Originally Posted by
Unca_Sam
It depends on the mirror and how often you check. I use one, and I would not have seen this one coming. A lot of folks have already chimed in that they would avoid this road, which makes me wonder if the statistics for getting rear-ended are already mitigated by avoiding the issue entirely.
The audio with the recording has a lot of bike noise, but I generally would have heard the car coming. Whether I would have reacted to it is another question. It is hard to judge lane positioning of an approaching vehicle. But, the car would have skimmed past the cyclist, had it not drifted to the right.
As far as where to go, that is a problem with being to the left of the rumbles. I find a bike is very difficult to control on rumbles between 20 and 30 MPH. One can control the bike somewhat at slower speeds, but it isn't comfortable.
Thus, one effectively is unable to react, should one realize that something is seriously wrong. One also can't move right when cars approach, then move back to clean pavement when they're gone.
I'm not saying to never ride on a road like that. Sometimes there isn't much choice. But, if one does, give as big of a buffer as possible between bike and cars.
Nonetheless, choose one's routes wisely.