Advocacy & Safety - GF had a close call, but may have had an impact..

Near our place, is a great little descent into town. Speed limit on the particular road is 35-40mph, and it has nice wide shoulders. Well, today at the end of our ride, I decided to do a quick sprint down, while she took it easy. Plan was to meet up at the stop light about 2 miles ahead. I got to the stop light, and waited. I see the GF come riding up, white as a ghost, shaking, followed by a woman driving some sort of an SUV, who was almost as white, and clearly shaken up. Turns out as my GF was approaching a cross street, the SUV just pulled right out, and almost hit her. My GF yelled, and veered out of the way, at which point the driver of the SUV saw her, and slammed on the breaks, which basically saved my GF from being hit. It was clear that the SUV driver was trying to stay behind my GF, but oops.. red light ahead. What happend next, amazed me (being in NJ and on a bike and all.. ;) ).

The woman pulled up along side us, rolled down the window and said to my GF: "Mam.. I am INCREDIBLY sorry. Are you OK? Do you need anything. I cant beleive how stupid I was, in not seeing you..." At which point my GF said in a rather friendly tone "Yes, I am ok, however please please please, in the future, watch for bikes. There are a lot of bikers in this area, and we are trying to be as visible as possible, but we need drivers to be looking for us as well." (I was quite proud at this moment). The driver said "Oh, I most definitely will. Again, I am very sorry, and thank God you weren't hurt."

At this point, I wasnt quite sure what happened, but was told when we got home.. lol.. good thing she hadn't told me before, or I would have been LIVID and handled it much worse than she did!! :)

Sounds like she handled it pretty well. To be honest it's not often that a motorist is apologetic for almost hitting you (or even actually hitting you for that matter - and I've been hit five times to prove it). Sounds like the driver may have learned a lesson, but I believe there are other lessons here, too. I generally make sure I'm pretty wide of the kerb at intersections to give me more time to take evasive action for just such a situation.

I'd like to reiterate Chris' last statement. If I'm descending at any sort of speed, I'm in the middle of the lane because I'd never be able to avoid a car pulling from an intersecting road from the gutter/shoulder (edit to add: or even bike lane for that matter).

I do the same and always have an eye out for cars that do not yeild right of way to me.

Many times I've had to swing to the far left side of the lane to avoid being hit by a car coming from a side street that would not yeild to me.

A few times I've had to ride on or over the center line toward oncoming traffic.

What happend next, amazed me (being in NJ and on a bike and all.. ;) ).

The woman pulled up along side us, rolled down the window and said to my GF: "Mam.. I am INCREDIBLY sorry.

I live in NJ and the drivers aren't so bad but the speeds are horrible. I actually feel safer driving in the city where there's more traffic but the speeds are slower.

Once you go out into the burbs, the speeds pick up real quick and 40 MPH roads are actually 55 - 60 MPH roads! I can't recall the study/article that stated cyclists are more likely to get killed in the burbs than in the city. Anyway.... I'm glad things came out OK.

I'd like to reiterate Chris' last statement. If I'm descending at any sort of speed, I'm in the middle of the lane because I'd never be able to avoid a car pulling from an intersecting road from the gutter/shoulder.

Yeah, unfortunately riding on the shoulder (or "as far to the right as practicable") makes you doubly invisible, too. People pulling onto a busy road are so paranoid about getting t-boned by a big auto that they don't give a second thought to what's on the shoulder, and they often rip out into the lane ASAP to get in the traffic flow. You just can't win on 2 wheels. Never trust an auto. (or to butcher a quote, "two wheels good, four wheels bad..." :) )

I find that cars use the stop line as a slow down line. They stop after the rear of the car has passed the stop line when they are supposed to stop before touching it with the front tires.

I find that cars use the stop line as a slow down line. They stop after the rear of the car has passed the stop line when they are supposed to stop before touching it with the front tires.

And even when they do stop, it's not uncommon for them to overshoot the line enough to be a problem.

but I believe there are other lessons here, too. I generally make sure I'm pretty wide of the kerb at intersections to give me more time to take evasive action for just such a situation.

Humm, I hadn't even thought about that. I'll have to ask her how far out she was. The nice wide shoulder is nice on the back side of the hill (very slow, long climb) as you are not going fast enough to have a car pull out on you, but you can get well out of the way of traffic by being on the nice wide shoulder (we are talking 8-10ft wide, all paved). When I go down the hill, however, I sit in the middle of the lane (heck, I am just about going the speed limit anyway).. Though the GF is new to biking, so I might have to talk with her about that..