Right hook victim :-( Maybe NSFW
 

Well I did everything I could except pray. Wearing an Ansi 2 day glow vest, wrist reflective strap, day glow pannier bag with super flash back light, cat eye front light, and helmet.

Heading to an intersection in a bike lane, which goes away.
So here I am on a 8 lane center island street, signed bike lanes on each side, center island left turn at points and no bike lanes at intersections 45 mph 6.36pm night conditions with a street lamp above me.
I come up to two parked cars who just passed me, waiting for the red light, I roll up not to pass in sight line to the left with her mirror.

I hold off still plenty of room in front of me, incase of the hook nothing, and I wait till they roll I don't pass them I have 3 feet to the curb.(guessing right now)
Rolling now the first cars goes through, I pick up my pace and ride on my line behind her, still to the left she turns right no blinker, my water bottle was 2-3 feet past the sidewalk curbing which marked where I fell note wide pavement with a bus pull out on the road we were turning on.

I do an emergency turn right which is why I am closer to the right, and why glanced off the back quarter panel upper beam part my arm took the impact, and she continued to move I fell down on my left shoulder some how. Messed up her rear quarter panel with a black streak. My hand hurts and my knee has road rash and hurts.
It is amazing how fast you get up off the road surface in a crash. That feeling you get of being run over yikes.

walk over to the side of the road near the bus pull out. Whip out my cell call the PD and tell the person to pull over. Truck guy stopped said he didn't see anything.


My camera is out of batteries. since I was taking lovely pictures all day :-()
road rash blood fotos as soon as I get some charged.


My poor knee

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/97/kneecf0.jpg

bike is ok not even hurt
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/1365/desbikeey0.jpg

That sucks man. At least you are otherwise o-tay. Bike is alright? Don't know but I heard folks drive nuts in the AZ.

Glad you're okay otherwise. As a general rule, if I'm going about the same speed as the cars I'll take the lane. At red lights, since I'm going about the same speed as the cars I'll take the lane there too. It's the only way I know of that I'll avoid a right hook. I can't go by car blinkers. And the right side of all vehicles is their blind spot. It took awhile to figure out. I didn't learn the hard way like you just did. But after a few of those forced emergency right turns I evolved to the take the lane technique.

That sucks, I'm glad your still alive. I'm going to try to take the lane more because of your story.

-Jai

I hear ya about getting up ASAP after a crash... pretty vulnerable feeling.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=phoeni...52680572505,,1


Here is the intersection, I moved just to left of the bike lane close to the right tire track taking the lane. That is the three feet or so to the curb .
Traffic behind me and on the left is moving 45 mph, so unless I was really sure I am not going left considering the motorist ahead of me is all the way left and now turning right.
note your looking backwards at me.

Yes please do Jai, It saved me on another accident also.


Yea I saw the pickup truck behind me stop about two feet away from me as I looked up from the pavement. That was enough I am getting the hell of this road surface.

I think they drive nuts everywhere. Yep biked home.

Ugh, man - I'm glad you are OK, it could have been so far worse.

What a dumb **** that driver was! Ya know - this past year - I have been accosted with less people yelling out of their window (actually it's their kids who do it now - very nice - this is our next set of drivers ...), but I've been getting a lot of people lately who don't even give me a side glance at all and just cut me off. Take a right and FAH! I really have been getting a lot of them. And it's not like I'm riding hidden (I have bright stuff on, lights - signal like a banshee - and watch/stare at the drivers to see what they're doing ...) but still - and the way these people drive - a bicycle is not a vehicle, it's a nothing, it's just a piece of whatever that can watch out for them just cause.

Yeah. I've been running into this a lot lately. And since I take pretty much the same routes every day (which I like to mix up BTW, just cause), I've been running into some people who do the same things everyday. And this is the way they drive - they pull out into traffic, take a quick right in front of other cars - the same dam way - it's not just me the bicycle. These are some pretty poor ass drivers.

All I can say to us commuters is to just step up our vigilance and keep an eye out for these stupid people!

Oh, yeah, and I'm laying wait for this one brown rusted caravan that needs new shocks and the dum ass who drives it in the morning. I know where he works and he's done it one too many times, and if he does it again, I'm calling in late and going over and talking to the dum ass, cause he's really done it good on a couple of occasions.

dum ass.

sorry, it's your thread, glad you're ok!

Nice photo insert. Is that yours, or a traffic cam? Enlarged to full screen it still stays sharp, but there is some strange "collaging" going on (especially the brown Ford Explorer turning left). Anyways, I didn't know Google Maps could do that. Another useful tool to help explain the abstract stituations of accidents. But I'm still waiting for the little animated bikes and cars at full zoom.

So your photo put it in better perspective for me. One, I don't have bike lanes and two, I've never seen a road so long and straight like that. So seeing it now I really don't know how I'd handle it. I can see why riders have problems at intersections when the bike lane ends 20 to 30 yards before the intersection.

That's cool. The camera spins. Dam, I'm slow. It's not fair. You Phoenix guys get everything. Full zoom satellite images, cameras that spin and weird vortex funnel things. What the hell is that thing?

I dont see what the big deal is. Ride on the sidewalk if you can't handle the street. Those little scratches you got on your knee are nothing compared to what 1st graders get on the playground.

More than that, click on the arrows on the yellow line that runs through the image. You start traveling down the road and can watch the traffic pass the photo truck Google used to capture those scenes.

Absolutely.
Those who don't/won't evolve will pay Darwin's Deposit. This is why I always advise to Ride Strategically. Neon clothing is a great beginning, but with blind spots, cell phones, channel surfing, PDA's, mobile coffee, etc, you have to do more.

Same speed as the cars? Ride like a motorcycle and get in line, bike lane or no. It's the only effective way to avoid getting R-Hooked.

Sidewalks won't help you one bit at intersections. While sidewalks may be quite safe for long straight sections of road, you face even more of an issue at intersections when motorists don't even bother looking up and down a sidewalk.

I am thinking about getting a helmet cam... I am coming to the conclusion that to get respect, you have to have evidence that the police can use to give out tickets... after a few of them, I would suspect that they will start to yield to cyclists...

well..... next time pray:D
in the meantime, glad you're OK.
I got right-hooked coming into my work parking lot by an employee who knows me, no less.

"sorry, wans't paying attention" was the response to my "hey, did you not see the blinking biker??"

ah well. roads are for cars. we ride at our own risk.

be safe out there.

I wish that phrase meant "I deserve a ticket, please give me one" rather than a free pass.

No, roads are there for the public good. Cars are granted the PRIVILEGE (revokable) of traveling on them. Muscle powered travel on public roads is a RIGHT (irrevocable).

Roads may be DESIGNED for cars, but they're not FOR cars. If they're not suitable for all valid road users, that's the fault of the designer (or actually, the people who specified to the designer what the road was for).

Sorry for your injury, OP. Bike lanes around intersections really tank, probably as much as sidewalks around intersections.

I don't disagree with your logic, but would caution to look for right hooks even if taking the lane.

I was driving my SUV in the right lane of two going my direction and had some idiot in left lane decide to turn right into a driveway without signals or anything else. If I hadn't have been on the brakes hard, I would have t-boned him. On a bicycle, I probably would have...

in theory, yes.

but in actuality, the car wins every time. sad, and took me a while to admit it, but it's true.

the day after the accident is the horrible you know it is coming and don't want to sleep.
I still have to bike to get some food. I hate being bruised and sore. Knee much better so far :) hand needs to be looked at for a couple days for any more signs of damage. My arm feels it today as my chest area somehow .

Mirrors also help, in other right hooks than this one.
As for fines and what not I went home she was hysterical. I mentioned again she passed me and still then proceed to turn right in the left most position. He said I did everything I could do.

I know that. I just like to make sure everyone knows what the legality is. It's important to keep in mind. Stay safe, yes, but don't let people tell you you don't belong there. Bikes legally have more of a right to the road than cars do.

Not clear on what you're saying here. The person who cut you off was hysterical; what, she was upset she'd hurt you, or that she was being found at fault? Sounds like the latter. "He" here is a policeman?

When I saw the title, I thought you meant this kind of right hook

http://www.youtube.com/v/ma6rqRXv8c0&rel=1

That's sort of what I was thinking...until I remembered my kid's school outlawed things that might get them hurt like tag, dodgeball or tug of war.

OP, glad you're not more seriously hurt/only ended up with some scratches.

You need to ride more defensively. It's a myth to think that you have equal rights on the the road as a car and trying to enforce that myth will just get you killed.

Though I ride a bike, I still hate it when an a-hole cyclists just stick out their hand and crosses into my lane while I'm doing 45mph and they 15-20.