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1st Car Encounter

Well, I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened, but I had my first run in with a car/ignorant driver.

I was doing my usual 20 mile evening ride and this woman decides to speed up and get in front of me to turn right at this intersection. This in and of itself was no big deal - happens all the time. She had a ton of room to pass me and make the turn. Well, for some lame ass reason, she decides to stop (read slam on the brakes ala swoop and squat mode). So now she's half in the turn lane and half in the regular lane. I'm all over the brakes, trying to steer left around the car as there's no way in hell I'm about to go on the inside of this car and really get run over! By now my rear tire's locked up and starting to come around. Crap! No way I'm gonna make it! I end up running into the back of her car, and I'm half on the trunk lid. And now for the best part: she guns it as soon as she hears me hit the trunk!?!

Well, now I've got nothing to support me and down I go in the middle of the right lane. Stupid, stupid woman. About this time I hear the car behind me locking up the brakes so as not to run me over. Man, talk about a helpless, helpless feeling just waiting to see if you're going to get run over by a car. Sheesh...

Anyway, the woman pulls over to see if I'm okay as I yell some explicatives at her for her bad decisions. She says "Sorry, I slowed down so you could pass." What?!?!! I quickly survey me and the bike and get out of the road. Phew, no real damage to me or the bike. I'm just really pissed at her bad judgement. I take a few deep breaths to qwell the adrenaline and go speak to the woman. I politely informed her that she should treat a cyclist as any other car on the road and that as soon as she passed me, she should have made the damn turn. I asked her quite poinantly, if I was in a car, would she have slowed down to let me pass her on the inside as she waited to turn right? "No, I suppose not" was her response. I asked her to be more aware and next time, just lay back and wait for the cyclist to go through the intersection.

As I started to ride away, I looked back and posed the question, "Just think how you would have felt if you would have hit me, or worse yet, the car behind both of us ran me over while I'm laying in the middle of the road?"

"I'm really sorry" was the last thing I heard her say as I rode off shaking my head....grrr!!!
 

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
at least she was nice about it.

Glad you and your bike are fine.

Not to be a dick, cuz I like being supportive of my fellow roadieMonkeys, but IF you were a car, would you have been that close behind her? I'm sorry man, but you hit her, even if she was being completely stupid.

Your thinking of trying to go to the left around her was good, but if I may be a dick, you should've already been heading that way.

This is why I take the left side of a right turn lane and block traffic. Or I outright avoid turn lanes and stay in the flow-thru lane. In other words, as the turn lane begins to be formed, I'll slide left and stay with traffic. I'm not sure if this is right or wrong as I've never studied any guidelines, but it seems to work for me.

Turn lanes suck and again, glad you're all fine.
 

Heidi

Der hund ist laut und braun
Aug 22, 2001
10,184
797
Bend, Oregon
Wow, glad you're ok. Yes, at least she was "nice" about almost getting you killed. :)

I'm SUPER aggressive on a road bike. As soon as a car comes into the bike lane to turn right, I try to swing way out into traffic like a car if there is room...I know, that's not always possible.
 

Pau11y

Turbo Monkey
As such (you being another vehicle and all), the cops should have been called and this whole thing treated as any other moving traffic accident. Then, gotten her insurance info so you can claim on it and get your bike's damaged parts replaced. If you went this route, I'd bet she'll NEVER mess w/ a biker again. Besides the claim, the citation and the points on the DL and the associated increase in insurance, nothing hurts like a hurtin' in the pocketbooks. Even if someone has more money than god, it still hurts vs a well reasoned verbal lashing... but that's just me...

I'm pretty sure you being a bike has some mitigating circumstances w/ a car slams on it's brakes and you ass-pack said car.
 
LordOpie said:
at least she was nice about it.

Glad you and your bike are fine.

Not to be a dick, cuz I like being supportive of my fellow roadieMonkeys, but IF you were a car, would you have been that close behind her? I'm sorry man, but you hit her, even if she was being completely stupid.

Your thinking of trying to go to the left around her was good, but if I may be a dick, you should've already been heading that way.

This is why I take the left side of a right turn lane and block traffic. Or I outright avoid turn lanes and stay in the flow-thru lane. In other words, as the turn lane begins to be formed, I'll slide left and stay with traffic. I'm not sure if this is right or wrong as I've never studied any guidelines, but it seems to work for me.

Turn lanes suck and again, glad you're all fine.

LOP, yeah, I was already moving to the left of the lane (as I normally would), had stopped pedaling and was actually feathering the brakes. The problem was she slammed on the brakes as soon as she got in front of me eliminating any space I had left between us.

The reason I referenced the "swoop and squat" is the concept of insurance scammers employing it as a way to get money from people rear-ending them. They basically pull in front of someone and slam on the brakes giving the person behind them no opportunity to stop in time.
 

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
^ good point about scammers.

Sorry I made any assumptions. Not thinking clearly today.


ass-pack :lol:
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
Heidi said:
I'm SUPER aggressive on a road bike. As soon as a car comes into the bike lane to turn right, I try to swing way out into traffic like a car if there is room...I know, that's not always possible.
Me too. I'd rather have someone see me and get angry at me than get wiped out by someone who didn't notice me.

I've never been able to figure out why more roadies don't take the lane at lights, especially when they are riding alone. You're just asking to get pinched by a car turning right.

Glad to hear that you're ok, surfinguru!
 

DBR X6 RIDER

Turbo Monkey
One of the biggest "tricks" when it comes to riding in urban settings is knowing the trouble spots and being extremely assertive in your actions. I tend to either ride the far-left of the right turn lanes or just get in the flow lane as well.
Being an ex-courier, I have gotten very good at reading the english of a vehicle and can usually tell what they will do almost a block ahead of time.

Glad to hear both man and machine escaped relatively unscathed.:thumb:
 

Reactor

Turbo Monkey
Apr 5, 2005
3,976
1
Chandler, AZ, USA
I had almost the same thing happen to me. I was riding along at about 19mph in the bike lane when a young lady passed me, about the time I can see the rear of the car out of the corner of my eye, I notice she on the brakes hard. She immediately turns in front of me through the bike lane into her condo parking lot. I don't even have time to grab the brakes, the whole thing took about a second, and I collide with her. There was no way I could avoid it.

<edit>
She got two tickets, failure to yield and unsafe right turn.
 

G-Cracker

Monkey
May 2, 2002
528
0
Tucson, beatch!
Old woman did this to me today, but there was just enough room for me to swerve around with my back wheel locked up and squeeling. She never looked back.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
Yeah, the immediate stop is the stupid part. In SF, I noticed cars who let cyclists ride by before making their right turns slow before stopping. The slowing down tells riders you can continue riding.

This is classic "indecision driving". If she made her right normally or decided to let you pass before the intersection, no problems. Reacting at the last second means you go down.
 
Reactor said:
I had almost the same thing happen to me. I was riding along at about 19mph in the bike lane when a young lady passed me, about the time I can see the rear of the car out of the corner of my eye, I notice she on the brakes hard. She immediately turns in front of me through the bike lane into her condo parking lot. I don't even have time to grab the brakes, the whole thing took about a second, and I collide with her. There was no way I could avoid it.

<edit>
She got two tickets, failure to yield and unsafe right turn.
BINGO!!!!!

Yeah, I'm just stoked neither me or the bike were damaged.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
Reactor said:
I had almost the same thing happen to me. I was riding along at about 19mph in the bike lane when a young lady passed me, about the time I can see the rear of the car out of the corner of my eye, I notice she on the brakes hard. She immediately turns in front of me through the bike lane into her condo parking lot. I don't even have time to grab the brakes, the whole thing took about a second, and I collide with her. There was no way I could avoid it.

<edit>
She got two tickets, failure to yield and unsafe right turn.
Yeah, I remember that happpening to me. Worse possible scenario: raining, on a downhill, on my road bike (with lousy road bike calipers), some schmucks pass me and turn into their driveway. I was young and stupid so I didn't call the cops or insurance companies.
 

G-Cracker

Monkey
May 2, 2002
528
0
Tucson, beatch!
Another run-in this morning. Fellow cyclist and I were riding up to a light that just turned green. Guy in a maroon Eclipse (without signalling) started to turn right and saw the cyclist just in front of me, and stopped.

Cyclist goes past and I follow (I'm only about 7' behind him) and the guy in the Eclipse guns it and cuts me off. I yell "HEEAAAYY!" as I lock up and run into his rear bumper. He stops and looks at me like I"M in the wrong.

I look at him and swing my arm... saying "yeah, go ahead!" and he drives off staring at me in his rear view. What a dumbass. Thanks for looking to see if there was anyone else!
 

Changleen

Paranoid Member
Jan 9, 2004
14,335
2,448
Hypernormality
Anywhere near a junction, I always ride in town as if I was a single seater car. I'm in the middle of the lane. I am highly defensive and aggresive. Having ridden motorbikes in London you get like this pretty quick. Close down people's options for being a dick.