Almost Lights-Out ! .. close calls..

[nitecheck]

Ok - only 2 weeks since my last "incident" & this morning while keeping very left of the lane, scooting down a bridge @ 50kms/h - I feel a "bump" on my gloved hand. I look to my right at the offendin hand - almost in slow mo - I've no clue what's happening - it was the most strangest sensation!. Only to find I'm looking at the side of a BUS overtaking me at well over 60km/h in a 60 zone...my hand is "sliding" down at least half the length of the bus as it over takes me. I'm stunned ...
I look straight a head - grip the bars for dear life - in attempt to keep the bike upright. There's no where to go - I manage to move even closer to the curb, I'm in the gutter now - with rims taking a real beating....I'm braking & hoping that I can keep control...& then the bus passes me. I'm left struggling to stay upright & get the bike up a tar ridge from the gutter back on the road before I tank it against the kerb. I make it to the end of the bridge - unclip & get off the road - my hands are trembling....I'm so damn angry.

This is a supposed professional driver - who had plenty of room to give me space as by required by law - not mention common decency - but for some reason decided to travel so close that another cm or 2 & he would have put me under his rear wheels. I'm a safe rider, I obey road rules & am courteous of others etc etc ....but Ladies & Gents - I'm officially done! I'm not going to be yet another statistic due to some incompetent "fker". I will no longer use secondary roads at all! It's safer to use the motorway/freeway - (the break down or "the after thought bike lane" that is never maintained) - regardless of punctures (which I will expect to be at least twice to 3 times a week from past experience). With yet more kms added to the commute I really think it's time to move closer to work & to a suburb which has invested in designated bike lanes that do not share the road. If I sound -it's because I am...It's bad enough anticipating "P" platers at round abouts & long rigs at intersections without being afraid of being taken out on a straight road!

 

[swade]

Someone a while back posted a link to this brilliant site:
http://bicyclesafe.com

The tactics on that page have made my commutes much safer the past three months. With an e-bike, I think those ideas are even more practical than on a regular bike too.

 

[Ypedal]

Whoa... unfortunately i know EXACTLY how you felt thru that experience... been there.. done that.. gulp... more than once. The BUS experience was one thing.. but even worse was the automobile shuttle.. = Those big rigs they use to haul cars by the dozen from the train yard to the car dealers.. 2 stacks of cars tall . they make this god awful racket of chains slapping metal and sharp edges along elbow height..

When i hear one of those comming now.. i get the hell out of the way..by any means required.

 

[drewjet]

I had my close call the other night. Got off work early...about 1 AM and riding home doing right at 20. Not many cars on the road this time of night. Guy passes me and immedeately makes a right turn right in front of me. I slam the brakes yell out and tell him he is #1. Did no good he just kept driving on like I wasn't even there.

I don't know what can be done to prevent this in the future. I knew a car was coming up on me, as I saw the lights, but I certainly didn't expect the turn. I do believe the faster speeds we travel does throw off the judgment of already bad drivers.

 

[swbluto]

I had my close call the other night. Got off work early...about 1 AM and riding home doing right at 20. Not many cars on the road this time of night. Guy passes me and immedeately makes a right turn right in front of me. I slam the brakes yell out and tell him he is #1. Did no good he just kept driving on like I wasn't even there.

I don't know what can be done to prevent this in the future. I knew a car was coming up on me, as I saw the lights, but I certainly didn't expect the turn. I do believe the faster speeds we travel does throw off the judgment of already bad drivers.

Okay, I'm seeing a motorcycle in your sig that can do more than 40 mph. What's up with this "right turn in front you" behavior? Is that common for motorcycles who take the lane?

 

[nitecheck]

Quick follow up. Used only motorways today - added 10 kms to the commute - but trip time was only 5 minutes longer for each way..(praise to the fresh battery pack) - was able to sustain decent cadence, average speed & even a few 30km/h freewheels for about 500m a piece...amazing how even avoiding a few traffic lights & hills makes.
No puncture today (was carrying 2 tubes just incase) but passed one unfortunate roadie in the process of swapping out a tube. Need to dig around the garage for the tyre liners & puncture goo to try to avoid the same inevitable fate Peace of mind riding - PRICELESS.

 

[TylerDurden]

No puncture today (was carrying 2 tubes just incase) but passed one unfortunate roadie in the process of swapping out a tube. Need to dig around the garage for the tyre liners & puncture goo to try to avoid the same inevitable fate Peace of mind riding - PRICELESS.

I used to rollerblade on a bike path, taking a small broom along...

sweeping the remains of recently broken bottles, headlights and other debris can help prevent damage to tires in the future, help alleviate riders from swerving into traffic (for avoidance) and it can help get you respected by roadies who might otherwise give you the stinkeye.

You don't have to do the whole road at one shot, but hitting the really bad stuff as it comes up can be a big help.

 

[biohazardman]

Close call a couple of days ago had me head on with an SUV. Well to give you a bit of back ground so I won't seem like the jerk I was riding down the wrong side of the street that day you will need to know I am not well. I picked up a cheeseburger wraper off the seat of a city bus some 20 years back. It had a syringe in it and naturally I banged the back of the syringe on the seat so got whatever was in it injected into the thick part of the palm of my hand. Thought nothing of it at the time and just disposed of the syring in the sharps container where it belonged.
Ten years latter after some medical treatment involving steroids I wound up very sick indeed. In bed for six weeks I was and then wishing I did not exist after that cuz I felt so bad all the time. Shortly after that I was a lab rat for some of the new at the time drugs for HCV. They called it high dose interferon with ribaviron. Yuck self inflicted shots were nasty and made me pass out now and then and hardly able to walk but I did not tell them as I wanted to get better. Still they eventually found out through my blood werq and booted me off the stuff. Two months later I felt quite a bit better so was able to continue werqing my life away.
Now some ten years have gone by and I am not doing so well lately kind of like being up for thirty hours and having a touch of the flu at best. At worst you have trouble walking a straight line and talk about not having a brain it's hard to carry on a conversation. On the worse of the days, things seem to cycle every few weeks between bad and worse, I stay home cuz I know I should not drive and I can hurt myself at work I have found. But now I has this bicycle and can get out on even the bad days makes me feel a bit better and much less depressed. Still have to make a judgment call as to whether or not it will be safe.
The batteries were dead and did not want to pedal anymore. Just then the light rail signal started flashing it's warning from half a block down the road. So thought I would cross the street to a driveway, I had spotted just a bit down the road, and ride the last thirty or so yards on the sidewalk, stop at the intersection to check for traffic, and maybe still have time to catch the train. I remember the thought but next thing I remember is reality set in and nearly becoming a hood ornament for an SUV as I found myself on the wrong side of the road already at the intersection and, BIG SURPRISE, face to face with the good sized vehicle. I had just enough time to cut sharply to the right and miss his left front fender and left to keep any kind of balance I may have had left. Then apologize loudly as sped on past glancing down the street to see the car that was going to hit me as I could not stop and was blowing through a red light. There was no car at that instant and I was in luck the train had passed by also so I did not broadside it either.
Upon sheepishly boarding the train, I had hoped no one had seen the whole incident, I realized how helpless I was at that moment and thanked my maker for preserving me one more time. Timing is everything and when you loose a few seconds due to fatigue things can change in a hurry.
A couple miles earlier as I was cru zing in the middle of the wide bike lanes we have I glanced in my mirror just in time to see an older woman about to sideswipe me. Actually she missed by no more than a couple of inches then went right back into her lane as if nothing had happened. I didn’t give it a second thought.
Ride safe be safe guys.

 

[Zoot Katz]

I didn't cast a ballot in the poll because there wasn't a "none of the above" choice.

Riding a bicycle for over thirty years I've had close calls. When I worked for the railway it was said that a close call every six months is what kept you alive. Fatigue is big factor most accidents.

The worst injury I ever sustained on a bicycle was in a single vehicle crash. The two collisions I've had involved vans hitting my front wheel. Those incidents were separated by 33 years. The first was a result of my inexperience. The second one I saw coming but, despite trying, was unable to avoid.

My last "close call" was about two years ago. It was an eye opener. I was stopped and dabbed waiting for a light. There's a delay on the green light so everybody has a few seconds of red light. I looked left and the approaching truck was slowing to stop. Traffic to the right was stopped I stood on the pedals to take off a millisecond before my light turned green. That's when I heard the horn. The truck coming from my left either couldn't stop or decided to squeeze the red light.
I froze in a track stand as a city street sweeper passed entirely too close to my bike and body. Since then I've toned down my jack rabbit starts. A start immediate controller could have killed me in that situation. As it was, I just turned to the mortified cyclists behind me and quipped, "that would have been messy. . . but at least it would have cleaned up fast".

The lesson learned there served me well twice on one ride a few months later when the low angle of the sun blinded the drivers. They blew through a solid red light they never even saw. Eight blocks later it happened again. Last week it happened when the sun wasn't factor. Dude apologised. Thanks, jerk, you were speeding, blowing a red light and could have killed me if I'd not seen you and changed my line through the turn. Your words mean a lot to me. ESFOAD!
Excuse me now, I have to keep riding. That's business as usual and not what I'd consider a close call since there was about a meter between us.

I've found that you can't let the cagers who threaten you occupy too much of your concentration. The asswipe who just cut you off, right hooked, left crossed or bullied you out of your lane and ROW, has to be forgotten so that you're ready for the inevitable next one. After a while you learn to read body language. Most of the caged idiots are predictable. I know what they're going to do before they do, like not signalling an illegal turn where at least half of them do it. Motorists who brand all cyclists scofflaws should first sweep in front of their own door.

 

[rguy56]

I don't imagine anyone here who rides every day doesn't have a "PASS THE BIKE AND TURN RIGHT" event every week. For Brits., Aussies, Japan etc. "PASS THE BIKE AND TURN LEFT."

Another thrilling favorite is cars that get to a stop sign with no intent to stop, and only hit their brakes because there's a car just behind me. It has the double advantage of causing me to reflexively swerve into the path of the trailing car...

I really want a paint ball gun mounted on the bike, and a video camera to show the judge why I did it...

Bob

 

[drewjet]

Okay, I'm seeing a motorcycle in your sig that can do more than 40 mph. What's up with this "right turn in front you" behavior? Is that common for motorcycles who take the lane?

This was on my ebike. I haven't added it yet as I am still in the testing of components phase (Ugly) and not ready to show it off yet.

I have been riding pedal bikes for 30 something years and never had a problem with right turn in front of you problem. I guess this is something to learn to deal with at the higher speeds.

 

[nitecheck]

"I really want a paint ball gun mounted on the bike, and a video camera to show the judge why I did it..."

I like Bob's idea - very much...I think there could be a market for a full auto pain ball gun - with optional ammo of ball bearings mixed in

Can paint guns shoot a same sized ball bearing? :wink:

 

[biohazardman]

I didn't cast a ballot in the poll because there wasn't a "none of the above" choice.

Riding a bicycle for over thirty years I've had close calls. When I worked for the railway it was said that a close call every six months is what kept you alive. Fatigue is big factor most accidents.

The worst injury I ever sustained on a bicycle was in a single vehicle crash. The two collisions I've had involved vans hitting my front wheel. Those incidents were separated by 33 years. The first was a result of my inexperience. The second one I saw coming but, despite trying, was unable to avoid.

My last "close call" was about two years ago. It was an eye opener. I was stopped and dabbed waiting for a light. There's a delay on the green light so everybody has a few seconds of red light. I looked left and the approaching truck was slowing to stop. Traffic to the right was stopped I stood on the pedals to take off a millisecond before my light turned green. That's when I heard the horn. The truck coming from my left either couldn't stop or decided to squeeze the red light.
I froze in a track stand as a city street sweeper passed entirely too close to my bike and body. Since then I've toned down my jack rabbit starts. A start immediate controller could have killed me in that situation. As it was, I just turned to the mortified cyclists behind me and quipped, "that would have been messy. . . but at least it would have cleaned up fast".

The lesson learned there served me well twice on one ride a few months later when the low angle of the sun blinded the drivers. They blew through a solid red light they never even saw. Eight blocks later it happened again. Last week it happened when the sun wasn't factor. Dude apologised. Thanks, jerk, you were speeding, blowing a red light and could have killed me if I'd not seen you and changed my line through the turn. Your words mean a lot to me. ESFOAD!
Excuse me now, I have to keep riding. That's business as usual and not what I'd consider a close call since there was about a meter between us.

I've found that you can't let the cagers who threaten you occupy too much of your concentration. The asswipe who just cut you off, right hooked, left crossed or bullied you out of your lane and ROW, has to be forgotten so that you're ready for the inevitable next one. After a while you learn to read body language. Most of the caged idiots are predictable. I know what they're going to do before they do, like not signalling an illegal turn where at least half of them do it. Motorists who brand all cyclists scofflaws should first sweep in front of their own door.

OK so I have been hit a couple of times but when I was only five or six. I once ran into the back of a milk truck I had been chasing around the neighborhood as he pulled into a driveway to turn around. My tire got stuck under the bumper and he, not knowing I was there, immediately backed up. I made a dive from the bike and rolled out to the street. Lying next to the curb I watched as the truck demolished my bike. He was kind enough to buy me another bike a few days later and I was a happy kid as funds for a new one were not in the budget. Kind of funny as I think back on it that the only thing that mattered at the time was my bike as I knew I would not have another.
Another incident at the young age again happened as I crossed the street in front of my house going home. A large pick up passed by and I was headed the other way and so just turned left as soon as he passed me. I did not notice the boat he was towing at the time and got thumped hard enough by it to send me off my bike, which the trailer ran over, and twenty feet backwards. I wound up sitting on the gravel up against a telephone pole uninjured or nearly so anyway. I was up in a flash and dragging my bike out of the road before the driver even got to the back of his truck some yards down the road.
You have some very good points about just letting things go to be ready for the next one and not doing the jackrabbit starts. I have worked many years on the first it is now pretty much automatic with me. Don't need garbage taking up useful space in my head. I will work on the second one as I have noticed drivers don't expect you to be there when you start out that fast. No problems yet cuz like you I have usually been able to read the drivers intentions and stop just in time to watch them run the light just a couple feet off of my front wheel.

 

[markcycle]

Guy cuts me off to make a U turn

watch?v=[youtube]7vwMCrmvcWA[/youtube]

Mark

 

[jerryt]

You want close calls??

[youtube]nD19Os5oUTg[/youtube]

 

[MarxNutz]

When I was seven, even after being told explicitly not to ride my bike down the hill, I got on and started down. The road ended at the bottom of the hill, and as I rolled faster and faster I got scared and my feet slipped while trying to brake (the bike was the old push-the-pedal-backwards-to-brake kind). In the meantime, a car came along (later I figured out it was a Ford Ranchero) the road at the bottom of the hill. As I got to the intersection, the wheels of the bike hit some gravel and I went down on my right knee. About the same time, I felt something go THUMP! and when I stopped sliding, I saw the front wheel of the bike, bent up, wobble across the road and into the barbwire fence on the other side. I then looked to my right, and I saw a man get out of the car, take one look at me and jumped back in and took off. I figured I must have clipped his rear bumper, which popped the front wheel of my bike and put a major dent in it. My leg was injured and I didn't dare move from that position. I yelled back up the hill, trying to get somebody's attention. Then the ultimate humiliation came. A busload of kids going to school pulled up at the intersection, and everyone just stared dumbly down at me. The driver didn't even get out to help! Finally, the neighbor lady came down, and as she approached me a police car pulled up. They put me in the car and took me to the hospital. Turned out my right kneecap was broken and I had multiple lacerations on my thigh. I wore a cast for six weeks, and figured I was damn lucky I wasn't either smashed by the car or tangled in the barbwire. About as perfect of an accident as you can get, at least until the evening in 1987 when I was rearended on my Kawasaki 440 LTD by a Honda Civic... But, that's another story...