good thing one of us was paying attention...
 

I was on the tail end of my ride tonight and some idiot decided to turn into my path, I had to brake moderately hard and move off. They didnt even look.

I thought about smacking the side of their car on the way past but didnt figure it would turn out all that well...

friend of mine (used to) ride motorcycles, theres been many times he had to knock on their window so they would quit coming into his lane. a few times he gave them the boot, big heavy steel toes........

The exact same thing happened to me not to long ago. A guy in his taxi just turned literally right in front of me to go up another street. I was flying, I had to front brake so hard, my back wheel was off the road for around 10 metres. It scared the hell out of me, I was so close to his bumper for the whole 10m, I could not believe I didn't touch, nearly had an heart attack.

And I wasn't paying attention, that is what scared the hell out of me. I was just so concentrated on the road, going fast & working hard, the taxi appeared from know where.

this guy was stopped and waited for a minute, if he would've just gone in the 1st place there wouldnt have been any need for me to adjust my ride to avoid him. I was watching him and had a feeling he was going to go but the further i went, the less likely it seemed that he would actually go.

The Wise Cyclist's Rule is:

If there is a rude, stupid, thoughtless act that a driver can do, they will do it to you. If they DON'T, you can only be pleasantly surprised.

I followed this rule when I was still driving, and went 20+ years without an accident.

I usually ride pretty defensively. It bugs my father in law (his attitude is that we have the right of way in any situation that a car in our lane & direction would and motorists should know & honor that)

My thought is that if some clown is backing out of their driveway, I wont assume that 1) they see me or 2) that they care enough to yield if there is a break in automobile traffic.

I'd rather slow down and be cautious that get smoked, even if it means yielding my right of way.

That said, this particular instance annoyed the crap out of me, the way that he hesitated for so long and then at the last second, just went for it.