A close shave tonight with a car :-(

[Inertia]

Glad you are OK, had my own near miss on Friday. Cycling past the entrance of a car park I was _directly_ in front of a car and they started to drive into the road straight into me, I think only my yell and the car behind beeping woke them up. God know what they were doing

 

[numbnuts]

I had a close shave last night, well it wasn't a shave more like an epilator

 

[mjr]

What you are proposing / implying is entirely unrealistic for all road users (other than pedestrians whose speed is slower and thus stopping/direction changing ability better). I suggest that cycling or driving round every bend thinking 'I'd better go round this really slowly so I can stop if someone pulls out from a turning' is a hard way to live one's life on the road.

It's easy. It's not "really slowly" on "every bend" but it's "slowly enough that I can stop if someone pulls out from a place I can't yet see".

I will cycle/drive at a speed (and in a position on the road (laterally) where I can stop or avoid if there's another road user, or an obstruction in the road.

Avoiding is good enough. The op collided, though. I don't understand why.

If a car is waiting to turn out, its front wheel (trim) will show whether it's moving or not, and one can often see the driver's eyes (ie whether he/she is looking your way) - and adopt suitable speed/precautions till you're safely past. But allowing for a car pulling out of a turning you can't see . . . . . ?

Eyes are lies. Watch the wheels. And yes, allow for mad shoot happening on the bit of road you can't yet see.

 

[johnnyb47]

There's to many variables to point a blame on anybody to be honest. I could be at blame for coming round the corner to quickly, The driver could be at blame for prioritizing on looking left as the final check before moving off when the greater hazard was from the traffic coming from the right.You could blame the nursing home for not putting up a round mirror on the opposite side of the road so visitors can safely pull out knowing the road is clear from the right. Either way, nobody was hurt and everything was dealt with in a civil and polite way. She did say she would have a word with the owners of the property to put a mirror up, and at the end of the day that's all you can hope for..
She will no doubt be a little more cautious exiting and i will be more aware when cycling around there again.
No harm done and just another thing to put down to experience in life.

 

[ColinJ]

It sounds like a pretty dodgy place to have an exit from a nursing home (or anything else for that matter)!

 

[fossyant]

Drivers don't see people on straight roads, so rubbish happens. Drivers don't look. If someone pulls out right in-front of you, you can't stop quick enough.

 

[ColinJ]

I thought of something this evening when I was riding round a blind bend ...

If you go too quickly then you might hit something that you haven't seen round the bend. If you go too slowly then you might become the something that the person behind you hits!

So, my choice is to go at a 'reasonable' speed to give me a decent chance of stopping or avoiding hidden dangers, but to also give anyone behind me a reasonable chance of not hitting me.

 

[vickster]

There's to many variables to point a blame on anybody to be honest. I could be at blame for coming round the corner to quickly, The driver could be at blame for prioritizing on looking left as the final check before moving off when the greater hazard was from the traffic coming from the right.You could blame the nursing home for not putting up a round mirror on the opposite side of the road so visitors can safely pull out knowing the road is clear from the right. Either way, nobody was hurt and everything was dealt with in a civil and polite way. She did say she would have a word with the owners of the property to put a mirror up, and at the end of the day that's all you can hope for..
She will no doubt be a little more cautious exiting and i will be more aware when cycling around there again.
No harm done and just another thing to put down to experience in life.

Have you contacted the nursing home to suggest the placement of a mirror?

 

[mjr]

If you go too slowly then you might become the something that the person behind you hits!

That's known as "fear from the rear" and isn't anywhere near as common as most people think. With how much faster bikes can take tight bends, I humbly suggest you're unlikely to go around a tight enough bend to have visibility problems slowly enough for a following motorist to catch you and make contact.

 

[si_c]

This highlights why lane positioning is important. On tighter bends you should take a primary line which puts you as wide as possible, hugging the curb is a recipe for disaster, you can't see around the bend, and people can't see you coming around the bend.

In a car you are by default in that outside position with the best view so you don't have to think about it.

 

[ColinJ]

This highlights why lane positioning is important. On tighter bends you should take a primary line which puts you as wide as possible, hugging the curb is a recipe for disaster, you can't see around the bend, and people can't see you coming around the bend.

In a car you are by default in that outside position with the best view so you don't have to think about it.

I ride round such bends well out in the road, but vigilant and ready to dive to the left if I am unlucky enough to encounter a lunatic overtaker coming straight at me.

It's not just overtakers though ...

I had a car come round a bend straight at me because the driver was busy looking at magnificent scenery to his left.

I worry about meeting a tourist coming the other way who had forgotten that we drive on the left (a friend on holiday in Spain forgot that they drive on the right and descended a mountain on the left ).

Then there is plain stupidity ... There is a very fast descent in Hebden Bridge down to a very tight LH bend (Birchcliffe Road).

One impatient driver decided to save time by cutting across the bend directly in front of me. I was far enough out in the road to spot him doing it and was able to dive into the small gap that he had left me, missing the side of his car by inches.

 

[si_c]

I ride round such bends well out in the road, but vigilant and ready to dive to the left if I am unlucky enough to encounter a lunatic overtaker coming straight at me.

It's not just overtakers though ...

I had a car come round a bend straight at me because the driver was busy looking at magnificent scenery to his left.

I worry about meeting a tourist coming the other way who had forgotten that we drive on the left (a friend on holiday in Spain forgot that they drive on the right and descended a mountain on the left ).

Then there is plain stupidity ... There is a very fast descent in Hebden Bridge down to a very tight LH bend (Birchcliffe Road).

View attachment 359220

One impatient driver decided to save time by cutting across the bend directly in front of me. I was far enough out in the road to spot him doing it and was able to dive into the small gap that he had left me, missing the side of his car by inches.

I totally misread the name of that road.

 

[Banjo]

I had a driver pull out to the center white line waiting to turn right.
I managed to stop a few inches short of her door incredibly she still had not seen me.

As she continued to look left I tapped on the window which startled the life out of her.How anyone could pull out without looking is amazing to me but sadly its all too common.

 

[froze]

I find that shaving with a blade gets me a closer shave than using a car.

 

[Drago]

I had a Brazilian.