chipcom 

Yes, I hit one once...but it wasn't with my car - and I waited till he got off his bike.

closetbiker

actually, it doesn't matter if the other person is legal or not, if you have the opportunity or ability to avoid a collision you must do so or be partially responsible for your actions. That's basic law.

BarracksSi

Right, and it doesn't matter which seat you're riding on or sitting in (or shoes in which you're standing).

closetbiker

I wanted so much to hit that wrong way cyclist after he ruined my bike for his idiotic action but after I got up and went over to him, I saw him on the ground desperately gasping for breath while holding his chest, I realized that I couldn't possibly hit him harder than I just had.

Allister

That's not how I read this thread at all. All I'm seeing is that cyclists aren't immune from doing stupid, dangerous and illegal things. No-one's said anything about 'always', but I guess it suits your petty little agenda to think that.

Six jours

Fixed it for you. No need to thank me.

Allister

Way to go, champ. Nice to see you staying true to form.

Blue Order

You're confusing legal and safe riding, which the cyclist in the other thread was doing, with legal but unsafe, perhaps even reckless riding. They're not the same thing. It may be legal to ride at high speed against traffic while on the sidewalk, but it's also foolhardy, and not equivalent to what happened in the other thread.

Raleigh Chopper

I would be just horrified and traumatized if I killed anyone while I was driving, be they cyclist, pedestrian, other driver, whatever. For that reason I tend to drive very defensively and cautiously in built-up areas and/or heavy traffic nowadays!

When I was a petulant young whipper-snapper (i.e. aged 18 and just passed my driving test), I had the kind of attitude that really pisses me off today - I would drive aggressively, jump long queues of traffic and barge in at the front, deliberately shoot red lights for fun, etc, etc. (It's needless to say that by the age of 19 I had been stopped by the police 7 times). I almost killed myself once (nearly flipped the car going round a bend at 110mph) and I had various high-speed near-misses with other drivers.

When I see that kind of driving today it really pisses me off! It also worries me when I'm on a bike! - There are plenty of hot-headed 18-year-old drivers out there who probably think that "old has-been" 30-somethings like me are just so uncool in our sensible cars and with our sensible driving ways ... until they hit a cyclist. I am so grateful that I never killed anyone when I was very young and very stupid!

genec

Had a near miss about a month a go... it was just after dusk, I was driving and had just crossed an intersection after a light turned green. I was moving well below the speed limit when a wrong way no light "ninja" cyclist came at me and then turned right in front of my car as he crossed the road. Traffic was light, and he made it.

But it all made me realize that some folks on bikes take some real chances as they cycle along. Dark bike, dark clothing, no lights and crossing in front of on coming traffic... it was as if this guy had a suicide wish.

John E

I concur.

I have never struck a cyclist with my car, but a cyclist did strike my car in the early 1980s, fortunately with only trivial consequences. I was accelerating slowly from a two-way stop sign while a young adult was riding a BMX bike down a hill on the wrong side of the road. He struck the right front corner of my green 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle (a full two tons of Detroit iron, fondly labeled "the dinosaur" by my carpool buddies, and euphemistically classified as "midsize" in those days ), picked himself up off the pavement, and said, "Sorry, man. My fault!" I made sure he was OK before we both left the scene.

For many reasons, I am very glad to be driving shorter-nosed cars (1996 Audi A4, 2001 VW Passat wagon) today, so that I do not have to ease the front bumper as far into a blind intersection to obtain proper visibility.

baiskeli

Anyone in the boston area knows this one. Mass Ave going into Arlington, where it crosses route 16.
I was driving. I was in the rightmost lane and came to the lights to turn right onto RT 16 (light was green so I was slowing down to turn right). Little did I know that there was a ninja cyclist wearing all black (it was at night) hammering it on the sidewalk to my right going the same direction as me. He was going straight, and right as I begun taking the right I see something out of the corner of my eyes. So I slam on the brakes and the driver behind me almost rear ends me. The cyclist flies off the sidewalk and across the crosswalk on RT 16 and right into the space where I would have been had I not seen his shadow block the light from a street light for a second (that was the flicker). Unbelievable.

noisebeam

I've come very close about three times. All times they were unpredictable and not following traffic law. I think in all cases they saw me, but mis judged my speed or assumed I'd slow for them.

Al

murphstahoe

In college, at University of Illinois. Along many streets there were (are?) bike lanes parallel to the street separated by a median. Wright Street is a one way street, I was in the rightmost lane, the bike lane was to my right. I made a right turn onto Green Street on a light that was just turning yellow as I turned. Cyclists in the bike path going straight gunned it to make the yellow. My passenger alerted me to the situation, I hit the brakes but he still went onto my hood. Had my passenger not yelled, the guy might have been dead.

As we walked around happy to all be alive and getting a report with the police, the cop said he would review the situation and decide if either of us needed to be ticketed. The cyclist was a bit confused
about how he could be ticketed - the cop just said "A cyclist is responsible to follow the rules of the road too, so either of you could be ticketed, I will review it". The cyclist was talked into getting into an ambulance by paramedics who had shown up on scene. A witness came up to me and said that if there was an issue he would testify to the cyclist accellerating into the yellow.

I wandered over to the crash site. Right before the bike path enters Green Street there was a YIELD painted on the bike lane. I had seen these before despite not generally cycling very much on campus - I had a bike my first year but rarely used it since the campus was so walkable. I got a car my senior year but didn't use it too much. The YIELD sign preceeds the actual traffic light - so with a red light you'd still need to stop and wait for a green light. I think it was designed specifically to prevent right hooks. Other places the campus used YIELDs on the bike path was where the bike path crossed pedestrian accesses (mostly crosswalk entrances from the sidewalk that was to the right of the bike path described above).

The cyclist's father called me to make a claim on my insurance. I asked if the guy was ok, he muttered about it a bit but I think basically the father was trying to recoup the ambulance bill. My Insurance company came out and looked at the crash scene and denied the claim.

Regardless of the YIELD sign, probably his fault for passing on the right. That and the fact the claim was denied didn't make me feel any better about hitting someone. That certainly would not happen today as my "cyclist" radar is very highly attuned on those rare occasions I am driving a car.

Manetheren

Back when I was in grade seven, my parents were dropping me off for a youth event in front of a suburban school. As I opened my door, my mom shouted "LOOK OUT!" and a little girl, maybe 8 or 9, slammed into my door on her bike. Our car was a Dodge Omni hatchback, so to hit the door she would have had to be riding within a foot of the parked cars. My mom accompanied her home to make sure she was alright. Took me awhile to get over that one. As a driver, I had one close call a long time ago (before I was a cyclist) when I failed to see a cyclist coming to an intersection that I was stopped at (he didn't have a stop sign). I only noticed him when he flashed by in my rear view mirror and yelled, "A------!".

BarracksSi

Ya know, this thread is probably more informative than all the others where we talk about getting hit ourselves...

slagjumper

Yes. It was around 1am on a quiet residental street. I just dropped a friend off and pulled a u turn in an intersection. I looked back first of course, but since the biker had no head lamp I did not see him. He hit my left front fender and few over the hood and landed on his collar bone on a metal curb drain. Ouch.

The biker refused my help, took blame and walked himself home.

alicestrong

No, not even close.

I almost hit a ped once when he ran across the street.

slagjumper

I saved a cyclist from being hit as well. I had just passed the cyclist, then got caught in traffic. I knew that the cyclist was picking up speed near the curb. The car infront of me stopped to allow someone to make a left in front of his car. I beeped like crazy, just in time for the cyclist and car to both slam on thier brakes and avoid a collision.

AlmostTrick

Good job! Extra alertness points for you. I'm betting you weren't on a cell phone.

mrbubbles

I rammed another cyclist.... while I am riding. She fell on her left hip and cursed at me.

Tude 

No.

My Mom is 72 and I've noticed her driving is ... off. She needs total 100% attention, I guess. I met her for supper at her favorite McDonald's (oh yum) and as she's driving out of the parking lot onto a busy road - I noticed - as I was getting my helmet on - that she was fiddling around with something in the car - and a jogger was coming up the sidewalk and Mom started out (slowly thank goodness) and she went into the path of the jogger - who basically rolled lightly across the hood of Mom's car. OH MY FREAKING DOG! - he was fine - he looked back at her and didn't say anything - and I ZOOMED UP TO HER and said "WTF MOM!!!" - her response.

"he was supposed to have stopped".

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO MOM!!! I shook her up with my explanation, don't think she'll ever go there again as it really is a busy street/intersection to try and get out of but Good freakin grief!!!!

Raleigh Chopper

Lol! My mum shoots red lights (because she doesn't notice them), turns the wrong way into one way streets (because she doesn't notice the bloody great "NO ENTRY" sign), goes all the way round roundabouts in the outside lane, goes straight ahead in left/right hand filters, turns left/right at "no left/right turn" signs (again, she has no idea that she can't turn there), and drives at 40 mph in the middle lane of the motorway - so that she gets undertaken by huge lorries which beep at her (She then comes out with some comment like "Oh, what a rude man! Oh the youth of today! No respect!"). She has written off no less than four separate cars - one of them she was reversing into her garage and she managed to twist the chassis and take a huge chunk out of the garage wall. Whenever I visit her and we need to go anywhere in her car, I drive it for her because she scares the crap out of me!

All this and she STILL backseat drives!!! "Oooo! Look out for that man in that blue car!", "Be careful! There's a roundabout coming up!", "Oh my goodness me! You're going FAR too fast!" - then I remind her that I have never had a single insurance claim in my life and I have only ever had one accident, which wasn't my fault!

aubinmg

No but I've wanted to give one or two the back of my hand. Does that count?

HenryL

Had an encounter with a wrong way cyclist this winter. Ice and snow on the road made the traffic lane narrow. I was waiting at a light to make a right turn into a one way street. Poor sight line at this intersection and no sidewalk to be concerned about. Started turn and cyclist came out of one way (the wrong way) and because the road was artifically narrower, cyclist was further out in the lane than would have been. I hit the cyclist with my right mirror. Cyclist stayed up, mirror seperated from vehicle. No injury but when I asked to call for police or medical assistance, cyclist replied with "yo gots any money?" Reply was no and off she went. Since this happened directly accross the street from police station, I walked accross to report only to be told that I had left the scene (go figure). Explained to officer that car didn't move yet and got the typical civil servant shrug. Returned to car and went to work. Didn't stop shaking for an hour.

Funny thing is I see this person all the time just not at this intersection. She is always riding the wrong way on this street going where ever she needs to go. Generally have to pull to side or stop to let her by.