Traffic situation

[Catrin]

What everybody said, but still, I sometimes hop off and become a genuine pedestrian.

But I NEVER pretend to be a pedestrian while I am riding.

Agreed - and that was finally what I chose to do yesterday - hopped off the bike and just walked it through the intersection and then waited for the traffic to pass before becoming a cyclist again. I am focusing on trying to be as predictable as possible.

I have had two situations (not while commuting) where a drive appeared to interpret my hand signal to mean that I wanted them to drive on that side That taught me to never assume that drivers actually know what hand signals mean...

[Melalvai]

I have had two situations (not while commuting) where a drive appeared to interpret my hand signal to mean that I wanted them to drive on that side That taught me to never assume that drivers actually know what hand signals mean...

I know!! How do you signal a right turn? So many people raise their left hand to signal a right turn, but too many drivers don't understand what that means. Pointing to the right is more universally understood to mean you are turning right, and it is becoming more commonly accepted (and legal).

[malkin]

I use the left hand bent up at the elbow to signal right (same as when I learned to drive an ancient VW with no turn signals). It always cracks me up when people 'wave back.'

[Catrin]

I use the left hand bent up at the elbow to signal right (same as when I learned to drive an ancient VW with no turn signals). It always cracks me up when people 'wave back.'

This is generally what I do, though I go back and for between this and using my right arm to point to the right for a right turn. I do wonder if people even look for a signal from the right arm...

The two times I've almost been creamed though over misconstrued hand signals has been when I've given the turning left signal - how more clear could it be? Either they had no idea what it meant, or they were so distracted that all they could think of was speeding around me. Thankfully it's been some time since I last had a problem with this.

[Crankin]

Today we had a driver pass DH when he was making a left into a parking lot. He was signaling and was in the lane. The person couldn't wait, accelerated and went around him . Of course, DH saw it, but still... the same thing happened a couple of weeks ago when we were leading a ride. A driver (in a Prius, no less) decided he couldn't wait for our small group (10, plus DH and I) to turn left. He passed DH so close that DH was able to pound his car and get his plate #. He also cut off 6 or 7 of the other riders in our group. Since I was sweeping, I saw the whole thing and all I could think was "I am going to have to have to write one of those accident reports for AMC." This was on a country road, in Concord, about 3 miles from my house.
What is wrong with these people? We were "taking the lane," and I guess they must have been pissed we were.

[ny biker]

I've also had drivers pass on my left while I'm signaling a left turn. Last year I was almost rear-ended by a car when I stopped to let oncoming traffic pass before turning left, despite the fact that I started signaling well before the turn and still had my left arm out while I waited.

I used to signal right turns with my left arm, like they taught in drivers' ed, but last year I decided to start signaling them with my right arm. Unfortunately I'm very unstable with my right hand off the handlebars. I've had to train myself to remain steady while holding the bar with my left hand only.

BTW with the advent of Capital Bikeshare in DC, there are many more cyclists in the city than there used to be. And so few of them signal turns. It drives me crazy. As a driver, there is a lot that you have to be scanning for on busy city streets, and forcing me to guess what cyclists are doing makes it that much harder for me to drive safely near them.

[Crankin]

I also used to signal right with my left hand up, but I switched to using my right hand about 5 years ago. Like NY Biker, I also am very unstable taking my right hand off of the bar. In the beginning of a ride, I can barely do it.
In the instance of the person passing on the left when we were leading the group, I think he or she was just pissed at seeing another group of cyclists. There were several special things going on around here that day, cycling, running, and one of the main streets was closed for electronic recycling day.
Yesterday, well, I think they are not used to seeing and dealing with cyclists in the way they are here. Not that it's an excuse, but I really think some people don't know we are supposed to act like cars or realize how fast we can go. In both cases I think DH should have called the police, especially yesterday, but he didn't want to spend the time.