They look but they do not see

[Guest]

This is my 6th summer back riding after a 25 year absence. I do a combination of commuting and back-roads cruising and I've been pretty lucky - not too many close calls and no near-misses...until yesterday. I was riding home from work and I was just about to enter an intersection on the green light. A car at the cross street on my right was looking to make a right turn on the red. I could see the driver looking to her left, as she should (right at me). Then she turned directly into my path. I had to hit the brakes hard, locked the back wheel, but kept the bike upright. She kept on going and it hit me that she likely had no idea what had almost happened. Just a reminder (if we needed one!) that even when cagers are looking right at you, they sometimes just don't see you.

Ride safe, everyone.

[GateKeeper]

Unfortunately, they are not looking at us.....but more like through us.....

Ride safe everyone...

.

[tkent02]

They are looking for cars and trucks.

[ptexotik]

They are racking their brain as to what they need to pick up from the grocery store ... ie otherwise occupied.

[earlfor]

They do their obligatory turn their head in both directions (sometimes) and then auto proceed across. Most of the time, I'm looking at them, and their face is blank and it gets worse if they have a stereo playing, kids in the car, or a cell phone in their hands.
Then they are in kamikaze bullet mode. If you're in their path, you're toast.

[spyug]

I had one on Saturday on my first real run with the FZ. I was stopped at a four way with lights and signalling for a left turn. I had an advanced green and as soon as I started to make the turn a woman opposite me with a delayed green came barreling forward. I stopped, she stopped too but then continued as if I wasn't there.

I put it down to a confused out of towner........she had New Jersey plates. Being a good ambassador for our fair country, I didn't flip her the bird

Yup you definitely do need to keep your wits about you at all time.

[earlfor]

I had one on Saturday on my first real run with the FZ. I was stopped at a four way with lights and signalling for a left turn. I had an advanced green and as soon as I started to make the turn a woman opposite me with a delayed green came barreling forward. I stopped, she stopped too but then continued as if I wasn't there.

I put it down to a confused out of towner........she had New Jersey plates. Being a good ambassador for our fair country, I didn't flip her the bird

Yup you definitely do need to keep your wits about you at all time.

If you can be had, they will take you up on it.

[luvmy40]

They're all trying to kill YOU!

I don't think I have gone more than a week without having some blind cager try to kill me.

Just today I was stopped, waiting for traffic to clear so I could make a right turnout of a Home Depot parking lot. I saw a mini van across the four lane road with it's left turn signal on. My Spidey Sense went into over drive and just as the traffic cleared and I would have had the right of way, I held back and sure enough, the mini van pulled out and come across all for lanes into my (far right ) lane and would have pasted me had I pulled out when I should have.

The woman driving the van had her face buried in her phone while she was madly texting!

I resisted the urge to chase her down and beat the living tar out of her, but just barely.

[tkent02]

I resisted the urge to chase her down and beat the living tar out of her, but just barely.

You shouldn't have resisted. Maybe not beat the tar out of her, but at least give her cell phone a long toss.

[dorkburger]

I had one on Saturday on my first real run with the FZ. I was stopped at a four way with lights and signalling for a left turn. I had an advanced green and as soon as I started to make the turn a woman opposite me with a delayed green came barreling forward. I stopped, she stopped too but then continued as if I wasn't there.

I put it down to a confused out of towner........she had New Jersey plates. Being a good ambassador for our fair country, I didn't flip her the bird

Yup you definitely do need to keep your wits about you at all time.

You should have flipped her off... we're used to it down here...

[GateKeeper]

Just this morning......

Friggen cager just about runs into the back of me.......gives me the horn and the finger, as if it's my fault....

We are both heading south bound, he is right on my a$$, I keep trying to get away from him but in traffic there is only so far you can get ahead, my street is coming up where I need to turn left, my signal goes on and I go into the left turn lane, guy lays on the horn, rolls down the window, give me the finger and screams out some obscenities at me....what a d-bag.....he was not turning left but was continuing on straight, so what is he pizzed off at me for....

I politely change my course, go and catch up with him, he was already stopped at the next red light, pull up beside him to give him a piece of my mind, his passenger window is already down (funny how he can see me now) and as I pull up he is already telling me to f-off and I should put on my signals, I tell him maybe if he wasn't up my a$$ and so close he would see my signals and he should stay the fuk out of my space, he keeps on cursing and swearing and now is trying to move his car to the right and on top of me, in my wisdom I politely give his passenger mirror a good smack with my left hand, drop the bike into first, and get out the way and off to work I proceed....

First time this has happened in a very long time....my only regret is I didn't smack his mirror harder, to really wake him up......bloody d-bag.....

OK now I feel better.....

On with the rest of the day.....

Ride safe and be careful out there....

.

[bigskybldr]

Everytime I get on my bike a similar event happens, everyone makes mistakes so just keep your cool so you can concentrate on the next guy that doesn't see you. All autos do have blind spots too, stay vigilant and wear your safety gear. I have noticed fewer incidents since I started wearing a hi-viz jacket.

[DanTheMan]

Turning right, into a grocery store parking lot, two up, a woman in a white Cadillac aims right at me. There's a car waiting to make a right on the busy road from the parking lot but she can't wait, so she goes around them to use the entrance as an exit. I had to swerve to avoid her. She looked at me like I had no right to be there. My wife could hardly believe she didn't even slow down, but aimed right at us.

[Kerry]

Interesting seeing talk of cagers feeling bikes don't have the same right to the road that they do. I actually run into almost a reverse situation sometimes. When I'm on a highway and nearing a merge lane, I will sometimes drop back a bit and give a merging car room to enter my lane (I give way if they have position on me.) For some reason, some drivers (not to sound sexist, but often women) refuse to enter the lane. This leads to a "you first; no, you first!" moment where I'm unwilling to speed up for fear THAT'S when the driver will decide to enter the lane and then, as the driver is running out of merge lane, she will slow down, then I will slow down, etc.

Merging behaviour is one of my pet peeves about peoples' driving. I see people on on-ramps actually STOP when they enter the merge lane and THEN look back for a break in traffic to merge. This, of course, causes a backup behind them AND in the highway lane where some well-meaning person slows to a crawl to let the stopped car in.

That and people who pass you and then slow down to a speed slower than you were travelling when they passed are my biggest peeves.

[Gregory]

Good points by everyone !

I also try to ride as if they don't see me, even when they look right at me.... things like maneuvering to get out of blind spots and lane merge problems, being ready on the brakes at intersections etc. I even still use hand signals along with the turn signals at least half of the time.

The thing I worry most about is one situation I feel more helpless about... sitting at a red light and getting plowed from behind.