Originally Posted by
SwingBlade
[I]
That being said, I think you are very fortunate that this "manbearpig" in the wife beater t-shirt had enough forebearance and judgment to make a fast decision and choose to risk his property and his personal health and safety by running off the road almost into the trees in order to avoid clipping or nailing you.
This is broken thinking. It would have been better for all of us if manbearpig had been paying attention to what he was doing, and exercising good decision making. This should never have happened. I'm a pilot, and we have a saying in aviation: "A superior pilot exercises superior judgement to avoid having to exercise his superior skill ." This guy exercised crappy judgement, and that's why almost killed me, and ended up in the weeds. I am, however, grateful that he didn't hit me, but it's not like the guy saved my life--he avoided killing me while dealing with the effects of his inferior judgement. Let's not lose site of who was at fault.
However, from your narration it seems you almost might prefer to have hazarded a different outcome if only the driver was a classier guy or gal more worthy of your respect.
Seems you feel it would be better to have risked an alternative ending if only the driver was a nattily attired totally fit self-centered yuppie broker in a pristine classic convertible Jaguar or DB9 . Of course, such an egocentric individual might have hesitated just a hair too long in weighing the choice between totaling their pride and joy and maybe being decapitated in a rollover versus clipping/creaming an unknown bicyclist riding in the middle of a fairly narrow country road.
This is just stupid. A different driver may never been forced into that decision, because he would have made better decisions beforehand. The guy was a walking stereotype, his name was probably Floyd or Ricky Bobby..or something similar.
"If I had been riding right on the white line and this guy had tried to squeeze between me and the oncoming traffic, he probably would have hit me with his mirror or, certainly, with the trailer he was towing."
So, exactly why do you intentionally choose to ride on a road like this? You've accurately detailed all the probable contributing factors, but by your own admission, the most significant contributing factor was your own personal decison to engage in a somewhat risky behavior.
This road doesn't have much traffic. As I've mentioned, I bet fewer than 200 cars have passed me in the 2 months I've ridden this road nearly every day. I ride a road bike on the ROAD (I also race them on the, gasp, road), there are risks anytime you do that, you just try to minimize them. The most significant contributing factor to this near miss was the faulty decision making by the guy in the truck; it's not like I was riding on a highway
We all make errors in judgment. But, perhaps there are wiser behavioral alternatives than ... "I'm playing the odds, I guess...I think that's all I can do."
The fates seem to have given you a second chance. Use it wisely.
Look, you play the odds every time you get on the road--either on a bike or in a car--all you can do is exercise strategies that minimize risk.
The state should require motorists to recognize the RIGHTS of cyclists, and how they (cyclists) are expected to act--it does no good for cyclists to run red lights, stop signs, etc. Perhaps I've been unfair to manbearpig. While it's undeniable that he exercised crappy judgement, it's obvious that he has no idea of where cyclists should be riding. Part of the reason for his ignorance is due to the dearth of cyclists in my area. I think if he, and the driver that was in front of him, had known why I was riding 2 feet out in the lane, and if he had recognized my RIGHT to be there, he probably would have made better decisions. I bet that if he came over to my house tonight, he'd be a perfectly likable guy; but on the road, he saw me as some Lycra wearing fairy on a toy that was on HIS road, in his way, delaying him by precious seconds.