Have you noticed that when a driver is waiting to enter traffic via a right-hand turn, he or she almost always is staring to the right? This makes it difficult for the cyclist to establish eye-contact with the driver, and it's also distracting to the cyclist because for the next mile or so the thought keeps recurring: Why don't they look to the left? That's where the traffic's coming from!

Any ideas?

I've noticed that too I think. What really bothers me is when a vehicle waits and waits to turn right because there's too much traffic for the car to go straight into the left lane. I avoid passing these strange people on the right for fear they may blindly kill me.
The only relief I get when I see a stupid motorist do something at an intersection is that I can better predict more stupid behavior from them later on down the road that may otherwise kill me.

Blow a whistle. They'll look right at you.

Servus!

Gotta agree with you there Pete! Nothing makes people LOOK like the shrill from a whistle! Try an English Bobby whistle (the tubular kind with no pea inside) - as loud and a piercing as a 5 year old who didn't get her way!

My number one rule of biking is assume no one sees you, even if they are staring directly at you. When passing by a car waiting at a side road, I always bike in the towards the middle of the road to give me more time to react to an absent minded motorist.

I ride as I taught my daughters to drive.
"Always assume that the other person is going to do something stupid. 99% of the time you will be right."

One of my favorite examples, of the thousands I have witnessed, was a minor fender bender a couple of years ago. I was in a car, not on my bike. A woman "paused" at a stop sign then pulled right out in front of me. Had the street not been slick from a slight drizzle, or had there not been construction in the right lane, I could have avoided the accident by getting stopped or veering to the right to go behind her. As it was I did one of those slow motion, wet road skids right into her. SHE was FURIOUS with ME, saying repeatedly, "I stopped!" She just did not get the concept that I did not have a stop. As a very defensive driver, I did have my foot off the gas and poised over the brake ready to, otherwise I would really have slammed into her. She refused to give me her insurance information, got in her car and drove off. I got her license plate number, but she was from out of state. My insurance company tried to track her down, but they were not successful.

Just do what I do. Assume they will do something stupid. That way, you can be better prepared when it happens.

Chris