I was an inch away from getting run over just a few minutes ago, and I’m still coming down off the adrenaline. I don’t get it. More and more people really do seem to be oblivious out there… be it cell phones or carelessness or just unfamiliarity with bicycles.
I purposefully take side streets when I get back into town. Less traffic makes for a happy ride. The one particular street I was on sees barely any traffic, though a few cars cross it at certain points. Where this happened, the E to W street had a stop sign… mine (N to S) didn’t. I was riding along at a fairly slow pace on my own, cautious of the car that was approaching the stop sign on my left. I watched them stop and I slowly entered the intersection. Then the car sped up, obviously unaware of me already being in their path. I was immediately on the brakes, but since it’d been pouring for the past two hours that I’d been riding, my brakes weren’t exactly stop-on-a-dime-effective. I had to swerve to my right as the car continued to accelerate… my front tire came within an inch of their front passenger door.
No brake lights… they just kept on going. I cursed and yelled a number of obscenities… nothing.
All my lights were on and blinking away. The various reflective patches on my jacket and lower half would’ve been visible in the headlights… didn’t make a difference.
I’m glad that I was lucky enough to get that inch of room. I’m glad that I’m here, able to write this right now, as more than a few haven’t been so lucky.
Ride safe out there.
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