Near miss with a garbage truck

[TraderJane]

I haven't a clue why the garbage truck needed to backup. Definite note to self: don't stare in any one particular direction, always look around every couple of seconds, and never assume that a car notices me.

Just curious, what is wrong with hugging the curb?

I'm riding the bike path now, it's so beautiful and most cyclists are nice enough to shout, "on your left!" before zooming past me. I accept my fate as the slow toothpick, for now. Another six months and I will be passing some cyclists too and not just pedestrians. Lol.

[Grog]

Just curious, what is wrong with hugging the curb?

Basically it makes you invisible. You are out of drivers' sight, or at least out of their range of "attentive vision." (Not that drivers are already paying a whole lot of attention, but that's a different problem.) They might happen to look in your direction but you're not any more relevant to them than a pedestrian on the sidewalk. Also, if you're already hugging the curb and a car buzzes by you, you have nowhere to go. In fact, I find that drivers give me about as much room on my left as I am taking on my right. So I generally ride about 3 or 4 feet away from the curb or parked cars (to stay out of the door zone). Being hit from behind is extremely rare.

http://bicyclesafe.com/ is a very good web site for basic cycling safety. A lot of that is counterintuitive but much safer than what our intuition tricks us into doing.

Good luck and we look forward to hearing more (happier) adventures!

[OakLeaf]

Garbage trucks frequently back up in suburban/exurban areas, usually three or four times in a block. That's especially true in areas where customers use the big rolling bins rather than regular trash cans. They also usually work both sides of the street at the same time, so they'll be zig-zagging from side to side. A child in our town was very seriously injured by a garbage truck a few years ago. Definitely be careful around them!

But yeah, their backup beeper should have been sounding, and I'd contact the company about it, and if you were inside city limits where the city has a contract with a private hauler, contact the city as well.


ETA:
Besides what others have mentioned, hugging the curb means you have to move a long way into the path of traffic to avoid obstructions. That makes you doubly invisible and doubly dangerous. Garbage trucks are obviously a special case, but the normal things you'll encounter are potholes and debris. You want to be riding far enough from the curb that (1) you're not constantly dodging that stuff and (2) when something is in your path, you have enough room to go around it to the inside rather than swerving into the path of traffic.

Garbage trucks are not a special case if the street has on-street parking. Stay a car's width from the curb all the time - not just when you're passing parked cars - again, so that you're not constantly swerving in and out of traffic. And obviously be sure to watch those parked cars carefully and avoid getting "doored" - whenever someone is inside one of the cars, give them a door's width of room.

[Grog]

Garbage trucks are not a special case if the street has on-street parking. Stay a car's width from the curb all the time - not just when you're passing parked cars - again, so that you're not constantly swerving in and out of traffic.

Sorry to add on to this, I don't want to pick on you TraderJane and I have no idea if you do this, but Oakleaf's message made me think about this. I write it for everyone's attention as part of the general Crazy Drivers thread.

I often see cyclists riding along parked cars (in the door zone) and then if there are a few spaces without a car parked, they will move to the right and then to the left again as they approach a parked car and have to get back into traffic.

This is VERY dangerous. Every time a cyclist goes in-between parked cars like that, she becomes invisible to cars coming from behind and to cars coming in the other direction. (On narrow streets that's relevant.) When she goes back into the travel lane (because of parked cars), it comes as a surprise to drivers coming from behind.

I know that cyclists who do that think that it's safer for them, because they feel like they are getting a respite from traffic momentarily. But it's really a dangerous strategy because cars are traveling faster than we are and thus need ample advance notice of our presence.

On a very narrow street, I will sometimes go between parked cars to let a car that is otherwise stuck behind me go by. But I only do it when I am sure that I have been seen and when there is no other option.

Cycle safe and enjoy!

[ny biker]

Also be very careful when riding alongside garbage trucks and other large vehicles. If they are turning right, the driver might not see you next to them. There was a tragic accident in DC last year involving a cyclist and a turning garbage truck.

I'm glad everything turned out okay for you.

[Tuckervill]

Our garbage trucks don't back up, except maybe on the occasional dead end street. We don't have those lifts, just a couple of guys working both sides of the street. I still can't picture it, but that's okay.

Karen

[Running Mommy]

Yeah, take the lane. OWN it. When I commute into work there are a couple of streets on my route that don't have bike lanes. They are two lanes in each direction, so I just take the right lane and own it. I don't give the cars a chance to try to squeeze by me, they have to get in the other lane.
So far so good. Drivers don't seem to mind either, they just move over and pass me.