I-like -to-bike- said it the best!
rsbob: well, you felt pretty safe at 25 UNTIL YOU PROBABLY THOUGH THAT YOU MIGHT BE A STATISTIC.
I don't know if yall are old enough to remember the national US public ad campaign from circa 1967 throughout the end of the SiXTIES called "WATCH OUT FOR THE OTHER GUY". It was a PRINT, RADIO SPOT, and TELEVISION AD campaign aimed at trying to reduce automobile accidents by essentially instructing the public that The Other Guy is NOT ALWAYS GONNA DRIVE SAFELY or FOLLOW PROPER TRAFFIC RULES, meaning that YOU ALWAYS MUST BE ON GUARD because IF YOU ASSUME THAT EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS GONNA BE FLAWLESS & PERFECT, you're likely gonna put yourself in such a situation where you could be killed...
This is essentially what you have done with being unable to STOP your bicycle on said road because you are NOT ANTICIPATING that the probability of encountering such a clueless dumbass driving an SUV. YES, YOU ARE COMPLETELY IN-THE-RIGHT & NOT-AT-FAULT AT ALL, COMING DOWN THAT ROAD, BUT WHAT THE HELL GOOD IS THAT WHEN YOU END UP DEAD OR SEVERELY INJURED BECAUSE YOU COLLIDED WITH A TURNING IN PROGRESS SUV!!!
Use your frikken head man, and tightly control your speed to a slow-enough speed that you can better stop IF & WHEN SOME DUMBASS DOES TURN LEFT ACROSS & INFRONT OF YOU. It is gonna happen again. People are not perfect. Many drivers simply don't even think that they will ever encounter a bicycle rider so they mentally don't ever think about them in the same way they recognize motor-cycle riders! Yeah, you can say all that you want that you do have the legal right to ride as you did down the road and that is certainly true but as you have seen most vehicle drivers are not very attentive and most are severely distracted and simply do not pay attention to anything as small as a rider on a bicycle. Those are the sad facts. Ask any motorcyclist and they will tell you that you must always WATCH OUT FOR THE OTHER GUY and further assume that they are an irrational, unpredictable dumbass that drives like Mr. Magoo.
Your life depends on it. Be careful on the routes and streets & the traffic situation at that time of the morning, day, afternoon, evening that you choose to ride them.
Twenty-five mph in wet conditions heading downhill could be treacherous if you were to encounter a pothole or some road debris or somebody's fallen-off tailpipe or muffler If you get in a situation where you lose control or skid, slide out into the path of a moving vehicle, going either in your direction or with a vehicle going the opposite direction, the probabilty that you will be fatally injured is extremely high. Physics: 30 pound bike & 180 pound rider vs a 3000+ pound automobile is NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT TO "EXPERIMENT WITH" AS THE CRASH TEST DUMMY ON A BICYCLE.
*****Ride Defensively and Smart!! Never Assume that the Automobile Driver will drive perfectly!!
Be well. Ride On but most importantly be smart and consider where, when, and how , at the appropriate speed.
The mindset of the majority of vehicle drivers WILL NOT CHANGE SIGNIFICANTLY no matter how great the push-effort to instruct/inform "share the road" , etc.
Sure, you or your estate would have the potential for , with the right attorney, a significant settlement, should a castastrophic injury event occur while riding properly obeying traffic laws and being injured as a direct result of negligence and motor vehicle driver error. No amount of compensation can make up for losing you --OR-- for you becoming disabled. No joke, you should consider changing your own way of thinking on this subject because the dumbass distracted motor vehicle drivers are not going away. They will be there today, tomorrow, and the next day..........every day 24/7..... and that is not likely to change during your grandchildren's lifetimes.
If that scares the S#l! outta you on some routes & days, well it should and it probably should convince you to change your route and/or to decide to take the car and drive to work in wet or extreme weather on certain such days, etc.
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