Mornings like this could give me an A & S attitude....

Riding to work, in the dark. I have a magicshine on "medium" on my bars, and one on my helmet. Reflectors about everywhere I can put em. Obnoxious Yellow jacket with all that nice 3M reflector tape on it.

I saw the cars coming from the right, approaching the stop (flashing red light and sign). To be more visible, I moved from the bike lane to the center of the traffic lane.

Lasered the driver of the approaching car with my helmet light. Really lit up her car. She did slow a bit, but never stopped at the sign before making the right turn. Right into where I was. I moved to the left of the center stripe as she slowed and I came along side her, as I was braking (not too fast, road wet and slick).

Now the funny part - I YELLED (caps mean really loud, ask my kids how loud I can be), "Hey!" Now she stops, in the lane. NEVER turned her head, just stopped, and then jetted off. I suppose no eye contact means it never happened.

First time in a year of commuting I have had this happen. First time in a year of commuting I have gotten pissed off to the point of wanting to do harm to someone. Man. Took most of the day for the adrenaline to drain off....

Sheesh. Getting tired of the idiots this spring....

***** happens. Don't let those *almost* accidents ruin your day.

The hardest, most rewarding thing I've learned to do is let the little stuff go.

I've never understood how those people seem to think not making eye contact helps them cover their asses.. but they sure seem to think that way to me. Glad it was just annoying not truly dangerous.

Just imagine what may have happened if she had made direct eye contact with you, gave you the finger, as she jumped out the car hurling curse words, calling you stupid, telling you that the road was made for cars, and not some crazy-a$$ toy bicycle!

....Then you would most probably no longer be free to type your ticked words and you'd be up on murder charges!

See, it all worked out for the best, 'cause you're still here able to post on BF.

Glad you're alright, my friend!

Have A Nice Day!

...with Slim on this one, glad it wasn't an accident!

Not making eye contact is probably a form of self denial. Making mistakes sucks because you feel like a dumb ass for a while. So she doesn't look and tell tells herself anything she has to in order to not have to deal with those feelings. Unforutantely I'm convinved that sometimes feeling like a dumb ass is an important part of making less mistakes in the future.

Of course by yelling you probably help force her into a self defensive state of mind. Not only would she have to be willing to be honest about her mistake, but now she has to do it while someone is attacking her.

There are certainly more effective ways to respond. A shrug that says, "Aw man I'm a little bit dissapointed," can put even more pressure on her to admit to her self that she screwed up. At the same time it makes it harder for her to simply blame the whole thing on a guy who seems like a nice, forgiving fellow.

I don't know why this would surprise you. People drive like this all the time. Happens to me whether I am riding my bike or driving my truck. My philosophy about driving is always be defensive and expect people to do something stupid. They are too busy eating, talking on their phones, texting, changing radio dials, etc. to pay attention to driving. Or they just go without looking and assume everyone will get out of their way. When I'm driving, I blow my horn at people like that. A little negative reinforcement might at least make them pay attention for a few minutes.

Guess you had to be there. No psychologist me, but a shrug wasn't going to happen in the heat of the moment - and she was working so hard to ignore me that she would not have seen the shrug.

Oh well, cussed wind and rain again today, so I have to get behind the wheel. Rats.

This happens to me all the time regardless of being on a bike or in a car. I really think there are a lot of drivers out there whose criteria for pulling out into traffic are a bit different than the rest of us: If the oncoming traffic can hit their brakes in time to avoid the accident then I'm pulling out.

Meh. Smile and wave and forget about it.

Sux, but no blood, no foul! I tend to beat on a fender or roof when they are that close, but that's just me!! If you'd had an air horn she'd probably messed her drawers -- bet she'll pay attention at that sign/light in the future and be scared to death of seeing you again! I have a driver in my office complex scared to death that mean old motorcyclist is going to get 'em -- that since a near miss in the lot a couple of weeks ago.
Hang tough!

Smile and wave, my ass. I'll save such actions for the courteous motorists. Forget about it, hell no, incidents like that will be logged in the ol' memory data base on what to expect in the future.

Learn to let it go. You have to expect this kind of thing from drivers. When they do it, think of it as meeting expectations. You can't educate every driver out there, and getting mad at them and interacting with them is nothing less than road rage.

Learn to let it go.

I honestly don't get worked up about it anymore. I have given up on motorists, I don't get mad at them any more than I get mad at the wind. Motorists do stupid **** and there's nothing I can do about it except to watch out for it and keep them from hurting me.

and cyclists are the ones known for running stop signs for some reason....
I have been seeing a lot more motorists running stop signs. Not sure what happens when spring hits, people get more energy except the energy they need to step on the brakes to bring the car all the way to a stop. I think my bike commute might be safer than my car commute because there is one intersection where there are always motorists brake-checking each other.

+1. Though I do share your frustration. Why would anyone continue to move into the intersection while a bright light is shining in their eyes? Replace your bike and light with a very large vehicle and you bet she'll stay put.

I'm guessing she was distracted and didn't see you until after she pulled out. Little things like that can spike the blood pressure, but if there's no collision and it wasn't intentional, I tend it let it go.

I did something totally different this morning. I rode my single-speed in work clothes. I left the reflective vest at home. The only lighting was my dyno-powered stuff, which doesn't flash. Oh, and I didn't wear a helmet, which means I didn't have my mirror. I did miss the mirror a little.

Blow off some steam by inventing amusing responses!

For instance, carry something greasy and hit a car that comes too close with it. Or an egg.

Strap on a short rake or shovel so it juts out 3' past your rack. Then make sure you rake the car before you swerve away.

Fell better yet? Good, now fuggedaboutit.

Folks have to stop at red lights where you are? They'd get rear-ended if they did that here!

-G

This is very bad advice!

It could escalate matters and get your bumperless butt, killed!

I learned long ago to go by the saying: "assumption is the mother of all eff up". I never assume that the drivers see me, respect my rights to be in the road, yield, obey traffic laws, etc. In other words, I assumed that the car drivers are trying to kill me so I ride defensively.

Typical daily commute.....

I have been watching for a couple of years now, and in my neck of the woods, it's EXTREMELY rare to see a car actually stop at a stop sign. In 2 years of paying attention to this now, I have seen thousands of car/stop sign interactions, and to date I have seen 4 cars actually stop at a stop sign when there was not cross traffic present, and 2 of those guys were texting at the time (illegal here).

I see cars blow stop signs after barely even slowing down almost every day. Some go through at up to 20 MPH.

I almost always come to a complete, foot down stop at a stop sign, I do roll at a near-track-stand speed sometimes. If anyone ever gives me crap about stop signs, I'll invite them to join me with a couple of lawn chairs at an intersection sometime and count cars that actually stop.

I've thought about offering this with any leo that mentions cyclists running stop signs. My daughter did this for driver's ed, and the numbers for cars were abysmal. Nobody stopped except for her parents, and that was because we knew she was there.

Maybe my commute (car or bike) is different. But I rarely see cars blowing stop signs, by rarely like once or twice in the last 10 years. and even though we are in california... not so many "california stops" I have seen as more people run reds lights than stops signs. I do see more people doing a right on red without stopping.

and there are not just one or two stops signs either. One route (grocery store) has 2 4 way stops in less than a mile. the other route has a 4 way stop, a stop sign on a major road and the side streets to my commute street have stops.

So I just don't see this behavior. YMMV. Of course the last time someone tried to run a stopsign they almost nailed my car.