Shaking My Confidence

[Aggie_Ama]

Went for 32.27 miles alone this morning. Only incident I had was the standard bozo who wanted to lay on his (her?) horn. I smiled and waved with enthusiam. I still prefer riding with DH and am still nervous about every car that passes. One day I will be confident to ride alone more often.

[Starfish]

Maybe it'll help you get action if you tell the police that if nothing is done about this you will write a letter to the newspaper. That'll probably get some action going. These kids NEED to be contacted by the police and made to realize they will get into trouble if they do it again.

Sure. A letter to the Chief of Police or Sheriff, with copies to the Mayor, City Council members, all county newspapers, any local cycling shops/clubs, you name it. If you have a TV news organization anywhere near, find out of they have a tipline for news story ideas. I know we are 3+ hours from the nearest city with TV news, but they come out here for stories, etc.

Make sure you get the badge number of any officer who is blowing you off.

And, there are ways to get the information of registered owners if you have a plate number. My brothers have paid friendly visits to people who have threatened me (albeit not while I was on the bike) to talk with them. PM me if you want...I'm not sure my info is totally accurate.

[bacarver]

To my surprise, the officer did call me back this morning. He said that he located the owners of the van and THEY have spoken with their 15 year old son. The officer said that he is still going to meet with the 15 year old to have a talk with him. I am satisfied with this plan.
I will train myself to check license plates. This is a good habit to practice. I will also put a pencil and notepad in my under-seat pouch.
Thank you for the encouragement and the suggestions!
Barb

[PscyclePath]

Trek,
I think you misread my post. I wasn't riding on the sidewalk, I was riding on the road, to the right of and moving somewhat faster than traffic. I was right beside the van when it turned, and probably at that moment I was in his blind spot, but if I were a car he cut off because I was in his blind spot, that would not be an excuse sufficient to justify it.

By mentioning looking for pedestrians, I was trying, perhaps clumsily and at any rate probably unnecessarily, to draw an analogy between the driver's obligation to make sure there was no one on the sidewalk before turning to cross it, and their obligation to make sure there wasn't a bike on the road beside them before turning.

Liza:

You were the victim of the classic "Right Hook, version II" as described at "How Not to Get Hit by Cars" (An excellent site to bookmark and re-read from time to time on slow days.) The proximate cause was your "filtering" up the right hand side of the lane, and passing on the right. Motorists, especially those who already perceive themselves to be in the rightmost lane, don't look for cyclists or anyone else to be passing them there, and you put yourself in a perfect condition to be hit, or at least cut off and forced to do an emergency/quick turn to dodge them.

Rule #1: Don't pass on the right. This sort of collision is very easy to avoid... just don't pass any vehicle on the right. The traffic law in most states require overtaking vehicles, which includes cyclists, to pass on the left unless there are two or more marked lanes.

When there's a single, narrow lane, and it's not safe for cars to pass you without moving into the path of oncoming traffic, you should take the whole lane... e.g., riding farther to the left. Taking up the whole lane makes it harder for drivers to pass you to cut you off or turn into you. Don't feel bad about taking the lane: if motorists didn't threaten your life by turning in front of or into you or passing you too closely, then you wouldn't have to. If the lane you're in isn't wide enough for cars to pass you safely, then you should be taking the whole lane anyway.

If a car ahead of you is going only 10 mph, then you slow down, too, behind it. It will eventually start moving faster. If it doesn't, pass on the left when it's safe to do so.

Again remember that when you're following a slow-moving vehicle, ride behind it, not in its blind spot immediately to the right of it. Even if you're not passing a car on the right, you could still run into it if it turns right while you're right next to it. Give yourself enough room to brake or do an emergency turn if the car turns in front of you.

Maybe I'm a little sensitive to this sort of stuff right now... I just retired a good and faithful helmet last night, my pert near new Livestrong one, when I had a little encounter with a UPS truck and loose gravel/trash on a wet shoulder last night. I was fortunate, and only nursing a little road rash on the right elbow rather than a concussion or worse.

Tom
(Always wear your helmet, but ride like you don't)

[onimity]

Barb,

That's great that they found the kid! Hopefully the kid will learn a valuable lesson early on & his parents will have his neck for it...but 15?!? Can he legally be driving a vehicle without his parents in the car?

Honestly, it scares me that kids that young are allowed to operate a motor vehicle on public roads.

Anne

[bacarver]

I know that the van is owned by parents who have a 15 year old son. I'm sure the son was involved in the screaming drive-by. The plates have the wheel chair emblem indicating some type of handicap. There were at least three screaming idiots in the van. I don't know who was driving. Hmmm . . .
Several possibilities come to mind. This happened soon after school let out for the day.
I would think that the average parent would be FURIOUS with the 15 year old.
This kid still has a lecture coming from the police officer. (Yay)
Kids here have to be a few months past 16 to drive and this is with guidelines.
I can just hear the parents now. "YOU'RE GROUNDED!" "NO VAN FOR YOU FOR A MONTH!" "TELL YOUR FRIENDS YOU WON'T BE SEEING THEM FOR AWHILE!" "YOU WILL SHOW RESPECT TO ALL BIKIES!" "YOU COULD HAVE WRECKED THE VAN!" "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER!"

(This just gets better and better!)

Barb

[Tri Girl]

Amanda, how scary. Glad that you're ok and that you went for a long ride alone today! It IS hard to get back out there and feel confident, but you will before long. Do you have a rearview mirror so you can see upcoming cars behind you before they get close? I used to secretly make fun of those silly looking mirrors, but now I wouldn't be caught dead on the streets without it. I like that I can see what's coming up on me, and that I can be on the lookout for crazy hooligan drivers before they sneak up on me. I'm dorky on my bike now (especially when I commute). I have a neon green/yellow vest and my mirror. At least I know they can see me- problem is that sometimes they don't care if I'm there or not. Ex: the other day on a deserted stretch of road- three lanes wide- the car in my lane would NOT move over and buzzed me. There were THREE freakin' lanes for him to move around me. Grrrrr... He got the f word from me. I'm quick to anger sometimes, and now maybe I'll consider turning that anger into memorizing his/her plates.

Barb- I hope the officer puts the fear into that hoodlum-y boy. Hopefully he scares the crap out of him. And since I teach, I guess I know better than to think that the parents will be disappointed and punish him. There are so many parents who will defend their child to the death (even in the midst of alarming evidence), that I hope his parents are truly good and will come down hard on him.

[Mr. Bloom]

OK, I'll come clean, I didn't follow my own advice.

Today someone came too close to us, I signaled to him to get over...he gave me a "signal back".

SOOOOOOOO......I chased him! I almost caught him too! I was simply going to inform him that I was within the law and he wasn't!

Don't worry, there wasn't ANY traffic and I wasn't being unsafe, but I do wish I had caught him.

Can you see where on the ride this happened?????

[northstar]

I got buzzed by a honking Suburban yesterday on a residential street with virtually NO traffic, and I was riding about three feet from the right curb. (They started laying on the horn about a block back, buzzed within two feet of me, then layed on the horn again and sped away.)

I think I am going to start playing a game with myself on the bike where I read plates of vehicles that pass me and chant/repeat them to myself for a block or so every once in a while. I was TOTALLY shaken up by what happened and now that I know MN has a website where you can submit reports of aggressive driving (and apparently they send the owner of the vehicle a letter) I want to be sure I can start feeding in the reports when needed.

[Mr. Bloom]

and now that I know MN has a website where you can submit reports of aggressive driving (and apparently they send the owner of the vehicle a letter) I want to be sure I can start feeding in the reports when needed.

Now, THAT'S cool!

[Geonz]

I got buzzed by a honking Suburban yesterday on a residential street with virtually NO traffic, and I was riding about three feet from the right curb. (They started laying on the horn about a block back, buzzed within two feet of me, then layed on the horn again and sped away.)

I think I am going to start playing a game with myself on the bike where I read plates of vehicles that pass me and chant/repeat them to myself for a block or so every once in a while. I was TOTALLY shaken up by what happened and now that I know MN has a website where you can submit reports of aggressive driving (and apparently they send the owner of the vehicle a letter) I want to be sure I can start feeding in the reports when needed.

I kind of do this already. Taking a visual "snapshot" and then a few quick recitations finding patterns in the numbers, chunking them into pairs and threes if necessary, and I can have it in short term memory pretty quickly. Okay, I do it enough so that I know at least ten of my friends' license plates - when I wave at them driving by, it's 'cause the license plate jumped at me, not their faces.

HOWEVER... priorities, please! Three of us were resting off the road once... but not quite far enough off the road... when this car careens around a corner at us. Yours Truly thinks "A-hole! Let me get your license number!" - fortunately, my friends were hauling their bikes and butts out of the way when the driver clipped off a wheel, went across the street and mowed down a mailbox, veered back, stopped and then started backing up ... *then*, (having seen one too many Rockford Files episodes) I started across the cornfield, sure he/she/it was coming back to finish us off. (She wasn't.)

I realized I should have MOVED first... then gotten license plates .

Fortunately, a week later when a truck started coming right at me making a left hand turn and cutting the corner across my position in *my* left hand lane, I MOVED and he only clipped my basket. (Oddly, before or since, I have not been struck.)

[glamgurl36]

aw that sucks...

people can be so disrespectful..dont worry about it, not everyone is like that

[invsblwmn]

Punks r everywhere. we ride because we must. it is freedom, light, breath. do not let fear be your captor, make it ur coach to push u to the next level. u will be my inspiration for "rehab day 3" in the commuters board, invsblwmn crash thread. thank you for ur strength, we girls gotta hang together!

[elk]

why not--if you won't take a notebook-- carry a piece of paper and a golf pencil...so you can write it down? And a cell phone.

[northstar]

why not--if you won't take a notebook-- carry a piece of paper and a golf pencil...so you can write it down? And a cell phone.

The guy I chatted with at REI says he keeps a pen in his pocket and if something happens, he writes it right on his arm, as soon as he gets the chance.

I think that's a great idea. Easy enough to keep it in a pocket.