Originally Posted by
Ziemas
As tragic as this is, when you rear-end another vehicle it's your fault. Assured clear distance applies to bicycles too.
I know, and that sucks, a couple of weeks ago I yelled and cursed out a driver for her utter stupidity. I was riding on Mass Ave from Lexington into Arlington Heights. This knuckle head passes me on the left, and then decides she absolutely has to get into a parking spot on my right. So, no signal, she cuts right in front of me so that she was parallel to the parked cars (she intended to reverse into the spot), and slams on her brakes. I'm doing about 24 MPH (its slightly downhill), she was going faster than that and comes to a complete stop. I grab brakes but there is no was I can stop in time so I end up skidding and swerving to avoid rear-ending her. Thankfully, there was no car behind me too close (there was one but it was a bit of a distance, he also ended up asking the driver what the hell she thought she was doing after I was yelling at her (I didn't curse, just made my point very clear).
Assured clear distance assumes that the driver in front of you does not decide to pull a bone-headed moronic move.