Something perfect for this thread... the light was yellow, and I was right at at - decided to plow on through instead of mashing brakes.

If I was going straight, things would have been fine, but since I was making a left turn and there was a car from the left making a left turn (so the car was turning to go the direction I was going on the street I was on).. as I turned left I was very close to the car which was not paying attention to me at all - and we very nearly collided. I had to swerve to the right, and he stopped accelerating (the guy jumped on it as soon as the light changed).

Lesson learned - yellow means stop, no reason to hurry my way to the emergency room/morgue.

Another example... one morning I was approaching a very low traffic intersection at the same time as a school bus. KNOWING the school bus was going to stop I picked up speed to get ahead of it so it wouldn't have to wait for me to pass/I wouldn't have to wait for it to pass. Well, the bus did not stop, it only slowed down a bit after rushing up to the stop sign and it very nearly plowed me right in the middle of the intersection - I had to swerve to the left and get out of the way, the bus missed me by maybe 3 feet and NEVER hit its brakes at any time, only let off the gas about .5 a second before I was roadkill.

Lesson here... slow down at stop signs and never assume someone will stop - doing this has saved me a few times after this happened. Also dont trust school busses, it was no close call another time - a school bus (DIRECTLY after dropping kids off @ school nonetheless) FLOORED it and jumped out from behind another school bus into my lane (the other side of the street going the other way) and if I wasn't to the far edge I would be dead right now, the crazy driver couldn't manage to hit the brakes or even let off the gas, but had no problem laying on the horn as if it was my fault for being in the path of an insane bus driver.

Another great example is when my right pedal broke off and I ran over to walmart to grab a new pedal so I could at least make it back... I put the pedal on in the parking lot and since I had to catch a train I was moving pretty good through a 100% totally dark parking lot (not walmart) that was paved black. I had no idea there was a MONSTROUS pothole, seriously about the size and shape of a large weber grill, I dropped right into it going at least 17mph and sitting down. Somehow I managed to stay on the bike, but stuff flew out of my pockets and I took a nice shot in the @$$ from the seat. The front wheel was bent pretty bad as well.

Lesson learned here... headlight! Since I've gotten a headlight (albeit a cheapy) and I pay very close attention to the road surface when riding at night.

And finally... It was very late night, approx 1AM and I was just cruisin around enjoyin the sweet summer night in the burbs. At the Family Video parking lot I was slowly (5mph?) exiting the parking lot when a cop came down the trafficless street going 30 or so, and took a racing line style turn into the parking lot (the tightest possible turn) and had I not of seen him beforehand and gotten my hands on the brake he would have ran me right over. The oddest part was as the cop passed I looked him right in the eye (all of 4-5 feet away from me...) and he had to be on either his 50th shot of 12 hour energy or 5th line of coke - I know those crazy running off a stimulant eyes anywhere (mirror? lol...). The only lights he had on were headlights.

Lesson learned... pay attention... but there isn't a hell of alot that can be done about some drunk/drugged driver who can barely see their hand in front of their face let alone a bike on a road at night.