[James]

So I'm riding my bike back from meeting a buddy at Starbucks this afternoon, pull out of the parking lot, go to cross the four-lane road, there is traffic, so one of the two lanes I'm crossing is stopped with traffic, red light. The person in the car right in front of me waves me across, there is almost no traffic in the other lanes, the way I need to go, so I pedal out...
...and come within SIX INCHES of getting nailed by a woman in a Civic in the other lane I'm crossing zooming by at 20-30 mph. I mean, if I had been one gear higher, I would've been hit, and through the windshield. WOW.
What a wakeup call. I hit the brakes, and looked over to the woman who had waved me across. The look of horror on her face would have been funny if I didn't have my heart in my throat. I cross the other 3 now empty lanes, and ride the 1 mile back to my house.
And for those of you wondering, no, I didn't have a helmet on. God, what an idiot I am. "I'm not going far" was my all-to-common justifacation, but no longer. From now on I always wear one.
And this was just 2 days after I got an email about a buddy of mine at another company who also was just "going down the street" and ended up with a gnarly banged-up face, and some stitches after eating it.
That's my near-death experience for the day, scared straight for sure...

JJames

 

[Mordax]

scary ****, its always sketchy riding a bike with cars around. never know what stupid drivers will do
glad you're alright

 

[.:Jeenyus:.]

Damn, I have yet to have any experiences that close and hope I never do!

Sounds like you got very lucky.

 

[SKYWAYBUZZ]

Glad your ok! And yes always be careful, you never can be sure.

 

[dexterq20]

I don't ride a road bike because I don't trust cars to take good care of me when I'm riding near them. Seriously. Crashing on the road is way gnarlier than crashing on dirt.

 

[James]

I have no probably riding the road most of the time. The roads around here are pretty good for that, and a lot of the stuff I do there is at least a bike lane, if not a less-used road. This was just a matter of coming out of a busy shopping center (with a Starbucks, Ralphs grocery, etc), and rush-hour, everyone coming home from work, going to the store, etc.
Glad I'm ok too, but damn, I'm sitting here thinking that if I'd been one gear higher, just that one little gear. It's amazing the little changes in everyday life that can make such HUGE differences eh?
Makes ya think...

 

[Skookum]

Glad to hear you dodged that bullet. i never trust a wave thru in ANY vehicle.

 

[ncrider]

Yeah the wave through can be scary, you never know what lurks behind the car in the next lane.

 

[H8R]

Sorry, you lost me at, "So I'm riding my bike back from meeting a buddy at Starbucks"....

Do people really go there?

 

[Reactor]

I got hit by a car a couple of months ago, and I'm still not right. Young woman passed me with her brakes on, and five feet in front of me made a right turn through the bike lane into her Condo parking lot. I was going 20+ mph, by the time I was the brake light it was all over. I was wearing a helmet, but got a concussion, shoulder injury, PCS, and a spreained all the muscles on the left side of the body. Helmet saved me from being killed, I am sure. She was cited for two moving violations, failure to yield, unsafe turn.

Be careful, I'm hurt worse from this one accident than all the stupid crap I've pulled off road. Cars and Roads hurt.

 

[TreeSaw]

Glad you weren't hurt and definately wear that helmet and take it easy on future road rides (god cars do scare me!!!).

 

[Echo]

I've seen car accidents caused by the wave-through... scary to think what could happen to a bike in that situation

Glad you got away with that one.

 

[stevew]

So I'm riding my bike back from meeting a buddy at Starbucks this afternoon, pull out of the parking lot, go to cross the four-lane road, there is traffic, so one of the two lanes I'm crossing is stopped with traffic, red light. The person in the car right in front of me waves me across, there is almost no traffic in the other lanes, the way I need to go, so I pedal out...
...and come within SIX INCHES of getting nailed by a woman in a Civic in the other lane I'm crossing zooming by at 20-30 mph. I mean, if I had been one gear higher, I would've been hit, and through the windshield. WOW.
What a wakeup call. I hit the brakes, and looked over to the woman who had waved me across. The look of horror on her face would have been funny if I didn't have my heart in my throat. I cross the other 3 now empty lanes, and ride the 1 mile back to my house.
And for those of you wondering, no, I didn't have a helmet on. God, what an idiot I am. "I'm not going far" was my all-to-common justifacation, but no longer. From now on I always wear one.
And this was just 2 days after I got an email about a buddy of mine at another company who also was just "going down the street" and ended up with a gnarly banged-up face, and some stitches after eating it.
That's my near-death experience for the day, scared straight for sure...

JJames

My younger brother t-boned a guy in a old dodge pick up on his road bike last year doing about 25mph. The guy pulled out of a side street in Wheatridge and my brother really didn't have time to even grab the brakes. Up over the hood, busted his windshield and dented his door pretty good. My brother got a cracked rib, bruises, road rash, and a slightly used Colnago out of it when it was all said and done.

Glad to hear you are okay.

 

[James]

Sorry, you lost me at, "So I'm riding my bike back from meeting a buddy at Starbucks"....

Do people really go there?

Well, I don't drink coffee, it was more a "let's meet at a place that is known to both of us" kind of thing. And he wasn't a super-close buddy, more of a friend of a co-worker whom I was selling some pedals to, so that explains that.
When I do go to a coffee joint, it's just to get a hot chocolate, and the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is where I go for that. Don't drink anything from Starbucks. Not that I'm a "Starbucks/big corporations suck" guy, but just don't drink coffee...
So hope that explains it all.

 

[skeletor]

that sounds scary, but u were lucky. i was driving by a starbucks today, and there were a bunch of cops, an ambulance, and a fire truck, and some guy with his face all f**ked and blood pouring from his nose, and a bike laying 5 feet away from him. no joke. sooo not cool. people need to watch the f**k out.

 

[James]

that sounds scary, but u were lucky. i was driving by a starbucks today, and there were a bunch of cops, an ambulance, and a fire truck, and some guy with his face all f**ked and blood pouring from his nose, and a bike laying 5 feet away from him. no joke. sooo not cool. people need to watch the f**k out.

Holy CRAP!
Man, just think, in another world, he's the guy posting about how he almost got hit, and I'm the guy laying in the hospital bed!
I'm actually a little surprised by all of the well-wishers here, I guess this kind of taps into that part of all of us, we've all had our own close calls, and maybe some were not so lucky. Really makes us a "community" of riders.
Thanks guys, it's nice to have friends, even "e-friends..."

 

[Bldr_DH]

I swear people cannot drive. I see retarded crap all the freakin' time. It's absolutely rediculous as to how stupid people can be in cars. I don't drive yet... too lazy to get my license -- I'd imagine I'll do some retarded stuff too, but goddam, people honestly have no brains when it comes to driving. They don't pay any attention at all.

 

[ito]

Sounds like my normal ride in the city.

Riding a fixed gear taught me to always be on the look out, still I have close calls. When every ride involves 20 miles of lights and city driving you get a lot of chances to push your luck. I've been lucky so far, but I have a bad feeling it is only a matter of time. Be careful man, sounds like that was a close one. Some seriously dumb drivers out there.

The Ito

 

[James]

Sounds like my normal ride in the city.

Riding a fixed gear taught me to always be on the look out, still I have close calls. When every ride involves 20 miles of lights and city driving you get a lot of chances to push your luck. I've been lucky so far, but I have a bad feeling it is only a matter of time. Be careful man, sounds like that was a close one. Some seriously dumb drivers out there.

The Ito

I've done my share of riding in cities, Chicago being one of my favorites. Dangerous for sure, but call me sadistic, I've always found it to be really, really fun. Yeah, it's scary as hell, but because you are basically moving as fast or faster than traffic, and are much more manouverable, you can kinda keep yourself out of most trouble. Of course there is always gonna be that car or bus you don't see, exactly like what happened to me, but still.
One of my best biking memories from last year was taking a 10-15 mile ride through downtown Chicago with a buddy, just flowing the lanes like a winding singletrack. I can't imagine doing it on a fixie though, big props.
I think my ideal city bike would be something like a Giant AC, ~5" of travel, 2 rings, riser bars, and some bigass slicks like K-Rads or Hookworms. For that reason I was a little bummed I didn't get a job that I applied for there...

JJames

 

[ioscope]

If you had been hit, it would be the woman who waved's liability. It's the truth, if someone waves you through and then you get hit, it's there fault, my drivers ed teacher told me!

 

[Capt. Jack Sparrow]

Glad you're okay. A couple years back I was having a rough two weeks and something similar happened. 1) I lost my job (got let go.) 2) My girlfriend dumped me a few days later without an explaination (two years into the relationship.)

I got a bad feeling that God was trying to kill me off.

3) On my first day of unemployment, I was on my bike in a crosswalk, crossing about ten seconds after the light turned for me to go. I had to cross past a stopped dump truck on my left, that I couldn't see past. As I started to pass him, someone screamed, "Look out!" from a car nearby on the other side of the road. I grabbed my brakes and dismounted as a crappy old pick-up truck blew through the red light (he ran it really, really late) and across the crosswalk going about 30 m.p.h. He missed me by about two inches.

Whoever yelled saved my life. And if I hadn't been chatting with a stranger waiting for the light to turn, I would have ridden across the crosswalk as soon as the light turned, and been hit by the pick-up truck. I wonder how many times each of us is nearly killed without even realizing it?

I chased the pick-up down the street and screamed at him at a stop light. He yelled in response, "I SEEN it!"

 

[peter6061]

If you had been hit, it would be the woman who waved's liability. It's the truth, if someone waves you through and then you get hit, it's there fault, my drivers ed teacher told me!

Yeah, but it doesn't really matter if you're just a red smear and a pile of smashed bike parts on the road though.

 

[ito]

I've done my share of riding in cities, Chicago being one of my favorites. Dangerous for sure, but call me sadistic, I've always found it to be really, really fun. Yeah, it's scary as hell, but because you are basically moving as fast or faster than traffic, and are much more manouverable, you can kinda keep yourself out of most trouble. Of course there is always gonna be that car or bus you don't see, exactly like what happened to me, but still.
One of my best biking memories from last year was taking a 10-15 mile ride through downtown Chicago with a buddy, just flowing the lanes like a winding singletrack. I can't imagine doing it on a fixie though, big props.
I think my ideal city bike would be something like a Giant AC, ~5" of travel, 2 rings, riser bars, and some bigass slicks like K-Rads or Hookworms. For that reason I was a little bummed I didn't get a job that I applied for there...

JJames

Ya, I'm a bit sadistic too, I love cruising the streets on my bike. Actually, I think most of it is I like laughing at all those idiots stuck in traffic.

One of our wrenches at the shop I'm at commutes on a super8 with hookworms. He likes it more than the road bike as he can nose manual past a car and smack them with his rear end when someone is stupid.

The Ito

 

[johnbryanpeters]

James, glad you're OK.

If you had been hit, it would be the woman who waved's liability. It's the truth, if someone waves you through and then you get hit, it's there fault, my drivers ed teacher told me!

Screw liability.

 

[James]

Ya, I'm a bit sadistic too, I love cruising the streets on my bike. Actually, I think most of it is I like laughing at all those idiots stuck in traffic.

One of our wrenches at the shop I'm at commutes on a super8 with hookworms. He likes it more than the road bike as he can nose manual past a car and smack them with his rear end when someone is stupid.

The Ito

Now that sounds like the ultimate city commuter! I knew those old Super 8s were still good for something!
On a side note, my first "real" DH bike was an orange Super 8, 6" BoXXer, front Hayes, and a rear V-brake. Ah yeah, nothing like a rim brake on an 8" travel single-pivot frame...those were the days...