I've had this problem come up twice in the last few days. I've been riding down a residential street with one lane, where if another car was coming towards you you would pull in between the parked cars while they passed. In both cases I've already been cycling down it when a car has started coming up the other end, and I haven't had a passing place big enough to pull into. On one occasion the other car had one on his side of the road but chose not to pull in, and on the other there was nothing on either side of the road. So what do you do when a car is bearing down on you and you have nowhere to go? On both occasions there was just barely enough space for me to fit in between the parked cars and the oncoming car and that's what I did, but I don't like doing it, I think it's dangerous. Any advice?
I had a I-want-my-mummy moment earlier in the week too where I was going down a busy street with two lanes (one for each direction). My lane is clear so I'm tootling along in secondary. The other lane is a massive jam of cars. Suddenly one of these cars indicates and pulls out, so she's coming straight towards me. I have no idea what she's doing, overtaking a traffic jam...? There's nowhere for me to go until I reach the next side street, which we get to at about the same time. I start to turn down it to get out of her way, then she flicks her indicator on again and starts turning down it, sees me, and we both brake. Obvious in retrospect that she had decided to jump the jam to get to the street that she wanted, but at the time I had no bloody clue where she was going. The most annoying thing was instead of a sorry I get a hand wave, the kind that you'd get as a thanks, then she drove off down her street. Having not seen me until I had started turning down the street I assume she thought I had wanted to turn down there, then braked when I saw her coming to let her through. Absolutely oblivious to the fact that I thought I was about to be mown down, and if I hadn't have started turning to avoid her I would have gone right into the side of her car.
I had a I-want-my-mummy moment earlier in the week too where I was going down a busy street with two lanes (one for each direction). My lane is clear so I'm tootling along in secondary. The other lane is a massive jam of cars. Suddenly one of these cars indicates and pulls out, so she's coming straight towards me. I have no idea what she's doing, overtaking a traffic jam...? There's nowhere for me to go until I reach the next side street, which we get to at about the same time. I start to turn down it to get out of her way, then she flicks her indicator on again and starts turning down it, sees me, and we both brake. Obvious in retrospect that she had decided to jump the jam to get to the street that she wanted, but at the time I had no bloody clue where she was going. The most annoying thing was instead of a sorry I get a hand wave, the kind that you'd get as a thanks, then she drove off down her street. Having not seen me until I had started turning down the street I assume she thought I had wanted to turn down there, then braked when I saw her coming to let her through. Absolutely oblivious to the fact that I thought I was about to be mown down, and if I hadn't have started turning to avoid her I would have gone right into the side of her car.