Originally Posted by Gerdz
Hey!
j/k - you misunderstood what we were doing. Hopefully my most recent post clears things up.
When riding alone, I think the only non-VC things I do are travelling in a bike lane when they are available and not taking over a lane when I can't keep up with traffic.
Sorry if I got you mad. But I call 'em as I see 'em.
Thanks for the more detailed description. A couple of comments:
You wrote (
in the OP Edit: in post #18) that the driver turned "into the bike lane in which we were travelling." This may sound like nitpicking, but it's critical to recognize that when you're crossing an intersection you are not traveling in a bike lane, and, more importantly, you should not be where the bike lane would be if it did extend across the intersection, especially if faster same direction traffic is not present to "block" for you. The reason for that is precisely to manage the situation your daughter found herself in. If same direction traffic was present, then the guy would not have popped out of the right turn lane. If you and your kids were riding further left (since there was no same direction traffic), then you would have been able to manage the situation better for two reasons:
1) You would have been riding where the right-turner was likely to have been paying the most attention: in the traffic lane.
2) Her sight lines to the right-turn would have been better, and she would have had more buffer space to deal with it.
Now, if your daughter is not ready to ride across this intersections properly, that's no excuse to have her do it in a way that leads her into these "almost ugly" situations. She shouldn't be allowed to ride on roads with intersections that she is unable to manage properly.
Originally Posted by pj7
It wasn't a misunderstanding, it was a classic Helmet Head example.
There was no reading of minds. What was obvious was that Gerdz' daughter was in a standard/classic/predictable situation and that his take on it was: "she did everything right". With all due respect, I wouldn't want him teaching my girl how to ride in traffic.
For an example of the writing of someone who does know what he's talking about, and who I wouldn't hestitate in having him teach my girl, see:
Originally Posted by sggoodri
I believe the only ways for the cyclist to reduce the risk of this type of motorist-drive-out collision would be to reduce speed (providing more time for the motorist and cyclist to react) or to operate farther left, closer to the normal flow of traffic, where motorists about to enter the road expect and look for traffic.
...
The latter approach is why I leave bike lanes to move into the normal travel lane when approaching intersections.
Originally Posted by Gerdz
That's the trick - there is no bike lane on the bridge crossing the freeway - we were in the traffic lane where the bike lane was about to pick up again. Our only saving grace was that we were going slowly. It's an ugly intersection with construction on two of the four corners that I hate traversing even alone. We go through the intersection together when doing our shopping, but for now we go through it as pedestrians.
Note your original words in the OP: "the bike lane in which we were travelling." Your frame of mind when you wrote ( EDIT: )
the OP post #18, and probably when you were riding, is that you were not riding where vehicular traffic normally travels, but off to the right in space you think of as "the bike lane" (your words). If you were lined up with the bike lane across the intersection then you were too far to the right, precisely because of the vulnerability your daughter was subjected to.
Originally Posted by Gerdz
I think I have a decent grip on travelling safely - I've been riding in traffic for over 25 years, but a brush-up course probably wouldn't hurt.
I commend you for recognizing that at least "a brush-up course probably wouldn't hurt." Most cyclists wouldn't even admit that much. If you're good at learning from reading, you should definitely pick up a copy of Effective Cycling and study all the stuff in it about how to ride in the road (you can skip most of the rest of it). But study and practice the road riding stuff. It's about changing your habits to adopt better practices, and that takes time. Don't just skim it.