Almost got hit today...
 

So, today, I was sitting at a red light, turning left. The road I was on was one lane each direction (both sides of the intersection) and the perpendicular road was the same, but with a right turn lane on both sides of the intersection.

I was sitting just ahead of the stop line, clearly waiting for the light. I was on the right cutout for the induction loop traffic light sensor (in hindsight, maybe I should have been on the left one, since I was turning left). A car arrived behind me, and stopped before the stop line, leaving me approx 4 feet of space.

Once the light turned green, I brought my foot up to the pedal, and creeped slowly forward, waiting for the car on the other side of the intersection to turn right, before I crossed his path to go to the shoulder. The car behind me hit the gas, swerved around me to the left, and cut me off. He even managed to squel his tires in the process. If I had been going any faster, then I would have been right in his path.

I had a impatient driver behind me swerved to my left while I was waiting for a clearance. They almost hit the oncoming traffic. It would have been clearly the fault of the driver behind me. If there was an accident of the two cars, I would be very tempted to offer a copy of the video from my helmet mounted Contour HD to the innocent driver or to the LEO.

The driver was an idiot, but were you signaling? He was probably angry because you were just sitting there.

Wondering the same thing.

Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. You made it safely home be thankful. It sucks that some drivers have no respect but that is all part of it. I always tell myself if they do not make contact there is not issue.

I had been sitting there for a while (traffic light sensors dont pick me up...), and had arrived before he was in eyesight of the intersection (there is a hill that crests, and declines before the intersection, so the light is within sight from behind the crest of the hill, but I was not visible until he crested the hill)

What am I supposed to do? Hold out my arm until the light turns green? I was clearly waiting at the light, was courteous to give him room to stop in his normal spot, and once the light turned green, I clearly had noticed (I put my foot back on the pedal and started to move, albeit slowly). If he had looked at the situation, he could tell I was waiting for traffic...

Hey there BC!

Us cyclists are at the mercy of all automobiles, because we don't have bumpers. My rule of thumb, is to always establish eye contact as I'm signaling a change in direction. If I'm at a light, I will usually look at the cars I feel could possibly interfere with my mobile intentions, and I will signal their drivers using both hand gestures and eye contact.

Unfortunately, we only have one butt per bike! You just got to CYA at all times! :thumb:

- Slim :)

Personally, I signal when I approach a turn, when I arrive at a turn, and if waiting, I'll signal if a vehicle approaches from behind.

In general, making your intentions known and being predictable makes things safer.

When the light turns green or is about to turn green, I signal again to remind people what I'm doing. If I sit waiting to turn, I'll keep my arm out so people know why I'm sitting there.

I will take all this into account. This is the only left turn on my commute, other than residential streets that have barely any traffic.

Well... Yeah, if thats what it takes.

Drivers do dumb things all the time, and you were alert enough to not have an accident. Write it off, move on.... No biggie.