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Speaking of cars pulling out...

5K views 22 replies 18 participants last post by  Tiki Mon 
#1 ·
Just a couple things I notice as I ride and watch EVERYBODY.

You're riding down any main "artery" road, with alot of side streets or driveways, so there is always somebody ahead, to your right, who looks like they'll pull out in front of you.

Two things I see alot in these cases, around here where I live:

1-they always gotta keep slowly rolling forward, right up to the edge of the cross street. Always. They just won't sit f**king still until traffic clears.

2-(and this one is strange) As they approach the road they are about to turn onto, they always look to their RIGHT first. Rather than to their LEFT, which is where moving traffic is closest to them. WTF is that all about?

Regarding #2; it makes no difference which way they turn and it shouldn't, they still need to clear all the approaching traffic from their left to turn left or right.


(similar note on stupid people sightings: two days ago I rode along side a woman driving down the road who had some thing wrapped around her head, and was wearing glasses, which meant all/most of her peripheral vision was blocked. She was also holding a cell phone up square in front of her face reading/texting. I had to wonder if she was even aware she was driving a car)
 
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#2 ·
Yeah. There's always someone. Sometimes even two.

Yesterday I got buzzed by a SUV trying to squeeze into a merging lane. He came up from behind me on my left and zipped ahead of me. I didn't see him since I was watching a car ahead and to the right which was drifting into my lane. That car eventually drifted back. I dropped my speed right away of course, as soon as I saw the SUV had passing momentum.

In a related issue, I see a lot of people come through the court system on felony traffic charges - Driving with License Suspended, three times or more. They're always amazed that some "traffic" charges can be felonies, punishable for up to five years. It's like there's a DUI/non-DUI dividing line in people's minds, and as long as you're not DUIing, no real harm happens out on the roadways.

Frankly though, the way some people drive normally, I'd *prefer* dealing with a weaving drunk moving at 10mph down the roadway. At least you know what you've got.

Not that it would ever happen, but I wonder how much safer roads would be if radios/CD players were banned from automobiles and cell phone usage was enforced at least as strictly as seat-belt laws. Too many distractions are built in. And, sad to say, there are a lot of easily distracted people out there.
 
#3 ·
Just a couple things I notice as I ride and watch

1-they always gotta keep slowly rolling forward, right up to the edge of the cross street. Always. They just won't sit f**king still until traffic clears.

2-(and this one is strange) As they approach the road they are about to turn onto, they always look to their RIGHT first. Rather than to their LEFT, which is where moving traffic is closest to them. WTF is that all about?


Besides them coasting forward and not stopping, usually when they do stop, their car is 3/4 past the line on the road where they were suppose to stop in the first place. I also like when you are at a light and the oncoming car trys to time the light turning green so he could turn in front of you before you start going.
 
#4 ·
one of my favorites is the guy next to you , who is not in the left turn lane , and makes a left turn when you are in the middle of your turn . this happens alot to me when i get off 696 and turn on to grossebeck. the offender looks at you like you were in the wrong by making a leagel left turn and almost getting run down.
 
#14 ·
People like that get a kicked door. It's happened twice on my bike, and each time I had absolutely nowhere to go - oncoming traffic on the left and people on my butt also making the turn. Now, when I'm in my truck, they get a rude awakening when that curb starts coming up on them cause I don't move over or accomodate their dumb a$$e$.

You gys have brought up some really good ones, and I think a lot of us have had nearly all of them happen to us at one time or another, but I'll share my cage story with me as the cager.

A long while back I was making a left and had one vehicle in front of me. Lanes were "clear" so the guy went. I was just strating my turn when I saw there was an MC coming adn I was about to turn left in front of him. Fortunately he was WAY down the block, so it wasn't even close and I had plenty of time to turn. But it struck me that there just might be some times (few, admittedly) where someone actually did not see the bike. Not "I wasn't paying attention so therefore didn't see him" but actually did not see it.

More recently, same intersection, same scenario, except this time I saw the bike and decided that even though there was probably enough time to clear him, I waited. When I stopped rolling forward (I had not initiated the turn yet) and waited for the bike to come on through, the guy behind me laid on his horn. Right then I knew I made the right call, since there had been just about enough time for me to have gone through, there was not going to be enough time for the guy behind me to do the same. I like to think I saved that biker form a wreck, cause that idiot blowing his horn at me clearly didn't see the bike and therefore couldn't understand why I was waiting to turn. Or maybe I'm, giving myself too much credit and it all would have worked out right...
 
#5 ·
Here's the 2 I like.........

1. Your following behind and the guy in front of you signals a right turn. Now instead of pulling to the right and making the turn he almost dead stops in the middle of the lane before he turns.

2. Same thing but before he turns right he moves half way into the left lane then back across the right lane to make the turn.

Sometimes as a bonus you don't get the turn signal.
 
#6 ·
I used to follow the left, right left.
This was when I was making a right turn from the workplace drive with the car, but....
I do the left right left and it was still almost not enough. Because this time someone started passing the driver coming at me from the right (opposite lane) which now put them in MY lane. Except,... it really isn't my established lane yet. Would have been my fault with a head-on. Can't imagine the what-if if I was riding!!!
Now I'm scanning everywhere again all the time. As I've seen for myself, it might be me.
 
#7 ·
Personally, I love the wizards who see you there, but either a) cut across your lane of travel from a side-street on the left or b) turn left in front of you who, in either case, don't have enough time or space to clear from your lane before you get there, forcing you to slow down, change lanes, or both, in a hurry.

I also love the jewels who exit the freeway and believe that their right of way extends to any particular lane they wish to be in, including the space you're occupying three lanes over, instead of just the lane closest to the off-ramp.

--FA
 
#8 ·
3. Even though they can see you approaching from up to a 1/2 mile away, they will still wait till the very last second to go ahead and pull out in front of you.
It almost seems they can't make up their minds on if they should go or not , and when they finally do, they seem to not understand that time moves forward and the car or bike coming down the road at them will be alot closer...

KM
 
#12 ·
YEA! I get spitting mad when people do this crap! Unbelievable. They can't sit there for 10 seconds and wait for me to pass, even if there's no one for a mile behind me.

I remember saying the first week or two I rode, "Wow, people are really considerate when you're on a motorcycle" I don't know what happened after that. Maybe I need to ride really slow and swerve a lot again.

I'll will say this, once I got my bike..... my driving in the car has changed. I'm a lot more alert, constantly scanning the road and mirrors. I follow motorcycles 150ft away.

Maybe before a person gets a car license they should be required to ride a motorcycle for 3 months.
 
#9 ·
Anybody see the driver who stands on the brake when the traffic light turns yellow, causing a similar reaction to most who are following, but then just before they stop completely they stomp the gas and blow thru the light as it turns red?

Besides being pre-occupied, or distracted, or just "not all there", indecision from other drivers out there is a real pain in the ass too.
 
#10 ·
I like the ass clown that rides up on your ass but doesnt have the balls to pass you! On another note I noticed that when I have my full face helm,and a different jacket on I seem to get less respect from cagers.I don't know what thats all about. I think maybe they fear the H/D riders,and when I'm wearing my half helm,leather jacket,and the fact that my bike has a real nice deep rumble to it they cant tell What kinda bike i'm on.It's strange,and it is always the same.
 
#11 ·
Stupdity is not restricted to cagers. Wife and I in full gear are going to visit my son. Harley rider rapidly overtakes us on two lane road with double yellow all the way. Stays on my behind for about a mile and a half until I turn.
 
#16 ·
I had one the other day at an intersection where both of the left-most lanes were allowed to turn left. To any non-obliviot, it is easy to understand that the right-most left-turn lane turns left and winds up in the right lane of the intersecting road, while the left-most left-turn lane turns left and winds up in the left-most (inner) lane of the intersecting road. This is not rocket science. Each vehicle, post-turn, winds up in its own lane. I thus positioned myself such that when I turned left, I would wind up in the right-hand lane. Moron in the lane to my left doesn't see it that way and, when we both turn, decides to have his P.O.S. junkermobile attempt to mate with my Vulcan in the right hand lane, and didn't seem to understand my angry reaction....

--FA
 
#17 ·
There was a dude in a minivan at a Wawa in reverse backing out of his spot. I was behind him waiting for other cars in front of me to leave the parking lot. He starts backing up, I honk my horn put here he comes anyway. I see him looking out the drivers side window to the truck pulling in. He's backing into me slowly so I lean over toward the van, wait for it to be in reach and give it a nice size 11 to the rear gate. He stops immediately, pulls forward and gets out. He walks back, "dude I'm soooo sorry, I got the truck coming in, I was watchin' him." "Yeah I know." "You ok?" "Yup just fine." "What did i hit?" "My boot." He looks at the foot-shaped dent in his gate and goes, "oh." He had the wife riding shotgun, a kid in the back in a car seat, and an Eagles jersey on - I couldn't bust his stones too much. He wasn't happy about the dent but couldn't do much about it. Sorry about your luck dude...
 
#18 ·
I like to think I saved that biker form a wreck, cause that idiot blowing his horn at me clearly didn't see the bike and therefore couldn't understand why I was waiting to turn.
I see a lot things like this. Some people who drive distractedly rely on the driver in front of them to "do the right thing" and they just parrot. This can be a disaster when they blindly follow someone without checking to make sure they are clear or (more frequently) check only superficially w/o examining the full extent of their peripheral vision, behind them or in both directions of oncoming traffic (in the case of a turn).

That being said when you are on a bike you are "just harder to see" than a car and you have to drive differently on account of this, I wish that people would "look harder" but I'm personally not going to bet my life on someone else doing the right thing. Prime example today I was riding in the left lane of a 2-lane road thru an intersection and I happened to realize that a left-turning panel truck was going to be beside me on my left as I crossed the intersection. It put me in a weird spot as I knew that the panel truck would obstruct the view of any left-turning vehicles in the opposite lane from seeing me until it was too late. I slowed down thru the intersection so I could make a quick stop if need be and sure enough there was someone there waiting to turn left. Luckily he was waiting for the truck to move but you have to play "what if" type scenarios like this sometimes because you never know the temperament of the person behind the wheel.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Had a kid yesterday in a Ford Taurus. I was in the left lane and he was in the right lane, about a bike length ahead of me. I looked over and saw he had his head laid back on the head rest. This threw up a red flag for me as this gave me the indication that he was probably driving tired and was not paying much attention to the road or anyone around him so I kept my eye on him. Sure enough as we were coming up on traffic stopped at a red light, he started into my lane (I was about at his back door at this point) without even looking so I moved to the outside left of the my lane, laid on the horn and began to slow down even more. In shock and surprise, he snatched the car back into his lane and just stared me down as if it were my fault he wasn't paying attention or looking in his blind spots before changing lanes. I lifted my dark face shield, pointed at him, pointed at my eyes and turned my head to both sides, basically telling him in sign language that he needs to look before changing lanes. He then gave me a slight wave to say sorry....I guess.
 
#21 ·
The other day I had some guy in a huge duely truck riding my tailpipes on the way home. There's a nasty set of tracks on the road I take home, so I always slow way down. It sucks going over them in a car, muchless a bike.

Anyways, half way over them, he cuts me off, almost hits me, and passes me ON the tracks. I couldn't believe it. I had his plate number, and it was a work truck for a company I couldn't get the name of since the label was on the side of the truck. He took off like a bat out of hell afterward. I was going to call the plate number into county, I should have.....but didn't.
 
#22 ·
If you still have it, you can contact the police. Depending on the laws in your state, they may or may not divulge who the registered owner is. Wouldn't hurt to try and then talk to the boss. Most companies want to know if their employees are driving recklessly; it can bite them in the butt from a liability and insurance standpoint.

I look at it this way: if you follow up, it might keep that idiot from doing the same thing to another rider. The next guy he does it to might not come out of it as well as you have.
 
#23 ·
2-(and this one is strange) As they approach the road they are about to turn onto, they always look to their RIGHT first. Rather than to their LEFT, which is where moving traffic is closest to them. WTF is that all about?
That's an important check to make sure the lane is open. If there's nowhere to go once you turn, it doesn't matter if you have a gap coming from the left.
 
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