Originally Posted by
EKW in DC
Good advice. Fortunately, that's what I do, and I had stopped pedaling as I approached this driver and assumed she was going to pull out, so I was ready to jam on the brakes. I shudder to think where I'd be right now if I just kept pedaling through there at 20 mph and ran right into her car as she pulled out... YIKES! Or, like I said, where she'd be if I had been a Mack truck and not an alert cyclist. All's wall that ends well, I suppose, for now.
Sometimes they really do look straight through you. I had one do that to me a while back, only she was turning left from my right. 25MPH residential streets. I'm going downhill in the middle of my lane. Over 20MPH with my flaming halogen headlight cranked up. She just pulls right out. I also anticipate this stuff so it was no problem to bleed speed. The whole time I kept turning into her so my light stayed square in her face.
She looked pretty surprised when I was almost on top of her. Then she hit the gas to get out of my way.