Hey all, a decade-long commuter here. Not once in all that time and all those commuting miles have I connected with metal ... but last night was the closest I've ever come to a major crash.

I was heading downhill, gathering speed on a two-lane, divided road. It's easy to clock 30-35 MPH on this particular hill. Near the very bottom of the hill, about 1000 feet ahead of me, is a cross-street. The opposing lanes have a turn lane allowing cars traveling in that direction to turn left, cross "my" lanes, onto the cross-street. A car was in that turn lane.

Pretty straightforward. The only complicating factor is that I was heading east and the bright California 6:00pm (low-to-the-horizon) sun was directly behind me and straight in the driver's eyes.

I immediately recognized that the driver in the opposing turn lane may not see me. But given that there was no traffic at that moment and yet (s)he remained stationary was a good indication that my bright yellow geekwear and flashing strobe light had their intended effect.

It was only after I was committed to the hill and was booking along at a good rate of speed (20-25 MPH?) that ... you guessed it ... the driver started crossing the lanes. I had no "out" at this point and my brakes would never stop me in time and I really thought I was going to T-bone the car. But luckily I was able to do a shimmy-to-the-right move to avoid the hood of the car by millimeters then shimmy-to-the-left to avoid the concrete curb surrounding the stop sign that I also thought for sure I was going to hit. It was a maneuver straight out of the Tour de France!!

Had the driver proceeded maybe 1 MPH faster we would have been one.

I'm certain now that the driver never saw me until (s)he saw me passing, or probably only after I passed completely. I'm 6'4" so that must have been quite a shock.

Why the driver took so long to start crossing I can only guess was because (s)he was cautious of traffic given the bright sunshine. My guess is (s)he focused on a spot on top the hill and waited for shadows of cars at that point. When none appeared and sufficient time elapsed for any cars to pass between him/her and the top of the hill, the coast was clear. This took about 15 seconds or so. So I lay no blame on the driver whatsoever for doing the right thing. Nor do I think I could have changed anything to render a safer situation. I assessed the potential for danger and, when it happened, I was able to react.

So, I'm still metal-free but, phew, that was a close one.

Andy