Who was almost hit by a car today?
 

Me! Three times during a 15mi ride, 1/3 of which was on access roads, through shipyards or around other car-free areas. Awesome.

I had the hole "i'm going to turn right and cut you off" thing, slamming on my brakes and barely avoiding getting pushed into the curb. Chased them down told them to look where their going (in not so polite terms) and bike off. It was almost today, it was at around 11:30 last night.

ya know, i didn't almost get hit on my way to my studio today. strange. it usually happens cause I end up going through the longwood area where there's late shift nurses driving home during my morning commute.

Two dumb ****s on the north side of Chicago. Followed a car through a 4 way stop and the chick to the right of us was just going to run through the sign so she didnt have to stop and have 2 more cars go. She barely slows down, only enough to not T-bone the car, and almost takes me out because half of my bike was behind the rear bumper of the car I was following. 15 minutes later a woman in a yellow 80's Bronco that was rusted out and full of kids blows through a stop sign at like 30mph. she didnt even look both was just straight ahead. Brilliant.

I would say a close call happens about 5 days out of 7.

It most often happens in the little Mexico neighborhood that I ride through on my work commute. I am undecided if their disdain for this biker is racially motivated or if the drivers in that area merely hold a greater incompetence of the traffic laws.

No close calls but I was sitting at a light and some redneck said he wa going to hit me as he drove off.

it's funny how 5 days out of 7, i do have close calls...i don't even really mention them to people anymore because they're too routine. it's funny also how i have people talk to me about my bike a lot as well. in the past 24 hours...a guy backed out of a parking garage at 15mph in a way that suggested he hadn't looked behind him. i had to swerve into a lane of traffic that was luckily open to avoid getting hit. i told him to watch what he was doing, and he told me not to "come around the corner like that", which is funny because the parking garage was halfway down the block, so he would have had plenty of time to see me if he'd even looked. not to mention that people come around corners all the time and people coming around corners is no damn excuse for backing into them.

anyway, in the past 24 hours, i've had only one major thing and a lot of times where i was paying more attention than the drivers and avoided accidents. i've also had about 6 or 7 people comment positively on my bike in that same time. interesting mix, eh?

I had to puch a cab at one point to keep him from turning into me while racing today. besides that, the only other close call was another bicyclist turning in front of me.

i hit a hyundai and got samiched in between an SUV and a truck while riding with mrRed. then my bike decided to have a meltdown and my pants fell down, leaving me to tie them back on with the freshly shived tube.

how do you like them apples?

your pants fell down? sorry...that's funny.

the whole thing was hilarious. the freezing rain made it 10 times better.

moral of the story? lock extra bikes around the city during alleycats and only wear pants that actually fit you.

I hear that. It happens way too often here too...Last night a few of us got together to do some match sprints at a local high school track late at night, as we left we stopped at a gas station to get some drinks...I got a cup of Hi-C and rode home with 2 friends behind me. As we rode up a hill a car slowed down to tell us to "get a f***ing job" so i instantly threw the cup full of punch and ice at the car and it went straight into the passenger window.
We're not sure why they didn't stop and try to run us over but...I don't know why that happened, I just get sick of dealing with harrassment everyday that "tough love" is the only option. I'd rather soak some jerks than slam their car with my chain lock.

I got hit by a bus last week. That was great.

oh ****. Did you walk away from it ok? Same happened to my brother a couple of years back and he def. didnt.

Luckily, yes. I was just riding on the right hand side of a straight road in the city during the day. The bus was passing me on my left but didn't move over far enough, the front right corner of the bus hit my arm. I guess he didn't see me in time to move go around me. I managed to steer to the right without falling over. I wanted to chase the guy down and beat him into a puddle but I just sort of stood there for a minute glad that he didn't just totally not see me. There's no ****ing excuse for that, and I see SEPTA drivers **** up every day. They have to hire the most poorly-qualified drivers I've seen anywhere.

close calls are almost routine.
I havent been yeleld at for a good while so I'm happy and it's usually just drunk people anyway. Last person to yell at me was someone saying "Which way is downtown?!".

A couple weeks ago I was passing someone on the right, it was just a long line of cars that just a green. I figured passing on the left then merging back again would be pointless because soon the cars would be up to a faster speed. But there was a van turning right with no blinker and I was up to their passenger door when they decided to sharply turn. Holy crap I had to do a sideways skid to stop myself and hten had to keep pedaling up against the curb after I turned with the car. It's slo-mo crashes and close calls that suck. You realize your health is completely in the hands of a driver when you're in a trap situation.

Definitely did not miss getting hit 1 1/2 hrs ago!
At hains Point (park like) crossing the street on the ped cross walk.
Car had stop sign, but decided that it was ok to go.

Looks like out of true rear rim, bent bull horns and levers, and get this, a kinked & frayed cable..????

Driver, "I didn't see you, I didn't see you"

luckily, there were not other cars to run me over when I was down.

Also, this happened right in front peopel who were joining up for Hains and Cheese laps.

Every time I ride, there is a close call. I commute in Toronto and that is just the way it is. Never been hit though ;)

Maybe I'm just a thrill seeker, but I love the adrenaline rush that comes from a near-collision. Don't get me wrong, I don't go out looking for them. But when a car does something erratic and puts himself in my way, and I have the presence of mind and cycling prowess to manuveur myself to safety, I pat myself on the back. Especially if the friends I was riding with say things like 'Holy **** Bill, you almost died.'

To counterpoint: A car decided to parallel park while I was on their right. Step one was close the gap on the right side of their car. I went over my handlebars and knocked her sideview mirror off with my shoulder.
I guess I wasn't a good enough fighter to beat her.

that sucks...you're okay, though?

how do drivers "not see" so many people (cyclists and peds alike)? are they blind or just stupid? either way, licensing laws and tests should be waaaaaay stricter.

I see over half of close calls before they happen. I always look at nearby driver's faces and I know for a fact that alot of these close calls happen only because they never turned their head to see me.
I can't believe drivers only look to the right when they want to turn left across a couple lanes of traffic or viceversa.

shipyards are dangerous places.. i flew over the hood of the car in one once and the guy wanted me to pay for his car damage

not getting hit, but some guy in a pickup was mad that i was taking up a whole lane(burnside in downtown from 10th and below has some ****ty conditions on the side of the road) tried to "run me down" after i turned right onto 3rd street. some people on the sidewalk said "that guy just tried to run you over!". kind of ****ty, especially this being my first ride in a few months. i probably should have got his license plate # or something.. wasn't really thinking about that at the time.

Coming home the other night a little tired and drunk, I was completely surprised by an SUV that was going the wrong way up a one way. The street's a hill and we met right at the top of it. I managed to swerve before we actually met but was more than a little startled. The car didn't stop. ****ing delinquents.

Chicken with a drunk Tufts student is not my idea of a good time.

damn...i remember a year ago, drivers in portland were so friendly to bikes. i leave in june, come back in december...and what the hell happened?