Made a mistake this morning, fortunately there were no consequences.

Coming up to a stoplight, lots of cars, two lanes going forward, two lanes turning left. The bike lane was littered with a whole bunch of cars flush to the curb wanting to turn right but couldn't get by cars in front.

Since the light is red, I split the two forward lanes, intending to get back to the bike lane when I get beyond the front-most right-turner. But the gaps between cars just don't look right, and I end up all the way up to the intersection...

...exactly when the light turns green. Tiny panic, and I use my hit of adrenaline to sprint ahead of the pickup at the front right and cross over him to the bike lane. I congratulate myself that I'm so f'in fast, but more likely the pickup driver was just gracious (or stunned -- wth is this bike doing?) and let me get out of his way.

Glad to hear you came out of it OK. Cars turning right, whether they're coming to a dead halt and packing the bike lane or darting ahead and cutting you off so they don't want to wait a few extra seconds, are no fun.

Sounds like a weird intersection design. If I understand it correctly, the bike lane should be between the rightmost straight and the leftmost right turn lane. That's the way they are around here anyway. If they're putting the bike lane to the right of the right turn lanes, then unless you're turning right, I'd ignore them and split between the right and straight lanes. I think a car that's turning right is justified (in CA I believe legally required) to merge into the bike lane to avoid right hooking cyclists when they turn, and the cyclist either moves left and lane splits or says in line behind if it's a combined right turn/straight lane.

I didn't explain it well, it's a very normal intersection. No dedicated right-turn lanes for the cars, just two straight lanes, and a bike lane at the curb, so right-turning cars just move into the bike lane. Which is legal actually, the last 100ft of the bike lane leading up to an intersection is dashed for that reason.

Yeah, you want to be on the right of the straight-through lanes. If it's safe, I try to let the right turners through. But if you're caught in between the two straight-through lanes, I think you handled it about as well as possible. Keep in mind that most drivers are pretty slow off the line when the light changes, due to looking at their phones or just zoning out. Cyclists, on the other hand, are much more alert to the conditions, since our hides depend on it.

This is a very common situation where I ride. In this case I move left and position myself to the left of center of the right most straight lane. Where cars are lined up to go straight and turn right I will pull up behind the cars waiting to go straight. This avoids filtering/lane splitting between the straight cars and the turning cars, and makes it very obvious to cars behind me that I want right turning cars to go to my right and not hook me.

Yeah, probably I should have just waited in line. I would have been able to keep up with the cars getting going off the line.

Or, I could have jumped up onto the sidewalk to get around the cars in the bike lane. There were at least 2 cars at the front of the intersection going straight, so I could have bumped down in front of the forwardest right-turner and gotten into my usual position at the front of the crosswalk, lined up with the bike lane line, so right turners have room to get behind me.

Like I said though, I made a bad decision. I'm just glad I didn't have to pay for it, and I think I learned from it for the next time that happens.

OK then, yeah, the cars turning right should safely merge into the bike lane, and bikes in the lane should keep their place with traffic when the green comes.

This lane situation is common in the downtown part of my commute. You did it right; once committed, ride it like a boss.

I want to assure you that you're not the only one to make bad decisions when riding. I know I've made a few along the way.

I had a close call with right hand turning car ,turned into me as I was beside the car coming into the intersection. I barely missed getting hit. Was my fault, because I could have stayed behind her bumper, instead of sprinting and trying to keep up with some buddies who had sprinted ahead.. Lesson learned. Always try to position yourself behind the car at an intersection ..or stay in front so you can see, or be seen if they turn right. Glad it turned out ok for u also.

Glad youre ok.

if I'm approaching a red light or stop sign on the right side with a right lane that can go straight or make a right i do one of two things - either take the front of everyone right in the middle of the lane, or get into the lane further back and again take the middle of the lane and then take off with traffic. this way nobody right hooks me.

Yeah, please don't take our comments as blame, just constructive criticism. Most of us will ride an unfamiliar intersection wrong at first once in a while. After a time or two we'll get it figured out.
I'm about to have several aspects of my riding change - riding into an unfamiliar city for work, and I'll have at least one roundabout in my route now, at least at times. I'm sure I'll do something wrong a few times before I get it all figured out. The important thing is to think about how the intersection works and how to safely fit yourself into the flow.

No worries, I posted because I enjoy cautionary tales and discussion in this forum, thinking about these kinds of issues frequently is keeping me alive.

Absolutely.

Waiting in line seems like by far the safest move. I'd much rather be in a good center lane position, than coming off a side-walk with potential right-turners.

Glad you came out of that OK.

The other evening I used the go-straight lane to pass a l-o-n-g line of cars waiting for turn light. Then I turned left, when the light changed, directly next to the beginning of that queue of cars. The first oncoming car (which did not have a light because we were turning) was a state trooper. He didn't chase me, anyway.