I haven't had many close calls, but I actually had my first (very minor) crash this past Friday.

I was cutting through a shopping center on my way home from work. There are two lanes that go straight down a center aisle and have no stop signs. I was in the right-hand lane, with a car on my left going the same speed. A girl in an SUV was at a stop sign, to my right, perpendicular to the road I was on. She was waiting to make a left across our lanes to go the opposite way down this main strip.

She must have thought it was a 4-way stop, because when we were about to enter the intersection, she started to pull out directly in front of us. She saw that neither the car nor I was stopping, so she jumped on her brakes, looked at the car through her open window and said sorry. She stopped short of being in the way of the car, but she was right in front of me. I steered right, behind her, and grabbed my brakes, but my wheels locked up and I started to skid. I hit the curb and fell into the soft grass, my bike landing next to me.

Luckily both my bike and I were completely fine. When I got up, she had already driven away, so I just got back on and rode home. Strangely, I wasn't really that angry. The look on the girl's face made it seem like she was genuinely surprised and remorseful (she still could have stopped to see if I was alright).

I guess it really speaks to the importance of the driver's attitude in determining the fallout/reaction.