Almost Intentionally Rear Ended, advice?
 

Riding a narrow section of my commute home last night I had quite a scare. I was centered in the lane (only one lane in each direction) when a large SUV came up behind me at normal slow speed. Once it was close, (maybe two car lengths behind) I hear the driver hit the gas hard and see him/her closing in quickly without moving left in my mirror! I thought for sure I was going to be hit, and had no time to even move out of the way. I did manage to yell loud and threw out my left hand in a stop signal on pure instinct. I heard the trucks tires gripping the pavement as the driver braked hard. He/she then stayed behind me safely for the next 20 seconds or so until they turned, with no further issues. I could see it was a white Chevy Tahoe with no front plate, but did not turn to see the driver. I did not stop or confront the driver in any way.

I doubt it was an issue of the driver not seeing me because I was wearing a hi vis safety vest, running a Super flash blinkie and had the sun to my back. Plus, the punching of the throttle at the last second made it suspiciously seem like the driver just wanted to scare me. He did a good job of it!

Looking back at the incident, I wonder if I should have done anything different before or after. What do you think?

You kept your cool, commanded your lane, and didn't get flattened. I think you did just fine.

Good job, you stayed alive.

Played it like a champ. You didn't even give the JAM the satisfaction of bullying you. I say you couldn't have done any better than you did.

You stayed calm and kept the situation from escalating or getting ugly. Good job.

+1 on keeping your cool. Drivers who intentionally try to frighten cyclists gets satisfaction when they see visual aggravation on the cyclists part. By not reacting to his/her ******ry the driver lost interest in pestering you. Great job!

Is there a reason you were centered in your lane? I know, when I'm cycling, I stay on the shoulder or at least as far to the right that is safe.

James

From a visibility and road debris standpoint, centered is often the furthest right that is safe and practicable as far as I'm concerned.

Sounds well done. You kept safe and didn't respond to the provocation making it less likely that he'll pull the same stunt with someone else. You may have memorized the plate for later reference.

I'd have turned around after they turned and got their plate, and then tried to figure out where they lived if it was a neighborhood. From there you have a lot of options. Once they know you know where they live they are no longer anonymous and the shoe moves to the other foot.

Yes. The lane is much too narrow to share with a car, maybe 10 feet wide, with almost no shoulder. At the section where this happened there is also a blind curve where oncoming traffic can show up unexpectedly. I also hold the lane when I see oncoming traffic on the straight sections.

On this road I find it best to just take the center of the lane by default, and only move right when there is no oncoming traffic or blind curves. The speed limit is 30 and 35, but of course the motor vehicles like to go about 10 over that. Traffic is light to moderate, so no one gets held up by me for more than 30 seconds or so, usually much less. I often signal slow/stop and/or look back to communicate to overtaking motorists that I know they are there, and expect them to wait for a few seconds. When they do (which is about 99% of the time*) I often give them a friendly wave as they pass.

*Without communication compliance is only about 50% no matter my lane poistion. They will pass on blind curves if you let them.

One other perspective to consider: if when you turned to look at the driver he/she wasn't laughing at you, then I would be unlikely to attribute it to malice. Perhaps the driver was anticipating racing around you, or simply hit the gas hard by mistake. I bought a new pair of shoes recently and the first few times I drove with them my starts and stops were a bit abrupt as I got used to the new soles stiffness. Just some thoughts. You did an excellent job handling it.

This is a good point that I also considered, especially since there was no additional harassment. Still, it seams less probable considering the timing of the acceleration, and how close he got to me, with no leftward movement.

If I turned (I didn't) and seen the driver laughing, I'm pretty sure things would have gotten ugly.

aim your pepper spray at the area just below her windshield. If she is allowing outside air on her AC, she will get a very stern message