Originally Posted by
Daily Commute
His post is unclear as to which side he was on:
Traffic was moving rather slowly and you were heading in the downtown direction, as was I. You were in the far left lane and I was riding on the curbside of that lane, near your rear passenger door. Suddenly, you began to veer your Mercedes to the left, potentially crushing me between your car and the cars parked on the side of the road.
He makes a really weak case by not explaining who was passing whom. If he was passing the driver, it was his fault.
Plus there's no rule that drivers need to check blind spots before moving from one part of a lane to another.
it seems pretty clear to me the bike rider was on left side of a one way street. An appropriate place to be IMO on such a road.
If the driver were moving left, either to turn or to negotiate some upcoming obstacle it would be more than prudent but almost essential to not only check his mirrors but look back over his shoulder especially when driving in Manhattan.
It also seems the major complaint of the cyclist, which seems to me to be a legitimate one, is the driver's response to being told he almost crushed someone with his car. One might think that the appropriate response might be "Sorry, but I really didn't see you." NOT "Get your f***** hands off my car!"