Buzzatronic

Who backs up at a stop light without looking in their rear view? Apparently this guy.

sternzeit

Nice. Take the lane, stop at the light, ride like a vehicle, and still almost get taken out. It's tough out there sometimes.

JoeyBike

I run a 500 lumen white blinkie up front by day AND run every possible red light day or night. Almost eliminates getting backed over completely.

jyl

Motorcyclists are trained to wait at a signal in 1st gear, clutch disengaged, ready to twist the throttle/release the clutch lever and get the hell out. Cyclists should do the same, one pedal cocked and ready to go. Even if the car ahead of you starts reversing, if you've left plenty of room (you don't pull up right on the rear bumper, do you? Try 6-10 feet) there is a chance of making a sharp turn out of there.

Number400

Last week, I stopped at a stop sign while on my bicycle and then got hit head on by a speeding harley and thrown up into the air and landed on my head in a ditch.

You are not safe anywhere, it's just odds at this point...

JanMM

Ouch! How's your bike?
Did he have loud pipes and did that save a life?

gyozadude

I've always theorized that less than 10% of people behind the wheel are fully conscious. The other 90% perform daily functions out of pure habit and don't really check themselves. That's why people seem to just merge into traffic and not care, forcing folks to brake hard behind them, or they do the "Boston" thing, and if they see a merge blinker signal, they speed up to block them when given the traffic pattern, the car can only interleave into traffic ahead of them with no significant interruption. I've theorized we could do a test of motorists for such behaviour and prevent them from getting a license because they are the bad ones. But this is clearly a case of somebody not even bothering to look back while backing up. Hello? Wakeup!?!

Number400

The bike is a bit Dali-like.

B. Carfree

Not looking while backing and backing up at intersections seems to be a Pacific Northwest thing. It really seems to be incredibly common here, along with speeding in parking lots, clueless merging and drunk driving. Then again, maybe this is going on all over and I am mistaking time and space, as in it wasn't common prior to my moving to the PNW and it is common now.

David Bierbaum

I suddenly want to open a can of Pringles... Never mind the bike; how are you? Is your spine now the same shape as your front wheel? Did the speeding texting harley herder hastily halt his hawg to help? Or did he heedlessly hurry away?

Backing up like that is a typical action by those folks I call "creepers", who try to make the signal turn faster by edging out little by little, till they're in oncoming traffic, and have to back up. You can see this happen in the video, too. Gyozadude has it right. I seem to remember a study that showed that mentally challenged people were safer drivers than those of average to higher intelligence, because driving engaged their full attention, while the rest drive by reflex, as their attention is taken by other things.

Number400

I'm broken, thanks for asking. It was a big impact but I won't jack the thread with details.

Be careful out there folks!

Medic Zero

This is where the Airzoundz comes in real handy! Puts a stop to that kind of BS right away!

PatrickGSR94

I fully believe that if manual gearboxes in cars were the norm in this country as it is in Europe and many other parts of the world, there would be much better drivers. Except for cruising on the interstate, you pretty much HAVE to pay attention if you have to shift gears yourself.

dynodonn 

From experience, I've learned not to keep pulling up behind a motorist after they crossed a limit line, or pulled up into a cross walk or they're partially extended out into an intersection, and leave enough room for their being able to backup in instances like the cyclist in the OP video encountered.

ItsJustMe

Well, the idiot did pull up an entire car length past the "stop" line at the intersection. Even when I'm in my car, if someone stops way out there, I stop well back - usually about where I would be if he'd stopped where he should have. I actually have seen cars that pull way out like that get clipped by left turning cross traffic and driven backwards.

ItsJustMe

Not really. I've driven manual transmissions for so long that I honestly don't even do it consciously anymore most of the time. I'm not really much of a fan of manual transmissions myself - they have almost no advantages anymore compared to modern automatics, and plenty of drawbacks. But my wife likes them so since she's the one who gets new cars, I wind up driving them a lot.

PatrickGSR94

lol really? I HATE driving automatic slushboxes. My first car was a boring ass 1989 Camry but the only thing that made it more enjoyable was that it had a manual gearbox.

Not sure what the drawbacks are really - lighter weight, better fuel economy, easier/cheaper to service/rebuild/replace, etc, etc.

tylrh

Glad your ok... Always! Always! Wear your helmet.. I am just getting over being tboned by a yellow cab who decided to cross 3 lanes at full speed while not looking out for anybody. 4 screws in my hand, a broken bike, an a giant dent in my helmet later, I'm still here and riding again! Glad your alive, Everbody be careful! And always expect cars to Act stupidly !

HQQKEM

At the risk of being a troll here and flame baiting the thread, I would never put myself between two cars waiting for a light. I always filter up to the stop line and wait for the light just to the right of the first car in line. I make sure I'm seen by the other drivers. But that's just me, YMMV.

ItsJustMe

I've been looking at cars lately, and there's rarely any difference in estimated mileage between automatic and manual, and if there is, sometimes the automatic gets BETTER mileage.

Hill starts, soft torque starts on icy surfaces (where you would need to feather the clutch on a manual to start, which is bad on the clutch), being able to Forward/Reverse rapidly back and forth to get unstuck, lots of other things that automatics do better than manuals. I admit though, what I want most out of a car is for it to be boring - IE for it to just move be from A to B without causing me any trouble.

I've never, ever had an automatic or a manual transmission fail on me. A manual transmission, OTOH, has a part (the clutch) which is guaranteed to wear out eventually, though I've never had it happen to me (the most miles I've ever put on a car with a manual is about 220,000 miles, and the clutch was still fine). If I did have a problem with a tranny I'd almost certainly go looking for a new one in a junkyard, where there would be about 100x more automatics than manuals, so much better chance for me to find one there for $200 rather than having to pay $2000 for a rebuilt manual.

the sci guy 

i don't feel like this is a good idea - maybe it's just me. if you do that, you're no longer taking the lane, and you're right next to a car that's going to be moving in any direction once the light changes. you may be cutting off his right hand turn, and if not, you've just given up your spot in the lane and wil be fighting with the cars behind you to get back in before you reach the other side of the intersection.

plus i feel like going past cars that are stopped at an intersection - just because you can because you're small - is something that really annoys drivers. putting myself in the driver's seat - if there is a biker in the lane behind me, or in front of me, great, I know where he's going and i'm pretty sure of his intentions. but if one tries to go around me, i'm going to be worried about if he's going to try to powerhouse himself and beat me across the intersection and cut in front of me? is he just going to cut in front of me to go left? is his going right and i don't need to worry at all?

i always stay in the lane between cars. I've never had a problem. (that one issue at an intersection not withstanding)

JanMM

Hope you don't look like your front wheel......

megalowmatt

This is usually the strategy I take as well.

UberGeek

If it's the travel lane, all traffic is going straight. If it's a turn lane, and you are going straight, you're in the wrong lane. If it's a mutli-use lane (No markings), you should take the lane, or line up with the first car with no turn signal.

And, be vigilant. Not everyone uses turn signals. Most do, however.

asmac

Me too, though I like to stop well in front of the windshield of the lead car so he's sure to see me or behind his rear wheel so he can't turn into me. It varies depending on the road and depends on the situation. I also use pedestrians for cover. I'll let a right turning car go first if it was there ahead of me but will go with the pedestrians if he's waiting for them to cross. It's a judgment call.
I can't imagine lining up in the middle of 20 cars as they take their turns at the light. It would seem a bit odd and pointless. Or between two cars for that matter. It would slow everything down (including me) for no apparent reason.