Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest

Is it possible the truck driver knew he had some kind of brake failure going on? I'm stretching here, but the way he acted would at least be consistent with that. Last winter ( almost 18 months ago ) was a bad one here, and I saw a driver downtown approach a light that had turned red, and start beeping a lot, sort of like you described. The pedestrians crossing the street at the time seemed to get the message, and waited until all cars came to a complete stop. This one, in particular, was moving side to side and came to a rest halfway into the cross-walk. Probably the driver wasn't used to driving in snow and ice, and didn't know how to stop properly. It's pretty unlikely, but maybe you live in Fairbanks and bike on snow, or this was at the bottom of a mountain and the driver's brakes were melting, or something.

Anyway, a lot of cyclists use eye-contact as a sign that a driver is aware of us; in reverse, when a car beeps frantically, I try to stay as far away from them as possible. I can't really picture the situation you described in enough detail to have anything intelligent to say, but that's the one lesson I'd take away from this story.