Originally Posted by
Buzzatronic
I think it's pretty simple really. Instead of "bike lane", substitute "oncoming lane" and instead of "white line" substitute "double yellow". In the case of a driver turning left across a double yellow line, they must yield to oncoming traffic. That's an absolute and if the person making the left is hit by oncoming traffic, it is the fault of the driver turning left since they did not yield the right of way.
Why would the same wording for yielding to bikes in the bike lane when turning across the bike lane be any different to yielding to oncoming traffic when turning across the oncoming lane? It would not.
But sadly my noob-ness around here has made me naive and apparently people get jollies out of blaming people who post incidents. So be it, blame me for not anticipating bad driver behavior but no one has pointing out where I broke any laws or regulations regarding biking in Washington state.
If anyone else has any constructive comments, I'll respond but other than that I'm done too.
Its pretty typical of the forum. Don't let it get to you too much. I am convinced that even if you were hit from behind while riding straight down the road, someone on the forum would blame you for something. You seem like a reasonable person, just looking to share their experience and learning. Hopefully it helps someone else avoid a similar situation.
In my mind it seems pretty clear that the white van was not actually following the rules of the road, and that you realize that your ass is on the line even if you are in the right. Bike lanes are actual lanes of traffic, so you can't just turn across them, cut someone off and stop. You realize this, and you realize that doesn't matter much when you collide.
I have similar videos of things like that happening and posting and reviewing them have helped me avoid those situations in the future. I've found that no matter how you think you handled it in the moment, it always different when you review the footage. Riders who don't have video, only have their memory of their actions which I've found not be 100% accurate.
Thanks for sharing the video and your experience.