Hey all, a decade-long commuter here. Not once in all that time and all those commuting miles have I connected with metal ... but last night was the closest I've ever come to a major crash.

I was heading downhill, gathering speed on a two-lane, divided road. It's easy to clock 30-35 MPH on this particular hill. Near the very bottom of the hill, about 1000 feet ahead of me, is a cross-street. The opposing lanes have a turn lane allowing cars traveling in that direction to turn left, cross "my" lanes, onto the cross-street. A car was in that turn lane.

Pretty straightforward. The only complicating factor is that I was heading east and the bright California 6:00pm (low-to-the-horizon) sun was directly behind me and straight in the driver's eyes.

I immediately recognized that the driver in the opposing turn lane may not see me. But given that there was no traffic at that moment and yet (s)he remained stationary was a good indication that my bright yellow geekwear and flashing strobe light had their intended effect.

It was only after I was committed to the hill and was booking along at a good rate of speed (20-25 MPH?) that ... you guessed it ... the driver started crossing the lanes. I had no "out" at this point and my brakes would never stop me in time and I really thought I was going to T-bone the car. But luckily I was able to do a shimmy-to-the-right move to avoid the hood of the car by millimeters then shimmy-to-the-left to avoid the concrete curb surrounding the stop sign that I also thought for sure I was going to hit. It was a maneuver straight out of the Tour de France!!

Had the driver proceeded maybe 1 MPH faster we would have been one.

I'm certain now that the driver never saw me until (s)he saw me passing, or probably only after I passed completely. I'm 6'4" so that must have been quite a shock.

Why the driver took so long to start crossing I can only guess was because (s)he was cautious of traffic given the bright sunshine. My guess is (s)he focused on a spot on top the hill and waited for shadows of cars at that point. When none appeared and sufficient time elapsed for any cars to pass between him/her and the top of the hill, the coast was clear. This took about 15 seconds or so. So I lay no blame on the driver whatsoever for doing the right thing. Nor do I think I could have changed anything to render a safer situation. I assessed the potential for danger and, when it happened, I was able to react.

So, I'm still metal-free but, phew, that was a close one.

Andy

Awesome situational awareness. Bikes make lousy hood ornaments.

Nice that your helmet is rated for 25 mph crashes.

If you use that hill often, I'd get an AirZound and use it if you see anyone getting ready to make that turn. They may not see you at first, but it will get their attention.

Yikes! I doubt I could have reacted that quickly.

kokomo61, I'm beginning to think a lot about a horn. I think it might have worked in this case (although I'm not often on that particular route). Anything to add to your arsenal of safety, right? I've already considered an air horn for our tandem for similar reasons.

Lamplight, I'm 47 so I don't think reaction times had anything to do with it!! Probably more like total luck.

Andy

Rather than assume you have been seen, assume they will do the worst possible thing at the worst possible time? I learned to slow down and cover the brakes on my motorcycle in these situations, right of way be damned. But you can never be 100% perfect, nor 100% clairvoyant, so panic braking and panic swerving are excellent skills to have at your disposal.

Like the time I was teaching a co-worker and new commuter about staying three feet from a line of parked cars, and not more than three seconds after I finished speaking out pops a car door in front of us, and I was a tad too close in anticipation of making a right turn. I had just enough time and room to swerve, and the coincidence had us laughing for half a mile.

I've had similar situations. It's quite possible that the driver did see you,he just completely misjudged your speed. I've had them look at me,hesitate,then pull on me. They see something and stop/slow as an instinctive reaction,then realise you're a bicycle and figure you can't possibly be going at any serious rate of speed,and pull out thinking they have plenty of time.

Bombing hills with intersections/turnoffs sucks. We've got a couple bad ones around here.

Jeez, Phew #2 was last night. I had another close call. And this was on my normal, very familiar route.

Once again, the setting sun was the culprit. Oh, and I was culpable to a degree I think, in retrospect.

Take your classic two-lane 35 MPH road with a bike lane. On the right hand side is a popular shopping complex with restaurants and a bunch of entrances/exits into/out of the complex. I had an eagle-eye on the ingress/egress routes so I was a little surprised to see an unexpected gap in the traffic that was backed up for 1/4 mile at the light. Ah, yes!! A car in the opposite lanes was inching through the two backed up lanes to get into the complex.

Dammit!! I didn't see that! Or, actually, I did out of the corner of my eye. But not soon enough. Shame on me for being so focused on a danger that didn't exist instead of the potential danger from the other side!! But I did see it just in enough time to shimmy to the right, passing the front bumper by mere inches.

Wow. Two close calls in a space of mere weeks. This, after having no similar close calls in over 10 years!!!

Time to reassess? Am I losing my edge? Let's face it, I'm no kid. But I really do think I've got my "10 eyes" out, even on this trip. Do bad things run in 3s?

I just don't know. I'm not shaken up and, like before, with this incident I continued on as if nothing happened. But there is a slight (slight!) lingering doubt nonetheless.

Not to worry. My wife and I are tandeming down the PCH this weekend ... and I'm not about to put her in any jeopardy whatsoever.

And I'll be back next week. Same place, same speed, same time. But I'll be looking a little to the left next time!!

Andy

Thought it was just me. In the last couple days traffic has doubled and the number of irradic/spontaneous/unaware drivers have tripled. Almost had some fat lard*** in a big macho pickup truck slam right into me. Of course, it appeared that once he saw someone on a bike his temper flew through the roof with hatred. Probably just finished watching FOX NEWS and they told all the viewers to kill everyone on bicycles.. or something along those very lines.


I believe it's a combination of a few things....

1. Gas prices/Economy
2. Democratic Convention/Politics
3. Kids going back to school; shopping
4. Labor Day Weekend approaching


Be cautious.. be safe.

I've actually only recently been taking the sun and time of day into consideration. Yesterady I altered my route to avoid the round-about near my house at the bottom of a hill I have to climb. Drivers bomb that hill and hate to slow down for anything. Even without the sun in their eyes, I get drivers pulling out in front of me or nearly hitting all the time. So yesterday knowing some lady in an SUV with one hand trying to block the glaring sun barrelling down the hill is something I didn't want to deal with. So I took the long way.

I've got a few hills I would love to bomb near my house, but it's just too unpredictable for the commute. But I kamikaze on the weekend mornings with no issues at all.

Anywho, from story #1, nice job on the maneuver.

wow, thank goodness you were okay.

I'd be extra careful at that spot.

If your 1000 feet estimate is anywhere near accurate, you should have had plenty of time even at 30 mph to adjust your speed to the situation. True, you would have to sacrifice some of that lovely momentum... but it's worth it to avoid a wreck. It takes 22 seconds to cover that 1000 feet... and the driver will complete his turn in about 8. Plenty of time for adjustment.

Yes, JMRobertson. The 1000-feet estimate is where I first saw the car. It was much closer, maybe at a distance of 100 feet or so, that the car moved across the traffic lanes. I have a Trek 520 (touring bike) that I use for commuting and its oversized brakes stop on a dime. Still ... no chance.

AdrianFly, doubtful about the FOXNews thing. Again, I've been 10+ years without so much a near-miss (near-hit?). Then two in rapid succession. In both cases I don't fault the driver whatsoever.

Andy

I've observed exactly this sort of sun-in-the-eyes behavior, and -- confession time here -- probably done it a time or two. You're in your car, you're stopped...and you realize that with the angle of the sun, you simply can't tell if the way is clear or not. What to do? It's one thing if you have a traffic light, in which case you could just wait for the green and be reasonably sure that there wouldn't be any cross traffic...but if you have a stop sign, you're kinda screwed. Low fall and spring sunlight is the cause of a lot of accidents on east-west roads -- I've been turning on my blinkie earlier these days in the hope that it will help me stand out against the glare as I ride west in the evening.