Right Hook, Right Cross – How do you define?

[Eclectic]

I always defined a Right Cross as a (I’m riding in the Bike Lane in the direction of traffic) car passing me on the left and then “Crossing” in front of me to make a right turn instead of merging behind me to make the right turn. I defined a Right Hook as a car from a side street (or driveway) making a right turn into me.

But… the other day I looked it up and found this: http://bicyclesafe.com/ which defines it just the opposite.

How do you define?
Right Cross
Right Hook
Left Cross
Left Hook

I guess the reason I started thinking about this is because it (passing me on the left and turning right in front of me) has happened to me 8 times in the last 5 weeks. No contact yet but the results could be measured in inches. Fortunately I am hyper-vigilant about this but all it’s going to take is me being distracted for a moment.

I started out screaming profanities at them but after the second one I realized that screaming was only terrifying the female driving the car and making her even more unpredictable.

The new tact (at least the 2 times I’ve been able to catch them and talk to them) is to explain (as calmly as possible) how close they came to hitting me. I then mention that if I was a 50,000 pound truck, you would have never done that because the truck would have run you over. But apparently because I can’t run you over, you decided that my life wasn’t significant enough that you would be willing to incur a 1-2 second delay in arriving at this red light. Please; in the future, just treat me like you would a 50,000 lb truck and merge in behind. It is what the law says you must do and it keeps everyone safe. You don’t have to be afraid of me, just treat me with the same respect you treat any other vehicle.

 

[ecycler]

There is a 2 mile stretch of my daily commute with a bike lane where I have cars pass me on the left and then turn right in front of me on a regular basis. It is the roughest area I have to pass through and this phenomenon takes place about 10 times more often than anywhere else in town. I have a video of it happening twice in row within minutes one day. It seems to me the second car should have seen the first one do it if they were paying attention.

I will say that cell phones seem to be a common part of the theme. My belief is that the 2 biggest factors that play into this are:

1. The person's lack of basic understanding about physics and perception of space
2. The level they give a frock (about you, driving with a cell phone, being careful, being in a hurry, etc.)

 

[beast775]

Thought this was about boxing :lol: .

 

[DAND214]

Thought this was about boxing :lol: .

+1

 

[dnmun]

google airzound and order one. hit the button as soon as you see them look right.

 

[dogman dan]

I'd never heard of a right hook before joining this forum.

Bike safe must have it 100% correct, after all, you read it on the internet.

Right cross is when they pass you, then immediately turn right into you. It can happen while moving, or you can get right crossed while "protected" by a cross walk green walk light. In either case, they leave their lane, and turn crossing your path. So it's a cross, caused by a right turning driver. Nothing to do with boxing at all in my mind. Left cross they seem to have right, which is weird. To me, it's what kind of turn is the driver doing, that makes it a left or right whatever you call it.

What that page calls right cross, I just call some dumb shit pulling right out into traffic. It could be a bike, it could be an 18 wheeler he pulls into the path of.

I get tons of right and left crosses, riding or even driving a car. Two a day is expected on some routes. We have a bike lane in my town only a moron would ride in. You'll get a right cross twice a block on that older street, which means a small business driveway every 100 feet.

 

[Eclectic]

Well I guess that dogman agrees with me that a Right Cross is when someone passes you on the left and then “Crosses” right in front you to make a right turn.

I get these all the time but normally it’s just annoying because I have enough room to stop with a couple of feet left. A good horn, a nice finger salute and a WTF would probably work well in those situations. The ones I am talking about here were truly (potentially) life threatening. Clearing by 1-2 inches (might have even made contact once). Definite anomalies. No time for anything other than a complete panic stop. What makes it so strange was the frequency. 8 times in 5 weeks when I had only 1 (life threatening but dozens of annoying ones) right cross in the previous 3,000 miles.

PS - I'd never heard of them before I read some of your posts dogman

 

[The fingers]

Interrupted by cross traffic from the right or left being a cross, would make a car turning left in front if you a left hook, not a cross. :?

 

[dogman dan]

? He turns left, and crosses your path. I dunno what others may be calling it, but motorcycle riders in my state have been calling that a left cross since at least the sixties. Likely longer, but I got my first motorcycle in 73. For us, it's the kind of turn the a hole in the car is doing. Crosses your path, making a left, or right turn. Nothing to do with what side of you he's on for us here.

But every region has it's own slang, so other places may call it a hook. I just don't get the boxing names, because for us in NM, it's always been cross, because he crosses your path. Nothing to do with boxing, so we never thought of calling anything a hook.

We never made up a name for the really dumb crossing, like pulling out of a driveway into your path, or running a stop sign to cross you, or he makes a right turn into your lane from a cross street. We just call that a dumbshit pulling out, or blowing the stop sign, or whatever.

Always, they never saw you at all. Very often, a bush got big and they never could have seen you. When you see that coming, bear left in the lane, and be ready to dodge. Watch the head, if the car moves while you see back of their head, you're frocked. That car is going to enter the road, and turn left. Much harder than dodging one turning right. Right turn you can thread the needle between lanes on the cars left side. Left leaves you only with the option of turning right, into the hole they came from.

Pre think what you will do, when each type of car in your way situation happens. Think about how you can make it harder, if not impossible to happen. I take the lane at a light, so cars can't right cross me as I use a crosswalk. But in the lane, watch that first car to get behind you like a hawk. Be ready to get out of his way when he never sees you.

 

[MadRhino]

I only know the left hook, that is what I feel like throwing when a car tries to right cross me.

Of course I know it's useless to get into fights with other users of the street, so I throw them a left look instead, before hard acceleration that leaves them in a cloud of rubber dust.