Not enough anger for the pit, but I had to vent somewhere.
Yesterday I was heading west and stopped in the bike line on my bike. The car directly next to me is blue and the second car in line is white. The light changes and we all proceed through the intersection. There is a second light 75 yards from the first light and by the time we reach the second light the blue car is way ahead of me but the white car is just overtaking me. As we reach the intersection, I’m about even with her back quarter panel and she proceeds to turn right, right in front of me. I was fully prepared for this, so I stopped in plenty of time and yelled at her. She was startled by my yell, but she just continued on her merry way.
I realize bikes can seemingly “come out of nowhere” when you are getting ready to make a right turn. Bikes can cover hundreds of yards during a cycle of a light so when you get ready to make that right turn all of a sudden there is someone there coming along at 20mph that you never even saw before. The driver is still responsible for checking, but at least I can understand why that might be missed.
In this case, though, there is no such excuse. None. I was clearly in front and just to the right of her at the first light. It was 5:00 in the afternoon, sun high in the sky so despite the fact we were heading west the sun was not a factor. She had to pass me to get ahead of me to cut me off. If she couldn’t see a cyclist under those circumstances I shudder to think what would happen under less than ideal conditions.
I wish my little town would do some sort of publicity campaign to explain to drivers that bikes follow the same traffic rules as cars do, and that cars need to realize that they have to treat bikes like real vehicles. Meaning, at times, bikes have right of way. If you’re waiting to make a right turn, and a bike is coming down the road you want to turn onto, the bike has right of way. You can’t turn in front of them, same as you can’t turn in front of a car.
I know on a practical level, on a bike, you always have to watch for this kind of crap and be prepared to stop. But, like the OP, I know damn well that sometimes it’s not a matter of the driver not seeing the bike - it’s the driver either not knowing or not caring that the bike has right of way.
Bikes here obey no traffic rules and drive wherever they please, however they please (mostly on the sidewalks); I get a little torqued when I see bike riders talking about how hard done-by they are. As a group, you’re making your own beds.
Ugh. I still remember an incident in college when a white minivan passed me (daylight, lots of visibility, I was tucked up close to the curb), then turned right immediately in front of me. I wasn’t ready for that, so instead of being able to brake, instead my rubber left-hand handlebar grip left a nice long rubber mark on the van’s white paint, and I got bumped off my bike, fortunately landing more or less on my feet as I wasn’t going all that fast.
This is a good thing as we were going down a hill, and many bicyclists love taking advantage of a good coast. Going faster, I might have ended up under that minivan instead. In this case, I think the driver was more scared than I was; I was more stunned than anything at the time.
Same was true of the one time I got “doored” - I was slowing down some for a red light up ahead, so I got knocked off the bike seat but was left standing, my bike stopped hard up against the car’s door, and the woman opening the car door had the most astonished facial expression. I also got a nice bruise on my collarbone where I stopped against the door. I’m just glad the window was down, as I remember thinking something to the effect of, “My arm is bending right through that window frame; I hope the window is down, else this is really going to hurt.”
Cat, I agree that many bicyclists are assholes who don’t follow the rules; there’s a big group of them in my town that enrage me frequently. However, it isn’t very kind to say the equivalent of “you bicyclists deserve it” in a thread where someone was following the rules of the road and nearly got hit due to someone else’s inattention.
I figured a bike hater would show up eventually. You’re right. It was completely my fault in this case. Because some other biker somewhere ran a stop sign I deserved to get almost run over yesterday. I was foolish to think otherwise.
I’ve seen people do this in my town and it always surprises me because the biker, was like, right there next to you a few seconds ago. Idiots.
I also hate it when there is a line of cars stopped at a light in the right lane and a person a few cars back wants to turn right but can’t because the cars ahead of them will go straight. One of these people almost always pulls over to the curb, blocking the bike lane, even though the space if obviously too narrow for them to try and sneak down and turn during the light. Yeah Buddy, there might not be a biker there now, but if someone comes down now you’re blocking their lane. Plus these guys will always still swing back out to make the turn, because, you know, it’s impossible to make a turn without doing that :dubious:
This, cars running stop signs and getting doored are my three biggest riding fears. Glad to hear you are OK. On the other hand, it’s perfectly understandable. Who among us has not zoned out while tooling around in our cars? If I ever did that on my bike, though, I’d be dead about a thousand times over.
This post is total crap, and I live in the same place as you do. There are just as many shit-tastic car drivers around here as there are bike drivers. The difference is that when a car driver is shit and they slam into a bike, the bike rider winds up hospitalized.
God this pisses me off - I can’t even ride a bike - I don’t know how, but even I can recognize that a person making a more environmental choice doesn’t DESERVE to get clipped by a car because they dare to be on the same street as your precious vehicle.
I vented about this recently - there’s an intersection I go through on my way to work. There’s a left turn only lane, a left turn/straight lane, and a right turn only lane, with a bike lane between the latter two. I came literally within a couple inches of getting hit when some asshole - who’d been right next to me when the light was red just a second ago - decided he didn’t want to turn right, he was going to go straight, and he was going to go in front of the front car in the center lane.
The only conclusion I can possibly draw is that people are either monumental assholes, or completely lack both peripheral vision, the ability to turn their head to look to the side, and any sort of functional memory.
You understand that I have the exact same amount of control over the asshole hipster on his fixie who rides on sidewalks and slaloms through traffic as you have over the guy who gets behind the wheel while drunk, or the guy who’s doing 45 in a 25 zone and blasts through that red light, right? That’s literally like saying that you as a responsible driver deserve to get in accidents because other people drive drunk.
Perhaps you could be so kind as to pay attention while in control of 4,000 pounds of steel moving at upwards of 35 miles per hour? That’d be great.
I really didn’t want to turn this into yet another shitty bike riders vs. shitty drivers argument. That was part of my reason for putting it here.
There are enough bad riders and enough bad drivers for a good shouting match both ways. If you want to rant against bad riders, go elsewhere. If you want to tell me it was my fault, this is a good place for that, but I’d really like to hear some rationale beyond just “many bikers are self-entitled jerks” reasoning. If you want to share your own story, keep it here. All I ask is that this doesn’t devolve into a bike vs. car debate. We’ve had plenty of those.
So sorry! I didn’t mean to crap in your thread. I do get very frustrated as many of my friends ride their bikes to work for fitness, save $$, use their cars less, improve Calgary’s gross reliance on gas and oil, etc. and more than one of them has been clipped by an inconsiderate jerk in a car.
The suggestion that it’s somehow their fault for daring to make a more responsible choice frosts my cookies.
I’m glad you’re OK as well - it obviously wasn’t your fault, and the twat in the van was obviously an oblivious, entitled cow.
FWIW, I’ve been hit by a car while walking in a crosswalk - actually had to jump and wound up right on the hood. However, based on past posts I know that Cat Whisperer believes that pedestrians around these parts are a menace as well. I can only assume that the roving gangs of bike and foot traffic have overtaken her in her car and called her names or something - there’s no other explanation for her non-car driver hate.
LOL. Wow, never thought someone would put me on the car side of the argument in a car vs. bike discussion! During the summer, I regularly commute by bike through Denver, ~25 miles each way. I ride on bike paths, residential streets, state highways, busy urban corridors, etc. I ride thousands of miles a year, and I have had plenty of close calls. I follow laws, but I also keep my head on a swivel. I attend my local Ride of Silence each year. I am very considerate of riders when I am in my car. I even have Share the Road plates on my car.
But if you have never, EVER, given less than 100% of your attention to the road while driving down the road, well…you’re probably the only one in the world. You’re very insulated and isolated inside your car. I’m not saying it is right, I am just saying it is understandable.
Though I must agree with runner pat. Most of the issues I have with cars are out of aggression (pickup trucks almost exclusively), not obliviousness.
Nah, you weren’t out of line, so don’t worry about it. I’ve seen these threads a hundred times and just wanted to try to head it off.
I don’t think I deserve any extra leeway because I’m on a bike. I’m not doing it for some greater good. And I’m by no means a perfect rider. But at the same time, there are some things you would think people would just be able to avoid. Ninja Chick’s story is a perfect example.
I know bikes can be all but invisible, so I give cars some latitude for not always seeing them. But sometimes… you just have to wonder what was going through the driver’s mind?
The other day there was an accident near here where a cyclist (sorta), was walking their bike in a crosswalk and a car pulled out of a parking lot and hit them! The driver’s excuse: He glanced at his cell for “for just a second”. The cyclist was in a crosswalk!
I don’t know how many bike riders also ride motorcycles but one of the first things a MC rider has to learn is that you are invisible to other drivers.
Even with your big ass headlight on in the day time, people in vehicles will look quickly around for another vehicle and then turn right in front of you, or pull onto the road in front of you, or change lanes right into you. Sometimes you can see them look right at you, and not really see you.
It’s not really a bike vs. car thing as much as a visual reflext thing. Many drivers are only looking for other vehicles.
It is really best to think of yourself as invisible when riding.
I’m not sure if that makes me less scared or more…
I’m not sure which way runner pat was going, though. He says that after he got seen there were no more right hooks, close passes and lots of room given. I’m not sure if that was due to the handcycle or being seen, though.
Sorry - I just get kind of peeved at the attitude that driving is no big deal. I do have a license, but don’t have a car, and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve driven in the past four years. So it’s really a novel, stressful thing to me - I tend to forget how routine it is for most people. I didn’t mean it as a personal insult.
And, yeah, it’s almost always pickup trucks. Obliviousness is, I suppose, inevitable, but no one needs to be a dick.
I was once driving with my ex-boyfriend in his huge SUV when he decided he didn’t like how the cyclist up ahead was driving. He drove by as close to the cyclist as he possibly could without hitting him. I was in the passenger seat and the side mirror passed inches away from the cyclists head.
I screamed at him, something like “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?” and he said he was teaching the guy a lesson to not be so far out on the road.
There was a local case a few years ago where an idiot in a van hit a family - mom, dad, baby in stroller, while they were in a marked crosswalk with the lights flashing. The van was going fast enough that it tipped the stroller over and Junior fell out.
The reason it made the news is because the dad in the scenario went to the van, hauled the driver out and punched him in the face a few times. Honestly, I really don’t appreciate people punching each other, but I had a pretty hard time working up any angst for dad. Apparently so did the jury 'cus he was acquitted on all counts.
Car drivers in this city are among the worst I’ve ever seen, and I’m one of them.
Glad to hear he is an ex. Once you meet a few widows of people who were killed by side mirror contact, it definitely moves it out of “teaching a lesson” and into “cold-blooded murder”.
