Today's brush with death...

[emmelinemay]

I got hit by a car this morning.

Well, sort of.

Offord Road has cars parked all the way along both sides, and it's common for traffic to have to wait while one side clears until there's enough space to drvie down it. Being a fairly safe cyclist, I tend to wait along with the cars rather than head out into the middle and risk ARRGHness. (Offord Road is the same road where i had the pot-hole incident, and the opening-car door into me incident).

So I'm behind a car, next to a parked van, waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear. I'm not right to the left hand side, I'm centred, part of the traffic and know there are 4 cars behind me and another cyclist. It clears, car in front of me moves off, and I follow. Car behind me either doesn't see me (despite the fact i'm RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM) or is pissed off at being behind a cyclist and STEPS on that pedal and ZOOMS past me with a clearance of about 1". Unfortunately for him, my handlebars are slightly wider than the rest of me, and he smashes his wing mirror into my handlebars, the wing mirror flies off at my head and that crazy cyclist self-preservation kicks in and somehow I deflect the wing mirror away from my face with my arm.

Guy in parked van, driver behind me and cyclist behind me all stop to check I'm ok, and reassure me the man in the car is a wanker and could have killed me. Man in car stops, and gets out SLAMMING his door and GLARING at me for daring to have been there at all as he comes to pick up his wing mirror. As he passed, he looked like he was going to say something, but a barrage of abuse from the other drivers around me, man in van, and other cyclist clearly made him think better of it. He didn't say sorry though.

I couldn't be arsed to have any altercation, so I just muttered some obscenity at him and cycled off. It wasn't until I was almost at work I realised how much I was shaking.

I'm totally unhurt, not even a bruise where the wing mirror hit me, so pretty lucky really!

So this week, so far, I've had a cyclist cut me up, two pedestrians walk into me when stepping onto the road without looking, 3 motorcyclists swerve to avoid me as they zoom up the left hand side of stationary traffic and one car totally fail to acknowledge I'm even there.

My rage is not confined to merely drivers, but to ALL humans who fail to LOOK TO THEIR FUCKING LEFT.

Comments

[shackers.livejournal.com]

Deck yourself out with flashing fairy lights and loud jingly music

[ant-girl.livejournal.com]

I've had a couple of incidents recently of being overtaken with much too small a margin by double decker buses, which is really scary. Never had anything hit me yet though -- sounds nasty. I hope that guy learned his lesson. Although somehow I doubt it.

Interestingly, some of the worst culprits for overtaking without giving sufficient room seem to be *other cyclists*. Especially ones in lots of lycra.

[yaruar.livejournal.com]

next time if you have the composure, pick up the wing mirror and tell them you are keeping it as a reminder....

I'm still not prepared to cycle a lot on the roads. especially in central london. Driving is bad enough and i've got a car protecting me.

It's not just cyclists who appear invisable, i regularly have cars try to drive into me whilst driving another bloody car, it's usually people zooming along bus lanes and trying to cut into traffic, they get pissed off when i won't back down in their one sided game of chicken though. I even had a black cab try to force me off the road yesterday because he was in such a hurry.. wish i'd got his carriage number.

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

yikes, that's scary!

Thank heaven for the concerned bystanders who do something to redress the balance for the human race.

[kynon.livejournal.com]

Surely the pedestrians failed to look right?

Minor pedantry aside, at least you're not hurt. Having once been a cyclist myself, I try to be considerate to & aware of cyclists when I'm out driving.

[fracture242.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, hun - that sounds awful. Smaff cycles to work and back and I always worry about him because people are such wankers to people on bicycles - I've lost count of how many friends on bicycles have been hit etc. because no-one seems to ever see them. It seems to be a most dangerous way of travelling these days :(

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

what an asshole. i'm glad you're ok, tho. and yay for all those indignant-on-your-behalf witnesses.

there are tons of bikers around boston, and i'm always afraid i'm going to hit one because most of them don't stop for red lights. they just zoom through. and someday a car with the right of way is going to hit one.

[jaketherat.livejournal.com]

That's really shitty :(

I got tagged by a removal lorry on the way to work the other day and knocked on to the pavement. Guy just sailed past far too close to me on a corner (obviously I was protected by the mystical wall of energy that surrounds cycle lanes) and as the back end swung round (as they do - note to truck drivers) it clipped my arm and threw me up the kerb. The driver was either just shit or simply didn't know the size of his vehicle; there's no way he didn't see me - the parts of me that weren't bright fucking orange were in black and white stripes!

Luckily I caught up with him at the lights and gave him the full force of my venting through the open passenger window. Shouting at stupid people may not make the world a better place, but it certainly helps to get your day back on track after they drive their vee-hickles into you.

Luckily I regained composure enough to

[djsynne.livejournal.com]

I can`t turn left but luckily (!?!) thats only when free falling:)

Seriously though, it`s amzing how some days you can have the most blissful of rides without incident and some days you get to work shaking with rage and half scared to death due to idiots:(

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mauler_/]

Holy carp! It's good that you're OK - you should of stolen his wing mirror though and clocked him upside the fizzog with it get a cattle prod or something for inconsiderate cretins :(