I was going about 25mph–30mph down a long stretch of hill (in a bike lane), when this box truck coming the other way starting to turn left onto another street as I'm about three seconds away from him. At first I'm screaming "YYYYOOOOOO!!!!" to get him to stop turning, but he commits and I have to slam on the brakes. I get within literally a foot of him before I manage to completely stop, and of course he just keeps turning like I'm not there. I start screaming "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" And as I continue, the car that was behind him also tries to turn left and almost plows me down, like literally when I'm right in front of him screaming at the truck. I look back and the truck just gives me a wave to signal "sorry," which I guess is better than a middle finger?
I've never had any close call like this before, but this route was different than my usual one to work. Now I know to permanently avoid it…
Here is a diagram of what happened (red arrow being the truck and blue arrow being me): https://i.postimg.cc/c1bVYL1w/Screenshot-2025-03-27-100710.png
by AbstinentNoMore
6 Comments
Many motorcycle riders have been killed by exactly this.
This was how many collision with a car happened. Car made a blind left through dense traffic, I was still travelling maybe 15–18mph when we collided.
yeah that is awful
the left turner, the cross street stop sign runner!
you get to a point where, if the other guy goes, you cannot avoid
i start slowing down at these things or stop
but when barreling down a hill, do you not barrel? idk
i guess maybe not if there is a continuous lot of could’be-left-turners
You’re not at fault but going that fast is a little risky. Like the other commentor said, you may not be at fault but you’d be dead… so I’d slow down and be more cautious. Bikes are small and harder to see. Not sure how you dressed but bright colors are your friend when walking, biking and motorcycles. Shocks me how often I see people walking in mostly black or dark colors at dusk.
I hope one day I get to the point where I’m confident enough to deviate from my usual route but stories like this make me too scared to do so.
It is more difficult for vehicles to judge the speed of bicycles and motorcycles since they have a narrower aspect ratio. This can lead to underestimation of closing speed and the belief that they have time to make a turn before you arrive. Likewise because of your small size it is easy for a car behind to miss you as they follow the turning truck.