turning from the center lane!

[mimitabby]

After that long ride saturday, hubby thought we ought to do a good ride sunday too.
So we rode from home to ballard and back, going through downtown Seattle on the way home.
2nd avenue was almost deserted, we figured it wouldn't be the tense affair that it usually is during the week.
2nd avenue has a bike lane on the left, and 3 other lanes for cars.
We were almost "done" with 2nd avenue when a car came down the center lane, not very fast, but faster than us (we're on the tandem)
at the last minute, when we were almost to the intersection they decided to turn left across two lanes and directly in front of us. My husband who is blessed by a huge voice started screaming obscenities. The car slowed down and decided NOT to turn in front of us and shot down the street so they could turn left 2 blocks further up.
If they had turned just there (FROM THE CENTER LANE!) we probably would have crashed!

[Geonz]

Thank heavens for obscenities!!! I can never think fast enough to yell (tho' I've tried to train myslef to holler "BE CAREFUL" instead of obscenities on general principle - it *feels* like obscenities with all those b and f sounds)

[CorsairMac]

I ususally use the (someone here called it South Jersey !!YO!!. That at Least gets them to slam on their brakes and gives me some time to get their attention!

[donnambr]

I was talking to another cyclist last night who has that bicycle air horn. She says it works really well with cars. It really gets their attention.

[Eden]

Wow - what's up here in Seattle? I've always felt that it was pretty good here. We have a lot of cyclists and drivers have been pretty good at paying attention, but recently I've come across a lot of bad drivers.
Just last Saturday I was heading to a bike fitting and I had someone pull in front of me and stop suddenly - I think that they were looking for a parking space or something. Fortunately I wasn't going fast at all since I had just been stopped at a red light. So I asked her to be more careful as she had just cut me off and went around her after traffic cleared. Well, I guess she didn't find a spot right there, since she pulled out, passed me and did it again!!!! argh!