh…
Paul Harvey once said, “In the United States of America we have many rights that are worth dying for. The Right of Way is not one of them.”
Because I get around on foot or by bicycle, a lot of it is hearing. I can usually tell what’s happening around me by the subtle changes in the sound of tires on pavement. Ironically, this is part of the reason I failed my driving test when I attempted to get my license back last summer. I’m so accustomed to listening that I repeatedly forgot to make “head checks” to see what was happening behind me when I did things like change lanes.
I also try to make a lot of eye contact with drivers. That makes a big difference. heh In fact, part of the reason that I swerved in front of this driver yesterday - it was a split-second decision, choosing between smashing full-speed into the side of the truck or getting bumped by the grill (he was moving pretty slowly) - was that I wanted to force eye contact. A mean little part of me wanted the guy to know how close he came. Probably a bit stupid of me, but still …
I look at their head. You can kind of tell what someone’s up to by which way their face and eyes are pointing. That’s why I hate driving near a driver with blacked-out windows. You can also sometimes tell by the position of the car, and whether it’s moving slightly or not. I’ve got a lot better over the years in assuming everyone on the road is an asshole. Living in Dublin helped.
My recent defensive driving story - on my way down to a country cottage for Christmas, I was in the fast lane of the freeway, in heavy traffic, in the rain, and I said to my wife words to the effect of: “woah, there’s a lot of water in this lane. I don’t want to aquaplane, and our speed isn’t as important as our safety. Sorry hon, we’ve got to slow down for a while.” So I moved into the slow lane and let the rest of the fast traffic carry on without us. Literally thirty seconds later, some kid in a Honda Civic overtaking us aquaplaned, hit the central barrier, careened off it into the back of the car in front, which ricocheted into the car in front of it, and the whole lot ground to a halt, causing two more cars behind the Civic to smash into it. Big fucking mess, though nobody seriously injured, thank God.
I just know, had it been a few years ago, I’d have either been part of the wreck, or been the kid in the Civic.
Wow, I knew you were going to say you were thinking the same thing! Weird!
Yeah I think about how dangerous driving is just about every time I drive. Just lost my mom to an accident last year. Of course that didn’t stop me from driving to work this morning down the same curvy back road while eating an apple. :smack:
I took my 11yo son out for his first “out of the cul-de-sac” bike ride this past weekend. It’s taken him a long time to get confortable enough on a bike that I felt he could navigate a few blocks to check out some local yard sales.
The first thing I tried to impress on him is that he should treat his bike like a car, and follow all of the traffic laws that apply to cars. There are too many idiots on bikes here (especially with the price of gas these days) who feel that it’s okay for bikes to drive on the left side of the road, and/or to breeze through stop signs and red lights, as if they aren’t relevant to cyclists.
The second thing was that he should NEVER assume that a car will see him first. For one thing, he is very small, and drives a very small bike. For another thing, cars typically don’t look at bikes as potential accidents.
I have ridden bikes as my main method of transportation for many years, and I’ve always followed those two rules. I also have the “psychic” stuff that others have mentioned–both when I’m on a bike and when I’m in a car, which has saved me from much grief in the long run. (We also wear helmets religiously!)
I have a stepsister, though, who was in a very bad bicycle accident many years ago, and still suffers from the damage it inflicted. She and her husband were riding their bikes on a sidewalkon the left side of the road and they were not paying any attention to cars entering and exiting parking lots along the road. A car that was turning right onto the road (and whose driver was consequently looking left at the time) ran into my stepsister as she rode through the intersection the car was crossing. (She suffered serious head injuries since she was not wearing a helmet, either, but the state did not have helmet laws for adults at the time.)
My stepsister did take the case to court, but lost, since she was violating two laws at the time of the accident, and the car driver wasn’t violating any laws at all. My mother was appalled at the verdict, even after I pointed out that my stepsister was riding her bike illegally on at least two counts.
