Kontact

So you're okay having three times as many trucks on the road burning at least twice the fuel to make deliveries? How's the air quality in most of Asia?

rumrunn6

um, run away! run away! ?

CliffordK

Each situation would be different.

DON'T RIDE UP TO THE SIDE OF THE TRUCK, AND STOP.

If one can stop,say 10 feet back from the intersection/driveway, and quite far to the right, then one should be OK. Perhaps hop the bike onto the sidewalk.

In some cases, one can turn with the vehicle. It may be easier than stopping, and then one doesn't stop cold next to it. In this case, with the poor clearance of the driveway, that might not have been possible.

As [MENTION=134410]rumrunn6[/MENTION] mentions, if you do arrive too close, then pull away as quick as possible. Jump off, run, whatever.

Most of my encounters with trucks are with me in the left turn lane, and the truck trying to make a left turn towards me. When I see the truck coming, I'll naturally pull as far right out of the way as possible, and watch that it doesn't swing close.

In some senses, a cyclist should be more mobile than a vehicle, and thus should be able to extract oneself out of a bad situation.

KraneXL

A cyclist on the road has the same rights and responsibility any other vehicles. The worst thing you can do is to start making up your own set of rules. When you follow the laws you're predictable and that makes cycling safer for all of us.

In these reviews, hindsight is always 20/20. Although every person operating a vehicle on the road should ride/drive defensively, there's no way you can know or be prepared for every possible situation every driver around you might take. When I stop, I always put myself in a position with a safety/escape route in mind, until a car/truck or bus takes and fills that position (sometimes illegally).

At that point, I have on occasion found myself surround by semis or buses and trapped wondering which one of them won't see me, or worse simply ignore the right-of-way laws and proceed ahead with the intent to intimidate me off the road entirely.

What do you do when you're trapped between two 40ft vehicles closing in on you? You can't always just step out of the way. My point is its a dynamic process, and so there's no one action that always works.

The women in the video reacted to an unpredictable situation and did what she needed to do to stay alive and uninjured. That's the single most important rule to any ride.

tungsten

I've spent 35 hours over the last seven weekdays operating a transit bus on that street and in that time I've seen exactly five (5) cyclists.
As noted above the city's on a bike lane building spree, this because the sitting mayor/council majority promoting these things are getting thrown out in the fall.
I don't know why they even put a bike lane on that road except that's it's one of the few really wide north/south routes that could accommodate a bike lane like that.

Paul Barnard

How would knowing that help the cyclist? I am of the opinion we should focus most of our energy on that which we can control. We can only control our own actions, not the actions of others.

Paul Barnard

I articulated earlier why I thought it was ill advised for the bicyclist to go blasting into that danger zone with the trucker telegraphing a right turn prior to signaling. Then once she realized the truck was turning she should have quickly dismounted and pulled the bike away from the turn path. She was way late in doing so. She doesn't seem to have much for street smarts.

Kontact

How do you know she didn't react as quickly as she could to the truck turning in front of her?

Colnago Mixte

What should she have done? Why, dropped into her 53 x 11, sprinted and passed that truck like it was standing still.

I had stuff like this happen to me a lot during the first few years I was riding. I made the usual rookie mistakes around big rigs, like not knowing how far they need to stop. I seem to remember having this same thing happen a couple times where I just turned along with the truck, slowed down and let it pass, then continued on my way, probably mad as hell. What else are you gonna do. I think I'm a lot more careful around trucks these days and expect these kind of moves, especially in town.

In the video, it seems like she comes up on the truck really quickly, but it takes her forever to pass it, I'm not sure why that is. But the different angle helps quite a bit.

Paul Barnard

Maybe she did move as quickly as she could, but it obviously wasn't quick enough. She was really slow in processing the threat and her subsequent reaction. I can say without hesitation that had I been dumb enough to place myself in that situation. I would not have been so sluggish to react to the threat. Neither me nor my bike would have been hit.

88Tempo

To be fair to the bicyclist there are a lot of people that don't realize just how much room a big rig needs to make a turn.

scott967

Obviously, right hook is always a potential danger. I think her mistake (but not unreasonable) was assuming the trailers would track behind the tractor, but actually they came to the inside of the turn. OTOH, in this day of cameras/sensors everywhere I 'm not sure "blindspot" cuts it as an excuse for trucks.

scott s.
.

Steeljag

Kontact

I think she didn't realize the back end would turn on a different line than the front end. I don't know if that is dumb on her part, slow witted, or if it was simply a possibility outside of her experience.

wphamilton

I thought I covered that also, with my "number one rule". She's not there in the first place following my rule, but finding herself in that situation she needed to get out of the way in a hurry - which she didn't. She stopped and lingered in the worst place, almost too long.

SylvainG

Have you seen the size of Asian's vehicles? They don't consume has much gas as the big gas guzzler that we have here in America (and I include Canada here).

Kontact

Because they aren't hauling as much. Do you think small planes and small trains would haul stuff more efficiently than large ones?

SylvainG

What? Over here, most pickup trucks beds are empty, SUV are simply oversized cars (with many being FWD!) and minivan with just one or two occupants. Nothing to do with hauling more stuff.

Kontact

We were discussing delivery vehicles, like the articulated tanker truck in the OP. You're talking about passenger vehicles.

gregf83 

This. My Honda van has a camera on the side exactly for this purpose. Large trucks like this have no excuse for having a blind spot or turning into cyclists. 100% the driver's fault. They shouldn't allow trucks like that if they're not properly equipped. At the very least they could use some more turn signals on the truck and it's various pieces. I could only see turn signals on the back.

phtomita

Common sense is the key.
Doesn't matter if you have the right to the road or not. If you are on a bike and crashes with a car who get hurt is you, the biker.

For example, if you are biking on the opposite shoulder and a car is coming out of a driveway and turning into the traffic,
the driver will be paying attention to the cars coming from the left and move forward if it is safe.
Checking on the right side (cars won't come from that side) is briefly only - if you drive a car you know what I am talking.
Even on traffic light with pedestrian light, I see cars advancing when is green for the pedestrian.

You have the right, but if you get injured what is the point? In OP case the bike is gone.
Using common sense, anticipating and avoiding these situations will take a minute more to get from A to B safely.

When first moved to US, was surprised that people just cross the road sometimes without looking the cars and not even stopping
to be seen by the driver, because there is a pedestrian crossing painted on the road. You have the right, but if driver didn't see you,
who gets hurt is not the driver.

tungsten

Sorry pal, this happened in B.C. Canada. The "wild west" where the r@pe of land and people continues unabated.
As I said above "off-track" is a concept unimaginable to most of the general public. Possibly even to the driver of that rig. lol...

gregf83 

KraneXL

Is that what you're going to use in your defense in the case of an accident and you end up in court? Do you think all of the aformetioned "the cyclist" shoulda, coulda, woulda done this or that will get him let off? Good luck to anyone using that mantra in convincing a judge on your idea of common sense rather than the law.

Kontact

What does his suggestions about how cyclists should act have to do with going to court?