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!!!
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!!!