Scary moment tonight
Scary moment for me as I returned home from a busy day out with my car, let me set the stage.
In the little diagram that I am picturing here, you see my car at the very bottom and a relatively wide street that has room for two directions of traffic as well as on-street parking. The cross street is a narrower road and it is a four-way stop at that intersection. Beyond the intersection on the left, you can see a truck is parked in front of one of those houses with its headlights on, facing toward me. This is just after sundown and it was dark enough that everybody needed lights. You see the little arrows in front of my car: that is my path that I take when I come home, I pull towards the curb, swing back toward the center and then back up my driveway. There’s enough room on the street for me to do that whole maneuver without crossing the centerline of the street and mingling with that eastbound traffic.
Today I had to sit there for several moments because there was a long line of cars coming toward me. I had cars backing up behind me as well. Once it was clear for me, I followed my little arrow path. I can complete this maneuver without crossing the centerline, so the cars behind me are free to move. When I got to the end of my first arrowed path and I put it in reverse to start reversing into the driveway, I make one more check to be sure I’m not over the centerline and right in front of me is a bicyclist inches off my front bumper. Startled the living hell out of me!
He was moving west and had a bright yellow reflective vest on but no lights on. During my maneuver I was not aware there was a bicyclist anywhere in this area. I was partially blinded by the headlights of that truck up ahead, but I still thought I had pretty good vision of the area when I started my maneuver. Not sure how this cyclist suddenly appeared. I don’t know if he was on the sidewalk and darted out one of those driveways to get into the street or what I can’t fathom it. It happened very very quick. The cyclist clearly knew what he was doing as he executed his maneuvers without any sign of being out of control he wasn’t giving me a finger or nothing. He was just looking straight ahead where he was going like everything’s cool.
But he was sandwiched between my front bumper and that line of cars that was moving from my original position, so maybe there was 3 feet of space for him to dart through.
There are lots of cyclists and pedestrians in my neighborhood, so I am always accustomed to watching for them whenever I’m going in or out of my driveway. And this particular night nobody was out, and I certainly did not see any cyclist approaching me when I started my maneuver.
Not sure there was anything I could’ve done differently to have become aware that this guy was out there. Just putting this here as an example of how invisible cyclists can be to drivers in such conditions. This is a reminder both to anyone reading, and to myself to double down on knowing what’s going on around you.
by carlessdriver