These are difficult issues for all of us, but the door often swings both ways. A couple of years ago I had stopped at a point where a bike trail crosses a major state highway, waiting for the light to change so I could proceed across the intersection. On the opposite side of the intersection were parents with their two small children waiting to cross to my side of the road. When the light did change a car waiting to turn to it's right just kept on going in front of the group of cyclists, honking its horn as they turned. One of the kids somehow made it across OK with their mother yelling loudly at the inconsiderate/unlawful driver.
OTOH, there was an incident a number of years ago on a city street in Chicago where a cyclist pulled up along the right side of a large truck that was waiting for the light to change in order to make a right turn, as was the cyclist. As the light changed, the truck driver proceeded to make a right turn, running over and killing the cyclist on his "blind" right side. There was major outrage about this event among those in the "activist" cycling "community," some of whom proclaimed that trucks should all be equipped with those "side shields" which might have prevented the catastrophe. However, this was wrong thinking. Those so-called "side shields" often seen on the trailers of over-the-road tractor/trailer rigs are there for aerodynamic purposes only, not for the prevention of pedestrian accidents. The cyclist should have known better than to pull along side of a truck like that where he/she was in his blind spot. It works both ways. Yes, there are idiotic and offensive drivers out there and I encounter them quite often. But I also see cyclists "bending' the law (in the sense of rules of the road) in a way that frequently contributes to the road rage against bikes that we often encounter. Be wise. On Sunday, October 9, 2022 at 5:55:01 PM UTC-5 Joe Bernard wrote: > Yep. I use a mirror and always have a "bail off to the right" plan. Which > won't be helpful if I'm on the bridge over the channel and the bail-off is > way down there in shallow water! > > On Sunday, October 9, 2022 at 3:32:41 PM UTC-7 aeroperf wrote: > >> My bike trail was closed for two weeks in April, 2020, so I rode 2 miles >> on the 45mph road to get to the next county where it was still open. >> I stayed well to the right of the shoulder white line, but one day a >> passing driver came close enough to clip my rear-view mirror. Handlebars >> went hard right, and I went over them - fortunately landing on a grassy >> berm. >> I was uninjured (ok, one small new scar), and my Sam was fine, but the >> driver didn’t stop or even, as far as I could tell, look in his rear view >> mirror. >> But by the amount of red paint embedded in my mirror mount, he’s probably >> still wondering who “keyed” his car. >> >> The point - in addition to looking out for drivers who don’t think >> bicyclists should be sharing the road, you also have to look out for the >> oblivious drivers who don’t seem to be able to keep it between the lines. >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b191b0ac-83c0-401d-b0f8-04094b493420n%40googlegroups.com.
