burnthesheep

Always trying to learn. The Varia told me a person saw me and was slowing behind me as I was owning the lane on a 2-lane road and hand signalling universal style for a left turn. The clown thought this was a sign to pass me and exactly as I go to turn left into the drive, they go to pass me. The radar and seeing it prevented incident, but what are we to do here?

I couldn't have been any more in the lane of travel.

School bus stop arm with spikes on it?

N2deep

The only action that makes sense is to record these events and to report them to the police and to ride defensibly. Starting an altercation in today's litigious world is sheer stupidity and beating their stupid head like a bass drum is only going to hurt your hands. Get cameras, more lights and have fun.

Regards

rumrunn6

wow, you almost bought the farm, except for the device! amazing testimony!

was it residential? just 2 lanes, 1 going ea. way? are the lanes divided with painted lines? how many lanes away from the target driveway were you? you were in one lane & had to cross a lane? can you draw us a picture? sorry I'm tired & can't immediately grasp the scenario. glad you're OK!

njkayaker

So, they weren't really slowing down. If the radar prevented the incident, you weren't looking carefully enough.

I might have moved to the left side of the lane (rather than make the turn from the middle).

A motionless stretched-out arm isn't a common indication of "pass me" (hopefully, you weren't moving your arm around).

Not really (and I think the radar is fine).

flangehead

I monitor the situation behind me with a mirror, and Just before I execute the turn I glance over my left shoulder.

Recently I had a motorist pass me on the left. I stopped.

Rule 1 is no one gets hurt around me.

burnthesheep

Nobody can read. Go reread it. I also saw the car with my eyes because I looked.

Also it slowed and then decided to go round.

njkayaker

It's more confusing than it should be. There's an emphasis on what the radar saw and an obscure reference to you seeing it.

If you almost got hit, it didn't slow down anywhere near enough. That is, it should have been nearly stopped or far away before you made the turn.

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There really isn't anyway to prevent it.

​​​​​​Your description is nowhere near enough for people to know what happened and if there was anything you could have done to reduce the risk.

The radar is irrelevant detail but you mention it repeatedly.




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jon c. 

I'll often move into the opposing lane and allow the car to pass on the right as I'm turning. But I'm mostly riding in a rural area. Certainly not appropriate in all situations.

Paul Barnard

You can't prevent it. It sounds like you did what you could to discourage it. There will always be "that guy."

Bald Paul

The Varia is a great unit. I have one myself, and won't ride without it.

However, you have to realize that it will detect an oncoming vehicle, but it has no way of knowing if the driver of the vehicle is paying attention, drunk, full of road rage, or just hates cyclists. You did everything correctly, yet you were unfortunate enough to have to interact on the road with an idiot. You were fortunate enough to come out unscathed.

I added two GoPro cameras to my bike, one on the handlebars recording forward, one on the seatpost recording rearward. They won't prevent an incident from happening, but they will be used as evidence should it occur.

Milton Keynes

Or "those guys" who can't seem to understand hand signals. Seems like there's a lot of them out there.

Paul Barnard

I should have mentioned this in my previous post. While you can't prevent it people from passing left, you can avoid becoming a victim of it, by employing the tools and the situational awareness that you did, so good on you for that!

Iride01 

I worry about the same thing. Hand signals are supposed to be taught and can be a question on the written test here and for every state I've ever checked. However a large percentage of the population here are taught to drive by their parents, older sibling or other family member. So they don't get any instructions much other than on the aspect of actually driving the car.

When I am coming back up the street that turns into my neighborhood, this is where I'm worried the most about it. Usually as I near the turn I'll get as far left in my lane as I can. And if none is coming the other way, I sometimes even get in the opposing traffic lane for the last 50 to 100 feet so as to prevent the car from trying to pass on my left just before I begin my left turn.

Though that itself has some other issues. But visibility is good for other traffic ahead and for traffic coming out of the neighborhood. So it's a case of YMMV.

Daniel4

There's very little you can do except to anticipate bad moves from any bad driver. So keep checking your mirrors and turn your head and check your blind spot and move into position when it's all clear or when the next car behind you is still very far away or it has plenty of time to know of your intentions.

GhostRider62

Stuff happens. I try to do clockwise training routes to minimize left turns. But, it sounds like you make left turns just the way I do on normal speed country roads. That driver would have had a piece of my mind. What an idiot. Unfortunately, not so rare.