Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
I am surprised at you. You are much too well informed in general to believe such tripe. Surely you drive, even occasionally. When have you ever confused a bike for another car?! Cars wait for bikes at intersections for many reasons. It happens during the daytime as well when they can clearly see you from a long way off. Sometimes I am even waving them on, in effect saying, go ahead already, I won't be there for another four seconds. They wait anyway. Sorry to be the one to break it to you but they know you are a bicycle. Motorists run down cyclists because they are entitled and lack judgement in situations where there is a large speed, size and/or power discrepancy between vehicles. It is simultaneously not as bad as you fear, nor is it as safe as you now think it is because you aren't providing any clues as to your true identity.
H
You may want to look at your own tripe before you criticize mine. Motorist don't "run down cyclist because they are entitled"...at least not in the vast majority of cases. There may be a psychopath or two out there that would intentionally run down a bicyclist but normal people that are involved in an accident involving a bicyclist do so accidentally. If nothing else, they are trying to avoid the paper work involved. Having been on both sides of that equation, I can tell you that avoiding the paper work is perhaps the best reason to not "run down a cyclist".
As for the cars confusing me with other cars, I've heard response from drivers (and pedestrians) as I go by them along the lines of "Holy crap! That's a bike?!" I've heard that response more than once.