today's near miss

Biked to the library, stopped at the bike shop on the way and did a happydance when I found their "free air" compressor. While I was in the library, it started thunderstorming. Ok, no big deal, right? Turned on my lights, packed my books in my panniers, and headed home.

At one of the left turns, I had to wait a bit for oncoming traffic to clear. Look left, look right, all clear OHWAIT. Cyclist coming right, on a black bike, wearing black pants and a black jacket, and a black backpack with no lights at all. Nearly hit her because I couldn't see her! Now I know how drivers feel.

I had a couple near misses myself with cars, so I suspect I wasn't bright enough either. All of them were with cars coming from the side, so I probably need some reflective tape on the frame.

Yikes! Glad you didn't crash. I haven't ridden in the rain yet. Too chicken...

If you have panniers, couldn't you just keep a reflective neon lightweight jacket in there for when it rains?

I have some wrist and ankle reflectors from road id. I really like the firefly supernova for my wrist too. My husband said he could see me really well from the side when wearing this. It comes with a flashing and constant mode.

http://www.roadid.com/common/firefly.aspx#wrist

I'm thinking reflective frame over reflective me because the frame is bigger than me and it's dark colored. Get more visual weight. Plus, I can't forget my bike and still bike in the rain. The wrist lights are a good idea too. I can keep them tucked in a pannier pocket all the time, so they're always on the bike. Too many drivers yesterday were driving without lights, even tho visibility was bad.

If I think it's going to rain, I bring my screaming red rain jacket with. It's a good contrast color for this area, and I don't have the kinds of problems I had yesterday when I wear it. Just... storm blew up fast, and I hadn't brought it with.

The real shock for me was how *hard* it is to see a cyclist. Must get brighter, I don't want to be roadkill.

Thanks for the link to the wrist thingies- I may pick some of them up.

We tend to get frustrated with drivers, but I know I never paid as much attention to cyclists until I was a cyclist. I was always courteous, but now I very specifically look for them, and I don't think I did that before. You have to try to view the world as a nice, but non-cycling and non-understanding-cycling driver, and make ourselves more visible to them. As for the jerks- they are just out to be jerks and little can be done! Thanks for the anecdote- it is a good reminder. And I am very glad you didn't spill!

That said- you would think when a driver sees a cyclist or a ped in the rain, they would be a bit more courteous than normal- like "oh, here I am in my warm car, all snug and dry and that poor soul is out in the cold rain, let me give them the right of way and lots of room" but instead I think it is just "it is raining and yucky out, so I am all the more in a hurry to get where I am going- that cyclist/ped is a darn fool and should just take what is coming to her". That bugs me!

I get a lot more of the sympathy when the weather's yukky. I'm looking at those wrist guys, tho' I'm thinking "gosh, how expensive is a little ol' LED light..."