very near miss tonight - considering calling it a day !

[gaijintendo]

I had a pretty similar thing happen when i was quite young. I was at full speed, and an old fella pulled out across the cycle lane to get a good position to join traffic.
I pulled the breaks before I knew what was going on, and stopped mm away.
He acknowledged me and apologetically drove off...
I was wearing headphones at the time, and gave up on that immediately. It theoretically made no difference, but I was stopped before I knew what was what. Anything that added a millisecond or took away a sense was obviously not worth it.
That was 15 years ago...
Like others here I took to the canal paths, but recently I have given up on getting muddy and saving a few seconds here and there... I might need to just clean my bike more. Eesh.

 

[cyberknight]

Had a guy do a 3 point turn in front of me then proceeded to chase me down the road in his car after i shouted a warning and try to knock me off twice, i dont tell the family anymore as the events are few and far between luckily and it keeps them oblivious and stops me dwelling on it .

 

[subaqua]

What's a pedacyclist, Walter?

or an unintentional drowning . does anybody go out intending to drown ?( yeah I know that jumping into the river thames is an intentional drowning )

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

Great stuff. I love Brian Pern.

 

[kingrollo]

I had a pretty similar thing happen when i was quite young. I was at full speed, and an old fella pulled out across the cycle lane to get a good position to join traffic.
I pulled the breaks before I knew what was going on, and stopped mm away.
He acknowledged me and apologetically drove off...
I was wearing headphones at the time, and gave up on that immediately. It theoretically made no difference, but I was stopped before I knew what was what. Anything that added a millisecond or took away a sense was obviously not worth it.
That was 15 years ago...
Like others here I took to the canal paths... But recently I have given up on getting muddy and saving a few seconds here and there... Might need to just clean my bike more...

Whats really freaking me out now is is that I think the driver of car was totally oblivious to having nearly caused an accident. I recently upgraded the brakes - so the blocks , callipers, and cables are all pretty new - the road was dry, had it been wet or poorer brakes Id have hit her.

 

[al78]

I have been losing motivation to cycle over the last two years since I was nearly killed by a careless driver (and which I cannot see how I could have done anything to avoid it, other than not cycling). I know the risk of a repeat is extremely low but there is always that thought in the back of my mind that since I have a skull replacement which is not designed to withstand the sort of impact I received, I don't want to push my luck, so I am tending to be more risk averse these days (i.e. not cycling in icy conditions, regardless of having studded tyres, and avoiding the busiest junctions more frequently). I am going to Aviemore in the summer so need to get fitness up, which has recently given me some motivation to get back in the saddle.

 

[gaijintendo]

Whats really freaking me out now is is that I think the driver of car was totally oblivious to having nearly caused an accident. I recently upgraded the brakes - so the blocks , callipers, and cables are all pretty new - the road was dry, had it been wet or poorer brakes Id have hit her.

You are probably right. They probably got home and maybe had the most fleeting thought about an irresponsible cyclist almost hitting their car.
The terrifying thing is, it would probably have been determined as your fault as the simplistic application of the laws would consider you to have rear ended the car... But I'm not perfectly clear on what exactly occurred.
Safety first. A timely reminder to check my brake pads.

 

[GuyBoden]

Yesterday, a woman in a hurry nearly pulled out in front of me on a country lane junction that's currently being used as a "Rat Run", because the A566 is closed. I stopped in front of her, spread my arms out and said "what are you trying to do, kill me", she then preceded to drive into me, so I pedalled off quick before she could cause me any harm.

It's just another day on a bike, sharing roads with people driving potentially dangerous weapons..............

 

[Lonestar]

Some young learner moped rider tit cut in on me on the return tonight in Canning Town. If he keeps riding like that though he's gonna come a cropper.I was annoyed but refrained myself from commenting about it when I caught him at the lights...Not really going to get very far arguing so what's the point?

But I will still keep cycling.

@kingrollo but this may just be a reaction to your incident due to the shock of it I guess...Don't expect when another road user does something wrong for them to hand you a written apology or acknowledge what they have done wrong.It doesn't always work like that.

Best of luck...hope you can recover..

 

[lutonloony]

or an unintentional drowning . does anybody go out intending to drown ?( yeah I know that jumping into the river thames is an intentional drowning )

Is jumping into a French river international drowning, obviously you would be in seine

 

[Lonestar]

Did you not consider running into her and laying there shouting "It was my right of way!"

You are bad.

 

[subaqua]

Is jumping into a French river international drowning, obviously you would be in seine

Baddum tish

 

[Brains]

Is jumping into a French river international drowning, obviously you would be in seine

(G)Rhone

 

[Will Spin]

I've had a few incidents such as the OP, each time I've analysed the situation and I'd like to think that I've learnt something that that perhaps has changed my behaviour or technique slightly to keep me safe (eg changing route, speed, road positioning etc). However the one incident that sticks in my mind and still causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up when I think about it is when some scum in a builder truck crossed over onto my side of the road to deliberately drive straight at me, I squashed up against the kerb and he missed me by millimetres.

 

[kingrollo]

Some young learner moped rider tit cut in on me on the return tonight in Canning Town. If he keeps riding like that though he's gonna come a cropper.I was annoyed but refrained myself from commenting about it when I caught him at the lights...Not really going to get very far arguing so what's the point?

But I will still keep cycling.

@kingrollo but this may just be a reaction to your incident due to the shock of it I guess...Don't expect when another road user does something wrong for them to hand you a written apology or acknowledge what they have done wrong.It doesn't always work like that.

Best of luck...hope you can recover..

Its not the lack of an apology as such - more that she was totally oblivious to the whole incident - even with a cyclist within millimetres of her window.

I will get back on the bike at the weekend and see how I feel