Originally Posted by
Maelochs
Regardless of Why he was on the sidewalk ... that is where he was. And ... I might have read the story wrong, but what is seem like is the OP rode up to the intersection at whatever speed (I assume somewhere between 10-20 mph) and took a glance back at the turn lane. But at that speed, looking across several lanes of traffic, and also looking more closely for more proximate traffic ... he didn't see an oncoming car.
If the OP had stopped and ridden across .... or Really slowed ...
In any case ... my idea is not blaming someone but in the OP (and me) seeing what went wrong and not making that same mistake again.
There are so many mistakes to make, why repeat?
That's what I do in that situation, but at a controlled intersection. Stop, and then I wait for a red and run the red when there's a gap! Because even looking closely at the traffic it is impossible to tell if *any* moving car is going to go through or turn left. You can't get across from a stop before a car approaching at speed can turn left and beat you there. It's literally not possible to do it safely.
I understand going contra-flow for a short distance because you don't have to cross the major street twice that way. But given the map he just posted, if it was more than one block I'd much rather be on the other side. He wouldn't get this particular problem, but there are also much fewer driveways.