Got hit by a car just now

[the reluctant cyclist]

I'm really sorry to hear about your accident and hope you are feeling better today. I am sure that you will get your confidence back within time.

I second the suggestion of changing your route - I can't go back to a spot where I have been knocked off (there are just three of them!) so have changed my route a bit!

I can empathise with the calmness after your incident too - it's almost as if it "nearly happening" is worse then it actually happening isn't it? If you have a near miss you can feel really really angry and yet if somebody does actually hit you you can feel much more pragmatic about it can't you?! Human nature is a funny thing!

Re the driver staying in the car - I thought it was rude and I am often a lone female driver but there is no way I wouldn't have been out of the car and making sure you were okay - I would have been running into the road to get your water bottle and making you sit down etc etc and generally being v.apologetic!

Make sure that she does pay for any repairs that you need - I had an agreement with one chap who hit my bike but he complained when he got the bill (£30) and then said he "hadn't hit me that hard" ???!!!! Hubby was not v.impressed with that I can tell you!!

 

[CopperBrompton]

Glad you're ok, and well done for handling the situation so calmly - in particular knowing you needed a couple of minutes to let the adrenaline settle and being perfectly polite with the driver.

 

[Ravenbait]

Congratulations to the OP on his restraint and I'm glad he wasn't badly hurt.

With regards to the woman failing to get out of the car, I think it's important to remember that a lot of women have been taught to fear strange men. I was going to say I'd feel nervous getting out of the car to talk to a strange man, but it's not true. Mostly I'd prefer not to, however. Women are taught that men are bigger, stronger and more aggressive than they are. Many women worry -- unnecessarily, perhaps, but that doesn't stop the fear -- about being assaulted and/or raped.

I am not surprised that she didn't get out of the car. I'm disappointed, but I'm more disappointed that our culture is such that I wouldn't expect her to get out of the car because of the prevalence of fear.

Of course, she could just have been an inconsiderate cow. I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

I haven't seen the video yet, by the way, as work doesn't permit that sort of thing.

And yes -- if the symptoms persist, go to the doctor's.

Sam

 

[JamesAC]

I think it's so rude that she didn't get out of her car. I wonder if she was a bit intimidated by you. (It seems daft t say she might have been intimidated when it's motorist in their protective cage vs. cyclist but if she'd have gotten out it would have been lone woman vs. possibly angry man.)

Shocking how little help you got.

+1

That occurred to me too. She just sits there. Why didn't she get out to see if you were ok; to make some effort to pick up the various bits and pieces that had fallen off your bike?

 

[recumbentpanda]

Well, some of us are more experienced and confident on a bike.

I am very experienced, and reasonably confident -but a stopping distance is still a stopping distance for all that . . .


And one person's perceived risk, isn't a risk to another

Which is called 'being in denial'. A risk is a risk. Perception is whether you care or not. I tend to care about colliding with metal at speed.

You can't carry on in life saying 'what if' as you'd actually never get on a bike or do half the stuff one does. Riding down hills at 50-60mph - you'd never do it if you think of the 'what ifs'...... you'd never take a corner at speed, thinking 'what if a hedgehog jumped out'....

Hedgehogs are unpredictable, rabbits even more so, RABs are not.

-all in the spirit of lively debate, and drawing useful lessons. What I take away from the OP's experience is: don't try to go through a RAB as if it was the open road.

Safe miles to you and many of them.

 

[Origamist]

The stopping distance argument is true, but what are the disbenefits of talking a RaB at slower speeds, RP?

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Hedgehogs are unpredictable, rabbits even more so, RABs are not.

-all in the spirit of lively debate, and drawing useful lessons. What I take away from the OP's experience is: don't try to go through a RAB as if it was the open road.

Safe miles to you and many of them.

Trouble is - cars do - or try to

Slow down too much and the corsa behind you who is trying to find some "bangin choons" whilst talking to his "blud" on whatever the idiot's term for a mobile telephone is these days hits you...or you end up being blasted by a horn and cut up over the RAB to teach you a lesson for "getting in the way"