bluegoatwoods

I got clipped by an SUV. Not even badly enough to knock me down. But I'll bet the SUV got a small paint chip. But when I had time to think it over, I realized something new-- to me, anyway-- about cager psychology.

I'll start with my own error in the matter: I was nearing a stop sign at full speed with every intention of blowing on through. I give you my word, I usually honor stop signs and red lights. But this one is in my own neighborhood on residential streets with not much traffic. I've blown through this one countless times when there's no cross traffic.

Anyway, I'm so close to the stop sign at full speed that anyone nearby-- behind me, for instance-- should have just kept their cool for just a moment and let me go. But then I see, in my mirror, this lady swerve into the middle of the road and floor it to get on by me. But by the time she was next to me we were within ten feet or so of the stop. So what did she do? She just came at me, moving to her right. Fast, too. I saw it coming. But there wasn't enough time to react. She went 'bonk!' right against my bar end. Above and a bit to the rear of her rear fender-well. The fact that I could see what was coming no doubt helped me to keep control. I knew what she was going to do before even she knew. My only surprise in it was the contact. It happened fast.

I managed to wave a clenched fist at her and call her a bad name while she made a very exaggerated rolling stop. Then she drove on for nearly a quarter mile before stopping. I thought that she was going to just keep on going and I think she did, too. But then she apparently thought better of it. She got out and she had walked well behind her car before I got barely close enough for her to call out, "Did I hit you?"

I was rolling up saying, "Yes, you did" when it hit me: I knew her. I've known her for twenty five years. It took a close look to recognize her because her hair style and color had changed. She was a neighbor when I came to this area. We've always been on fine terms. Her kids and mine grew up together. They moved away some 15 years ago but she's kept a constant presence in this neighborhood during all this time running a local business. We've seen each other quite regularly throughout.

We only had a brief conversation about the incident mostly because we both knew that there was going to be no fight once we each realized who we were dealing with. Plus I had to get to work and I think that she was in a hurry as well. But it got me to thinking.....

First, I'm as certain as anything that her bone-headed move was not motivated by malice toward me personally or toward a random stranger. This one is so certain that it hardly needs to be stated. But what about those close calls where the driver is clearly aware of us but is paying so little attention that it has the feel of terrible, callous indifference? Well, this seems to be that kind of case. But there's another factor involved.

You see, this woman knows-- really, really knows-- me and my bicycle. She's seen us around for a long time now. Her children used to ride with me and my kids. She's known me as a bike commuter all this time. It's quite rare for her to come along, see me, and not think, "well, look who's here!"

But in this case she only perceived me in the most minimal way. It was a couple of minutes before 8 O'clock in the morning. I'll bet she had a client with an appointment. She had probably stopped for fuel, which would explain why she was on this particular road heading for her shop. She was running a bit late and was in a hurry. In my mirrors and as she passed me she looked to me just like those other commuters whose only thought is, "Drive! drive! drive!.." as though the devil himself was after them.

I can be absolutely sure that there was no malice. I can also be sure that there was none of that darn-bikers-always-in-the-way type of selfishness that I've sometimes suspected in people. This road was too wide open for that. Plus if she even began to think that way, she would have been pulled up short by the realization that this biker is an acquaintance and friend. Such hostility would have evaporated.

She saw me and she made allowances for my presence. But not enough. She pulled into the left lane to pass. But she was too preoccupied with something else to even realize that I was someone she knew. And once I was out of sight, I was out of mind. Too soon, for that matter, since we were still close enough to interact.

Even with people who we could trust our lives with, we'd better not. If they are in their cage with something else on their minds, then we're in danger. I suppose we all know this. But this case, for me, had fewer variables than others and illustrates the point very effectively.

And I've also learned to be more careful with even wide open stop signs. Cross traffic is an obvious thing to watch out for. But traffic behind is a red flag as well.

Metal Man

You also learned to move to the center of the lane at red lights and stop signs to prevent this?

GrouchoWretch

The speed and power of an SUV far exceeds the average person's understanding or ability to control it. When they try a novel maneuver, they often quite literally don't know what they're doing.

Human beings just aren't evolved to cope with driving. We can usually get by with a certain amount of training, as long as circumstances stay within certain bounds.

The way people respond to emergencies can be particularly weird. They will often do precisely the wrong thing, almost as if they mean to cause a disaster. What really happens is, some reflex or habit kicks in, and it just happens to be exactly wrong. Typically, we make these mistakes faster than it is possible to think.

howsteepisit

This is a sad commentary on just how oblivious the typical driver has become. I would bet her thought process(if any) went along the lines of bicycle. must pass, now. I cant figure it out.

Bekologist

FIFY.


I ride well into the lane to cut down on lane encroachment approaching stops and signals.

Bicyclists that position themselves assertively approaching intersections regularly have drivers stopping partially in the opposing lane, passing on the right, driving thru from the RTO lane, or any other shenagins to pass.

I had one driver actually put his wheels over a low curb barrier to pass me in a RTO lane once.

taking the lane discourages smart drivers from passing approaching stops. It doesn't stop the dumb ones.

bluegoatwoods

Oh, yes. I actually learned that a long time ago for that matter. The 'stop sign squeeze' is one of the autos more annoying tricks.

Though I didn't mention it in my post I had already moved left because I could see exactly what she was up to. She was fully in the opposing lane to get by me. And she had no business doing it at all; I was so close to the stop and moving so fast that she never should have done it.

Now this is a woman who is normally friendly and intelligent. She was merely operating with her brain in neutral at that moment. And like Bekologist mentions, preventive measures like moving left work well with drivers who are using their heads. But it doesn't work for those who are being determinedly dumb.

Dodgensince74

maybe she thought you were going to stop at the sign like you and here are legally suppose to do and she figured she would be able to get ahead of you then. I know two wrongs don't make a right, even though I feel you both did or were going to do something wrong, I feel she was at a bigger fault. I guess that is why when I ride my bike or drive my vehicles I don't assume that the other rider/driver is going to do what I feel they should or are suppose to do.

Looigi

Yes. Drivers are conditioned to try to get past cyclists at all costs, even when it makes little or no sense to do so.

Looigi

We are equally un-evolved with respect to riding a bike. Designers do their best to adapt these contrivances to human capabilities.

kmv2

I'm always worried the next person who almost kills me with their car while I'm riding or running or walking is going to be someone I know or deal with in day to day life. Weird.

dynodonn 

I have some really great <sarcasm> video clips of this type of maneuver (into oncoming traffic) and I even have some of motorists doing this to other motorists as well.

dynodonn 

Just last year, a good friend and classmate was killed while walking two blocks from his home, and the DUI motorist that hit and killed him was his neighbor who lived two houses away, and that my classmate friend knew personally.

genec

Happened to me yesterday... as I was driving my old truck back from taking some computers to the office. The real irony is that the motorist that passed me on the right to get in front of me used the bike lane to do the passing.

No doubt my moving at the posted speed limit, and driving an old truck, were enough to push the driver into thinking I was holding up traffic, and their solution was an illegal pass.

GrouchoWretch

Agreed, except that the forces and speeds involved in cycling are much closer to human-scale than those involved in driving a car or SUV.

The human mind can just about grasp the amount of force represented by 80 kg of bike plus rider zipping along at 45 kph. That's got to be somewhere in the "charging bull" neighborhood of force.

Granted, from the rider's perspective, things can happen a bit too fast at that speed. But on average, people ride slower (though they are perhaps heavier). And in any case, you're in a better position to appreciate your own velocity when you have to achieve it using your own muscles, as nature intended.

Compare that whole equation to driving, where a twitch of the foot can propel 2000kg along at 5, 50, or 150 kph. Furthermore, all those speeds can be achieved with the same expenditure of muscle effort, uphill or down, and regardless of weather conditions. And drivers typically unleash all these forces upon the world from within a comfy box, as isolated as industrially possible from the environment through which they are hurtling at violent speed. Most problems that arise can quickly be put in the rearview mirror, which the driver may simply choose not to look at.

This situation is out of all proportion to anything humanity ever dealt with in its environment of evolutionary adaptation, and therefore it's no surprise that the human mind is not equipped to deal with it. Indeed, the surprise isn't when drivers do seemingly brainless things. It's that most drivers get by without incident most of the time. That is a testament to the flexibility of human cognition. Still, if ever there was a recipe for disaster, it is putting people behind the wheels of these damned things en masse and making that the basis for a whole society.

OK, so the OP's nice neighbor lady did something stupid with her SUV that could easily have crushed him like a mosquito, even though she would never do that on purpose. That's just the exact sort of thing that happens when people can casually unleash forces beyond their comprehension. Our society calls such things accidents. To me they seem more like statistical certainties.

delcrossv

Yep. Feature this from a few weeks ago: I'm riding along a two laner approaching an intersection with a 4 lane arterial, which is immediately followed by a set of RR tracks and then a second intersection with a left turn lane (that I was setting up to take). I stop at the light mid lane and then proceed with the light across the tracks and prepare to make the left and the car behind me come zipping by on the left (in the opposing lane) through the second intersection just to get in front. Lotta effort for 150' as I was heading out of the through lane anyway.

genec

And of course it doesn't help when the auto manufactures add so many creature comforts to the vehicle that the driver becomes largely disconnected from the forces involved.

gcottay

As a cyclist when moving along at or near the speed limit I find it useful to assume drivers will misjudge my speed.

As a MV driver I find it takes some extra attention to judge a cyclist's speed.

Wanderer

They just don't perceive a bicycle as moving. As soon as they see you go by their hood, they assume they have passed. I have had this conversation with many drivers, and they all agree that they just don't figure I can be moving at 20 MPH. Always protect thyself, and assume they are all trying to hit you.

Notso_fastLane

This is so very true. I was driving my wife's (rather small) car home from the gym not long ago, and a large SUV started pulling into my lane. His wheels were over the dashed line before his turn signal came on, about the time I honked the horn. Instead if simply straightening back out into his lane, he over-corrected, fishtailed the rear end, then way over corrected a second time and spun 180 and wound up stopped in the middle left turn lane, after spinning across one other lane of traffic.

umazuki

I've noticed this too - if me and a driver come up to a stop at the same time (both traveling the same direction), the driver ALWAYS goes heavy on the throttle, like it's some kind of drag race. Way to go, you beat a fat guy on a bike

howsteepisit

I have a question for those of you that are familiar with non-US cultures. I have always attributed the almost insane desire of motor vehicle Drivers to pass cyclists NOW as a part of the uber-competitive, win at all costs, american attitude towards all things. Is it the same in other cultures? Or am I just mentally dissing on the US 'cause thats where I live and observe drivers?