There's no strategy that will work every time at every stop sign or traffic light. Some drivers are just gigantic metal encased doofuses. Most of the times I was hit while commuting was at stop signs and traffic lights, both on bicycles and motorcycles.

You can try all kinds of strategies for taking or blocking the lane but there will always be a tiny handful of metal encased slug-for-brains types who'll thwart our efforts to remain unhit.

Yesterday, on a quiet rural road, I did my usual thing of taking the lane on a fast downhill approach to a four way stop sign, in preparation for a left turn. Just coasting I can go the 35 mph speed limit, no problem. But I saw a pickup approaching fast from behind -- even hundreds of yards away I could see his approach speed was well above 35 mph. So I shifted to high and pedaled to give myself a little buffer.

Didn't help. Metal-encased slug-for-brains closed the gap I'd tried to create within 20-30 yards of the stop sign, swerved around me across the double yellow line, then swerved back in front of me and slammed on his brakes. We both reached the stop sign simultaneously. He accomplished absolutely nothing other than to waggle his tiny penor in his tiny pickup.

Alas, my video camera had glitched, so I don't have a trophy animated GIF for my Facebook wall of shame. It's not the stupidest human trick I've recorded but it was awful close.