It happens to everyone... either we're not paying attention, or a driver isn't...
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Posted 3 years ago #
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Posted 3 years ago #
Well... I don't get into a lot of close calls, because I don't try to set any land speed records when I bike, and a history of bad car crashes in my younger days (none of which were my fault) has turned me into a very cautious person when on the road.
Yesterday though, I was nearly knocked off my bike towards traffic at Wellesley and Sherbourne. A driver was exiting the gas station on the south-west corner, coming out onto Wellesley, and although car traffic was stopped, and there were a few of us in the bikelane... he wasn't paying attention and his car kept rolling as it passed over the sidewalk and through the bikelane.
Fortunately, I saw him coming ahead of time and moved over closer to the inside edge of the bikelane, and barely squeezed through between his moving car and traffic on Wellesley. The cyclists behind me stopped in time.
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Posted 3 years ago #
Defensive cycling is important. I tend to assume a driver will do the stupidest thing I can imagine and then act on that. Usually I'm wrong but when I'm right it saves me. Still, there's an especially righteous anger I feel when I assume someone is going to be a jerk and then they are. But hey, at least I saw it coming!
Parenthetically the couple of close calls I've had have been at lower speeds - when traffic is heavy and people are frustrated and doing dumb things, or just making turns. Generally I am a pretty fast cyclist when the road is mostly open. I don't go speeding in between stopped cars or anything dumb like that but I find on many roads just taking the lane and going as fast as I can is safer (or at least seems it). I often feel safest when I am actually keeping up with traffic, in the actual traffic lane out of the door zone.
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