Old 01-03-08, 03:20 PM
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Roody
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Originally Posted by RobertHurst
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I suspect that there are actually quite a bit more drivers and peds who fail to notice me (and you, I suspect) than my 2-4 incidents per week average would indicate, but if I'm riding the right way with the proper awareness their non-noticing doesn't register because I have already assumed a fetid combo of blindness and carelessness in these anonymous faceless strangers and acted in a way to neutralize their potential to cause a collision, so whether they have seen me or not doesn't matter, and I don't care either way. Unfortunately, as you know as an urban rider, we can't launch a 100%-effective preemptive awareness strike on every other road user we encounter -- we are still going to be dependent on the awareness of others to some degree.
Yeah, I really don't care if they don't see me, or don't respect me, as long as they don't hit me. That's really the whole reason for the rules of the road, isn't it?

The last time I had a close call with a right hook was about six months ago. This little car pulled wide around me and carved a ridiculous squealing turn in front of me while I was riding about 20-25 mph. I avoided the back end by maybe a foot. I felt this had to be deliberate and in such situations I tend to want to contact the driver and express my sincere regrets, so to speak, especially if they are, as this driver was, caught at a light just a block away. When I rolled up to the car there was a lady behind the wheel with a completely dazed look on her face, staring straight ahead, mouth agape, and holding a giant ice bag up to the side of her head. Looks like she just got out of highly invasive oral surgery, perhaps. It's a crazy, mixed-up, pharmaceutical-ized world out there.
I've noticed that a lot of doctors and dentists are insisting that patients have a responsible driver with them before they'll even do a procedure.

I think the reason I rarely have a problem with a right hook is that they are mostly easily mitigated with simple adjustments in position or speed if you're aware of the potential for a problem. I personally consider the right hook to be low-hanging fruit among cyclists' problems.

That's the point I was trying to make in an earlier post. MOST (never all) right hooks won't happen if the cyclist is doing the right things. But what are the right things? (That's what's so frustrating about this forum. Many come here to argue the semantics, and never even impart their wisdom about how a new cyclist can make the journey a lot safer. So I doubly appreciate the time you, Robert, spent on this post.)

Of course, when it comes to right-turning trucks that can literally run over a cyclist or pedestrian that the driver might not be able to see, right hooks have been deadly problems, especially in England (where they are left hooks) and notably and sadly this year, Portland OR. The length of the truck is probably more of a factor in these incidents than the height of the cab, as a truck driver must set up for a right turn from much farther left than the driver of a car because the truck's rear wheels track so far inside the front wheels. If they don't set up for the turn correctly, the rear wheels will literally track over the sidewalk and take out newspaper boxes and light poles. Often I see right-turning trucks waiting to turn and they are entirely outside the turn lane. This can easily fool one into thinking the driver means to go straight, and if there is room to filter up beside, even a very experienced rider might have a small lapse of judgment and filter up beside their last truck.

Robert
I'm reluctant to ever filter to the right of a truck, even if it's in a through-only lane. I'll usually stop behind them and just wait for them to get going. Even filtering to their left can be dangerous, since they might suddenly swing left to make the right turn.

One of my phobias with trucks is that, after overtaking a cyclist, they can start their right merge safely, giving the cyclist a couple feet of clearance. But if they're going fast enough, their turbulence might literally suck the cyclist under their rear wheels. Is this possible? Or am I worrying needlessly?
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