Excuse me!

This was far from unpredictable. From his own words it looks like the pro rider decided to get into a 'race' with a car. I'm not at all saying the driver was right or anything close to it, but seems to me that the rider in question didn't give a d@mn about his own safety.

From the article:

"This woman tried to race me to the corner," Bahati told Cyclingnews. "It's just a two-lane highway ending at PCH, and I'm in the right hand lane where you can only go right and she's in the left hand lane where you can only turn left. But she turns right and I t-boned her right over the hood. Once I got to my feet she looked at me and she just took off!"


Who was racing whom... you have never been riding a bike somewhere and had a motorist suddenly zoom past you to take a position that they did not otherwise have rights to?

I have had motorists come from behind, cross the double yellow and then aggressively put themselves in front of me. I did not accelerate or modify my position in any way. Who is racing whom?

Who was racing whom... you have never been riding a bike somewhere and had a motorist suddenly zoom past you to take a position that they did not otherwise have rights to?

I have had motorists come from behind, cross the double yellow and then aggressively put themselves in front of me. I did not accelerate or modify my position in any way. Who is racing whom?

Totally agree (assuming the riders report is accurate) that she was racing. BUT, he has described the intersection as a T where you have to go either right or left. You or I or even most of the blow a stop guys would at least be slowing to make the right. But if someone is coming to a T intersection and then ends up tboning someone who cuts them off and this is hard enough to cause significant injury I have to wonder just what the rider was doing. At the very least it does not sound like defensive riding.

Now if this were a normal through intersection and the way they were going did not have a stop I would say there was a better chance that this was one of the cut offs where the rider had no reasonable chance to avoid the accident.

But if someone is coming to a T intersection and then ends up tboning someone who cuts them off and this is hard enough to cause significant injury I have to wonder just what the rider was doing. At the very least it does not sound like defensive riding.
:beer:

I had a better reply to Gene, but lost it when the database went down. Anyway, the point is the cyclist was most clearly not being vigilant and prepared for the unexpected and unreasonable. But for some reason Gene chose this as an example to counter what I originally said.

The way I read it is the cyclist and the motorist were parallel... where a mirror would not have made a difference anyway... similar to my situation where the motorist and I were on parallel but separate paths... until the motorist chose to vary their path from that prescribed by the signage and lines on the road.

Having been in a similar situation, here's an example of what might have happened (with some real world basis as I've been in similar situations and had people do this same thing without the collision) and how a mirror helps to avoid it. Note: this can happen anywhere there is a long right turn lane.

Cyclist is in the turning lane. Motorist is approaching the turn in the correct lane and probably with their signal on but sees the cyclist up ahead. They quickly change lanes and speed up trying to beat them to the turn so that they don't risk being 30 seconds late for their parking spot at the mall. Underestimating the cyclist's speed, they think they got past the cyclist and change lanes into the path of the cyclist who has for some reason assumed that nothing was out of the ordinary. The cyclist assumed nothing because they had no idea what just went on behind them. Of course they'd have no idea because that would be one long shoulder check to see all that just happened. With a mirror, one can easily monitor the progress of the unpredictable motorist and thus make a predicition on what they are going to do and act accordingly (usually just slowing down and letting them go on by).

I too have been in similar situations^^^ where a mirror did not matter... as the motorist was parallel to me in a center through lane while I was in the right turn lane. And the light was red. Motorist turned right... from the center, toward me.

No turn signal, no indication of what was about to happen... except when it did happen.

I have also seen a motorist back a car up a freeway off ramp... that too made lots (NOT) of sense.

Yeah tell me motorists moves are always predictable... Riiiiight.

Riiiiiight. Now go read the thread about the Pro cyclist being hit and run (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=226550) by the motorist turning right from the left lane. And try to recall some of my rants about motorists making unpredictable moves... in particular similar to one making a right turn from a left lane.

It's alright... I'll wait while you try to explain how he wasn't positioned within inches of some arbitrary point that only you and Forester know about... and how this caused the motorist to then leave the scene of the crime.

Oh yeah and don't forget to remind me that this motorist was obviously doing all they could to avoid an accident.

Don't hijack the thread with your 'disagreements' eh? I was digging the quotes.

Don't hijack the thread with your 'disagreements' eh? I was digging the quotes.

Sorry man, but I was defending my safety quote made in post 33 (http://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.php?p=3023281&postcount=44). Since someone felt that they had to diss it, I had to defend it.

Now of course we are discussing the discussion.