Advocacy & Safety - Right hook at 65 MPH

A couple weeks ago I was on my way to Albuquerque, on my powered two wheeler.

It was daylight out, and my modulating headlight is extremely hard to ignore. My driving lights were also on to aid in visibility of me.

I was in the right hand lane of an Interstate Highway, doing 67 MPH, cruise set.

A semi, going faster decided to pass. He signaled, pulled out, and began to pass me.

Then it got interesting!

He turned his signal on, and proceeded to pull right - EXCEPT HE WAS ONLY 1/3 PAST ME!

I, quickly keyed the mic on my CB and told him "Don't pull over yet - I'm right here!" He kept coming, as I took the shoulder and pulled back on the road behind him.

I then called him a jerk for not checking his mirrors before pulling back in.

He got belligerent, and proceeded to chew me out for "coming up on his blind side, in his blind zone!"

It took 5 minutes of argueing over the radio before I finally convinced him that I didn't do anything wrong, and that he was the one who was doing the passing, and almost wiped me out.

I finally got an apology, and an admission that, he "forgot" I was there, was tired, and should have been more vigilant, aware, and careful.

I accepted his apology, and continued my ride.

See, it doesn't just happen to bicycles, and the PIAAs on the front of my motorcycle make me look like the sun! Sometimes, people just don't pay attention to what they are doing.

It behooves all of us to assume that everyone is trying to hit us when we are on two wheels. Don't take any of them for granted!

riding to work in less than a week I saw two different right hooks of cars by other cars. It amazes me sometimes how oblivious people are when they drive. I don't think either case involved distractions either, the drivers simply didn't consider the presence of other vehicles -- which was obvious in both cases.

The people that get chosen last in school for sports teams, the ones with little hand to eye coordination, are still given drivers licenses.

If I could have an audio feed to adjacent motorists when riding, I'm not sure I'd want to take it.

The people that get chosen last in school for sports teams, the ones with little hand to eye coordination, are still given drivers licenses.

If driver's license tests included tests for proper interpretation of the visual field instead of mere visual acuity, then I don't know maybe 20% of drivers would not be licensed.

How many miles did you concentrate more on the argument then on the road?

-Kurt

Kurt - None, it was a civil discussion. Talking was secondary - I always consider my surroundings, including space available, and keep driving/riding my primary focus.

I always try to be very aware of what is going on around me - including other vehicles (as witnessed by my avoidance of this incident.) I never hesitated, nor lost sight of the task at hand. It was a very smooth transition during the entire incident. I'm always looking for an "out."

I've got over 200,000 miles on my current motorcycle, so I do spend a considerable amount of time on it.

The people that get chosen last in school for sports teams, the ones with little hand to eye coordination, are still given drivers licenses.

The only sport/game I'm any good at is darts. I even have problems walking sometimes, but dammit, I can ride/drive.

I had a 2003 Yamaha R6 and was on the way back from Ocean City Maryland. I was stopped on a small bridge in the left lane and a tractor trailer starts merging to his left into my lane. There would have only been two places to go if I sat there, under the trailer or over the bridge. Fortunately I revved up, dropped the clutch and shot out past him ending up inches from the car infront's back bumper. He finally saw me and started apologizing profusely. I'm glad I didn't die that day. Seems like most close calls are other peoples' fault and not related to my stupidity.

I'm kind of suprised.

I live off of a fairly heavily traveled road, Route 1 on the East Coast, and their are always trucks on that road. I've actually had good experiences with long haul drivers. In my experiences, they're usually extremely considerate of me when I bike on that road.

Just last Friday I had a trucker block for me while I was navigating a busy intersection, he knew I was drafting off of him and he stayed at decent speed until we cleared the intersection. Once we were through, he hit the horn a couple of toots and took off.