Oh, I definitely do that, too (sometimes I have to look back 9 or 10 times). Then I cross to the turn lane. That's where I get kind of worried, because I'm looking for a break in the oncoming traffic, so I'm not able to look for the guy who pulls into the turn lane behind me and "doesn't see me."

The human mind is a great pattern recognizer. People can basically set their brains up to look for certain patterns and let the concious mind go off and do other things unless it gets interrupted by the pattern matching part of the brain. The only problem is that when people are driving, the pattern that they are "looking" for is a car in front of them. I think this is why bikes don't even register on the road with most people. They honestly don't see us, because they aren't expecting us.

OK, just a theory, but from what I understand from reading a bit of Douglas Hofstader, I think there's some truth to it.

andy