Originally Posted by Mtracer

I'm not sure if a last-second glance has saved me on a bike or not. But I know for sure, I've been surprised by seeing a car at the last moment that just wasn't there before. In one case it was a FedEx truck. Not that it was a close call, but just turning left and halfway around the turn, there was a FedEx truck coming that seemed to have materialized out of thin air. It just wasn't close enough to be a close call. But it still spooks you.

In the case of the OP, seeing traffic coming up from that angle is tricky. And clearly there's really nothing else to do but slow down and give yourself more time to actually see things. Of course, slowing down is not helpful to hitting that gap. I have regular spots along routes that I have learned to give extra attention to. Sometimes actively saying to myself, "look at the road, see the pavement, see that there is no car on the pavement". This is true whether riding or driving.

It's just so easy to go through the literal motions of looking, but not actually seeing.

This is also a good example of why drivers often don't "see" cyclists. And we need to ride as if we are invisible at times. Here's a situation where someone didn't see a car and a car is a lot larger thing to see than a cyclist. Our brains are tricky things and can easily make these mistakes.