I am on my way to work Friday and I stopped at a semi busy intersection for a red light. I am in the bike lane and when the light turns green I start pumping hard because I have an uphill in 100 feet and I want to get some momentum. Suddenly and without signaling the car next to me makes an abrupt right hand turn. I hit my brakes and turn to the right narrowly avoiding a collision. I came with in 2"-6" of the car. The intersection I am speaking about has a right turn yield merge lane before the stop line and is marked No right hand turn at the light. If you want to make a right hand turn you have plenty of time and room to do so 75 feet before the light. I did not have my lights on, but plan to run them on pulse setting from now on when I am going into work. It was pretty damn irritating (and a bit scary) to say the least.

I feel like my lights help a lot and run them even during light hours

I assume the driver didn't realize you were there or somehow got distracted and forgot. It sounds like he/she may have made a sudden decision to turn. Do you think they ever realized what almost happened?

As scroca says, they probably forgot you were there. I never rely on a motorist's memory. I also never rely on a motorist to do the right thing. I force the issue to my favor.

I use lane position to counter this sort of thing. At a light I never let a car be next to me. I drift left and put myself in the lane either ahead of them or behind them, never next to them. If someone tries to pull alongside, I pull further left and forward.

If there is a shoulder instead of a bike lane, I ignore the shoulder and move left into the lane.

This means I'm either in their direct forward vision, or safely behind them. Usually I'm in between two, since this lane position means I rarely filter, because that puts me back next to a car, precisely where I don't want to be.

When the light turns green, I stay slightly left until I pass the crosswalk, then move right (if there is space) allowing the car behind me to pass.

I can't speak for California, but in New York State, this is part of the reason why bike lanes disappear at intersections. Unless there is room for the right-turn lane to completely be to the right of the bike lane, then the bike lane disappears in order to make bikes and cars merge into the same lane, one behind the other.

This also explains why at intersections with "bike boxes", they're placed to let cyclists move from beside the cars to in front of them.

My mantra is never beside a vehicle at an intersection, but once I'm in an intersection past the part where right turns are feasible I don't worry about it as much. Dando had entered the intersection approach where right turns are prohibited if I read him right, in a lane to the left of a right turn only lane.

If I'm shooting through using the right-only lane I'm very conscious of letting a car drive beside me, but sharing a through only lane not so much. I could have been caught by surprise just like Dando, even though objectively the two situations are similar. It's good to keep this in mind now.

Driver's look directly at us and don't see us!

Riding one of my usual routes yesterday where the street splits off in a sort of Y intersection. Younger women comes along side of me while I am taking the right third of the lane, we make eye contact, and she still proceeds to try and make a right turn across my path (I was intending to proceed straight). So I start shouting, Hey, I am right here! Which really freaked her out. And yes, both of my hands never left the hoods.

I don't know if she was completely zoned out or just thought I would submit to her because she was in a car.

Oh, by the way, I had my Serfas Thunderbolt light flashing on high and was wearing a hi-vis yellow jersey on a steel red and chrome bike. So I think, visually, I was a little hard not see.

You are right Scroca, the driver never even realized our close call happened.

That's how I read it. I don't see that he did anything wrong. When a driver makes an illegal maneuver it does sometimes boil down to nothing but having luck at that moment to avoid a collision. We ride defensively at times, aggressively at times always alert and aware but motor vehicle of all sizes are just too fast and unpredictable to do any more than the best we can in the rapidly changing situations to stay alive. That's where the definition of "luck" as "being given a chance to use your preparation" comes into play.

He wasn't technically wrong for not having his lights on, but it's good that he remained unscathed learning the lesson that it's best to use everything you have to move along without incident.

Thanks for the reply and advice tsl. In this particular situation there are 2 car lanes and the bike lane, then to the right of the bike lane is the right turn only lane. The light itself at the intersection is between the bike lane and the right turn only lane on a concrete island, so to speak.

This is a wake up call for me. The bottom line is not right and wrong and traffic laws. The bottom line is my safety. The bottom line is to NOT be hit. I live in a coastal community that is very pro bike and has fairly "light" traffic even during peak hours. I used to live in L.A. and when I moved there 11 years ago I quickly sold my existing bike after realizing how dangerous a place it was to ride.

I will continue to use the bike lane at that intersection when driving to work. If I was to use the normal traffic lane I would end up in fast moving car traffic, so it's not really an option. In the future I will be sure to use my lights (I have a light and motion urban 800/vis 180 combo) and make sure to let the car next to me go first so I can avoid this scenario in the future. I will do whatever I can to make sure the driver next to me sees me and realizes I am there.

Okay, got it. Not a lane position or marking problem. Just another JAM.

Not much you can do about idjits. Sometimes your best, which you seem to be already doing, isn't enough.

This has got me thinking that some reflective tape on helmet would be a good idea.

- Andy