Highcad

I think there is far greater probability that the driver was distracted (or old) than being sadistic w/ a personality disorder. What do you think?

Highcad

"...an oncoming older gray van intentionally moves to the center of my lane at about 35 MPH..." How do you know the driver (not van) intentionally moved to the center of the lane?

CAT7RDR

Some things you do not forget. I made eye contact with this guy in his mid 1960's Chevy. This was long before cell phones. What choices do you have?
By the way, intentional homicides by a driver are not a fluke.
https://www.dailybulletin.com/2018/1...ck-and-killed/

big john

A friend was riding with a small group and there was an altercation and they flipped the driver off. Driver went around the block and came up behind them and knocked my friend into a parked car, then sped off. My friend was pretty banged up but nothing serious.
Another friend was alone and a driver followed him (after an altercation) and knocked him into a parked car on his own street. He was unconscious for several minutes.
Another friend was run off the road by a commuter. He's certain it was intentional but has no "proof". I believe him.

No matter what your view of humanity is you have to admit there are some seriously deranged individuals in the world. When you encounter thousands upon thousands of drivers over the years you are bound to encounter a homicidal maniac or two.

livedarklions

I think you won't be able to show your math, and that probability. estimate is completely groundless.

I also think that someone who was there is in a far better position to infer intent or lack of intent than some internet rando going with his gut feeling about made up statistics.

livedarklions

Are you saying there's no visible difference between someone deliberately moving to the center of an opposing lane and someone unintentionally drifting across the yellow line? Sorry, but that's just stupid.

Maelochs

This is one of those debates where everyone is trying to play devil's advocate and no one is really ...


Forget it. This one can die like the "help up the hills" thread .....

I am sure that all the folks who have ever thrown stuff at me out of passing or oncoming cars were super-nice folks who just happened to forget there were littering laws just as they passed me .... I should praise them for wanting to keep their cars clean .... right?

BF, you rarely surprise and often disappoint.

rsbob 

How do you not know that you are but a mere speck in time of the universe and your question is ultimately as meaningless as your life?

And whatever answer I provide is just as meaningless?

Miele Man

"Moth drawn to the flame" scenario? Driver watching the light to try and figure out what it is and drifts towards it?

Cheers

rsbob 

Just like drunk drivers drawn to the flashing lights of a patrol car on the shoulder before they smash into it? But then, why aren’t all drivers drawn into flashing lights? Was this guy just ‘special’? Was he drunk but only lost control on a short straight? Being there, I would say it was highly unlikely.

The timing of the event, was far too perfect to be a coincidence. Besides, this is a very curvy road, so people would not be looking at their phone or else they would go off. He did not come at us on a curve but one extremely short straight section and then would have to set up for the next curve. If he was so inept or inattentive he would have wrecked before he got to us or shortly thereafter. It is far more likely that an inattentive driver would wreck by on curves and that someone would not pick up their phone with 5-7 seconds before the next curve. Too much armchair quarterbacking by those not there. I would gladly trade places with anyone who wants to defend the driver of the van. Who would like to volunteer first? Hope you have good reaction speeds.

livedarklions

I don't see how I am trying to play devil's advocate here, so I don't get your first line, but the rest of your post is a really good example of why I'm so annoyed that the reaction of a bunch of people on bf to a poster explaining how he was attacked/threatened on the road is to tell him he's likely mistaken. I regularly see drivers do really aggressive things as a driver, cyclist and a pedestrian. Why are people so invested in claiming that's unusual?
I think there's two things going on here. Some people just seem to assume that criminally aggressive driving is rare which is clearly contrary to the experience of many of us on the forums. Others are so invested in their beliefs that cell phone and other distractors are the root of all evil that they need to rewrite every anecdote to fit this preconception.


Here's the sad reality--if a driver is actively trying to hurt you, your self-defense options are rather limited if they exist at all. That's what we should be talking about, not trying to psychoanalyze rsbob .

livedarklions

I'll admit that flashing lights are a pet peeve of mine, but I don't think this is the situation where I think they create the hazard, especially given what you said about aiming them. The problem with a fast strobe on the road (and I know you didn't say anything about the flash rate) is that it can make it difficult for the oncoming driver to judge your speed and position (this isn't the case with emergency vehicles, btw, because their vehicles counteract that with multiple light sources). Where the disorientation is a problem is when the oncoming driver is judging whether they can safely turn across your path, which is definitely not the case here. I don't see any scenario other than completely blinding the driver (absurdly unlikely) that would cause him to cross the center line to center himself in the opposite lane. The "target fixation" effect is, at best, wild speculation and I think your explanation is by far the most likely, certainly likely enough that we should be discussing it as an example of criminal aggression rather than debating its particulars.

BTW, good job of keeping alive, glad you're ok.

Gear_Admiral 

For that reason, at night, I say it is important to have a steady light always visible. Flashing extra lights are optional.

On a bus, on foot, on a bike, if I see a bike with a flasher abd nothing else, it will seem to dart and teleport like a firefly. The human eye or mind will "stabilize" a flash in one place, without a blur, even if that half-second flash of light were moving at 15 km/hr. It makes it very hard to predict trajectory and speed.

In the daytime, none of this matters beyond covering your ass legally so that a motorist's lawyer cannot blame the victim (i e., the cyclist) for not having the equivalent of DRL on the bike on a sunny day. Flashing and steady white headlights even at 500 lumens will be totally outshone by the sun on a typical day.

Mimicking emergency vehicles with strobing blue and red in the day will not prevent a collision and only open you to victim blaming in court at worst, or a cop citing you for illegal lighting.

Maelochs

I have several times seen oncoming bikes on the far side of the road in shaded areas because of their front flashers. It does serve to alert drivers that there are bikes about, which means that if the bike and I are approaching I will have more time to plan my trajectory to hit it.

I could see where it would be helpful say, in a city with a lot of tall buildings and not a lot of sunlight on the roads, plus a lot of side-streets and intersectionsn.

The main reason i use a light at night is to see better, but I also want oncoming traffic to know I am there .... which only really matters at an intersection so that whichever way i turn the driver can be prepared.

Paul Barnard

The OP described his light as very bright. I asked the OP if he had ever looked at it from a couple hundred yards. I have personally encountered two flashing bicycle lights that were so bright that I had to immediately look away. After that, I saw spots for a while. It is possible that the OPs light was so bright that it affected the driver enough to distract him. It is also possible the driver is a jackwipe. It is also possible since where it happened was the only straight stretch in the area, that the driver took the opportunity to reach down and pick up the chunk of sausage biscuit that he dropped. Whatever the case, it should not have happened.