Remember to trust your instincts.
 

Friendly reminder to always trust your instincts. As seen in the video I was almost hit/right hooked last night. As I approached my gut told me to hold up. I do my best to avoid being next to any cars while crossing intersections. For some reason, in a split sec, I decided to power past this car. They decided to turn, with no signal and without looking. No contact, but it was close.

I think calling this a right hook minimizes the insanity of what I consider a right hook -- the driver approaches from the rear and starts turning right when they could still see you out of the windshield if they bothered to look. I generally see nothing wrong with passing on the right, but if you are approaching an intersection, there is probably a reason that vehicle is going slow. I would not voluntarily put myself to the right of a vehicle that is going slower than I would normally expect when approaching an intersection. In that situation, my instinct says "stay away."

I'm confused, you say your gut told you to hold up...why didn't you. Instead you gunned it and put yourself in the cars' crosshairs. Which gut are you listening to? I always would err on the side of caution and play defensive cycler, hold back or next time you could get squished.

There was traffic a head of them and the light had just turned green, so they were not going unusually slow. It is an intersection where the right turn lane is before the cross of the streets, kind of like on and off ramps.

Wow scary situation. Looks like the car was braking for the turn as you were passing, I think I would have held back in that situation. I certianly would have slowed and not tried to "power past" that car. Passing on the right is not a good idea.

I don't know why I decided, but I did. Thats why I posted it, so other people could use my reminder instead of their own. I didn't put myself in the cars's cross hairs. I was riding along in the bike lane and the driver did not signal or pay attention when turning.

I was in the bike lane, so its not really passing on the right so much as continuing in my lane of travel. The camera also have a wider frame of view that I do to that side, I never saw the brake lights come on.

Looks like normal driving behavior, at least on the occasional trip I make to that part of the world...

Scary, I know that feeling.

I hate it when I'm cruising along and someone decides to pass me, then move into my lane and make a right turn. Happens all the time out here in the IE.

glad your OK

Thanks for sharing. I learned from years training relative to target shooting that complacency/getting overly comfortable with equipment/situations leads to accidents. Same is true here. It's easy to forget best practices, even for an instant and bad things can happen. I appreciate the reminder.

it's a tough one, legally I don't think there is any question. No turn signals, failed to merge into the bike lanes, how are you supposed to know?

Either you have incredibly bad eyesight or the camera had an extreme wide-angle lens. If the former you shouldn't be on the street and the video indicates the later is not true; therefore, you simply were not paying adequate attention,

How were they supposed to see you? In the dark sections I didn't see the light from your headlight on the ground. Also, passing on the right through intersections is dangerous enough, and doing it at night in the drivers blind spot adds to the risk. Bike lane or not, the car still needs to cross it in order to turn.

I was almost "right hooked" a couple of weeks ago from a similar situation but during the day. If I had gotten hit it would have been my fault.

Ride so that if you were driving you'd not run yourself over.

When I am reaching an intersection and a car passes me and appears to be turning right in front of me, I move left into their lane behind them. That way if they try to kill me with a right hook, I simply pass them on the left instead of trying to to pass them on the right or slowing down enough to still allow them to killing me, and if they continue to proceed straight ahead it is they that are holding up traffic from behind not me. Sometimes rather than being threatened by cars, you can use those same cars as moving safety barriers. Just because some s#!thead in a car is "unconscious" doesn't mean that I am going to slow down and stay within their "sphere of influence" long enough for them to figure out how to kill me. Sometimes I even leave them a permanent reminder of their "inattentiveness" by elbowing a body panel.......

They could have looked out their mirror. They had passed me less than 60 seconds earlier as we approached the light. So they knew there was a cyclist behind them. I have a 600 lumen light that was on solid, and a smaller planet bike on blinking light on the front. Cars are required by law in CA to merge into the bike lane before a turn across the lane and also to use a turn signal.

Thanks, I usually do the same, but as mentioned in my original post, for some reason I didn't listen to my gut. So I posted as a tail of what can happen when you let your better judgement lapse for a moment, even though you are legally in the right.

I may have misspoke, as the camera does have a wide, but smaller field of view as my eyes. However, I did not see the brake lights come on, as I was probably looking at the front tires of the car as they are a great indication as if the person is about to turn or not.

I DO listen to my gut, which is why I avoided a situation almost identical to that video while riding today. I just KNEW the clown in the white Caddy was gonna turn, signal or no (he didn't). I coasted behind him about six feet, and when he turned, my drill sergeant voice bellowed, "NICE SIGNAL, MOTHERF-!"

After that, I was able to let the outrage evaporate.......

glad you are ok.

Yeah, cyclists are often into mind-reading, but we should remember that it doesn't always work. If there was contact, I'm sure the driver would have claimed his signal was on.

You can see the bluish light from his headlight in the video. And possibly a reflection of the light in the rear passenger side and front fenders.

Ahh, yeah I do see that now. Still a stupid move by the OP, but glad he made it out OK.

You weren't wrong, but you weren't right. Glad you didn't get smashed!

Glad you didn't get hit... Now go wash your mouth out with soap!! :D

Yeah, pretty boneheaded move on your part, but the driver definitely wasn't paying attention and messed up too. Glad you're okay.

I have two rules when riding my bike in the city:
1.) Don't pass on the right, especially when there are driveways, exits, intersections available for drivers to suddenly turn into.
2.) Assume nobody can see you and isn't paying any attention whatsoever. You've got to ride extra-smart to make up for all of the stupidity out there driving around.