cydewaze

I did my 60-mile loop today. Perfect weather, but between all the hills I rode yesterday, my 4 hrs of sleep last night, and my 17+ average for the first 20 miles of today's ride, my legs decided enough was enough and - at around mile 45 - decided to refuse to cooperate. My average ground down into the high 15s by the time the ride was over.

Around 1/3 of the way through the ride, there's an intersection where you have to turn right to continue on the same road you're on (if you go straight, it dead ends). As I approach the intersection, I see a Volvo station wagon approaching from the other direction. I assume he's turning left (toward the way I'm coming) because he's looking to his left, and right at me.

So I signal, wearing my goofy looking and impossible to miss team kit. As I arrive at the intersection, we lose sight of each other because the road dips down and there are some tall bushes, so I stay as far to the right as I can. When I establish sight with him again, he's right in front of me, taking the "racing line" through the turn.

I crank the bike hard over and head straight for the shoulder/embankment, but fortunately he's looking where he's going, so when he sees me, he saws frantically at the wheel to aviod me, saving me from having to ditch the bike.

I still don't understand how you can look right at someone and still almost hit them.

hi565

i had a semi similar situation...I was riding to a club mates house so I could go to the IF tour with him, and on the way (its raining btw) I am going through this intersection and I am going not too too fast, like the 15s and this lady fricken pulls out into the intersection AFTER I had already gotten half way through. Not only did she pull out, she kept going and kept going, I was literally inches away from hitting her, I pulled my brakes and I managed to slip across the whole intersection without getting hit by another car. I don't honestly have a fricken clue what goes through her head at the time

Rich22

Its obvious. He is a team CSC rider trying to scare a wannabe!

backinthesaddle

Volvo station wagons! I always steer clear of them. Spaciest drivers ever. Especially when they have a mass of bumper stickers on the back.

P.S. I'm serious, and based on experience I don't think this is merely an unwarranted prejudice on my part

merlinextraligh

The total population of Volvo Drivers is overepresented with bad drivers. Certain people intuitively understand they are crappy drivers, and therefore at risk themselves. These people buy very safe cars ( a rational decison to protect them from themselves) These people buy Volvos. Doesn't mean all Volvo Drivers are lousy drivers. Just means that lousy drivers tend to be attracted to Volvos.

By the way I'm not making this up. I heard it on Car Talk, so it must be true.

DrPete 

Perhaps he was mesmerized by your rippling musculature and we all know from cycling that you go where your eyes are looking. Happens to me all the time, too...

Anyway, that's my theory. We'll have to wait for Helmet Head to explain to you why the motorist was completely blameless in this matter and you should apologize to him.

Seriously, though, glad to hear you're OK and you didn't get any more intimate with the Volvo than you did.

godspiral

I had a dangerous situation today too. I did 160km this weekend, btw... personal best.
Going downhill around 50kmh, pickup truck passes me then swerves into my lane, makes a right turn signal 25 feet ahead of me, and then makes a right turn 30 feet ahead of me. Hit the brakes hard enough to wobble, but the truck took the turn very fast.

So ... they can know your there, but its somehow not their problem.

patentcad

I'd have to agree based on my wife's spaced out driving last week. She totaled our 1998 Volvo Wagon. How? She was at a STOP sign in a line of traffic. She's picking up trash on the passenger side floor and drives our car in to the back of an SUV. Low speed collision, not a scratch on the SUV, our old Volvo appears to be a total loss (about $6K in damage). And my lovely wife is fine (airbags didn't deploy, really a fender bender).

Oh well. On the other hand it's the first crash she's had in like 25 years besides deer (which really run into YOU).

Now she may be driving a Subaru Outback. So watch out for those too : ).

Ryleeryno

Almost took a hit from an old hag that was riding an 80's POS along side of me. We were both going 27mph on a slight decline. When I passed her she was staring at me and unknowingly turning the wheel in my direction which almost resulted in a collision. Then she started nodding her head like I was at fault. My response was to point my finger at my head and make the "your crazy" circular motions.

Boo Hoo! Your old and stupid and fat.

PseudoCrow

Empirical evidence suggests that we aren't very good at seeing what is before our very eyes. Dan Simons, a psychologist at Illinois, has a series of nice demonstrations of what is called 'inattentional blindness' ...

https://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/djs_lab/demos.html

I'm especially taken by the short video entitled 'opaque gorilla from Simons and Chabris' - I have the CD, and show it in MBA and Executive MBA courses. I've done this a half-dozen times, and never does more than 50% of the class see the gorilla. Just because someone is looking your way doesn't mean squat.

chrisvu05

Be careful out there man!! You can't catch me on bike journal if you can't ride!

cydewaze

lol, I have no rippling musculature.



I won't be matching much of anyone on bikejournal. I've already lost five entire weekends of riding due to vacations this summer, and I'll probably lose another one before Sept is done. Plus, it's dark by the time I get home from work, so weekends are all I have left.

I've made my 06 goal, so anything else is just gravy.

jyossarian

Volvos also seem to the car of choice for car bombers.

Just cuz a driver is looking in your direction doesn't mean he sees you. Most drivers are looking for other cars. Bikes don't register because they're small and in some places, rarely seen. Glad you didn't get clobbered.

DXchulo

Never assume that drivers see you. They're looking for big, wide, shiny chunks of metal. You're a small, narrow, not so shiny (all compared to a car, of course) chunk of metal/flesh/fabric. You don't match the profile of what they're looking for.

Even when drivers aren't on auto pilot and they do see you, a lot of them underestimate how fast you're able to go. They see a guy on a bike and figure they can squeeze through because bikes are slow.

I always assume that drivers are going to do the dumbest thing possible. I'm willing to slow down in preparation for intersections even when I have the right of way. If I see someone pulling out of a driveway or parking lot, I slow down a little and get ready to brake. This slows me down a little. Big deal. We're always complaining about how drivers won't slow down for 5 seconds to wait for a safer time to pass, those impatient bastards. What does it say about us if we can't slow down for 5 seconds to be safe? I'm pretty sure that makes us impatient bastards as well.

belowzero

On the weekend I was late for the group ride, Its a 50km hilly loop. So I went solo, it was great, lovely day other riders around and motorists relaxed providing enough room. On the way back its about 7km on a main road, very fast cycling I generally take up the left most lane as the traffic is not heavy and cars are happy to stay in the 2 other right most lanes, near the end with 1 mile to go I just felt a brush of air and this idiot young driver past me within less than a meter going way over the speed limit. I was quite outraged giving him the finger and trying to catch him, but going 45km/h at best vs 110km/h in a 60km/h zone is an unlikely rendezvous.

It strikes me that some people are so careless and idiotic in their cages. Its the weekend traffic, is low and you have 3 lanes!! least courtesy you would expect is if they could merge into the other lane then continue speeding. There's many cyclists in the left lane, you don't expect to be brushed on a quite day by a speeding idiot going 50km/h over the limit.

shakeNbake

Lol at Volvo.

bigbossman 

Ya know - I always thought Volvo's didn't come with turns signals, until I rented one. Up until then, I'd never seen them used on a Volvo.

My idiot sister drives a Volvo with a "Baby On Board" sign hanging in the rear window. That's all I need to know about Volvo owners......

dangerman

What's up with volvo drivers? I had three close calls with volvos this morning. a V70 tried to turn left across my line, an older wagon, blinded by the morning sun, almost turned right into my line. A few minutes later, I got buzzed by a volvo suv.

do people buy volvos because they know they're going to crash?

Hambone

I was almost taken out last week by the back of a head driving a Ford Explorer.

The driver was on a cell phone and reaching into the back seat for a drink for her kid while driving through a red light. Luckily her window was open and when I screamed it startled her and she swerved. (Well, luckily for me. She hit a parked car... so it was not lucky for her or the parked car.)

I think in NYC SUV drivers and Volvo/Saab drivers are pretty interchangeable.

merlinextraligh

That's exactly it. It's a very rational (if not completely conscious) decision on their part to buy the safest car they can to protect themselves from their poor driving skills.

Kuma

This morning on the way in to work, I saw a bumper sticker I had never seen before -- "Caution, Swedish Driver." This struck me as odd, because I had never seen or heard anything to indicate Swedes are bad drivers. If they are, however, maybe that explains why Volvos are built to be so safe...

hiromian

The driver is always broke on a Volvo.

hiromian

I pointed this out to my wife who is now very wary of the Volvos.

Once while in my car, I was surounded by Volvos, Seriously. I realised later that I was white knuckling the stearing wheel and thinking of what my excuse would be for being late for work. I slowly slowed way down to get clear of the Volvos beside and ahead of me and hoped for the best from the Volvo in back. It worked. Every time I see a Volvo I tense up. You just never know what is going to happen.

baiskeli

That is hilarious but very true. Not to stereotype but I'm extra careful around Volvos.

A long time back I was riding over a bridge into Boston (Longfellow bridge) and this woman driving a Volvo almost run me over from behind (she was on cell phone, oblivious, I had to bail by going over the cement barrier between the road and the walkway and got scratched up pretty bad). She didn't stop. I got back on my bike (all bloody and scratched up), caught up at the red lights with her (she was still on the phone, yapping away) and in my utter rage shattered her sunroof with my ULock to get her attention (not proud, but almost getting killed tends to do this). Turns out that not only had she not seen me when driving up behind me, had I not heard her behind and suspected she wouldn't slow down and bailed painfully she would have hit me from behind and run me over. When I caught her at the light is when she realized that there had EVEN been a cyclist on the road (during the day, clear weather, little traffic).

blonduathlongrl

how scary! Im so glad you're OK.. some people are driven on pure ignorance sometimes!